High School Epic

The next morning there was a chalky cotton taste in Heaven’s mouth and she wrinkled her nose in disgust. She staggered to the shower with two hours to spare and was ready fairly quickly. It was still warm out so she let her hair alone to dry naturally and sat waiting for Ashley to leave.

They made it to school in time to watch the morning football practice. It was a rule that every one had to join a school club. There were other teams already meeting. Since Heaven was in the school band she’d just signed up for Band Boosters. The only good thing that came from being in band was that she didn’t have to join a sports team.

She peered over at the lacrosse team and wondered how the hell their school was big enough to afford one, since they couldn’t afford a wrestling team. Wasn’t wrestling a bigger deal than lacrosse anyway? Rolling her eyes she headed for the doors, skirting the other groups spread out in the school yard and into the main doors. They split at the main office, Ashley going left, Heaven going right.

The girl whose locker was next to Heaven’s was holding court with three other girls and two boys. Heaven tried to edge through them, but when that didn’t work she sighed.

“Excuse me,” she said pointedly, “You’re blocking my locker.”

The group moved over grudgingly, whispering to each other. Heaven hurriedly shoved her stuff into the locker. The next thing she knew she was being shoved in face first. The light cut off and the sound of fading laughter as the halls cleared completely.

“Son-of-a-bitch!” she muttered to herself.

The coat hook was digging into her left shoulder. The arm itself was twisted behind her in an awkward angle, and she was just tall enough that she had to hunch her neck to not hit her head on the shelf. Her feet were tangled in her messenger bag’s strap. She bent her knees, twisted her arm out from behind her and tried to dig in her bag for her phone.

Worst second day, ever, she thought to herself.

The phone lit up when she unlocked it and she typed out a text to Tarra. All it said was her locker number, combination and the word now in all caps.

Tarra was a good sport about the whole ordeal. She only laughed a little. Well, no, actually, she laughed a lot. She just waited until they were both shoved in a bathroom stall to do it. Tears in her eyes she texted Ashley and told her what happened. Ashley was slightly less than amused.

By lunch most of the school had heard that Ashley had been given two days in school suspension for fighting. When Ashley sat next to her sister in the cafeteria she had a long scratch down her neck. She waved it off like it was nothing, but she didn’t leave her sister’s side through the whole period.

She glared at anyone whose gaze lingered on the freshman too long, and narrowed her eyes at William when he slung his arm over Heaven’s shoulders and referred to her as “the Locker Dweller”.

Heaven was worried that everyone was going to think she needed her sister to protect her. The careful glare the girl gave her at her locker seemed to confirm the theory, as Ashley stared her down while Heaven gathered her books for her next period. The girl fluffed her long hair into her eyes before flouncing off with her friends.

Heaven huffed a little as she slid onto the bleachers in the gym. Once class was underway Heaven waited with Tarra and Sarah for their turns to join in the volleyball games the class were playing. Ryan, Frank, Mikey and Gerard settled down next to them. Heaven eyed them warily, giving him her best fuck with me and die look. Apparently once you’ve been shoved in a locker you lose all street cred, because Ryan laughed anyway.

“No worries,” Frank patted her shoulder, “I spent all of last year in lockers.”

He said it with a grin that Heaven couldn’t help but return as Mikey added, “Gerard would get shoved in lockers. If he could fit, I mean.”

“Thanks for that,” Gerard muttered sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Oh hey, Heaven thought, he talks. Gerard pinned her with a look, as if he could read her thoughts. And oh, hey, that wasn’t creepy at all. She twisted the hem of her shirt with her fingers and stared back.

Finally the coach called her to take her turn with the game. She stood, untwisting her shirt, and took one of the positions on the court. Seven minutes and twenty-three point two seconds later she was sitting on the bleachers once again, icepack firmly pressed to her forehead.

“Shut up, Ryan,” she seethed, “I let that ball hit me.” The sad thing was that she actually thought about getting hurt so she could sit the rest of the period out.

“I’m sure you did,” Ryan smirked at her.

“I. Will. Kick. You. In. The. Face,” Heaven bit out at him.

“I can kiss it better,” William offered, sliding in between them. Heaven looked at him.

“I don’t kiss before marriage,” Heaven said snidely, “Hey, wait, do you even have this class?”

William blinked down at her, “No?”

“Hmm,” she said before nodding, “Okay, make my head feel better.”

William puckered up, taking her head in his hands, “Awesome!” He said, leaning in.

“Hey hey,” she said, leaning away, “Where’s my offer of marriage?”

“What, I have to do all the work in the relationship?” William demanded.

“With those hips, hell yeah,” Ryan monotoned. William smacked the back of his head, frowning at his friend. Heaven laughed, putting the icepack back on her head and leaning against Tarra’s shoulder.

When the final bell rang she wasn’t surprised to see Ashley waiting for them outside the gym. Tarra and Heaven both followed her outside and to another boy’s car.

“This is my friend Jack,” Ashley said, pointing at him, “He’s going to drive us home.”

Ashley and Jack (who names their kid Jack, seriously?) dropped them off in front of the house. Tarra and Heaven shrugged and walked to the middle school bus stop to wait for Nell. The bus let her off at a park, and Heaven sat in a swing. Tarra pressed her palm flat against her back and pushed. The swing swung forward a few inches. The next time Tarra pushed she did it with both hands.

