* * * *
Ali always cooks the best food. When she cooks, she goes all out. She cooks every day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Today for breakfast she cooked pancakes, eggs, bacon and toast. I don't eat the eggs or bacon because I'm a vegetarian.
“There you are, sweetie,” she pronounces with the biggest smile on her face. “You both have about ten minutes to eat and then you have to be to school. You don’t want to be late on your first day back!” Mom looks beautiful, like always. She's the perfect height and gracefully thin. She has long, black hair and brown eyes.
“It sounds like you’re more excited than us,” Caroline says, whispering under her breath as she tucks her long black and silky hair behind her ear. I can see she isn’t too happy to go to school. She gets up in a rush and finds her way up the stairs.
“Nina, your car will be out of the shop and ready to go later this afternoon. I will be driving you two to school today.”
“Is it really? I'm so excited! I’ve missed my beautiful red precious,” truthfully spoken. My red Saab has been in the shop for months now, and I have felt extremely stuck because I have to rely on my mom to drive me everywhere.
When I got out of the hospital a few days ago, my mom thought I should go out job searching to keep myself busy. Of course, she had to come because I didn't have a vehicle and I wasn't trying to walk into the main part of Scarlett Hills, aimlessly looking for a job. I applied at a thrift store called “New to You” and a restaurant called “The Pearl.” The thrift store called me yesterday and told me that they have a position available for me immediately. I start next week.
Ali hands me a plate of blueberry pancakes and toast. She's aware that I don't eat bacon or eggs. I'm not hungry today anyway. My nerves are getting the best of me right now. “Thank you, but that's way too much food. I'm not that hungry,” I explain, keeping my head down.
“You’re nervous. Is that why you won’t eat?” I knew she would know. Mothers know everything and if they don’t know they always find out somehow.
“Of course I'm a little anxious, but not much,” I lie.
“Whatever you say, sweetie.” She isn’t going to continue to question me because she already knows the truth. She doesn’t need reassurance. “Caroline! It’s time to go. Get down here!”
“Coming!” Caroline yells. You could only faintly hear her voice.
* * * *
Driving to school, it hit me more. I'm going to have to introduce myself in every class, to every new teacher of mine. I'm starting fresh with a new school year. I can do this. I have to keep telling myself this. I have to just be optimistic about this situation. Just because I live in a small town doesn't necessarily mean that my summer vacation is going to get out through the whole school, but it must be bound to happen sooner or later. I'm hoping for later rather than sooner.
Pulling up to the school I'm not surprised to see that it looks exactly the same as last year. It's average size for a small town. The worst thing about small towns is that everyone knows everyone's business. Great.
Stay optimistic, I keep telling myself.
“Here we are. Want me to come in with you to make sure you both get settled in well?” Ali says somberly. She's absolutely serious.
My sister and I both look at each other appalled. Did she really just say that? At the same time we both answer, “No!”
“Well, OK then. Have a great day. See you both later. I'll pick you both up right here. I will be ten minutes early so I will be here around 2:40. Be good,” Ali says.
“Yes, mom.” Caroline rolls her eyes.
“Bye, mom!” I shout nicely, as my back is turned and I start walking away with Caroline.
“This is terrifying.” You can hear the trembling in her voice.
“It’s fine, sis.” I'm telling the truth, but I'm not fine, I'm scared also.
As we walk into the front doors of the school, everyone is still staring. I'm assuming that everyone is surprised to see my appearance in school after hearing about my father passing away. We walk into the office, which is on the right side when you walk through the front doors. We go up to the desk of the secretary. She's very pretty. She has short, red, perfectly curled hair that's down to her shoulders. “Can I help you?” the secretary wonders. She must be new this year.
“Yes, my name is Nina Mckay and this is my sister, Caroline Mckay. This is our first day today and we were hoping to organize our schedules,” I inform her because I know Caroline won’t be able to spit the words out of her mouth. She's too busy looking around observing everything and everyone.
