by Bailey Hull
Monday Morning at Lincoln High…
Today is Brandon’s first day at Lincoln High. I am so freaking nervous that I don’t think I slept a wink Sunday night and very little Saturday night as well. At least he didn’t have anyone over Sunday night. I wonder if he knows I heard him Saturday night. He can’t think that they were that quiet. I just hope dad doesn’t volunteer me to give him rides to school every morning.
I skip breakfast so I don’t have to see Brandon at the breakfast table. Then just before I’m about to leave there’s a knock on my bedroom door.
“Jordy honey, you in there.”
“Yeah dad.”
“Why don’t you give your brother a ride to school in the mornings? No point in making him suffer through the bus ride when you’re going there anyway; right?”
“But I don-”
“Thanks honey. He’s down in the kitchen waiting. Have a good day and don’t be a stranger. Show Brandon around. Introduce him to your friends. You know how hard first days at school can be.”
I jerk open my door! This is asking too much.
“Dad…don’t make me do this. I’ll give him a ride but he’s gotta find his own friends. It’s weird enough that I suddenly have a stepbrother but him being from across the St. Lawrence… You can’t do this to me dad!”
“I’m not asking you honey. You make this transition smooth for him. I’m sure he’d do the same for you if you were going to Jefferson.”
When my dad gets like this there’s nothing I can do so I just have to nod my head and say yes while making alternate plans. Plans like dropping him off at Pete’s Coffee which is three blocks from school. Can’t drop him off at 7-11 or Starbucks; too many kids I know go there in the morning but no one at school likes Pete’s. Their coffee is just too strong for the average kid.
“Fine dad, I’ll take him to school in the mornings and I’ll hold his hand there until he gets friends of his own but you owe me big.”
“I owe you a favor for asking you to be decent to your brother? Think again young lady.”
I’ve had enough. I grab my backpack and walk out slamming my door behind me and pushing past my fuming father.
“Jordan don’t you slam your door!” He yells after me.
I don’t turn around and I keep walking. I tromp down the stairs loudly so he knows how pissed off I am just in case he didn’t get it from me slamming my door in his face. I don’t say a word to Brandon as I pass by. If he wants a ride that bad he’ll have to just follow me. Unfortunately he does and when I’m getting in my car he does too.
“Nice birthday present.” He says appreciatively.
“What makes you think it was a birthday present?” I ask.
“Oh please… You just had your eighteenth birthday and you got paper tags in the back window because it’s too soon for the real plates to come in the mail.”
“Just shut up. I’m dropping you off-”
“I know, three blocks from school so none of your friends see us. I know the drill sis. I may be poor but I’m not stupid. And once we’re at school we don’t see each other and we don’t talk to each other. I got it. Say we meet at Starbucks coffee at 3:30 after school?”
“Make it Pete’s and 3:45”
We continue on in silence for another twenty minutes before we get to Pete’s. On the way I manage to sneak a few peeks at his face. He’s got one hell of a shiner but other than that he seems untouched by the beating he took Saturday. I pull off to the side of the road in front of the coffee shop. Brandon gets out without a word and shuts the door. Without looking back I take off for school. This is going to be one hell of an interesting day I’m sure.
Chapter Five
“One hell of an interesting day!”
Brandon could not have come at a worse day for his first day at Lincoln High. By the time I pull up, which is a little late, the school celebration is well under way. Over the weekend someone had a couple vinyl banners made up congratulating Chase on his victory and his intact winning streak. The East vs. West showdown is over and good has triumphed over evil. Someone else printed up fliers with a picture from the fight. It shows Brandon’s bloody face just as Chase’s fist is just about to hit him squarely in the nose. The most telling thing about the photo; the fact that Brandon is clearly unconscious. The puts to rest the debate about whether Brandon actually did lose consciousness and if the fight should have been stopped as a TKO a good fifteen seconds before it was stopped when someone from Brandon’s corner threw in the towel.
Over the years I have had to live through my share of embarrassing, even humiliating things at school but all them combined does not even compare to what’s happening here and what Brandon is going to have to endure. He lost the fight; end of story. Time for the school to move on. Further humiliating the guy is not only going to cause more trouble but it’s needlessly cruel. I’ll do my best to keep out of it and keep my head down but soon as everyone figures out that Brandon is my new stepbrother the gossip queens will be swarming and in a school like this one it has more than its share of gossip mongers.
I make a beeline for my locker and standing next to it is Megan waiting as usual.
“Can you believe this?” I ask as I’m rooting through my locker.
“I know.” She says. “Isn’t it great? It’s so cool how the entire school comes out in support of Chase. Do you know we had 97% participation at the fight? And I’m not just talking kids, but faculty as well. Chase is going to be a star. This is only the beginning.”
I lean in close so no one can hear me. “Don’t you think this is a bit over the top?” I ask her.
“What?”
“Hello…guess who starts school today?”
Her eyes light up. “Oh my god I totally forgot. Your new bro starts today.”
I grab a flier that somebody taped to the locker next to mine. It’s one of the ones that show’s Brandon unconscious.
“Don’t you think this is just a little bit insensitive?” I ask as I thrust it in her face. “Who did this Megan?”
Her dad owns Open Office a chain of office supply and computer retail stores. If there’s anyone in the school that can put out flyers and giant vinyl banners in few hours it’ll be her dad.
“You think this was my idea?” She says, giving me an indignant look. “I’m not that cruel. I still think it’s a great idea. You don’t think that if he would have won Jefferson wouldn’t be doing the exact same thing right now?”
“I know they wouldn’t!” I fume. “No one there could have afforded anything like that.” I say, pointing to a giant red, white, and blue vinyl banner.
“Whatever… they would have if they could and you know it.”
“Look…whatever you do, please don’t tell anyone he’s my stepbrother. I don’t need that kind of heat after the weekend I’ve had.”
“Are you crazy?” She asks. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“Thanks.” Before this morning I wouldn’t have thought Megan would ever do anything that could hurt me but after seeing the banners and flyers, and talking to her, now I’m not so sure.
“Look Jordy, we gotta get to class. Talk later?” She gives me a hug and it feels suspiciously like a peace offering. Makes me wonder what else I’m going to find out about what she has done or said.
If I feel terrible about today, and I do, I wonder how Brandon is handling all the sudden notoriety. I don’t know what his class schedule is so I have no idea if he’s going to suddenly pop up in one of my classes or not. I get my answer in my third period New Media class. Everyone is seated and Mr. Baker is about to start into his opening expository when the door opens and in walks enemy number one Brandon Taylor. A hush falls over the room as he walks up to Mr. Baker and hands him a slip of paper. The teacher looks it over and sets it on his desk.
“There’s an empty desk in the back.” He says pointing to the desk in the corner next to Goth girl Melissa Waller.
Great, he gets stuck by the other most hated perso
n in school. It’s a match made in hell. He sits down at the desk and looks over at Melissa. She’s looking him over with her trademark frown glued to her face. He just flashes a smile and turns his focus to the teacher. That’s strange.
About half way through class Mr. Baker walks to the middle of the room and suddenly snatches a piece of paper from Mark Brown, the schools most talented artist and cartoonist. The teacher looks at it. From where I’m sitting I can just make it out. Mark has drawn a caricature of Melissa and Brandon standing and holding hands. Their bodies are tiny stick figures with huge heads. Under the pictures are the caption Beauty and the Beast. The word beauty is under Brandon’s picture and the word beast under Melissa’s picture. It’s a little ironic considering Brandon’s nickname is The Beast. Everyone is eyes on Mr. Baker and no one notices Brandon walk up. He just snatches the picture out of the teacher’s hands and looks at it.
“You got it backwards dude.” He says to Mark as he drops it on Mark’s desk.
Nobody says a word. Mr. Brown grabs it off of Mark’s desk and walks back to his own desk where he set’s it on top, face down. He thinks for a second then says.
“You know where to go Mark.” He says to the artist.
Mark does know where to go. Being the rebellious artist that he is, this isn’t the first time he’s wound up in the principal’s office over something he’s drawn or painted. The rest of the class goes on without interruption. I can completely understand why the teacher sent Mark to the office. He probably just saved Mark’s butt. No doubt Brandon was going to address the problem with the artist after class. When the bell rings I gather up my stuff as Melissa makes a beeline for the front of class. She confronts Mr. Baker.
“I wanna see what he drew.” She demands.
“You really don’t need to see that Melissa.” The teacher replies.
“It’s about me not you, yet you got to see it. New guy got to see it and you didn’t object to that so now it’s my turn to see it.”
The teacher thinks for a moment so Melissa just steps around him and snatches the note from his desk. I don’t know how she’s going to react but I certainly don’t expect her reaction. She looks at the picture for a minute then she actually smiles. It’s a quick flash of a smile and if I hadn’t been looking right at her I wouldn’t have seen it. Then she folds it up and starts to stick it in her pocket when Mr. Baker finally reacts.
“Wait minute Ms. Waller. The principal will want to see that.”
“Fine!” She snaps.
Then she walks over to the printer copy machine behind his desk and proceeds to copy it. When done she still pockets the original and hands Mr. Baker the copy.
“Principal Meyers don’t need the color version.” She says and walks out without looking back.
“Apparently not.” He mutters to himself.
Abruptly the first bell rings for fourth period so I have to hustle. Fourth period Statistics is on the other side of the building. Thankfully Brandon doesn’t have this class but Megan does. As usual we sit together in the back row. I notice she’s using the familiar red Brandon flyer as her current bookmark. When she sits down and starts fishing around in her backpack for something I grab the flyer and yank it out of her book.
“That was my bookmark.” She snaps, reaching for it.
I hold it out of her reach.
“Why are you so keen to have this back?” I ask her.
“It was my bookmark.” She says.
I hand her a long thin piece of paper. “Here, use this then.”
“Fine.” She says, still reaching for the flyer in my hands. “I’ll just chuck that one then.”
If I was a little suspicious before I really am now. I step away from her and take another look at the flyer. It’s still the one with Brandon passed out. Why this one I wonder so I look at the backside. At first it doesn’t register. It’s just a bunch of scribbled numbers and columns and rows. At the bottom there are several dollar amounts and then it hits me. This is some kind of hand written receipt for the flyers and probably the banners. Holy crap she was behind both the flyers and the banners!
“You want this back do you?” I ask her.
“Jordy this isn’t what it looks like.”
“Yeah I’ll bet it isn’t.” Then on inspiration I rip it up in like ten pieces and throw it at her. “Here you are Megan.”
“Why you so damn sensitive about Brandon?” She asks. “It can’t be just because he’s your new stepbrother is it?”
“Megan…” I warn. “Not another word.”
“I know why you’re so worked up about this.” She declares.
“Not one more word Megan or I swear…”
“Swear what?” She taunts. Then she turns to the rest of the class. She holds up another flyer that just happened to be sitting on the desk next to hers. “Did you guys know that Jordy here has a new brother?”
“Megan!” I snap.
“Yeah miss goody two shoes here has a new brother and she’s got a major crush on him.”
And there’s the first nail in my social life’s coffin. Immediately I can feel my face burning up and my cheeks turn bright red. My former best friend has just committed social murder; murder of me and my reputation. With less than a full year of school left before graduation one doesn’t recover from something like this. Just then the teacher, who picked a great day to be late, walks in.
“What’s going on ladies?” He asks.
I am beyond words now. I am so fucking angry I can’t talk and I certainly can’t stay in class. I just grab my backpack that was hanging on the back of my chair and stalk out. As the door closes behind me I hear Megan calling to me in a plaintive voice.
“Jordy…Jordy I’m sorry I…Jordy…”
I charge down the hall and straight to the closest bathroom which, thank god, is empty. I go in a stall and close the door right as the tears begin to flow. How could my best friend in the world turn on my like that? I cannot believe this. Brandon sticks up for the friendless much despised Goth girl Melissa and my best friend turns against me like it’s nothing. I’m not the social butterfly that Megan is. I have a few friends but not a lot. Megan is loved by everyone in the school just about. I really am starting to think that we wouldn’t even be friends if we hadn’t been thrown together on my first day of school. She was assigned with the task of showing me around when we were both in the second grade at Harper Elementary.
My tears are replaced with pure anger as they dry up on my cheeks. Time for me to go. I look at my watch. Well, not quite time to go. I’m not going back to fourth period again. Megan’s not it my fifth period study hall so I’m safe there as well. I just have to hang in here for ten more minutes. I wait for five then slip out of my self-imposed jail and wash my face and re-apply mascara and eye shadow before inspecting myself in the mirror. My eyes are a tiny bit puffy from crying but not that bad actually. After rearranging my face I rearrange my attitude. Time to come out fighting!
Chapter Six
Monday Continued
(The Fight)
Feeling better than I have since Saturday night I open the door to fifth period study hall and walk in, chin held up high. Before I can even take a seat I discover just how fast Lincoln High’s gossip machine can move when properly motivated. The sight of my face in the doorway literally freezes time. Every one of the two dozen students in the room is staring at me with the same deer in the headlights expression frozen on their faces. The only person that’s not staring at me is social outcast and my new best friend by default Melissa Waller, so I sit down at the desk next to hers. She looks up at me long enough to register a shocked expression. She’s probably shocked to see me choosing to sit next to her when there are clearly three other unoccupied desks in the room. She nods in my direction then she returns her attention to an open book on her desk. The second my but hits my chair time starts ticking again and everyone’s tongues are loosened. Twenty-three overly nosey people talking at the same time in not so hushed tones.<
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Little groups of three to four people push their desks together to form little cliques and from those mini gatherings two names keep floating up into the ozone; Brandon and Jordan. Oddly enough, the drama with Brandon and I seems to have upstaged even Chase and his ever increasing popularity. I don’t want to take part in any of these muffled conversations so I pull the book Pompeii Uncovered out of my backpack and try to catch up on my reading assignment for my next class. While what happened in Pompeii is fascinating but it pales in comparison to what’s happening today. I find my attention span for the book lasts for two minute intervals. Every time I look up I catch these furtive glances my direction. I’m just giving up on reading when Melissa of all people addresses me.
“So new brother huh? That’s gotta suck, right.”
“More than you know.”
“You’d be surprised.” She replies mysteriously.
“You have a brother…a step brother.”
She nods.