"This is so exciting." Ella gazed at her refection in her iPhone's blank screen before pocketing it. The iPhone, I mean. Not the screen.
"Mm." We had been waiting at the bus stop a few blocks away from our new house for at least 10 minutes, the tops of our heads burning from the November sun's heat. This was ridiculous. It hadn't been two days since our arrival in Santa Monica, California in Los Angeles, and we had already been thrown into working out the routes of LA Metro. Sun Tran was starting to look really good.
"Oh, come on, Max. I know you're excited. At least a little bit."
"Mm." Nice try, Ell's Bells. Ha, get it?
Ella huffed.
We stood in silence for a minute before Ella pulled out her phone for the billionth time and clicked the 'home' button with her thumb, bringing the screen to life. "7:18," Ella said, more to herself than to me. "Should be here by—"
"Hey, it's here!" I said, squinting down the street.
"—Now," Ella grumbled, flipping her sleek ponytail over her shoulder and shoving the phone back into her jacket. I readjusted my backpack as the bus rumbled up the street, looking mostly empty due to the unholy hour of the morning. We watched as the bus rolled up to the curb, waiting for the doors to open so we could board. We clambered on and paid our fares, receiving transits in exchange for our quarters. I spotted a window seat down the aisle and snagged it before the bus started moving. I loved window seats, mostly because I was extremely claustrophobic. They were an escape. The bus shuddered into motion, lurching Ella into the seat beside me. She didn't seem to notice; she was busy scrolling through her Instagram feed. A long and grueling task. So. Much. Double. Tapping.
I leaned my forehead against the cold bus window, a shiver running up my spine as my skin met the cool glass. I heard Ella muttering next to me, criticizing pictures but Liking them anyway. Taptap. Taptap. Taptap.
Good God.
As the bus jolted along, my forehead bumped against the window myriad times, but I had bigger things on my mind than the goose egg I would start my first day off with. My mind was on fire. Why, why, why, why WHY? Why did we have to move? Why start school now? Why not wait until after Winter Break to postpone my inevitable humiliation? I mean, come on. Who starts at a new school in November? Puh-leez. If you asked me (which nobody did, coughMomcough) this whole move was the epitome of rash decisions. And why did we do it? Because Brad Pitt and Angelina called us up and invited us to move in? No. Because we won the lottery and decided to haul ass to California to try our hand in partying with Hollywood and eventually lose all our money in Vegas? No. My mom's job changed. Because the Big Guys Upstairs controlling all the branches of my mother's work decided it would be just fantastic to uproot Dr. Valencia Martinez's family from their cozy home in the suburbs of Tucson, fly them out to freaking California, pay for the down payment on a big fat schmancy house, and send her daughters off to the best private school in the state. To be honest, I didn't even know what my mom did for a living. Well, yeah, she was a vet, but…
"Ma-aax!" Ella's voice jolted me out of my reverie.
"What?" I snapped, and instantly regretted it. Ella looked hurt.
"This is our stop," she said. Oh.
"Yeah, okay," I said, swallowing my guilt. That moment had passed. Time to move on.
The bus pulled up to the sidewalk and stopped, emitting a loud hiss as it lowered so we could get off. Ella got up from her seat and walked quickly down the narrow aisle, and I followed, my dumb backpack bumping annoyingly against my back as I walked. Seconds later, the bus was pulling away and we were standing on the street, squinting in the sunlight.
"Which way now?" I asked. Ella consulted her phone.
"We walk three blocks and then make a left," she said, and then turned the phone. "Or is it a right?"
"Left," I said confidently. Mom had driven us to the school the day before, showing us the bus route we would need to take and where we would need to walk, and it was mostly easy to remember. The main issue I had with LA was that everything looked the same. The houses, the restaurants, you name it; It was like some sort of crazy labyrinth. In a way, I really admired that about it. It was a challenge, one that I was forced to accept. I liked that, I really did.
"Okay, left it is," Ella said, tucking her phone away into her backpurse. I didn't really know what to call it; it was some weird hybrid between Chanel and Jansport. Hence Backpurse. My imagination has no limits.
Ella and I walked silently for about 5 minutes before turning left on Truman Avenue. And there it was. What I had been holding my breath for. And man, it was huge. Oh, sorry. Not the school. The soccer field. It was awesome. It was gloriously beautiful. I wanted to cry tears of joy, except I didn't, because tears are for weenies.
The school itself was fine, I guess. It was pretty big. The only thing that really struck me about it was the fact that it was so well cared for. The shrubs, the lawns, the freaking fountain (yes, there was a fountain) it was all, well, perfect. Not my idea of perfect, obviously. But somebody's. Great idea, Truman Founder. Way to uproot my life.
Anyway.
Even if the school wasn't, I don't know, a castle, it definitely wasn't small. I found myself thanking my lucky stars I had a good internal compass. Ella, on the other hand, who got lost trying to find the bathroom in the middle of the night, was a whole 'nother story. Basically, she was toast. "You're toast," I informed her.
