Good Lord. I’m sorry I’ve died for so long. I really really promise that this is the last time I drop off the face of the earth and take a spin around space-time okay? Please people come back and read my story!! I beg it of thee! Plus, I changed my penname, so hopefully you won’t hate me too much for that. Lol.

A/N: This chapter continues from the end of the last “Kyle” chapter, and is slightly overlapped with the last chapter I wrote. You’ll probably recognize when it takes place a little ways into the chappie, but I just want to clear up the first day of school thing. In the last chapter, Karen went to the ‘first day of school,’ but that was really like the day before the first day of school. They don’t have classes, and the student schedule’s are distributed, but actually learning happens in this chapter; the second ‘first day of school.’ You guys prolly already knew this, but I’m just modeling this after what we do in my school, and I know a lot of other schools in NYC don’t do it like this. Oh yeah, one more thing, I don’t know anything about Baltimore, so I’m just modeling this after a ‘typical’ city. Sorry guys. Oh well. Watever, here’s the next chappie. I hope y’all enjoy it, and PLEASE, review! I’m begging you guys. Lol.

Chapter 5 - Kyle

“Come on bro! Hurry up! I don’t want to be late on the first day!” Brian screamed up the stairs.

“Alright, alright! I’m coming. Just let me get a jacket first, and I’ll be right down! It’s only the first day of school dammit. Nothing special” I yelled back down the stairs at my impatiently waiting brother. I ran down the stairs with my bag flying after me. Brian at the door, all set with book-bag and all just standing there, tapping his foot like a formidable boss waiting for a late employee (which almost accurately described the situation…almost). I had to laugh, causing his eyes to narrow into slits.

“What the hell is so funny?”

“Where did you learn language like that? Wouldn’t dad kill you if he heard you speak like that? Sheesh.” I looked at him disapprovingly and frowned. “You can stop glaring now or you’ll end up walking into a pole.”

“I will not. Stop harassing me, and hurry up so we can get to school.”

I shook my head and complied. I loved my brother and all, but it was definitely more than I could take to have him to school and back home again. God help me! I dropped him off at the junior high across the street from the high school that I saw being sent to.

“I’ll pick you up at five okay? Have a good day at school!” I hollered to the retreating back of my kid brother. I couldn’t help but treat him as if he were a five year old going to kindergarten for the first time, but he didn’t even turn to say ‘goodbye’ to me. Talk about appreciation. The kid has no manners.

I walked slowly to school, taking my time to get to the looming building that would pent me up for the next two years of my life. The red bricks cast a long shadow in the morning sun, and the large dark windows looked out at me like soul-less eyes. The open doors looked ready to swallow me into its darkest depths and never let me see the light of day again. This school is so damned depressing. I miss my old school, with its ugly yellow bricks, lighted windows, and friends loitering out in the yard. I closed my eyes to relive a first day of school back at home, and prepared myself for the first day of classes.

I wandered through the halls, trying to find my way to AP Chem, which happened to be the first class I had in the day. Students gathered in locker halls, creating human roadblocks, forcing me to navigate myself through the sea in order to avoid being squashed into a pancake. As I drifted through the school in an attempt to locate room 456B, I noticed a distinct thinning of the crowds of students. Shit, first period must have started already. Where the hell is the damned Chem room? Give me a freaking break. This school needs to get maps for the incoming students. Yeah, they should have provided maps yesterday when the damned principal was introducing us. Bastards.

After another five minutes, I found myself in front of what appeared to be the main office. The double door frame held no doors, and led into a narrow hallway with benches located on both sides. The wooden benches had smooth dents on the seats where numerous students have sat in wait for detention and other whatnot. Through the door on the right at the end of this forlorn halls, I could hear people talking on the phone, so I assumed that was the secretary room, and I stalked towards it. After an apprehensive knock, I heard a muffled, “come in!” and complied.

I opened the door, and was shocked at the sight that greeted me. The contrast to the dreary hall for delinquents, the office had brightly painted walls with colors from indigo to molten gold. The two secretary desks were of the latest fashion. One had a large mahogany desk that was cluttered with papers and a phone that was constantly ringing while the lady behind the desk desperately tried to answer them all. The other desk was a sleek black metal desk that was very organized. The lady pushed up her glasses and looked at me kindly. I could see her eyes sparkle with delight at my shock and wonder.

“Uh. Can you please help me find room 456B? I’m new here, and I have no idea where I’m going. I’ve been wandering the halls for about twenty minutes now, and I’m probably incredibly late for class.”

“Sure sweetie. Room 456B, the AP Chem room, is on the fourth floor, hence the 4 in the front. Go up the stairs to the left of the office, which will take you to the middle hall. Go all the way down that hall, and you’ll see a ‘Cows are Here’ poster, and turn right. Go all the way down that hall, and turn left, and you’ll be in the B hall. The rooms are then in numeric order, so you won’t have any trouble finding it.” She smiled at me.

