High School Epic

One more day,” Heaven complained bitterly, the phone wedged between her shoulder and her ear. She pressed down on the shift and 1 key at the same time. Tarra laughed in her ear over the joke she’d just sent her friend over the messenger.

“I don’t know why you’re even worried about it,” Tarra said. Heaven could taste her frown, “its ninth grade. It’s not that big a deal.”

“So you say, Lyn, but you’re a sophomore, not a freshman. I’m like, new meat.”

“Tarra snorted loud in her throat. Heaven could hear the eye roll. Her messenger pinged a response to earlier stupidity and Heaven grinned.

“Seriously, though,” Heaven said darkly, “You already know people. I don’t.”

“You’re such a damn drama queen,” Aim pinged an eye roll smiley, “these are all people you went to middle school with. And elementary school. You’ve known these kids for years.”

“Sure, Heaven rolled her eyes, “Rationalize.”

“Look, I’ll come over and we’ll pick out something for you to wear,” Tarra said.

Heaven flipped her curtain open and flipped the window across the street off. She heard Tarra’s muted laugh as she hung up. 24.2 seconds later Tarra was shoving the door open and letting herself inside the room.

“Okay, squirt,” she said, ruffling Heaven’s hair, “Let’s see what you got.”

Heaven slapped at the retreating hand, glaring. Tarra didn’t pay her any attention. She was already half immersed in her closet, which was threatening to eat the short girl alive. Shirts and pants were flying out over her shoulder and landing in a pile on the floor at Heaven’s feet.

“No. No. No, fuck no. Oh my god, why do you even own this?” Tarra wrinkled her nose at her best friend.

“Spandex was very much the style in third grade, I’ll have you know,” Heaven sniffed haughtily.

“Toss it,” Tarra advised, turning back to her closet. Heaven shoved it in her friend’s messenger bag when she wasn’t looking.

Finally, after six outfits, two hours, and the opinion of Heaven’s older sister, they had an outfit laid out and ready to go. They had decided on jean capris and a lime green Pixies shirt. Simple, but paired with a head band, some dangle earrings and a pair of slip on Vans and she still looked feminine.

“Perfect,” Ashley said, ruffling her hair, “Now, just don’t trip over your feet when you get off the bus and everything will be fine.”

“I’m not going to trip off the bus,” Heaven huffed. She wasn’t that lame.

Tarra laughed on her way out and told Heaven she’d see her the next day. Ten minutes later her phone vibrated with a new text message from Tarra. It said: fck u.

She laughed, sent back a reply and fell asleep with Damone in her ears.

…I didn’t think my luck would last forever,

So I think right here is where we’ll start

When the lines of the past have been blurred

It gets much easier to tell those around to let go…

She dreamed about the bus eating her feet. When she woke up all she could think about was how she was going to save her Vans.

|___|

Heaven did not trip off the bus. She did however have an awkward moment when she was stepping off the bus. Spotting Tarra she waved right as a tall gangly kid waved at someone behind her.

They locked eyes, and the kid behind her brushed past saying, “Dude, he’s waving at me.”

She could see Tarra saying the same thing to the other kid, and both respective wavers blushed. Tarra pulled her along, giving her the nickel and dime tour. Telling her where to sit, where not to sit, which bathrooms were safe to use, and which ones you’d get high just by stepping into them.

“That’s Ronnie,” she said as they passed a boy with piercings in his lips, who was wearing a Metallica t-shirt, “He’s friendly. I wouldn’t talk to him unless you want to be molested.”

“He’s that bad?” Heaven wrinkled her nose, craning her neck to look back at him.

Tarra elbowed him, “There were a few rumors last year about him and two other girls having sex in the band room. I couldn’t actually tell you if it was true or not.”

They separated at first bell and Heaven went to stand in line like a good little freshman to collect her schedule. The first two days of school they would go to all the classes, but then they would pick up a block schedule. Heaven glared down at the slip of paper.

“Band?” she said hollowly. The universe was out to get her.

She didn’t remember writing that down as any of the options on the paper she’d filled out at the end of her eighth grade year. Second bell rang and she slipped off to Algebra I.

