These Bright Lights Have Always Blinded Me

“Ali!! We have new guys! And they’re Deutsch!” I said running into her.

“Chelsea! What the hell?!” she asked when Mikey walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

I opened my mouth to say something when my text message noise, “Heilig,” by Tokio Hotel, this awesome band from Germany who I am in love with and have no idea what they look like, went off. I looked at my phone to see that it was Frank.

Frank: Where are you?

Me: With Ali and Mikey. You?

Frank: Oh. I c u. Later lil sis.

I looked to see Frank standing with Gerard and Ray. “Ten mother trucking minutes Franklin!” I yelled over to him.

“Call you lil sis again?” Mikey asked.

“Yeah. I would have been so much better if I was a year younger than him. But not that. He has to be my twin brother who’s older than me by ten minutes!” I replied.

“Sorry Chelzers,” Ali said.

“No you’re not,” I said.

“Psh. Whatever you say Chelzers. What were you saying when you walked over here?” Ali asked.

What did I walk over here for? Oh yeah! New kids! “We have new kids! Two of them are in our class!” I replied.

“Really?” Mikey asked.

“Yeah! And they’re German!” I added. I have a soft spot for German boys. Sue me.

“Cool,” Mikey said when the bell to get to class rang.

“Come on. Let’s get to class before our teacher has a coronary,” I said.

Ali and Mikey nodded before the three of us walked to Anatomy.

I sat down in my usual seat between Ali and Bob and in front of Ray when two of the new kids walked in the room. We have four. The two who walked in are the ones in my class. One had blonde/brown dreads and the other had black hair with blonde streaks in it that was up in a cool lion mane look.

The dread-locked one (I’m dubbing him Dready) gave a note to Mrs. Robinson and she said, “Well Bill and Tom…how do you pronounce that?”

“Kaulitz,” Dready replied. I think. I can’t see what they look like!

“Ah. Well, go and find a seat. There’s a couple empty ones by Miss Iero and Mr. Bryar. Here’s your books and take a seat,” Mrs. Rob told them.

Dready and…Lion Boy I’m dubbing him turned around and looked for the empty seats next to me and Bobert. Wow. Dready’s cute! So’s Lion Boy. They found the seats and walked over before sitting down, Dready in front of Bob and Lion Boy in front of me. They seemed quiet. I tapped Lion Boy on the shoulder and he turned around. He had brown eyes and his eye brow pierced. “Hey. I’m Chelsea. You’re new, right?” I asked.

He nodded. “I’m Bill,” he replied, he accent evident when he spoke.

“Nice to meet you. How long have you guys been here in the states?”

“A couple days. Unpacking and all,” he replied.

“Cool. A couple friends and I are going to hang out at the mall after school. Do you guys wanna come with and chill?”

“Chill?”

“You know. Hang out.”

“Oh. Yeah that sounds fun. We don’t know where anything is. Right Tom?” he asked to Dready next to him. Only Dready, I mean Tom, was staring at Kat Summers, biggest prep at school. Screwed Gerard over. Fucking bitch.

Bill poked Tom a couple times before he responded. “Was die Hölle Bill?” he asked before looking at me. He had brown eyes, sort of like Bill’s, and his lip pierced. “Hallo. Ich heisse Tom. Wie heisst du?”

“Ich heisse Chelsea,” I replied.

“You speak German?” Bill asked.

“Yeah. And she never shuts up either,” Ali said, “Name’s Ali by the way. Chelsea’s best friend numero uno.”

“Bill. New kid,” he replied shyly.

“Anyways Bill, what did you want?” Tom asked Bill.

“Well, Chelsea invited us to hang with her and her friends and I was making sure you wanted to go,” Bill replied.

Tom shrugged. “Where at?” he asked.

“Mall,” I replied, “It’ll be me, Ali, Mikey, Bob there, Ray behind me, Gerard, and my brother Frank.”

Tom nodded. “Sounds fun. Count us in,” he said.

I smiled. “Will do. Hey, sit with us at lunch and you can properly meet everyone,” I said.

“Mr. Bryar wake up!” Mrs. Rob said.

Bob immediately shot up and said, “1.772455133!”

I laughed. “What?” he asked.

“She’s not wanting the square root of pi Bobert. She‘s wanting reproductive organs of a chick,” I replied, “What were you doing last night? Well, besides not sleeping. Dummarsch.”

“Studying,” he replied.

“Psh,” Ray and Ali said at he same time.

I rolled my eyes. “Is that what they call it nowadays? “Studying?” What ever happened to beating the meat or choking the chicken? All the good terms. Really.”

Bob’s face turned red. “That’s enough,” he said.

I looked at Bill and Tom and was about to say something when I noticed something. “Hey, are you two twins by any chance?” I asked.

“Ja. Wie wisst du?” Tom asked.

“You two look alike. Being a twin, I can pick twins out,” I replied.

“You’re a twin, too?” Bill asked.

“Ah great. I’m texting Mikey now,” Ali said to herself before pulling out her phone.

“Ja. Younger twin. Totally sucks,” I said.

“Ich weiss. Tom’s older than me.”

“How much older? We’ll say it at the same time.”

“Okay. Eins, zwei, drei,” Bill said.

“Ten minutes,” we said at the same time.

“No way!” I said.

“Yeah. I hate it when he calls me “little brother,” Bill said.

“Join the club. It’s only a ten minute difference. I hate it,” I said.

“Well, as I like to think of it, I had to take a little longer to perfect,” he said.

“Dude. I am so telling Frank that,” I said.

He smiled when Tom asked, “Hey, who’s the girl over there in the mini skirt?”

“Kat Summers,” I replied without looking over at her. Didn’t have to. “She’s no good though.”

“Warum?” Bill asked.

“She totally screwed my best guy friend Gerard over. Cheated on him with a guy two years older than her. I wouldn’t have anything to do with her if you knew any better,” I replied, sending a quick glare at her, “He was so good to her and she treated him like shit.”

“She’s hot,” Tom said.

“Good luck there Dready. She’s got freakishly high standards when it comes to guys,” I said.

He looked at me confused. “Dready?” he asked.

I nodded. “I came up with it when you and Bill walked in. I didn’t know your name, so I called you Dready to myself until I learned your name. And now I’m dubbing you Dready.”

“Oh kay?” he asked.

“I’m strange. Just a forewarning,” I said.

“Got that right,” Bob said.

“Eh shush. You’re just jealous that the marching band’s better than the football team,” I said.
He rolled his eyes as the class went on. Yeah. Quarterback’s jealous of the percussionist. And yet we hang out. I don’t get it.

Suddenly, Ali yelled, “Oh yeah boy!”

Everyone looked at her. “I’m not confused anymore,” she said.

“What was with the yelling?” I whispered.

She handed me her phone and I read the text message from Mikey.

Mikey: Hey, mom & dad aren’t gonna b home. Wanna have fun?

I looked at her and shook my head. I handed her the phone and mouthed, “Wow Ali. Wow.”

She shrugged and when back to texting Mikey. I swear they fuck like rabbits. Well, not literally, but you get what I mean.