When the swing was swaying back and forth just right Tarra sat down and pushed off the ground. They swung in silence for a few minutes before Heaven sighed.

“Go ahead,” she said sullenly, “How bad is it?”

“Its not that bad,” Tarra said, “No where near as fatal as that time Pampers wet herself in middle school.”

“Her name is Pam,” Heaven shook her head, “But it’s Brendon Urie with no birthday party guests bad, right?”

“I didn’t think you knew Brendon personally,” Tarra looked over at her friend, and Heaven shrugged.

“I didn’t. He sits next to me in study hall this year. But you know how people talk.”

“That’s true enough,” Tarra nodded, “Also, this will probably blow over in a few weeks.”

“Weeks!” Heaven shrieked, “I am so doomed!”

The bus pulled up in front of them and Nell dodged off of it, with a crazy gleam in her eyes. She took one look at them and began laughing. When she stopped she pinned Heaven with a look.

“Seen the inside of any lockers recently?” she smirked, and Heaven pouted.

“How the fuck did you-?”

“We share the bus with the high school kids. Imagine my surprise when I hear that Heaven pissed some cheerleader and her friends off and winds up stuck in a locker.”

“You suck,” Heaven moans, and puts her hands to her face.

“It’s alright,” Nell says, throwing an arm over her friend’s shoulder, “It’ll blow over in a month or two.”

“Month?” Heaven squeaks. She’s pretty sure she’s going to die of embarrassment.

“I think,” Tarra says, putting an arm over Nell’s shoulder on the other side, “That this means we’re watching Kevin Smith movies tonight.”

“Hell yeah, Mallrats!” Nell whoops and skips ahead of them to the door. She does her special knock, even though no one’s home and Heaven sighs.

“Seriously, with the kicking,” she says. Nell rolls her eyes. One day Heaven’s mom is going to make Nell scrub the front door with a toothbrush and Heaven and Tarra will stand by and watch. It will be awesome.

“I’ll get the Cheetos!” Nell called, racing to the kitchen.

They could hear cabinets being thrown open while Heaven skipped down the stairs to the furnished basement. This is where they usually hung out if they weren’t in her room. Her mom hardly ever came down the stairs, so the room was only used by the kids.

Tarra flopped down on the couch, throwing her legs up under her. Heaven sat next to her, with her legs up over the arm of the couch, and her head in Tarra’s lap. Nell dropped soda and the Cheetos on the table. She wiggled into a comfortable position on the couch on Tarra’s other side. Heaven hit play and they all sighed.

“Any homework?” Heaven asked, because she was that responsible. Was that her snorting in her head, or did she say that out loud?

“Nope,” Nell said, “It’s only the second day. We’re still playing the get to know you games. Lame.”

“Okay,” Heaven said and turned her eyes to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, “You can’t be anal retentive if you ain’t got an…whoa! What the hell?”

Heaven jumped up, looking down. Nell was leaning over as far as she could, her arm snaked up the couch cushions. There was a look of total concentration on her face as she dug. Finally, she shouted, “Aha!”

She pulled her arm out with a half empty bag of licorice pull-and-peel. She pulled the rubber band holding the bag closed off and peeled a piece.

“Yum,” she said happily, shoving the shoelace in her mouth and chewing. Heaven rolled her eyes. Good lord, what had she gotten herself into, agreeing to babysit this girl? She put her head back in Tarra’s lap.

By the time Loki and Bartleby were on the train she was half asleep. By the end of the movie all three of the girls had fallen asleep on the couch. Heaven’s mom found them there an hour and a half later, with the menu playing repeatedly.

She flicked Heaven in the forehead to wake her up for dinner. Heaven rolled off the couch taking Nell and Tarra with her. They landed in a confusedheap half under the table with a groan. Margie laughed, she called dinner behind her on her way back up the stairs.

Ashley was actually there for dinner that night and Heaven eyed her sister suspiciously. The kids from school weren’t going to get her in their living room, seriously.

“Freshman Friday tomorrow,” Ashley said, her face a disinterested mask.

“Freshman what?” Heaven asked, looking up from her plate. Nell snickered.

“It’s a day where all the upper classmen target the freshmen and make them prove their value to the school. Usually by playing very cruel jokes on them.”

“It’s not that bad,” Tarra swears, and Nell snickers again, “Shut up Nell, you’re not helping.”

Nell stuck her bottom lip out in an ineffectual pout (Tarra is totally steel) and adjusts her glasses.

“Oh my god,” Heaven moans dramatically, “The universe is out to get me.”

“Stop being so dramatic,” her mom tells her, standing up to take her plate to the kitchen, “And eat your peas.”

“Yeah,” Nell snickers, “Eat your peas.”

“Don’t think I didn’t see you hiding yours under your place mat, Nell,” Margie calls from the kitchen, and Nell nearly spits out a mouthful of soda.

Later, while Heaven is staring at her math homework she wonders how the next day is going to go. Surely it won’t be too bad. What does Nell know about it, honestly, anyway? She finishes her last few math problems, checks most of the answers in the back of the book and then goes to bed early.

Tomorrow better be better, she thinks right before she falls asleep.