Chapter 2: In Place
"Hey," the still sleepy voice floated over to Californian, but she was in too good a mood to be affected.
"Morning, Lena!" Marlene bounced onto the bed of her roommate slash best friend and hugged the surprised girl tightly.
"What the." Always a bubbly, positive and cheerful person, Marlene prided in being herself. In other words, independent, strong-minded and self-reliant. Though her personality clashed with her best friend, they managed to make it through the summer they spent together since Selena's arrival. She had been one of Selena's first few friends after a chance meeting at the mall and the role of being each other's sister stuck. Marlene had wavy brown hair with side swept bangs, hazel green eyes and her skin was chocolate brown. The fact that her friend liked to dress simply yet look amazing made Selena jealous but knowing that she wouldn't be pulled frequently into shopping trips, she was fine. Now, as her 'first day of school' outfit, she was wearing light blue skinny jeans, a tight fitting yellow and blue top, a white cardigan, a few bracelets adorned her wrists and a pair of black gladiator sandals.
"Come on, sleepyhead!" Marlene pulled on her friend's hand as she got to her feet with a huge smile. A thud, though, made the smile disappear for a while when her friend tumbled to the carpeted ground on her side.
"…ooh…"
"Oopsie." She bent down and helped Selena up. "Sorry about that." The Asian frowned at her while piling her blankets back on the bed.
"What did you have for breakfast, Marlene? A bowlful of sugar?"
"Oh come on, Sel. Can't someone be happy in the morning?"
Selena sighed and crossed her arms. "Ah, morning. How I wish I was a morning person. But I'm not." She sat down on the bed and looked up at her friend. "How can you be so excited to go to school?" The other blinked for a while before shrugging.
"I really don't know. I just know that I just want to face this day instead of," her eyes flew to Selena, "hiding."
"Don't look at me like that. I know what you're thinking."
"Come on, Sel. It's time to get out of this stuffy room and your shell."
"I'm perfectly fine being a recluse, thank you for asking." Marlene raised a brow at her and the Asian sighed again. "Let's just go and get this over with."
A grumpy sounding voice called through the walls of the dorm. "COME ON, GIRLS! IT'S SCHOOL TIME!"
"There goes our snooze button." Marlene giggled and followed Selena out.
Selena slammed the door of her locker and hoisted her now heavy bag over her shoulder. "I just don't get why we still have lockers."
Marlene pushed off the locker she was leaning on and shrugged. "I suppose it's because not everyone lives at the dorm?"
Selena turned to her with crossed arms.
"Let me rephrase my sentence. I just don't get why we still have lockers when we already have dorm rooms. What about the other kids?" Selena thrust her hands to the side in protest as they walked down the hallway. "Does everyone have lockers? No, because my sister is placing her ten ton books into MY locker. And now I have to go find her and give them to her."
"And your problem is?"
"Am I complaining? No. I just can't grasp onto the fact that I have to carry my sister's books around like I'm her personal book bag."
"She's just a kid."
"She's four years younger and unfortunately stronger than me. I think she can handle it."
Marlene moved her hair to the side with a sigh. "Oh Selena…"
"Don't. Don't even think about telling me how I should treat my sister like a princess. For your information, she's already got a big head. Don't need to make it anymore bigger than it is."
"Well, all I'm saying is-"
"Look out!" A voice called out before a skateboarder whizzed by the two girls. Selena managed to jump out of the way. And then she watched in horror as Marlene got pushed to the side, straight to the stairs going up. She was about to help her friend when a guy ran by and roughly elbowed another guy into her. The Asian gave out a shriek at the same time as Marlene did as the papers from her hands flew up into the air. Precisely in that moment, a pair of arms reached out and caught Marlene before her body could crash onto the polished sharp edged steps. A gasp escaped from lips as she stared into a pair of cobalt eyes that stared back at her.
"You alright?" Marlene blinked and looked away with a slight blush as she nodded.