“Oh, yes! Mr. Taylor advised me that there would be new students coming in today. Welcome to Scarlett Hills High School. I’m Mrs. Sullivan. It’s nice to meet you girls,” she says with pride. She definitely is new because she doesn't know that this isn't my first day at this school. “I'll go get him right now. Hold on a minute.” She seems overly excited for some reason.
I look at Caroline and she's still staring around at people. It looks like she's off in her own little world. I leave her be, but I start doing the same thing. I'm focusing my eyes on a group of unfamiliar girls. They're standing around in a circle talking. “I can’t believe she would do that to me. We were best friends,” a young girl shouts. I can’t see which one of them said it, but that's all I heard until Mr. Taylor comes over.
“Good morning, ladies! I’m Mr. Taylor. I'm your principal. Nina, you already know that," he laughs. "How are you both this morning?” Mr. Taylor is smiling as I look up at him. He runs his fingers through his salt and pepper, perfectly cut hair that's very short. His voice sounds like one of those car salesman that's trying to convince me to buy a brand new BMW for $80,000. He's tall and handsome for being the principal. He's wearing a long sleeve, button up dress shirt, with black dress pants.
So, how are we this morning? Does he want the truth? I'm extremely nervous and I don’t think I got enough sleep last night. So, at this point I don’t even want to be here. “We're good,” I lie. Caroline is now staring at the ground, avoiding eye contact.
“Great! I talked to your mom on the phone yesterday. We got your class scheduling all done,” he says as he hands us our schedules. I wasn't expecting that to be completely done already. At least it saves me the frustration of picking out classes.
He hands me a paper with my schedule on it. I'm reading all of my classes, and I'm pretty happy with what I got this year. Ali did a commendable job with helping the principal pick out my classes. This is what my schedule consists of:
Scarlett Hills High School
Home of the Gold, Red, and Black TITANS!
FS= FIRST SEMESTER
SS= SECOND SEMESTER
Block 1 (8:00a.m. - 9:30a.m.)= (FS) Biology- Mr. Jackson (SS) Psychology- Mrs. Gamage
BREAKFAST (9:30a.m.-9:50a.m.)
Block 2 (9:50a.m. - 11:20a.m.)= (FS) English- Mrs. Teal (SS) Algebra 1- Mr. Alan
LUNCH (11:20a.m. - 11:50a.m.)
Block 3 (11:50a.m.-1:20p.m.)= (FS) Government- Mrs. Sim (SS) World Literature- Mr. Walsh
Block 4 (1:20p.m. – 2:50p.m.) (FS) Photography- Mrs. Smith (SS) Gym- Mr. Cruz
I'm actually starting to feel elated for classes. I love photography and I'm glad Ali remembered. She remembers everything.
* * * *
My first class is Biology with Mr. Jackson. Mr. Taylor walks me into the room. I must be late because Mr. Jackson is in the middle of talking about homework assignments and how important they are. As we walk in, he stops his discussion and greets us. “Good morning, Mr. Taylor. How are you this morning?” He chats with a smile.
“I’m great. I have a student for you.” Mr. Taylor looks at me and then begins to talk again. “This is Nina Mckay.”
Mr. Jackson positions his hand to shake mine. “Nice to meet you, Nina. I’m Mr. Jackson.” He sounds like a likable teacher.
I put my hand out to meet his. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Jackson.”
“Go ahead and take a seat wher
ever there is one open.”
I look around and the class seems full. There are approximately 15 people staring at me at once and most of them look familiar. This is inconvenient for my nerves.
I spot an empty seat toward the back of the room. I start walking awkwardly in the direction of the seat. Everyone’s eyes are following me, watching me walk to my seat. I sit down and look around and everyone’s attention goes back to the front of the room to the teacher.
I sit next to this girl. She has blond hair and brown eyes. She isn’t stunningly beautiful, but she is pretty. She's about my height and my size. “You must be new,” the blond girl says. I've seen her around before because she looks familiar.