She zoned out, glaring at the schedule like it was out to kill her reputation before she could do it herself. By the time she re-tuned in to what the teacher was saying she had no idea how to complete the first part of the homework.

So not only was she stuck in band, but she was already failing math.

“Who gives homework on the first day?” she muttered to herself, “Seriously.”

It took her a minute to find the band room. It was this small rejected room at the back of the annexed part of the building. Inside were maybe thirty-five people in all, and the teacher was no where to be found. When the bell finally rang to signal the start of class she sat heavily on the risers, since there weren’t enough chairs to seat everyone. Finally the teacher walked in, holding a trombone and looking awkward.

“Hey there, most of you know me from band camp,” he started, “You can all call me Mr. S. This is my first year teaching. Ever. So be nice to me, and I won’t flunk you.”

There was amused chatter through out the room. Apparently most of the people in the class had been present at band camp over the summer. The rest of the class was a free period. Heaven pulled her math book out and struggled through most of the problems with the help of the answers in the back of the book. Mr. S pulled a chair up in front of her and she paused in her writing to look up at him.

“Hi?”

“Hi,” he said, “I’m Mr. Siasoco.”

“Heaven,” she nodded at him, and he looked down at the clipboard in his lap, nodding. He ticked her off on the list and looked back up at her.

“So, I don’t remember seeing you at band camp.”

“I’ve never been in band before,” she supplied monotone.

He nodded, “Do you play an instrument.”

“No. Not really,” she said, shrugging.

“Oh,” he nodded, “Well. Congratulations. Welcome to the class!”

“Yeah,” she said, and he nodded to himself before getting up and walking away. She shook her head after him, before turning back to her math book.

Heaven was trying to convince herself that it would be okay. She could still drop the class. She honestly didn’t think it could get worse until Mr. S came back holding a flag and looking excited. He handed it over with a hopeful look and she wondered if he’d cry if she walked out right now.

She didn’t try it. No one really likes to see a grown man cry.

She had Spanish third period. Assigned seating sat her in the back corner of the classroom, next to a guy with long dark brown hair. It fell in front of his eyes as he sat hunched over, drawing in his open notebook. That hour they picked Spanish names from a list the teacher had photocopied. The teacher insisted on calling Heaven Cielo, which was apparently the Spanish counter of her name. Heaven sorta wished she’d picked French as her foreign language.

She moved on to Language Arts 09 honors where she sat in the between a girl named Sarah and the tall gangly boy from that morning at the same table. It turns out his name was Mikey, and he had bootleg Disney movies, if she wanted to buy any. They played get to know you games with their groups.

“I’m from here,” Heaven said, answering the first question on a list lying in the middle of the table.

“I’m from Bumfuck South of here,” Sarah said, rolling her eyes at how lame the questions were.

“Jersey,” Mikey shrugged.

“That’s-“ Heaven started.

“Pretty rad,” Sarah finished for her. They grinned at each other.

“Rad?” Mikey echoed, looking slightly afraid.

“Yeah, that’s pretty awesome, what the hell are you doing in the Midwest?”

“Apparently Jersey isn’t conducive to raising children, or something like that,” Mikey said with an annoyed shrug. There was silence at their table after that.

There was study hall fifth period, which they had everyday, and then Heaven was in her history class. Ancient and medieval world cultures honors. Which she accidentally tested into at the end of the school year. The class had fifteen people in it, total. The lessons started right away. When they stopped halfway through the class for lunch Heaven thanked god and ran for the door.

She was thankful when she found Tarra and hugged her. They sat at a table one over from where two skinny boys were holding court with what looked to be the skating crowd. One kid’s face was covered by a newsboy hat and seemed to be the leader.

Tarra followed her eyes and rolled hers.

“Ryan Ross and William Beckett,” she supplied, “Ross is sorta a bitch in boy clothes.”

“Those are girl jeans,” Heaven pointed out.

“Okay, he’s a boy bitch in girl jeans,” Tarra amended as a third tall skinny guy joined their table. She raised her voice, “Starting a little early, aren’t you, Princess?”