"Y-yeah. Thanks."
The boy gave her a smile that almost took her breath away. "No problem." In a second, she was back on her feet without even knowing it.
"Skippah?" Another, younger looking boy joined him, along with his taller friend. The two stared at the addressed boy, who just dusted off his clothes and gave them a nod.
"We're fine, Private. Rico, would you give a hand to the ladies?" Marlene's blush turned a tad pink and she watched shyly while the boy named Rico, who had a small scar on his mouth bend down and pick up the discarded papers.
"GET. OFF." Selena's shocked yet harsh tone snapped the brunette back to reality as she and her new companions turned to the Asian. Selena was on the ground with a good looking, tall guy over her.
Said boy blinked his confusion at her. "What?"
"Get off, you jackass!" With her hands now firmly placed on his chest, Selena gave him an angry shove. "Get off me!"
The boy quickly scrambled to his feet and held out his hand to help her up, but she just ignored it and pushed herself up grudgingly.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I don't usually do that."
Selena just gave him a glare and muttered under her breath. She was about to turn away when a neat stack of papers were thrust before her. She stared at the scarred boy holding the papers before taking the scraps with a small 'thank you'. She paused in mid-step, slightly lost in thought until somebody cleared his throat and stuck out a hand toward her.
"I'm, uh, Kowalski." She eyed the hand, then the boy and raised a brow at him. He did the same and stared at her. Selena tucked the papers under her arm and shook his hand with an air of indifference.
"Pleasure to meet you, Kowalski. I'm Selena." Kowalski gave her a smile that made her insides melt but she refused to show what he was doing to her even as her cheeks heated up.
"Selena?" He waved a hand about, pressing her.
"I don't think so. Not until you tell me yours first."
"I believe I asked first?"
"Well, you couldn't trust someone who doesn't trust you back, could you?"
"Touché. Bennett should fill your curiosity."
"Valentine. But I'd prefer if you would call me Selena. Nothing else."
"Of course. And your friend would be?"
Marlene smiled and took a step forward with a smile, taking the chance to introduce herself.
"Marlene. Marlene Sullivan."
"Nice to meet you, Miss Sullivan." The boy who had rescued her greeted her with a signature smirk that had her all flustered again.
"Oh no need for that. Marlene's completely fine."
"Well, Marlene. I'm Skipper McGrath, this is my brother Private and that would be Rico DiMaggio." He gestured to the appropriate boys, who returned a gesture of welcome back.
"I am really sorry," Kowalski had on a apologetic look which Selena doubted, "but that guy just pushed me into you-"
Selena scowled at him. "So first of you touch me and now you're putting the blame on someone else when it was clearly your fault?"
"It's not like I had a choice. You were in the way-"
"I was in the way? Who told you to be in MY way?"
The boy sighed with an exaggerated eye roll. "Oh for the love of fishcakes."
Selena was about to protest to that when Marlene interrupted her.
"Excuse me, Sel, but do you think you could refrain from attacking everyone you bump into?" Selena poked her with a grumpy frown.
"You started it. It's not my fault I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I have a perfectly reasonable explanation for that standing right before me."
Marlene rolled her eyes and turned to the boys. "I'm really sorry. My friend's a little grouchy this morning."
"No I'm not." Marlene ignored her and kept her attention on the boys.
"I am so sorry."
"I'm not."
"Selena!"
Selena shook her head and walked away.
"Excuse me one second." She flashed a smile in their direction before hurrying after Selena. "What is your problem?"
The Asian shrugged casually. "I don't have a problem."
"Selena, what gives? I haven't seen you act like this before. In fact, you never snap at people like that."
"You barely know me."
"Selena. Stop it. I thought you were this positive gal who loved fun and friends?" Selena seemed to muse over this thought before giving out a resigned sigh.