“No, this is my third year in this school” I whisper because the teacher is going on with a lecture.
“Oh, sorry. I just haven't seen you before. My name is Kali Lexington,” she also whispers.
“I’m Nina McKay. Nice to meet you.” I smile.
She seems unquestionably nice and she dresses really good too. She's wearing a purple dress shirt and skinny jeans with a nice pair of zebra print flats. I can also smell her perfume from where I'm sitting. It smells really good. It doesn’t smell cheap, I know that.
“I wonder why I haven't seen you around?” she questions herself curiously.
“I try to just blend in as much as possible,” I answer.
"Well that must be why I haven't seen you before. It's surprising because Scarlett Hills is such a small town and usually everyone knows everyone," I know exactly what she means.
“I agree,” I reply with a sarcastic tone and smile.
She doesn’t respond to that, but I can tell that she's trying to contemplate more ideas to keep the conversation active. “Do you play any sports? We're looking for more girls for our cheerleading squad. You look like you would be perfect for it.” Not at any time had I taken any interest in school sports. I enjoy running, but I would never try out for the school team. I run to relieve stress, that's all.
“I’m more of a runner. That's my sport of choice, even though I do it more in my free time rather than run for the school team.”
“Well, would there be any way I could convince you to try it? We're desperate for more girls on the team or they're going to shut the whole program down.” The sound in her voice is unpleasant.
I don’t quite know how to answer that. I think it would be a great way to meet more people and that’s surely what I need, but I don’t think I would be good at that sport and the last thing I want to do is embarrass myself because I would be completely lost. The girls on the team have clearly been cheerleading their whole lives. I wouldn’t feel comfortable trying out.
Then, it hit me. I have a brilliant idea. “I don’t think I would be good at cheerleading, but I can ask my sister, Caroline. She would most likely love to try it out!”
“Great! I will have to meet her sometime! How old is she?” Kali wonders.
“She is almost sixteen years old.” After I say that I realize that her birthday is this weekend, in three days and I haven’t gotten her anything!
“That’s awesome. When can I meet her? I'm pretty good at convincing people. I'm very persuasive.”
My mom will probably be having a surprise birthday party for her. She does every year. She thinks it’s a surprise, but we both know it's coming. “Well, she's having a birthday party this weekend, on Saturday. Maybe you can come?” I feel awkward asking her to attend my sister's birthday party when I barely even know her, but she seems extremely nice, so why not?
“YES!” She says loud. Some of the students look back at us. “I love birthday parties,” she affirms.
“Great. I'll let my mom and sister know. So, what grade are you in?” I’m curious about her at this point. I feel like she and I will become good friends!
“I’m in 10th grade,” she sighs. “I want to hurry up and graduate already. Don’t get me wrong, I like this school and all of my friends. I'm just ready to go to college!” She seems sure of her decision. I don’t understand why people want to grow up so fast. You'll only be young once in your life. You should live it day by day.
“I’m in 11th grade. I feel like my high school years are just flying by.” That's truthfully spoken.
“I agree. So, how do you like your new classes?” She asks. Did she not realize this is the first class of the day?
“I can't decide because this is my first class.” I have to smile. I don’t want to make her feel brainless, but she did that on her own.
“Oh, yes. Sorry, I totally wasn’t thinking.” She giggles.
“Class is just about over. Your homework tonight is to read the first chapter and do all of the questions at the end of it,” Mr. Jackson is serious. We have homework on the first day back to school? I should have paid more attention instead of talking. I missed his whole entire lecture.
When the bell rings, I make my way to my locker. I'm having a difficult time searching through the hallways for my locker, number 365. During my search, I spot Caroline struggling to open her locker. "Need help?"
"Please," Caroline says in frustration.
"It's simple. Turn it right twice to clear it and make sure it's on 0 after that. Then, all you do is remember, right left right." I look at her combination written on her palm. "Go right for 31, left for 12, and right for 22."