Ross tacked her with a glare, “What’s your problem, Tarra? Sexually frustrated?”

“Oh, better frustrated than confused,” Tarra sing-songed back with an evil grin. William laughed.

“I am not confused,” Ryan growled, “There’s nothing confusing about above the waist gay.”

“Its funny how you say above the waist, when it’s your lower half wearing the girl pants,” Heaven quipped, in Tarra’s defense.

William laughed harder, “I like her. We should keep her, Ross.”

“Jealous that I look better in these than you would?” Ryan dropped his eyes to Heaven’s.

“Yeah. But only a little. There’s a very small number of girls who can pull those jeans off. Congratulations Ross.”

“Seriously,” William said, “Let’s get married. Right now. And have, like, six snarky kids with your hair and my hips.”

“You hitting on my sister?” Ashley asked, walking up and slinging an arm around her shoulder.

“That’s your sister?” William asked, pointing at Heaven, “Your little sister? The smart one? Hell-O Ashley’s sister.”

“What are you doing here?” Heaven asked, looking up at Ashley, “I thought you had third lunch.”

“Yeah, that wasn’t working for me,” Ashley shrugged, “We’re going to Subway, wanna come?”

“Yeah, this crap is pretty bad,” Heaven said, looking down at the toxic nachos and then over at Tarra, “Bring you back a something veggie?”

Tarra nodded while Ashley introduced Heaven to the guy who was going to be driving them to the deli.

“Bring me a cookie!” William shouted after them. She waved at him over her shoulder.

Ashley’s friend turned out to be Bryan, a senior on the varsity football team. Subway was only a few blocks away so they were back in time to actually eat. Ashley sat at Heaven’s table talking and stealing her sister’s chips.

Heaven dropped an M&M cookie on the table in front of William with a, “I get to name our first kid. Seriously.”

William hummed his agreement and bit into the cookie happily. Heaven rolled her eyes at Tarra and her sister when she dropped back into her seat.

“You’re being a lot less shy than you normally are,” Tarra noted with a grin. Heaven shrugged.

“And you were a lot more hostile earlier than you’ve ever been.”

“You mean with Ross? Nah, we have this thing. He’s really not that bad; we just like to mess with each other.” Tarra shrugged, laughing at her.

“Huh, well that sounds like fun.”

“Yeah,” Tarra shrugged, “I don’t know. It’s not that big a deal, really.”

They finished their lunch in relative silence before going back to class. Heaven wound up with homework for that class too.

“Seriously,” she gripped, “Who gives homework on the first day!”

Honors biology led to girls phys ed and she was waiting impatiently for the day to end. The boys and girls class were at the same time so they were sharing the gym and adjoining weight room. They did nothing in class that day. So Heaven, Tarra, Sarah, and a girl she barely knew were sitting in the stands while the other kids played with basketballs.

A few feet away Mikey from language sat in the bleachers as well. The short rude kid from that morning, Gerard from Spanish, and Ryan Ross were arguing about bands.

“All I’m saying is that Run to the Hills is pretty mainstream for a supposedly underground British band.”

“Iron Maiden’s as underground as Third Eye Blind,” Heaven rolled her eyes.

“That’s different,” Ryan said, turning to look at her, “Third Eye Blind is popular here.”

“It’s the same thing,” Heaven argued, “You’re confusing being unknown with being underground.”

“I’m actually amazed that you know anything about Iron Maiden at all.”

“And I’m amazed you can fit in those pants without losing circulation. Guess we’re even.”

There was silence on the bleachers until Ashley’s voice rang out, “Hey little sis.”

“What are you doing here?” Heaven choked, looking at her older sister, “I thought you were in French this hour.”

“Yeah, that wasn’t working for me. I’m going home, you coming?” Ashley shrugs nonchalantly, with a grin.

Heaven shrugged and looked over at Tarra, “I’ll see you after?”

“No. You know, except for how I live across the street and everything.”

“Shut up Lyn,” Heaven said, slinging her messenger bag over her shoulder and following Ashley down the bleachers.

She expected it to be a lot harder to sneak out of school that it really was. Ashley led her straight down the main hallway and out the back doors to the parking lot. She waved at the security guard as they drove by. Heaven was pretty sure she’d just figured out what was wrong with the education system in America.

Ashley and Bryan basically shoved her out of the car before they sped away. Heaven let herself in the front door of her house. There was forty-five minutes left of school and then Tarra would be home. Bored, she did her homework and threw some cookie dough from the fridge into the oven. She set the timer and sat on the counter to wait for Tarra and Nell.

Nell was this small blonde girl who lived down the street from Tarra and Heaven. She’s twelve and her mom hired Heaven to babysit her while she was at work. Heaven made fifty dollars a week to let Nell eat junk food and use curse words. Nell was pretty cool, anyway, so Heaven didn’t really mind.

The timer for the cookies went off just as Nell’s distinctive ‘knock knock, boom’ sounded through the house.

“Just a sec!” Heaven shouted, pulling the cookies out of the oven. Nell kept knocking anyway. Knock knock boom, knock knock boom.

“Jesus, Nell,” Heaven heard Tarra say as she opened the front door, “You know you can just go in, right?”

Nell stuck her lips out and adjusted her glasses, which Heaven was pretty sure she didn’t need anyway, and hopped on the counter.

“Yeah,” Heaven added, “Also, my mom said to stop kicking our front door. You leave scuff marks.”

Nell rolled her eyes, “You mom’s face is a scuff mark.”

“What was that, Nell?” Heaven’s mom asked from the doorway.

Nell squeaked and fell off the counter. Heaven’s mom laughed, shutting the garage door behind her. She told them to clean up their mess and left them for upstairs to get ready for her date with Heaven’s step-dad.

“That’s mildly embarrassing,” Tarra grinned at Nell.

“Fuck off,” Nell mumbled, blushing. She wiped at the butt of her jeans and grabbed the plate of cookies.

They went up to Heaven’s room where Nell immediately threw herself to Heaven’s bed. “Middle school blows,” she said irritably.

Heaven sprawled out on the floor, as Tarra shuffled through the cds lying on the dresser, “High school’s not all that great, either. No Hellogoodbye.”

“Heaven!” Tarra whined, holding up Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!

“No, you listen to that too much, Tarra,” Heaven said, and gave a sigh when Tarra pressed play on a mixed cd that was pretty heavy on Something Corporate and New Found Glory. She closed her eyes and sighed, “We should start having afternoon naps.”

“No thanks,” Nell said, looking down at a bit of melted chocolate on her finger, “I do all my napping during school.” She licked her finger and then wiped her hands on Heaven’s newly washed comforter.

Heaven ignored her and sat up to grab a still warm cookie from the cookie sheet. She took a bite and hummed a bit of Tonight, Tonight towards Tarra.

“Did you have any homework?” Heaven asked Nell.

“No. Who gives homework on the first day?” Nell asked, “Seriously.”

“Yeah, shut up,” Heaven rolled her eyes at the younger girl.

“You had homework on the first day?” Nell asked, “Ew.”

“I’m also in predominantly honors classes.”

“That’s your own fault. Maybe if you stuck to speaking monosyllabically you wouldn’t have that problem,” Nell said wisely.

“Maybe I should stop letting you watch Kevin Smith movies,” Heaven said, “If you can throw monosyllabically into normal conversations like that.”

“Life would be so much better if Jay and Silent Bob were real people.”

“Yeah,” Heaven agreed, eating another cookie, “The world should be like Dogma.”

“Let’s just put in a movie,” Tarra said. It took another twenty minutes before they all agreed on The Princess Bride. Heaven was on a sap kick, which was rare. It was equaled out by the fact that the movie was just as funny as it was romantic.

Nell and Tarra stayed for dinner, which Heaven and Tarra cooked while Nell sat on the counter making disparaging comments. This was how they spent the last school year, and most of the summer. Until Nell’s mom had disappeared with her to her grandmother’s house in Wisconsin. (Who lives in Wisconsin, seriously?)

Eventually Nell’s mom made it home. They sent her down the street all four houses, and then Tarra flounced home. Heaven was asleep before Ashley even made it home that night.