"I know," she groaned, tightening her ponytail and hitching up her skinny jeans. "There's no way I'll ever be able to find my way around in there."
"Cheer up. Isn't that your job? Turning the frowns of Negative Nellies upside down?" I said teasingly. Ella gave me a sour look.
"If that was my job, Max, I would be playing soccer because—"
"—I would have made you quit. Ha ha," I interrupted. "And if I had a quarter for every time you've said that, I would be freaking royalty. Now let's go inside before we're Seniors. Or senior citizens." I cast a glance around—why, I don't know—and caught the gaze of some guy leaning up against the school building who had evidently been watching mine and Ella's interaction for some time. He was super tall, taller than me, which I can't say that I liked. Long-ish dark hair. Olive skin. He reminded me of someone who I couldn't place, which bothered me. He was sort of attractive, I guess. From a distance. Possibly from any distance. Possibly—shut up, Max. God. Whatever. He was okay-looking. Geez. The point was, the point was, however he looked, he was looking at me. Which I mostly didn't like. He had an almost thoughtful expression on his face, which was otherwise devoid of all emotion. Huh. Weirdo. I grabbed Ella and stalked towards the main doors, but not before shooting him a glare that could wither a plant. He raised an eyebrow coolly as I grabbed the door handle and yanked. Um, problem. The door didn't open. I tried again. Nothing. I refused to look back at Tall, Dark and Moderately Good-Looking, but I would bet you a million dollars he was splitting his sides laughing at me.
"Hey, those doors don't open yet," A somewhat familiar voice called. "You have to go in through the side doors before 8." Ella and I whirled around. Corliss. She was dressed way differently than I had last seen her, though, in a huge black hoodie and red basketball shorts. The hood was pulled over her head, like she didn't want to be noticed, which was odd. She had seemed pretty outgoing the day before…
"Max!" Okay, now I was confused. Corliss was jogging down the street in a light pink skirt and gray sweater, somehow not tripping in 2-inch high-heeled black ankle boots as she trotted towards us. TDaMGL had un-leaned himself from the wall and was walking down the street, no longer acknowledging any of us. Fine by me. "Hey, how are you? Is this your sister?" Corliss had reached us, smiling and readjusting a scarf that had come loose from her obviously very carefully put-together ensemble. Her look-alike was loping towards us reluctantly, like she'd rather be anywhere but here.
"Uh, yeah, sorry. Um, this is my sister, Ella. Ella, Corliss."
"Hi!" Ella said, beaming. I could already tell they were going to get along. Swimmingly.
"Hey," Corliss said, still smiling. She glanced back and rolled her eyes, gesturing at the girl in the black hoodie to hurry up. "Sorry. This is my sister, Maeve." Oh. Duh. Twins. Now it all made sense. No wonder Mom had been confused.
"Hey," Maeve said uncomfortably.
"Max plays soccer," Corliss told her twin, who evidently did not like meeting new people. "See? There are people like you!"
"Oh, shut up," Maeve replied, glaring at her sister.
"You wish you did," Corliss said, not missing a beat. Ella and I exchanged a confused glance. I mean, in what universe did that just make sense? Apparently it did to them, though, because Corliss looked guilty, if only for a second.
"I'm going to…go inside." Maeve said. "Later," She told Corliss. "Um, nice meeting you," She said to Ella and I. She took off, disappearing around the side of the school. Huh. Now it was Corliss's turn to look uncomfortable.
"So, um, what do you have first off? I have Chem. Worst. Class. Ever," She said, rolling her eyes, but smiling to show us that she wasn't too bothered. Ella dug through her backpurse and pulled out a single sheet of paper.
"Hmm. Wait, so do I!" She said, scanning the page. "Looks like we'll flunk it together." Corliss laughed, then stopped.
"Wait, you're a sophomore too?" She asked, confused. "Are you guys twins? Like, fraternal, or something?"
"Nope," I butted in. "We'll leave the twinning to you. Ells is just super smart. She skipped 4th Grade." Corliss looked impressed. Ella was too dark to really blush, but she turned a shade darker.
"Eesh. It's not that big a deal," She muttered. Corliss grinned at me and wiggled her eyebrows, and I had to laugh. I was liking her more and more.
"Cory!" A shrill voice called across the lawn. A group of around 7 or 8 girls were standing about 20 yards away, and a pretty redhead with striking green eyes I could see from where I was standing was waving frantically in our direction. As they got closer, Corliss grabbed Ella and I with an iron grip for such fairylike hands (I later realized that the whole twin thing had a lot to do with her smallness) and pulled us over to the group.
"Hey," She said to the redheaded girl. "This is Max Ride Martinez—" I had no idea how she knew my full name—"And this is Ella Martinez. They're new." The redhead smiled glitteringly at both of us.
"Hi." She said. "I'm Lissa."