"I'm sorry, Marlene. It's just…well, I was just thinking of something…and I really am trying my best, but I think that maybe today's just not my best day. I'll try to do better. Swear." She tried to keep the shiver of fear at bay, but it coursed through her veins and under her skin, in perfect view of Marlene. Her friend frowned at the gesture, but chose to ignore it for now. She would get her answers later.
"It's fine. Now let's just…"
Marlene trailed off when she looked around. Selena too looked around and turned back to Marlene in slight confusion.
"Looking for something?"
"The boys? The new guys? Those four?"
"Oh." Selena took another quick look around. "Yup. They're gone."
"But, how? We didn't even see them-"
"Do I look like I care?"
Marlene rolled her eyes again and grabbed her friend's arm. "Come on. If we reach your sister now, we'll still have time to be early for Homeroom."
Marlene turned around in her seat to look over at Selena, who was too engrossed on the one book that was opened up, compared to the other books that were stacked up on her table. She was also taking notes from it by eagerly putting down lines across the parchment paper she was fond of using. A paper plane flew by Marlene and the girl turned to see that it was not the only one up in the air. The students were about the classroom, playing, sitting, talking loudly or just gossiping about their summer and whatnot. There were some students who were studying for the first few lessons in other classes or just looking around like she was. Speaking of studying, Marlene looked over at Selena again. The Asian was still too engrossed to take notice of the hullabaloo.
The door opened, indicating the arrival of the teacher. The classroom went into a hush, but this was done practically every first day, so Marlene just craned her neck to see what the notes her friend was working on all about. That's when she noticed that Selena had stopped writing. Afraid that she had been caught snooping, she looked up to see that her friend was staring past her, thankfully, but with a frown where her mouth should be.
Before Marlene could ask what was wrong, Selena spoke first in an icy tone. "You have got to be kidding me." Marlene turned front and spotted the target of Selena's vision and the apparent topic of the gossip around her.
"Okay people of my Homeroom class," the teacher, who was either unaware of the echoing gossip or chose to ignore it, "I know you all hate class and lessons, so you're just lucky enough to have at least one class where you can do anything. Just stick to doing kid stuff when I say anything, okay? I don't want any trouble from the boss or the police. You got it?" A few students giggled and others seemed to have warmed up to the man's attitude despite the sunglasses that were rumored to never come off his head, including Selena, whose temporary happiness was taken away by the sight of three boys, stationed near the door. "By the way, I'm Mister Endrone Payne." The boy who had rescued Marlene from severe cuts and bruises was staring at Marlene with a smile, causing Marlene to smile back with a slight blush on her cheeks. "Is Miss Sullivan around?"
Marlene got to her feet, ignoring the sound of Selena's irritation coming out from her noise when she overhead a girl call the boys 'cute'. "That would be me, sir." Mr. Payne stared at the brunette for a while before nodding and gesturing to the three.
"I'd like you to be in charge of these three, including the other two they've got with them who are in the other grade, since you are head of the welcoming committee. You know, show them around or something."
Selena stared at Marlene in slight wonder and pride. "You're head of the welcoming committee?" Since this was better than her friend's former mood, she just nodded with a smile and turned back to Mr. Payne.
"Of course."
"Great." Mr. Payne turned to the three and nodded to the side. "There are three seats open for you guys." Skipper took the nearest empty seat, which was right next to Marlene. Directly behind him was one of his companions, Kowalski and the other boy, Rico, who sat on Kowalski's right. Selena swallowed a groan after Marlene sent her a look. Satisfied that her friend wouldn't make a sound, she turned to Skipper.
"I didn't know you would be in this class."
"We don't exactly showcase our classes, now do we?"
"Well, no but-"
Skipper shook his head and waved a hand. "Sorry, that didn't come out right."
"Lack of sleep?" Marlene suggested with a grin.
As if in answer, Skipper stifled a yawn and leaned back casually placing his ankle over his knee. "Maybe."
"We've been here before."
"You have?"
"Well, we used to go to school here. We just got transferred back here."