“Uh.” I blinked at her.

“Okay. That might have been a little too much for you to handle. Here’s a small map. You can use that to get anywhere you want in the school, but you should hurry. Mr. Keagen, the AP Chem teacher doesn’t like late students.”

“Thank you so much.” I ran out of the room, taking the stairs three at a time, which luckily was pretty easy for my 6 foot body. At the ‘Cow are Here’ sign, and followed the lady’s directions. I found room 456B pretty fast and thrust open the door as soon as I came within reach. I was only ten minutes late. Not too bad.

“I’m sorry for being late sir. It’s my first day of school here, and I had to stop at the office to get directions here. I promise I won’t be late again.” I gasped between breaths. I was slightly out of shape. Oh well, I’ll work on that later, after I figure out the layout of the damned school.

“You must be Kyle Segan. I’ll excuse this once, being that it’s your first day here, but I won’t allow anymore tardiness to my class, or it will lower your grade. Understood?” barked the balding teacher.

“Yes.” His shiny dome reflected the light very nicely, and couldn’t help but squint at the brightness of it all. Crap. I can’t be dissing the teacher already. Crap, crap, crap!

“Good. Seeing that all my students are here, you’ll have to take the last empty seat in the back by Ms. Karen Epstien. Karen, raise your hand so Kyle can spot you from the crowd.” Mr. Keagen turned right back to his equations and left me standing like a fool in front of the class. Oh hell. At least he didn’t make that big of a deal. Go find that Karen girl and sit you fool! Following my own very sound advice, I turned around and my heart flew out of my mouth and lay spazzing (how on earth do you spell that? It keeps coming up as spelled incorrectly, but there’s no correction. Gosh.) on the floor.

I blinked a couple of times. I must be hallucinating. I must be hallucinating. I must be hallucinating. Damned. I have to be crazy. There is no way in hell that the Karen Baldy was referring to was the girl I was back home with Rick. No fucking way! Ass! Get your butt in a seat before Baldy turns around and yells at you for real. You can gape at the girl after you sit, but don’t make a fool of yourself on the first day. I repeat, DON’T MAKE A FOOL OF YOURSELF!

My hearting pounding a hundred miles a minute, I took the seat next the girl who I’d been thinking about for the past two months. She looked exactly like I remembered. Same captivating storm gray eyes, same shoulder-length auburn hair that sparkled in the sunlight. No, she’s just someone with the same name and looks really, really similar. I plopped into the empty chair to the right of Karen, and secretly glanced at her through the corners of my eyes. Definitely looks really, really similar. Could it really be her? My head throbbed from all the excitement I could barely pay attention to what Baldy was teaching. No matter, I was great at chemistry, and I just took this course for the credit. I could sleep through every class and pass with flying colors.

As the bell rung, everyone jumped out of their chairs and ran out the two doors to the room. I dug out the map from the depths of my binder and attempted to follow the measly directions to my next class. The day was already looking up, and I’ve only been in class for half an hour. Maybe moving in with my dad wasn’t such a bad thing. Yeah right. Keep telling yourself that Kyle. Maybe you’ll believe that one day.

To my disappointment, I didn’t share any more classes with Karen before lunch, so I spent the entire morning brooding about the girl from Chem. Could she really be Karen? It’s a helluva coincidence that I’ve moved to the same city, and we attend the same high school. Naw. I don’t believe in coincidences. But I don’t exactly believe in fate or destiny. I’m just a simple suburb kid from Oeher, with no sense of such nonsense.

“Mr. Segan, I hope you are thinking so fervently about principles and interest.” The AP economics teacher reprimanded me, snapping me out of my daze. I felt heat burning its way to my face, and I could almost feel steam coming out of my bright red ears. Oddly enough, I noted that while the comment squeezed some laughs out of my rather dull classmates, only deep voices chuckled.

“Um, yeah. I was actually calculating the interest that the lady would owe on her credit card after two months, if she failed to pay anything for those months.” My brain spun as its wheels turned, trying to find the damned interest.

“Oh really? Do you want to share your results with the rest of the class?” she challenged.

I’ve never backed down from a challenge when one was issued, and I wasn’t about to start now. “Sure, since the interest rate for her credit card is eleven and five eighths percent, then the amount of interest she would owe at the end of two months would be $23. 56.” I grinned at the shocked look on her face. Her mouth agape as she stared at me, eyes wide as saucers. I smirked as she glared at me. Point for Kyle, and none for Ms. Kintano.

“Where’s the teacher’s guide?”

“Huh?” it was my turn to gape at her in wonder.

“I said, give me the teacher’s guide Mr. Segan! Don’t make me repeat myself again. Hand it over.”

