My So Called Life
Chapter 1
Deep breath, just keep breathing in and out and remind yourself this is not a new situation for you, she thought to herself. Even though this is the first time here, coming a week after its already started and late. I currently stood on the sidewalk in front of a large red brick building, rows of windows across the front and not another person in sight on the tree covered lawn.
Tucking a flyaway piece of hair behind my ear I started up the stone steps for my first day of hell, otherwise known as high school. After entering through the main doors I gave my eyes a moment to adjust to the florescent lighting after being outside. What I saw was pretty similar to any other high school. Plain polished floors, long hallways littered with some art form or another, lockers lining in between, and closed classroom doors.
I made my way to the office to pick-up a schedule for first semester. Upon entering the administration office the first thing I found was a middle-aged woman, head down sitting at her desk muttering to herself.
"Ummm, excuse me. My name is Cassie Black and I'm a new student, I'm here to pick up my schedule and find out where my first class is".
Still muttering to herself staring at the papers in front of her the woman finally looked up with a blank expression on her kind face. "Huh?"
"Cassie Black. New student. Need my schedule." " Oh, sorry. Its been a busy morning here. My daughter started kindergarten this week and since I'm working I have to figure out an after school schedule for the babysitter", she said with an exasperated sigh.
"Anyways your first period teacher is hmmm", she said as she typed on the keys in front of her. "Ah, Mr. Landers", she got up from her desk and walked across the room to the printer and stood waiting for the schedule.
Its always the same, why do they always put the printer across the room from where the actual computer is? I mean come on. Like these poor secretaries have nothing better to do than to stop what they're doing, go get the damn pages the printer spits out and get back, hand over papers to said person who is now annoyed by having to wait through the stupid process.
"Here you go Cassie, your classroom is on the second floor at the end of the hallway-", she looked up from her babysitter schedule and saw Cassie's glassy eyed stare. " On second thought, how about I walk you to first period and get you situated?" Cassie let out a sigh of relief, "thanks, I haven't gotten a look around the school yet so I have no idea where I'm going".
Apparently the school is much easier to get a handle on than Cassie thought. Follow a straight hallway down to the end, up a flight of stairs and the first door on the right was her first period classroom. The secretary, whose name is Wanda by the way (as she gently informed Cassie on their walk through the school) knocked firmly on the door before it opened revealing what I assumed was the teacher with a inquiring look on his face.
" Yes Wanda, what can I help you with?" She gestured behind her to Cassie, " I've got a new student for you she just started today and needed help finding your classroom." All of this was said with a gentle smile and an odd glint in her eyes. I wonder what that's all about Cassie thought to herself. "Oh, okay well in that case come on in Cassie", he invited as he opened the door wider for her to slip in. " Good luck Cassie enjoy your first day", Wanda said with a wink and turned to leave her heels clicking on the polished floor as she walked away.
Cassie turned around and suddenly wanted to sink into the floor and disappear. There were thirty or so students whispering to each other and all eyes were trained on her with open curiosity. "Alright guys, alright. Quite". He glanced down at the sheet in his hand as he sat down at his desk in front of the class, "This is Cassie Black and she's new here", turning to her and smiling said "Cassie since your standing up here why don't you tell us a bit about yourself. Where your coming from, what your last school was like, that kind of thing".
Okay gulp. Looking from the teachers face back to the sea of expectant kids I tried to look calm and happy to be there, rather than terrified and feeling like I wanted to die.
"Okay well, I just moved here from New York this summer. My last school had about 4,000 students so…. its nice to be at a place where classes look like they'll be smaller", a tepid smile on her face.
Okay so now what?, she thought to her self. They're still looking at me, what else do I say? "Interesting, and what did you like to do in your spare time?" "Well I used to hang out with my friends and any mall you want is like a 10 minute subway ride away, so I shopped a lot".
Oh my god! Everyone is gunna think I'm a complete loser. Like I have nothing better to do than be a Mall-rat. Ugh.
"Okay well good, good. Why don't you take a seat and we can get back to work" "Sure", she replied and turned back towards the class scanning for an empty seat. "Ah, there's an empty seat between Terri and Harley in the back row". That said he turned around and resumed his lesson.
I walked to the back row of desks and noticed that there were actually two open seats between what appeared to be to small groups of girls. Immediately they all tried to get my attention, wanting me to sit beside them.
Terri's talking caught my attention first. "Oh my god, you have to sit with us! Don't sit with Marley choose us", all jokingly said but I caught an undercurrent of hardness from that mouth.
"Oh, don't listen to her, you should sit with us! My name's Marley and this is my friend Mika", nodding beside her to the pretty blond with an excited grin on her face.
Well, Marley and Mika really do seem more sincere and excited than Terri. I don't know why but the odd glint in Terri's eyes made me nervous. I shrugged and sat down in the chair closest to Harley, hanging my new backpack on the back of my chair. I let out a quite sigh of relief thinking how nice it felt to be so welcome in a new place.
" So you come from New York right? What was it like there? Do you have a boyfriend? Do you know anybody else here or just us?" she asked while bouncing a little in her seat.
Now that I was sitting down and a little more relaxed I was able to actually get a good look at the girl. She had honey blond hair, these amazing almond shaped green eyes and a perfect smile. Think, a younger, thinner, green eyed Marilyn Monroe. I am not kidding. This girl was perfect and to top it off, while a little high strung, she was so nice.
" Yeah, I moved here this summer from New York with my mom and younger sister. My grandmother lives here and offered us a place to stay. My mom is really sick and it was starting to be too much for just me so….I did have a boyfriend when I left, his name was Kieran, obviously that didn't work out with me here and I haven't met anyone else yet. We've only been here a few weeks and moving into a new place and all, getting settled I mean".
"If you've been here a few weeks how come your starting class a week late?" Mika asked a confused expression on her face and a delicately raised eyebrow.
"Well there was some business my mom had to take care of before I could start here. You know, have my transcripts sent from the old school and getting my schedule worked out with the guidance counselor and stuff". That's right lie. I would never want them to know that the actual reason I was starting so late was that my chronic shyness made me physically ill every morning to the point that I never ended up going.
"Oh well, that sucks". "Don't worry", Marley said, " we'll show you around and introduce you to some of our friends." Mika poked her in the side reminding her, " how about this weekend?"
Marley's eyes lit up and she leaned towards me in her chair, " oooh, you busy this weekend? Every Friday night the bowling alley in the mall has rock n' bowl. I know, it sounds kinda dumb but everyone goes and its actually pretty fun". She smiled at me with an expectant look on her face.
How could I turn down someone so pretty and so willing to be nice and show me the ropes. Guess that itty bitty problem of being supremely shy won't be an issue any more. I took a deep breath for courage and meet her sparkling green eyes. "Sure, its sounds like fun, I'll give you my number later and we can work out the details".
With that her and Mika let out girlish squeals of delight and started chattering to each other about Friday night and what everyone should wear.
"Ladies, if you guys are done making plans for the weekend do you think we could, I don't know, get back to the lesson?" the teacher asked exasperatedly pointing at the board. Everyone stopped talking and started taking notes from what the teacher had written on the board. Well so far so good. Maybe this place wouldn't be so bad after all. Looking back, those were definitely some famous last words.