No one knows what it's like to be the bed man, to be the sad man, behind blue eyes. -The Who.
"Are you nervous?" Dean asked me.
"About what?" I glanced at him. He looked so different from the day I first met him. They day they had picked me up from the train station, he had been dresed in ratty blue jeans and an old Beach Boys t-shirt. Now, on his way to work, he was wearing a suit and tie and he look a little uncomfortable.
"About starting a new school." He smiled. "I would be. Of course, from first grade to graduation, I went to the same school."
I shrugged. "I've been to a million different schools. I'm used to it."
He smiled, kind of sadly it seemed. "Well, if you're sure. You look nice, anyway."
I looked down at my clothes, just some of the dozens of things Lynette insisted I buy. Jeans, t-shirts, skirts, blouses, sweaters, dresses, and shoes just mention a few. Today, for my first day at Castle Rock Community High School, I was wearing a black, gray, and red plaid pencil skirt, a red cashmere sweater (It was real cashmere. Can you believe it?) and a pair of black leather loafers. I glanced at myself in the mirror of Dean's car. I had fell asleep the night before with wet hair, so I had woke up with the worst case of bed-head and ended up pulling my dark brown hair back in a bun. I had to agree with Dean. For once, I did look nice.
"Okay, here we are." Dean pulled to a stop in front of a two story, red brick building. Kids seemed to be everywhere: milling all over the front lawn, spilling out of the buses, pulling their own vehicles in to the student parking lot. "Are you ready for this?"
I took a deep breath. "Yeah."
"All right." He handed me a piece of paper. "You're supposed to take this to the front office. Mr. Brooks said that they had your schedule ready."
"Okay." I said.
"Will you be okay walking home? You can always take the bus." I glanced at him, and he was smiling. "If you want."
"Ew." I said, climbing out of the car and throwing my leather satchel (also a purchase from the previous weekend) over my shoulder. "I'll see you tonight, Dean."
"Okay. Have a good day, Adelle."
"You too."
I watched as he drove off in his red Chevy that he was so proud of. "Only a year old" he had bragged to me numerous times in the few days I had been there. Then I walked across the crowded lawn and into the front doors of the building. I had to walk half way down the busy hall to find the office, and breathed a sigh of relief when I finally did.
The gray haired secretary smiled at me. "Can I help you, honey?"
"Oh, um, my name is Adelle Porter." I held out the piece of paper and she took it.
"Ah, yes." She studied the paper. "Miss Porter. Everything's in order for you. Here's your schedule." She handed it to me. "Your teachers are expecting you. And Nancy's here to show you around."
I turned around to see a pretty, petite blonde sitting on one of the office chairs behind me. I'd been in such a hurry when I came in that I hadn't even noticed her. She smiled at me and stood to her feet.
"Hi." She said, blushing a little. "I'm Nancy Sinclaire. Uh, I volunteered to show you around."
"Oh, um, okay." She seemed like a nice enough girl.
"Can I see you schedule?" I handed it to her. "You're in a lot of my classes. Hmm. Well, first I guess I should show you your locker. You were assigned one right next to mine, too. Well, that's helpful." She smiled at me, a full watt smile, and I couldn't help but to smile back.
"We have eight periods, each period is fifty-five minutes long, even lunch. Your first class is American History, I have that too. Second class, Algebra II, I've got that too." She handed me back my schedule and I studied it. Besides American History and Algebra II, I was taking creative writing, Earth science, classic literature, art and Spanish. As we walked to first period, Nancy told me which classes were shared, all but creative writing, Spanish,and art.
My first two periods passed in a blur and Nancy took every opportunity she could to introduce me to new people. Apparently she was pretty popular, and it was obvious that she came from money. She told me that her mother and Lynette were in Society together.
"Huh?" I asked, completely confused.
"The Castle Rock Society Club, silly." She explained. "My mother and Mrs. Benning are on the chair board. Also, in the country club. They play tennis. Mr. Benning doesn't come very often, though." I could imagine; Dean didn't seem like the country club type.
The first class I had without Nancy was creative writing. It was all right by me. As much as I liked Nancy, her constant chattering took getting used too. The teacher, Ms. Winterbourne, assigned me a seat in the middle of the third row. A tall, lanky boy with light brown hair and large, deep brown eyes smiled at me.
"Hi." He said. "Your new, aren't you?"
I smiled back, because he was so cute. "Yeah. I'm Adelle."