Now it was my turn to gape in shock. I blinked several times. What the fuck is she talking about? “Uh.”

“Kyle. I’m not kidding. Don’t play stupid with me. I know you have the book. How else did you get the answer to the question that quickly?” she yelled at the top of her lungs.

“Um. Ms. Kintano, I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. I wasn’t even aware that there was a teacher’s guide. I assumed you had made the question up for a ‘Do Now.’”

“Don’t play stupid with me! How could you have possibly solved the problem that fast? I had just finished putting it up on the board not a minute before I called on you, and I know you weren’t paying attention!” I heard several doors being slammed down the hall to shut out our clash.

“I don’t have your teacher’s guide thing! Why can’t you just accept the fact that I’m good at math and get on with the lesson! I did the problem in my head after you picked on me! What else do you want from me?” I protested. After sending me another death glare, she turned back to the board and continued with the lesson, occasionally narrowing her eyes at me while I looked on innocently.

Forty-five minutes of torture later, I finally escaped AP Econ. All these danged classes I had to take were such a waste of time. I’ve learned everything they were covering, but I need the damned credit, and I still need to graduate some time. Mom had me skip a grade back home, but here, they counted as me still being a junior. I hate the stupid Board of Ed. They absolutely suck. I couldn’t wait until till lunch; my morning classes were such a bore, but I looked forward to fourth period Comp Sci, my favorite class where I actually get to use my brain. Thank goodness. I’d have to kill myself if it weren’t for Comp Sci.

The bell rung at 11:55, sending the students scrambling out of Comp Sci, shoving desks and other people out of the way to fit through the narrow wooden doorframe. I shook my head as I watched the throng of classmates scurry out to join up with their friends for lunch. I stowed away my laptop and slung my bag over my right shoulder and moseyed out of the class to my locker. Already, clumped like flocks of sheep, were the juniors, gathered in their little cliques, chatting away, sending greetings to one another and swapping summer stories. The merry air choked me as I was bluntly excluded from the lively atmosphere. A pang of regret and sorrow stabbed me in the chest as I thought of Rick and everyone back at school in Oeher. Dang. The next thing I knew, I was keeling over, on my knees trying to hold back the tears of loneliness as I thought about my mom and my friends. I’ve only been here a week and I already hate it. I can’t wait for winter break.

I trudged to my locker and stuffed my bag inside and headed out of the building. The air was filled with a chorus of horns. I’ve never heard so many different honks in my life. The busy streets of Baltimore emitted fumes of smoke from the exhaust of the myriad cars, sending me in a life-threatening hacking fit. This was nothing like the peaceful town I came from, where cars were polite and more environmentally sound.

“Yo, you okay there buddy?” a voice called out from behind. I turned around to face a lean boy with dark dreads that rested on his shoulders. He offered a muscled arm to steady me. A second coughing fit prevented me from answering him for a good minute. He laughed as I practically choked out my lungs.

“Thanks you know.” I glared at him. “Just laugh at a man while he’s coughing to death. Remind me to stop and enjoy the show the next time I see you hacking to death!”

“Huh. Sorry. I’m Jason.” The hand gripping my shoulder withdrew from its perch and snaked out in front of my face. I clasped it in eagerness to make a friend.

“Kyle. Nice to meet you.”

“Same here. I’ve never seen you before. Are you new here?”

“Really now? Where’ve you been the past two days? It was humiliating enough for the principal to have to shove me up on the stage and make me look like a freaking auction good. I swear I could see some of the people bidding for me.”

“Oh. So sorry for you dude. I’ve been here for two years already. Been going here since ninth grade, so I’m cool with most of the people and the principle has yet to publicly humiliate me.”

“Lucky bastard.” A hand clapped me on the back, nearly knocking me over. “What the hell was that for? You want to kill me? I just got my breath back after that marathon coughing fit, and you go right ahead and knock the wind out of me. Do you hate me that much already? Sheesh. And I thought I was amiable. So much for being a nice person.”

Jason grinned at me and shook his head. “Don’t be hating. Where you going for lunch?”

“Don’t know. What’s good to eat around here?”

“Well, depends on what you’re looking for. How’s pizza?”

“Fine.”

ten minutes later

“What the fuck kind of pizza is this!”

Jason threw his head back and roared with laughter as I picked at the anchovies and little green specs embedded in the cheese. I threw one of the furry little fish at his face, which with my expert aim, landed right in his gaping mouth. The anchovy went down in a hurry, and my first friend nearly choked to death. As he tried to choke up the disgusting piece of pizza topping, I had my own roar of laughter. When I caught my breath, I wheezed out, “now I know why you were laughing so hard earlier. It’s mad funny when you’re watching someone choke to death, especially on a piece of anchovy, which you tried to trick me into eating.”

“Shut up.”

“I’ll remember this moment for the rest of my life. I can just see it written down in my diary. It’ll read something like this: September ninth, first day of school in Baltimore, and made friends with a long haired loser. Taught me life-long lessons upon meeting. Lesson number one, watching someone, especially a friend choke is a increasingly hilarious scenario. Lesson number two, never trick your friend into eating anchovy and green specked pizza if that friend has incredible aim, and is willing to choke you back. End diary entry.”

“Shut up!”

“Make me!”

A moment later, orange liquid was cascading down my wet hair, as I gaped at Jason in amazement. I blinked the soda from my eyes, and stared at the boy sitting across from me. There was no way he had just poured his soda on me. No f-ing way.

“You did not just do that.”

“Then what’s that dripping from your head?” he challenged.

Silently, I stood up and gathered the remainder of my lunch and trashed it. I walked out the door with Fanta still dripping from my head. I can’t believe he just did that! The bastard! Who the hell does he think he is? To just pour his soda on me. The people in the city have no manners. They’re just a bunch of crude hooligans. He ruined my favorite shirt! I stared down at the ’66 Corvette Sting Ray that now dripped like rust corroding my favorite chrome fenders. I shook my head in anger and stalked up the street.

Safely in the building once again, I found the boys locker rooms next to the gym and turned on the shower, attempting to remove the potentially sticky substance from my hair in vain. I emerged from the freezing shower dripping icicles from my hair and shivering like a ninety year old man. Why on earth would someone turn up the AC in the school when it was 53 degrees outside? Everyone here is out of their mind, including me. I stared down at my favorite shirt and sighed. There was no way I could save that now. I definitely wasn’t going to wash the thing; I had no change of clothes. Life sucks. And so do the people here.

I spent the rest of lunch lounging at an empty table in the cafeteria, drawing stares at my stained shirt. Jason was just lucky I didn’t see him again during the hour, or I’d have torn him to pieces limb from limb. I may be a shrimpy looking kid, but I am slightly scarier than I look. When will this day be over? This is horrible!

I started the second half of my day with low spirits, sure the day couldn’t get any worse.

I was right. It didn’t. Calc BC was pretty smooth. Mr. Raifer was an easy going guy with a great sense of humor, and AP Art History with Mr. Henry was great. I found out we were studying my favorite styles of art, I nearly cried with excitement. I was so going to own that course. Yeah, I know. I’m an art freak, but I can’t help it. I love it with a passion. Physiology was passable I guess. Ms. Mercer didn’t have the flare for her subject as Mr. Henry did, but she kept me from flying to La-La Land by whacking people with their heads down on the head, sound it sounded like she banged them on the upside pretty good. I certainly don’t want to lose any of my precious few brain cells.

To me, the best class of the afternoon was AP American History. I don’t particularly care for the subject, but there was a surprise for me sitting in the room as I entered. Sitting in the back left corner of the room was a head full of auburn hair facing the open binder spread out before her. My heart stopped for a minute, and I thought I might go into cardiac arrest any moment, when someone shoved me in their haste to take a seat. I snapped out of my shock and headed for an empty seat three chairs away from Karen, being as another boy was chatting away in the chair next to her. A monster roared in my chest and I quickly looked away, afraid that someone would notice my burning face. There is no way I can be jealous. I don’t even know who she is for God’s sake. How do I know that he isn’t her boyfriend or something like that? Because you just do.Who the hell are you? I’m your other conscience. Duh. Who did you think I was? Go away. I don’t want you. Don’t tell me what I’m supposed to think dammit! Why not? I AM your other conscience you know. Go to hell dammit! Leave my brain right now! I commence thee. Get thee gone!

“Mr. Segan. Are you okay?” I looked up at Ms. Gurian.

“Um. I’m fine, sorry. It’s been a long day, and I’m out of it. I apologize for daydreaming.”

“Are you sure? You don’t look so good. I think a little pale. Do you want to go to the nurse?”

“No. no. I’m fine. Really. Sorry for interrupting.”

I snapped my head down again and typed furiously at my laptop, copying the myriad notes she had scrawled across the expanse of the board. Every so often I glanced at Karen, hoping to catch her eye. Maybe she would recognize me. What good would that do? She practically ate you up at Subways that day. No need to make yourself look more like a fool than you just did okay?

The bell rung for the end of eight period, and everyone scooted out of the room faster than I thought ever possible. I looked around in search of Karen, but she had long gone. I guess I’ll go pick up my brother and call it a day.

I guess I’m calling it a chapter too. It’s not what I hoped it would be, but I’ve been stuck on this one for ages, so you guys will just have to deal. Drop a line or so about what you think, and tell me what you think. And people, I know you guys have issues with my grammar, but I really suck at that, so I’m REALLY REALLY sorry if it bothers you. I’ll try my best to fix little grammatical errors okay?

- Pathmark Express