Let's Make A Mess

My first day was going to be hell, I was sure of it.

I was woken up at approximately six fifteen by my overly excited mother and as she ran over to my curtains to rip them open I groaned. Not only was I about to be put through what was possibly the worst part of moving out of my beloved hometown, I was also going to be groomed by my mom.

I smiled politely at my scary parent as she mentioned something about breakfast and disappeared out of my room, leaving the door wide open in her wake. I slowly rolled out of bed and prepared to get ready, grabbing my personalised Finding Nemo towel and making my way towards the shower room.

By six forty two I was dressed in mismatched underwear and parading around my room as my mother pulled and replaced items from my wardrobe. Some girls may have been uncomfortable walking around in their intimates with their mother in the room but to me it was normal, because my mother didn’t understand the concept of waiting until told to enter.

“That’s a good one, I’ll wear that,” I almost shouted as she pulled out another skirt before shaking her head. Exasperated I jumped onto my bed, burying my face into the comforter.

Another ten minutes or so must have passed before my mother finally laid out an outfit for me to wear, watching intently as I slipped the yellow skirt on over my hips before pulling the white tank top over my head. Patting down my hair quickly I waited for her approval, smiling in relief when I got it. As she left the room I grabbed a cardigan that matched my outfit and picked up my bag swinging it over my shoulder.

I almost ran into my father on my way to the kitchen and I grinned when he apologised for my mother and kissed my forehead before disappearing out the door, presumably to work.

I grabbed a bagel for breakfast, pasting it with cream cheese before I ate it messily in the car. It was revenge on my mother for insisting on driving me to school when I was quite capable of doing it myself. She wanted to make sure I got in okay apparently, why she couldn’t just text me and ask I didn’t know.

I think her real reason for wanting to drive me was to embarrass me in front of potential friends, bullies and teachers.

“Do you have everything with you?” she asked me as we pulled up outside the building. I glanced down at my very small across the shoulder bag and nodded sceptically.

I had everything I thought I was going to need; I wasn’t too sure about having everything I would actually need. With a careless shrug I opened the door slowly and leaned over to kiss my mother on the cheek, “See you later.”

Thinking that I was home and dry I started to move forward, hearing the familiar sound of a car window being rolled down, “Have fun honey, and behave yourself.”

I groaned loudly and smacked a hand to my forehead, spinning around quickly, “Mom shut up, go away you’re embarrassing me.” I was red I could tell that without even needing to look at my reflection and as my mother laughed softly at me and drove away I could almost feel the people around me laughing.

“I wouldn’t worry my mom still does that to me every day,” I quickly turned around and smiled in relief when I recognised the guy as the boy from the other day.

“Oh thank god, please tell me you come here,” I pleaded and Zack laughed with a nod of the head as he began to lead me into the school building. He acknowledged a few people here and there but mainly kept his attention ahead of himself, occasionally looking back to check that I was still behind him.

“So how come you moved to Baltimore, I mean your family doesn’t really look like they belong here,” he asked me quietly as he turned a corner and passed through a door, holding it open for me to get through too.

I shrugged with a smile, “My father fancied a change; he used to live here as a kid and I think he just wanted to come back, stupid idea if you ask me.”

Zack laughed loudly and approached a middle aged woman who was wearing a pair of glasses that belonged in the eighties.

“Good morning Mr Merrick, what can I do for you this morning, you can’t possibly have gotten a detention already,” the lady smiled and Zack smirked slightly before looking over at me.

“Well we have a new student, this is...wait what is your name?” he questioned and I smiled before stepping forward to speak with the woman myself.

“Emilia Fox,“ I said politely and waited for her to piece together what looked like a thousand sheets of paper as Zack grinned to himself. The lady handed me the papers with a smile and shooed us away as another couple of students entered the reception area.

I followed Zack back out into the main school building where throngs of students were chatting amiably with each other, catching up on the six weeks that had just passed. I felt the stack of papers being snatched from my hands as I looked around at all of the faces and presumed Zack was looking at what classes I had.

“Whoa you’re taking AP calculus, are you insane?” he exclaimed and I grinned at him carefully.

“What I like calculus, I’m good at it.”

He nodded with a bemused look on his face before he looked up at me in surprise again, “Apparently you’re pretty good at English and biology too.”

I giggled very quietly at the look on his face as he started moving once again, I guessed in the direction of my homeroom. I silently thanked which ever gods there were that existed for having Zack here and carefully followed behind him, minding myself not to bump into anyone.

I wanted to remain as anonymous for as long as possible and I knew that as soon as I made myself known to a large number of pupils everyone would be talking about me; like I was some bizarre new species landed here on earth.

I was just about to ask Zack a couple of questions when a loud bang echoed out throughout the halls, causing every single student within hearing range to stop and stare. I quickly located the source of the noise when another bang echoed out accompanied by some broken yelling.

Two boys, two rather large boys were fighting with one another between two rows of lockers, their fists clenching at one another’s clothing and their feet taking swings at each other’s knee caps. A large crowd gathered as they continued to attempt to beat seven bells of shit out of each other. I looked over at Zack to see him shaking his head as most of the students quickly filed away and the loud booming voice of a ridiculously tall old guy ordered the two fighting boys to his office.

Concluding that this man was my new principle I looked back over at Zack and raised an eyebrow, “So this place is nice.”

With the shy smile he had greeted me with a couple of days previous he opened his arms wide and stared at me, “Welcome to Towson High.”