THE FIRST TIME

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE - NEW KID IN TOWN

"There's a new kid in town

Just another new kid in town"

EAGLES (From the album "Hotel California" (1976))

To Nikki, starting at a new school wasn't what could call a new experience. In her ten years as a student, she'd followed her dad to whichever town, he happened to be working in and in total, it came to eight different schools that she'd attended so far. Some only for a very short time, like the one where her dad was laid off after less than two months, and the worst part of it was that she'd never made any real friends in the places that she'd lived. Acquaintances for sure, and quite a lot of them, but not any of those real friends that she felt like she could share her innermost feelings with. She figured that it didn't help either, that she was an only child, still this only meant that her and her father Howard Green, the new principal at Capeside High, were a lot closer with one another than she figured that most girls her age were with their dads.

"I'm looking to you, to be a role-model to the other students. The discipline records under the old principal were appalling, to say the least and if we're going to change things in a positive direction ..." her dad began a speech, that she must have heard five times before that morning, while they were driving towards the school, she'd hopefully be attending for the rest of her high school years. Or so, she hoped, even if the somewhat negative realist inside of her said otherwise.

"You've already told me this a dozen times, dad!" Nikki interrupted her dad, who looked back at her sternly.

"We don't want a repeat of what happened the last time, now do we?" her dad asked her, referring to "the incident" that had, although it was never said in so many words, led to her father having to leave the last school, he was the principal at.

"No, dad" was all that she could think of answering him, in great part also just to not have to discuss "That Thing" with him again, for the two hundredth time, at least.

"When you get to college, you can date anyone, you want to. While you're under my wing, I expect you to concentrate on school and stay out of trouble, are we clear?" Nikki's dad ordered her, and it was probably a good thing that he couldn't see out of the corner of his eyes, that his daughter was rolling her eyes at this telling down, she was sitting through once again, for what she hoped would be the last time.

A hope that was around as faint, as her confidence in herself making any real friends at her new school was.

"Oh, Capeside High, how I've missed you! Not!" Abby unenthusiastically dead-panned, before opening her locker and letting out the unpleasant smells that had been building up inside of it for the past two months. When she did, what looked like a letter fell out of it.

"A welcome back to school present for you, perhaps?" Joey (who was still her "locker neighbor", thanks to the old senior lockers being given to the new freshmen) asked, while Abby picked the letter up. After opening it and reading the note inside of it, all she could do was shake her head at its contents, though.

"It's more like hate mail. It reads: "God does not forgive. Sinners burn in hell". Have I mentioned this morning how much that I love going to a school, where they're so incredibly welcoming of us with so-called "alternative lifestyles"?" she sardonically asked Joey, who was looking sympathetic with her.

"Rome wasn't built in a day, I'm afraid. Not do defend anyone, who doesn't deserve it, but you had to have known that being the first openly gay couple in school history was bound to rub some of the more conservative students the wrong way. This is Capeside after all, not San Francisco" Joey reflectively said, just before Jen came up to them, smiling almost from ear to ear.

"Have you heard the best news ever? Peterson has retired!" Jen shared with them, and in spite of the bad mood that Abby's hate mail had just put her in, it still brought a smile out of her and Joey as well.

"And they say that your dreams never come true!" Joey dryly quipped, making both herself and her friends giggle as a result.

"I can't believe that the vacation is almost over already! It still feels like it was five minutes ago, that they let us loose on the world at large" Abby defeatedly sighed, before they began to make their way to the school assembly in the auditorium, that would officially open the school year.

As it happened, they'd only just rounded a corner, when Jen was hit front first by a freshman boy, who was obviously goofing off with his just as immature friends. In quite spectacular fashion though, he managed to get them turned around, so that it was Jen who landed on top of him and not the other way around. In any case, the boy (who admittedly was sort of cute, in a very baby-faced sort of way) got all sorts of flustered, as Jen "climbed off him" and got back on her feet, with a helping hand from both Abby and Joey.