"Gordie Lachance. Nice to meet you."
"You too."
"Ms. Winterbourne's pretty cool."He told me. "She usually assigns fun stuff. Last week we had to write an essay about what we would do if we had a million dollars. The catch was that we couldn't spend it on ourselves."
"Sounds hard." I replied.
"It was." He told me. "Ms. Winterbourne will most likely have you write an essay too, so she can see what kind of writer you are."
Well, it turns out that Gordie Lachance was right. Ms. Winterbourne asked me to write her an essay and turn it in in two days.And guess what she asked me to write about? Describe your perfect family. Ha! As if I would even know where to begin.
After creative writing, I met up with Nancy in the cafeteria for lunch. She led me to a table with two other girls.
"Girls," She said to them. "This is Adelle Porter. Adelle, this is Camilla Van Der Woodsen," She nodded towards a pretty girl with long pale hair. "And Kathleen Koates." Kathleen had thick, curly black hair and the darkest eyes I'd ever seen. And, of course, she was gorgeous. God, what was with these girls? I knew by now that I had fallen in with the rich, popular crowd and that they were under the impression that I too was rich and popular. Since I had never been neither, this whole scene was completely absurd to me.
"Hi." I told them. I felt nervous, even trapped all of a sudden. I didn't belong here. I didn't.
"Hi." Kathleen said, not really looking at me.
"Nice to meet you, Adelle." Camilla said. "Call me Cammie, 'kay?"
"Oh my God," Nancy leaned across the table as I unpacked my turkey sandwich. "Adelle, Gordie Lachance is waving at you." I turned around and sure enough, Gordie was grinning and waving at me from across the room. I smiled and waved back.
"What are doing?" Hissed Kathleen.
I stopped mid-wave. "What?"
"We don't really hang out with that crowd." Nancy explained.
"Why?"
"Why?" Katheen stared at me like I was from Mars. "Because we just don't! Chris Chambers is part of that crowd!"
"Who's Chris Chambers?" I asked, now thoroughly confused.
"He's the cute blond next to Gordie." Cammie said. I tried to look discreetly across the room. He was cute, I had to admit that.
"His family is trash upon trash." Kathleen sneered. I was really liking her less and less. "His father is the town lush. And his oldest brother was in prison."
"Really? How come?" I felt bad for talking about this Chris guy, but this was all very interesting. I wondered that if Kathleen knew exactly why I came to Castle Rock, if she would think that I was "trash upon trash".
"Oh," Nancy said. "Because he (she dropped her voice so low that I had to lip read the next word) raped a girl. And his next oldest brother Richard, they call him Eyeball, isn't that gross? He got a girl pregnant and now he has to work at the paper plant at the edge of town."
"Wow." Was all I could say. Was this what I had been missing? Gossiping about people less fortunate than I was? What a jip.
The rest of the day went by quickly. After school I started the long trek home. I knew it would have been a lot quicker to take the bus, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. As I walked down Delaware Street, a dark blue pick-up pulled up beside me and Gordie Lachance poked his head out.
"Hey, Adelle." He said. "Need a ride?"
"Well..." I hesitated. I did need a ride, but what if Kathleen or Nancy saw me? Oh my God, I thought to myself. One day with these girls and I'm turning into a mindless snob. "Sure." I told him.
He grinned. "Hop in."
I walked around to the other side of the truck and was surprised to find Chris Chambers holding the door open for me. "Hi." He said.
"Hello." I answered as I climbed in.
"So where do you live?" Gordie asked.
"416 Elizabeth Street." I answered.
"Oho." Chris and Gordie said in unison. "The View."
"I don't think we're allowed to be on that part of town, Gordo." Chris joked.
"Yeah, we might vandalize something while were there." Gordie said. He glanced at me. "Are you sure you can be seen with us? Your friends might get upset."
"Yeah," Chris added. "Queen Kathleen might behead you."
I couldn't help it. I had to laugh.
A/N- Just a few things before I go. One, I'm sorry if some of the words are run together. The spacebar on my laptop sticks. Two, in case you're wondering Cammie Van Der Woodsen is based slightly on Serena from the Gossip Girl books. She is one of my favorite book characters, and yes, I stole her last name. It just sounds so regal and snobby. And finally, I need your help. I can't decide who to use as Adelle's love interest: Chris or Gordie? Just tell me in your review who think is best.