Just off the Key of Reason

I gulped, staring straight ahead while nodding in the right places as the nerdy student guide led me to my class. I had been placed in Honor Roll, which was pretty retarded since I had already skipped grades. But then again, the work was ridiculously easy in this school.

“So, this is your class. You have any more questions?” The helper kid halted and turned around with an over-eager smile on his face. Adjusting my iPod ear buds, I shook my head no and faced the door, my hands already slick with sweat. Crap. This was it. First day of school, first class, and I was already nervous… a great start to a great day. Not.

Pushing the door open, I entered the room.

It was, as usual, a standard classroom – claustrophobic-looking walls, the semi-balding teacher, the confused class, staring as they probably wondered why there was a frosh kid in the senior Calculus.

The teacher looked up, and smiled, obviously trying to make me less nervous. It didn’t work at all, and I nearly started choking on Juicy Fruit. “Ah, you’re the new student. Class, this is Maya. She’ll be in our class starting from today.”

I stared back timidly at the upperclassmen staring at me. “Hi.” I managed to squeak after a silence that seemed to last forever, and scurried into the seat next to the window, the row that seemed to be the least-vicious-looking, and the least head-to-toe-Abercrombie-wearing.

As the teacher settled in to start discussing limits, I pulled my binder out from the camouflage-print shoulder bag, and dug around, only to realize I had no pencil. Shit. It wasn’t like me to forget things, but then again, I usually wrote everything in pen back in 8th grade. It wasn’t like me to screw up.

Suddenly, someone tapped me on the shoulder. Turning around, I saw another confused but friendly smile, causing me to nearly choke again. I coughed out the chunk of Juicy Fruit, and managed to breathe again.

“Sorry.” I muttered.

“Need a pencil?” she grinned, offering me one. I got a chance to study her more carefully this time – short, pink-streaked hair with plenty of eyeliner. She was much prettier than me, and I wondered why she was even talking to me as I nodded and took the pencil with a relieved sigh, turning around to face the chalkboard again.

However, I was distracted by a sharp ‘snap’ – a rubber band. It hit me in the side of the head, and I peeked out of the corner of my eye. A group of guys in the back were silently laughing and high-fiving each other. Rolling my eyes, I went back to listening to the teacher. However, a few minutes later, there was another flurry of elastics and laughter as I gripped my pencil even harder, trying to ignore everything and taking detailed notes.

After what seemed like the quintillionth rubber band, a loud voice suddenly interrupted the teacher and the rubber bands. “Would you guys give it a rest?” A loud voice yelled, getting up from his chair. I turned around and saw a black-haired, very alt-to-a-fault guy looking enraged. What the fuck? I wasn’t even bothered by that, but he seemed to be majorly pissed. I raised an eyebrow.

“Mr. Wentz, I suggest you sit down right now before you earn yourself another trip to the principal’s office, explaining how you interrupted my class.”

Wentz, huh? Strange last name… Was it an old-money family name? Probably not, I decided, eyeing him suspiciously. Eyeliner rimmed angry, hostile looking eyes, with long, shaggy black hair that framed his thin face. He was thin in general, an envious thought bubbling in my head like usual. I always, always, always had to watch what I ate. Or else, I couldn’t fit into my jeans until I ran about ten laps around my neighborhood.

Of course, that was my old neighborhood in Canada, where we were weighed down with parkas practically year-long. Here, I’d have to run at least double the amount.

“They were flinging elastics at us.” A voice from behind me commented, sounding utterly annoyed by this fact. It was the pink-haired older girl, glaring over at the now-smirking group of boys in the back. Okay, this was weird. Why were random people, random senior people for that, standing up for me?