"I'm so incredibly sorry! You have to believe me, nothing like this has ever happened to me before!" the boy apologizingly managed to get out to Jen, while his friends were finding the whole situation kind of amusing, like it admittedly was.

"It's okay! No one got hurt, did they?" Jen calmly asked the poor boy, who looked like a giant weight had been lifted off his shoulders, just by her saying so and being this sweet about the whole thing. "Actually, it was sort of impressive, the way you flipped us around like that!"

"I took Judo lessons, when I was a kid. Some of it must have kicked in, just at the right moment. I'm Henry Parker, by the way. You are?" he asked Jen, who if Abby wasn't completely wrong, was finding his obvious innocent sweetness more than a little adorable.

"On my way over to the auditorium, like you should be too, Henry Parker" Jen smilingly answered the already lovestruck looking Henry, before the girls were on their way to doing the one thing, Abby had been dreading, ever since her summer vacation had begun, almost seven weeks earlier: Getting back to normal school-life again.

To Dawson, coming back to the hallowed halls of Capeside High was like watching a movie again, that he'd watched several times before already. He already knew going in what the first day would be like, having done it twice before and as for any surprises, he would have been shocked if his day was filled with too many of them. He already knew that Pacey would be signing up for drama club, so not even that could shock him, not that it did after his old pal had explained his reasons why. That Joey would be signing up for both the debate club and the quiz team made even more sense, seeing as it would be hard to find a more academically gifted girl in the school than her, except for perhaps Andie, who was still having trouble choosing and was driving her poor twin brother crazy with her constant questions to him, about which extra-curriculars he thought, it would be the best idea of the year for her to join. As for himself, there was really only the AV club, that he could see himself joining, but he could also easily see how it would frustrate him, when they tried to teach him about stuff, he'd already learned on his own, years before this.

"You have to meet this girl, Dawson! I'm telling you, she was created solely for the purpose, that you and her can create little Spielberg/Kubrick/Lucas/Coppola hybrids together!" Pacey excitedly told him, while they were waiting for the school assembly to kick off what would be the second to last year, the two of them would spend in school together.

"Will you let me make that decision, before you decide that it's time for us to mate? Anyway, I haven't even met this girl yet, not to mention that I don't know if I'm ready to start dating again this soon" he confided to his friend, at a low enough volume that only he could hear it.

"Look, Mary-Beth deciding to stay in Arizona sucks big-time, I get that, but you can't let it be the end of your world, when it comes to girls and dating. If you need some time, that's fine and understandable, just do me a favor and don't immediately dismiss all other girls, only because they aren't your ex, okay?" Pacey implored him, and just to keep his buddy happy, Dawson nodded like he understood what was being said and the noble intentions behind it.

Soon after, the school assembly began and in what had to be the most predictable event of that entire year, Pacey managed to make an ass of himself in front of the principal, within the first two minutes of him speaking to his new students. Even for someone with Pacey's very dubious track record, Dawson had to admit that this was pretty damn impressive!

"I've already blown it with your dad, haven't I?" Pacey asked Nikki, while they were waiting for their third class of the day to begin. So far, the day had consisted of a whole load of nothing and teachers introducing themselves, but since this was drama class and it had always been the one class, she looked forward to, there was a tiny bit of hope that it would be more to her liking.

"He's seen and met plenty of slightly dopey guys like you before, don't worry about it!" she reassured Pacey, the only one there that she could sort of call a friend and even that wouldn't have happened, if they hadn't waited half an hour for the bus together. What she had to admit too, was that she wouldn't mind going on a date with him, but at the same time she figured that a catch like him had probably been snatched up long ago, by some other and much luckier in love girl, than she herself was.

"Worse than me? That's hard to believe!" Pacey joked and once again, like he had from the first words that they'd spoken to each other, he managed to make her feel a little less like the outsider there, that she had to admit to being.