"That's not confusing or anything," she says sarcastically.
"You'll get the hang of it," I say as I open her locker door. "How was your first class?"
"I had Alegbra. It was nerve wrecking. No one even bothered to talk to me. All they did instead was stare at me. It was beyond annoying," Caroline says as she's shaking her head in disagreement.
"I got stared down too, by everyone. It was quite embarrassing." I flash a crooked smile. "And most people know me here."
The bell rings and we go our seperate ways to our next class.
* * * *
School went by quickly. I enjoyed all of my classes and all of my teachers are super nice. I got lucky with that. There is just one class left. The last class I have is photography with Mrs. Smith. I take delight in photography. It's like my getaway when I’m sad and depressed, just like music and running is. The best part about taking pictures is that you can create the picture the way you want it to look. One of my favorite parts is putting my photos through the chemistry and seeing my picture, the picture I created, come to life. That is the best and most memorable part. Another one of my favorite parts is when I first begin the chemistry and I'm editing the picture. I love it because I can design the picture to my standards, the way I visualized it.
Walking in the classroom, I'm discombobulated to only see about nine students in here. I'm taking it that no one really enjoys the fundamentals and foundation of photography.
I start walking around the corner when all of a sudden someone runs into me and knocks all of my books out of my hands. At that point, I'm intensely frustrated. All I do is sigh and start picking up my books. I look up and see a girl staring at me.“I'm so sorry. Let me help you,” she says as her short, black hair swings in her eyes .
“It’s OK,” is all I manage to spit out.
“I really am sorry about that. Here,” she hands me some of my books and papers.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“You must be new here. I’ve never seen you before.” She seems curious.
“You're the second person that has assumed that. This is my third year in this school,” I'll probably have to explain that a million more times because no one seems to understand.
“I'm sorry. I'm pretty much new this year as a junior and I've really tried to just blend in as best as I can. I moved here in the middle of the school year, last year. Does that makes sense?”
“It makes sense," I say. At least we have something in common, we both like to just blend in.
“I’m sitting over at that table,” she points. “You can sit with me if you want to.”
“Sure,” I say. I
walk over to where she's sitting and I take a seat next to her and start organizing all of my belongings that were flung onto the ground.
“I’m sorry, I never introduced myself. I’m Sydney Paigee.” She seems sweet and innocent, but I'm getting sick of telling everyone my name. I should wear a name sticker that says, "My name is Nina Mckay and yes I've been to this school prior to this year. Please take a picture instead of staring at me. It will definitely last longer." Maybe that will make things easier for me.
“I’m Nina McKay. It’s nice to meet you!”
“Same,” she says and then looks up at the teacher.
“Everybody quiet down,” Mrs. Smith yells. “Let’s start with attendance. Since I don’t know some of the students in this class I'll be calling only those names out, so pay attention.” She starts naming some names off from her attendance list. I'm waiting to hear my name. “Nina McKay,” Mrs. Smith calls out.
“Here!” I say quickly and everyone stares at me. "I hate that," I whisper.
“It's worse for me since I'm still considered the new girl. I'm starting to get used to it though."
“You’re the new girl. That’s how it always is. They will stop staring and talking in a few weeks," I inform her.
“I hope it stops soon because it’s getting quite annoying.” We look at each other and start laughing because the students here act so ludicrous.
“Miss Paigee and Miss McKay, would you like to share with the class what’s so funny?” Mrs. Smith sounds distraught. This is so embarrassing.
“No, ma’am. Sorry.” Sydney saves us both.
“So, quiet down and listen!” Mrs. Smith flashes us a dirty look. Well, that's not nice.
Sydney and I look at each other and smile. Mrs. Smith goes on talking about what we'll learn throughout this class this semester.
Finally, the bell rings and I gather my things and walk out of the classroom with Sydney.
“It was really nice meeting you. See you tomorrow,” she says as she's walking away and smiling.
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