"Really?" He nodded and closed his eyes, leaning on his arms. "All five of you?"
"Not five, the girl wasn't with us until just a last year."
"Oh."
"And you?"
"Me?"
"Yeah, when did you come around to a place like this?" A place like this? Why did he say it like that?
"Just a few months ago."
"And your friend?"
"At the beginning of summer."
"Uh hm."
"Well, I know it's going to sound silly since you already know this place, but it is protocol to ask." His eyes peeked open at Marlene. "Do you want an official tour of the school?"
The boy shrugged and sat up in his seat before turning to face her.
"Sure."
"Really?"
"Yeah. It's something to do. Maybe they added something around here while we were gone. And Barbie's kinda new, so I guess we do need a tour. Besides, who wants to study on the first day of school?" Marlene giggled silently at Selena's pointed glare at Skipper, which mirrored Kowalski's, though the boy in question didn't seem to notice either.
"True that." Now she could feel her best friend's glare on her back. She was sure to get a lecture later.
"Hello." Selena ignored the boy beside her and tried to read the words before her. But they looked more like a puzzle then part of the text of the book she was reading. "Um, hello, Miss? Selena, right? That's the name?" After a few seconds, the boy sighed and reached out toward her.
"Excuse me," Selena placed the book down but didn't let go of it, "but did I tell you that you could borrow that?" The boy just looked at her for a second before examining the pen he had taken from her table. "Give that back."
"I-" Selena gave out a tiny screech as she tripped over the chair leg and fell beside the boy.
"Selena!" Marlene gasped silently when she turned around to see her friend on the ground. "Are you alright?"
"Miss Valentine?" Selena ignored Mr. Payne's concerned face as the class burst out into laughter. She just stared at the ground, heaving silently. "Are you alright?"
"Peachy." The girl murmured in reply to both and slunk back in her seat, ignoring the hand that was placed out for her. Marlene glanced at her worriedly, and then went back to writing in her notebook after a nod from Selena. Selena picked up her book and stuck her nose in it. Her face was flamed up in anger and embarrassment and her nails were already digging into the beloved book even when the laughter had died down. The clunk of plastic against wood did nothing to ease her either.
"Here's your pen back." She didn't look at him. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry means nothing if you're going to do it again."
"I'm definitely not going to steal your pen again." Kowalski held up his hand. "I swear."
"You're not a boy scout."
"How do you know that?" Selena just gave him a look before turning back to her book. "You tricked me, didn't you?" He made out a small smirk from her and couldn't help but smile too. "Nice one."
"Don't compliment. It's not going to get your dignity back once you regret it."
"You're full of advices, aren't ya?"
"They're just quotes."
"Then you have good memory." Selena sighed and gently placed the book on the table and turned to him.
"Dude, this is going nowhere. You are going nowhere actually. I don't even know what you're doing but I know that you have no idea what you're doing."
"Nowhere? I don't know, I mean with all the talking we're doing, we could be best friends."
Selena shrugged and looked at Marlene's back.
"Spot's been filled."
"The boy best friend spot?" Selena shook her head and turned to him with a smile.
"Why are you so interested?"
"I don't know actually."
"You don't know? How can you not know? This is going nowhere." She repeated with amusement clear in her tone. She shook her head and picked up the book again.
"I like your pen."
"What?" She turned to him with a half hidden grin before shaking her head and murmuring. "Man, don't even…Oh my gosh. You like glitter?"
"Uh…" Kowalski's eyes went back to the pen and realization kicked in.
"I never thought a boy could like glitter."
"I just like, the pen, not the ink. I think the barrel's pretty sturdy and all…"
"Yeah, sure, whatever. Just keep telling yourself that, because you sure got me convinced."
"Yeah…"
Meanwhile, Rico was staring at his two best friends with confusion at first, then with a huge grin. He knew where this was going. He was already a victim to that kind of conversation.