"I don't even think that you'll make his top twenty! Some of those inner-city schools that he taught at before he became a principal, can't have been a walk in the park to teach at, that's for sure" she explained to Pacey, who looked genuinely interested in what she had to say. After having gone to so many schools over the years, she'd developed a sixth sense for when someone was just paying lip-service and in his case, he clearly wasn't.

"Are you from the hood? Sorry, that came out wrong!" he quickly corrected himself, although she couldn't help herself from giggling at his question and not the least, how it was asked.

"Yeah, I'm straight out of Compton, my babysitters were the Sugarhill Gang, and my best friends were Snoop and Dr. Dre!" she lied to him, although in a way, where he knew that she wasn't being serious at all.

"The truth?" he asked her.

"The truth is that my dad has always tried his hardest to keep me away from anything, that could land me in jail or worse. My mom was killed in the crossfire of a gang shootout, when I was five, and since we moved away from Baltimore, he won't allow me to come anywhere near a big city" she explained to Pacey, who looked more than a little shocked at her revelation to him and this soon, no less.

"I'm so sorry to hear that" he solemnly told her, as she began to notice that other students in the classroom had heard too and were now paying far too much attention to her, for her own liking.

"That's exactly what I needed! To be known as the poor hoodlum girl from day one around here!", she annoyedly thought to herself, as their teacher finally made an appearance, putting an end to their little chat.

After the drama class, that had just been more of the same of what the rest of the morning had been like, it became time for lunch and being the nice guy, that he clearly was, Pacey had invited her to sit with his group of friends, that could best be described as the sort of rag-tag bunch, that sometimes manage to find one another in the mini-verse known as high school, thanks to none of them fitting in with any of the other cliques. In that way too, she began to quickly feel at home among them, even if there was this one girl (named Andie, from what she could gather) who kept bombarding her with so many questions, that it began to feel like a police interrogation and by the time Nikki's lunch break was over, her head was feeling tired and she was seriously looking forward to not having to answer a bunch of personal questions to a girl, she'd only just been introduced to.

One thing that she did find out though, was that her suspicions about Pacey being taken were spot on. Not only that, but she had to admit to liking his girlfriend, from what she could tell so far. Speaking of Pacey's girlfriend, she was exactly the one who came over to her to talk, while she was waiting for her dad to finish up for the day.

"How was your first day?" the girl, who apparently had the boyish nickname Joey, shyly asked her.

"Okay, I guess" she answered, while shrugging her shoulders. "When you've switched schools as many times, as I have, you know the drill by now. The stares, the whispers, the feeling like every little thing that you do, is being observed by everyone, while you try your best not to make anyone notice you or stick out like a sore thumb. It's always like that for the first week or so, before you start to become part of the regular scenery".

"I sort of know what you mean. When I started school, I already had my best friends with me and it was like that all the way up to the last semester before this one, where I studied in a French city called Toulouse. I was lucky enough to make a friend on my first day, but that was just as much blind luck, as anything else" Joey, in a very understanding and likable way, explained to her.

"France, huh? That must have an adventure?"

"It sure was! Listen, all I'm saying here is that it wasn't all that long ago, that I was in your shoes, so if you want to give hanging out with me and my friends a shot, you're more than welcome to. Pacey has already given you a thumbs up and if he says that you're cool, then I believe him" Joey told her in confidence. In that moment, Nikki could easily see why this girl and Pacey would have been drawn towards one another, practically from the first chance that they got to. Both of them were practically the same after all, except that one of them had breasts and one of them didn't.

"I wish that I could today, but we've just bought a new house and my dad has been bugging me, because I haven't unpacked most of my things yet. We could do something later in the week though?"

"Yeah, sure. I should get going, my sister is stopping by to pick me up. See you tomorrow, okay?" Joey cutely bade her goodbye, before heading in the direction of the school's front doors.

As they drove home, Nikki had to admit one thing, not that she minded it: That her first day at her new school, even it hadn't been close to perfect, had still been one of the best first days at a new school, she could remember experiencing so far in her life.

Abby's first day back at school hadn't been as bad, as she'd been building it up in her head, that it would be. In truth, with the exception of her rough start to the day, she had actually enjoyed herself! Now that Mr. Peterson had retired too, it meant that she wouldn't have to dread being called out by him, like ninety-nine percent of the rest of his students also did.

"You went on a date with Mr. Peterson? I can't believe my own ears!" Jen asked her grandmother in disbelief, while they were eating dinner together, the three of them. Something, Abby knew that she would quickly begin to miss, when she moved back in with Joey's family.

"It was when we were your age and long before I'd met your grandfather" Grams calmly explained. "What I found out quickly though, was that the man had the personality of a toad!"

"Still, he could have been your grandfather, Jen!" Abby teased Jen, who was covering her ears at these revelations.

"I'm just going to pretend that the last minute never happened, so I can go on with my life! It's the only way that I know how to!" Jen blurted out, only moments before there was an unexpected knock on the door.

"Are any of you expecting guests?" Grams asked, getting only shakes of heads in reply.

Being the one who was seated closest to the door, it only made sense for Abby to check who it was and when she did, she found herself face to face with Dawson's dad.

"Hi, Mr. Leery. Are you here to talk to Grams? I can get her for you, if you want it" she asked Dawson's dad, who had a serious expression on his face.

"Have you seen what was done to her car?" Mr. Leery asked her, just before Jen and Grams came out to the front door to join them.

"What do we owe the pleasure, Mitch?" Grams asked him, sounding concerned.

"I take it that you haven't seen it yet" he quietly said, before signaling for them to follow after him outside to the driveway.

When she saw what had been done, it was like every bit of rage and fear in Abby's body melted into one to create a girl, who wanted revenge and would do anything to get it.

"Who on earth would do something like this?" a shocked Jen asked, while she too was trying to take in, that something like this had happened while they were right inside, preparing and eating dinner.

On the hood, in crude black spray paint were written the words "Die, Bitch!".

Dawson had been as shocked as anyone, when his dad had informed himself and his mom of the vandalism, that had taken place right across the street from their house. Even as he was getting ready for bed, he could see the police gathering evidence from his bedroom window and it suddenly made Capeside feel like a town, that he couldn't recognize anymore. Sure, it had been a tough town to live in, back during its earliest years when those rugged pioneers living there were fighting just to survive, everyone knew that, but in general it was seen as an extremely safe place to call your home and whenever there was a true criminal that got caught, it would be the talk of the town for weeks afterwards.

While he was thinking over what all of this would mean for the future, there was a knock on his door and after he'd given the go-ahead, his mom came in.

"I've told Abby that she can sleep on our couch, if she feels like it isn't safe for her at Evelyn's house. I assumed that it was okay with you" his mom said, before sitting down on his bed next to him.

"Of course, it is. What did the police say?"

"It's still early days, but how are they going to find out, who did it, honestly? There aren't any cameras to catch the perpetrators in the act, so if no one saw it, there isn't much that they can do. Pacey's dad is taking this very seriously though, so that's something. Are you okay?" his mom asked him in that mom-like way, where he knew there would be no use in trying to lie to her.

"Just shocked, that's all. I remember a few months ago, when someone vandalized Abby's locker, thinking that the worst of it was over for her, at least. More than anything, I feel so bad for her and Melissa, that it has to be like this for them. It isn't their fault, or anyone else's, that they were born gay" he answered his mom, in the best way that he could.

"Until, whoever did this is caught, if you see anything suspicious going on over by Evelyn's house, I want you to tell us about it immediately, so we can phone the police. No matter how insignificant it might seem, is that understood?"

"Sure, mom. I should try to get some sleep, if I can" he told his mom, who soon after left him to himself.

As for getting any sleep though, it wasn't easy and all he could think about was Abby and Melissa and the fear, that both of them must have been feeling.

END OF CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE