Herz Von Stahl

The sound waves created by Lady GaGa’s blaring voice almost physically knocked me out of bed and onto the hard wooden floor. Ouch. Fumbling with the alarm clock, my fingers frantically stumbled over many useless buttons before feeling the one I was searching for. Slamming my flat hand down onto the device caused much-needed silence as I collapsed onto the floor, eyes blurred from sleeping.

“When I take over the world, I’m going to ban alarm clocks,” I yawned, giving my nemesis a sleepy glare. “Not that I’ll actually ever take it over, mind you… I just wish that I could ban the damn things.”

Stretching, I managed to raise my body up until I reached my dresser. I plopped myself back down again and sifted through an array of bright colors, finally picking out one of my favorite halter tops and a pair of darkwash jeans. Folding my bright red (And mostly see-through) top over my pants, I grabbed a belt and headed to the bathroom to shower.

As soon as the water was warm I stepped gingerly into the stream flowing out of the spiget. I began waking up the moment the water hit me, relaxing my muscles and assuring me that today would be great. I took a few more moments to relax before doing the dailies—washing my hair, shaving, etc.

After drying I moisturized my skin—I’m prone to flaky, dead skin cells forming on top of my healthy skin if I don’t—and applied smoky eyeliner and shadow around my beautiful emerald babies. I slathered some chapstitck onto my lips before I left the bathroom. Once again in the safety of my own room (where there was a lock so no one could barge in) I dropped the towel and pulled on my clothes. In the middle of strapping up my black two inch heels, however, my cell phone started buzzing.

“Heeeeey, babe,” I said as I hit the “talk” button on my spankin’ new iPhone. “Not much. How are you?” We chatted for a few seconds as I finished buckling my favorite pair of shoes around my rather large feet—I mean, it’s not like you can notice if you aren’t paying attention, but I think my great grandfather was big foot!

“Wait, what? Oh, God, I totally forgot to pack! Ahhh, I’m going to be late to school! What if they give me detention and then everyone finds out we’re gone ahead of schedule? Shit shit shit,” I ranted. After listening to her assure me that everything would be fine, I sighed and agreed that I’d just have to speed pack.

Basically that means throwing my entire closet into my bag—along with the bathroom. What can I say? I pack heavy. So, after tossing in all my favorite dresses and shirts and jeans (and the appropriate bras and panties) into my suitcase in a slightly haphazard pile, I moved on to the bathroom.

This was slightly more complicated. I had to actually dry off all of the bottles and put them in plastic bags so that I wouldn’t get my toiletries all over my clothes. And I didn’t even have time to pick out makeup! I just had to throw it all in there. All in all, it kind of offended my sense of neatness—well, when it comes to packing at least.

Giving myself a last check in the mirror before I ran out, I smoothed my beach blonde hair for the last time and began dragging my suitcase out the door. Besides the occasional grunt, I managed to keep quiet so I didn’t have to explain anything to the parental units.

Of course, getting the stupid suitcase into my little beat-up Toyota Camry was easier said than done. As I said, I pack heavy, and my Camry? Well, my Camry does not like packing heavy—unless perhaps I were to install it with guns for world domination.

“Did I really just think that again? Hm… I should work on that… Cause really, I don’t want to rule the world,” I muttered to my car. It stayed silent as always—I’m assuming it was telling me that I’m in denial, but I know it’s wrong. “Finally!” I shrieked in triumph as I managed to close the trunk of my car. Backpack awaiting, I raced back into my house and grabbed the satchel full of carry-on items… and one notebook and folder.

“And we’re off,” I yelled, backing out of the driveway. Not caring about my driving today, I skidded around the corner—it’s icy in the winter—and joined the main road whooping. I’m pretty sure that I left permanent marks on that path the whole five miles to school.

“Yo!” I yelled, bursting into my first hour just as the second bell rang. A few people smiled and waved at me. One, however, walked up to me and talked—and he happened to be the object of my infatuation for the last two years. One more thing? Yeah, he’s my best guy friend. Cliché, I know, but soooo unfair. He’s a babe.

“’Sup, Cam?” Seth asked, punching my shoulder. His black hair fell over one of his ice blue eyes, making him look like a puppy. I almost swooned right there. As a quick emergency recovery I leaned into his ear.

“Isn’t that what I should be asking you?” I whispered, glancing down with a grin. His loud laugh made shivers trickle down my spine.

“You never fail to get me to laugh,” he chortled. Glancing down at my top, he asked, “By the way, what are you doing tonight?” I started to open my mouth to say “nothing”, but then I remembered the trip that we’d been planning for almost a year. Oh, man, why now?

“Well, I’d like to say nothing, but actually I’m going out of town with the gang,” I said, trying to play it off like it was really just “out of town”. Out of the country is out of town so it’s not really lying, right?

“Ah, that sucks. I’d ask to come with but you generally organize those kind of things pretty well, so there probably isn’t room for me.” He looked a little hopeful, which made my heart start to melt. If only I could give in… If only it was the tiny trip I said it was!

“Ah, no, we can’t bring any more people… I’m sorry! But we might be able to treat you to something nice when we come back,” I said, smiling coyly. He raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? Something nice?” Seth’s grin was malicious as he took in my red halter. I barely contained my smile. Oh, today was so good. He was finally noticing my small bit of cleavage!

And when I say small don’t get me wrong—it’s not super tiny or anything. I’m just naturally really tall and thin, and part of being tall and thin is having small breasts. Of course, they’re actually quite nice and I try to pull them off well, so it’s not too big of a problem… but some days, a girl could go up a cup size (I must look stupid when I go off into thinking tangents, huh?)!

“All right, kids, take a seat,” my tired old teacher, Mr. Garcia, told us, walking into the room a good ten minutes late. “As you know, today is the third to last day before Christmas Break”—the entire class cheered loudly at this—“so we aren’t starting anything new. And because we had our test yesterday, you can use this hour as a study period for today. But remember, no cell phones or iPods or I’ll be forced to confiscate them.” Mr. Garcia trudged over to his desk and took a seat, letting the class run itself for the next fifty minutes.

“Hey, while Mr. Garcia isn’t paying attention do you want to blow this joint?” Seth asked, cocking his head to the side. I desperately wished to say yes, but I knew the plan… I had to stick to the plan.

“Well, you know, I have a few tests today so I really shouldn’t go anywhere,” I faltered, looking at him for a second.

“Aw come on, Cam, your grades are good enough to blast the roof off of Harvard,” he teased.

“Well these tests are enough to drop the floor from under them,” I said firmly. Some days I’d do what he wanted, but I was never really the person that liked to skip school often. Unlike most of my friends, I cared about my future. And one of the ways to ensure a good future was to ensure good grades.

“Whatevs,” he sighed. “I’m outta here, though. You change your mind then I’ll be on the roof.” Seth got up and walked out the door like he owned the place, but luckily Mr. Garcia was too involved with his new novel that he didn’t notice. I supposed that I would have to cover for him during role call… The bathroom excuse almost always worked, so I’d probably end up using that one.

Aside from role call, though, nothing particularly eventful happened. I talked to a few of the guys and laughed with some girls, but most of the time I spent moping about how one second Seth was undressing me with his eyes and the next he couldn’t care less if I was throwing myself onto every other guy in this room. I think that’s probably the only reason I’m still interested in him actually—his lack of attention to me. Still trying to make sense of my feelings at the end of class, I gathered up my carry-on bag and dragged my feet to my next class.

And let me tell you, that takes skill in heels. Don’t try it, though. It’s pretty hard if you haven’t had frequent practice pouting at guys to get your way. And don’t take that wrong, it’s not like I’m a whore. I just find relationships get boring after a while, and so I move from one to the other really fast. I’m a thrill seeker, so I move faster with every relationship and have had a couple of few day flings.

Well, okay, so they were make-out buddies, but I’m not that big a whore—my best friend is way worse. One of them, that is. I have two really great ones that are going on my trip with me. Otherwise referred to as “the gang”, so that’s who I was talking to Seth about earlier.

And speaking of the trip… by the time I was done moping, I only had one more class until it was time to split. I still wasn’t comfortable with the idea, but it was the only way to catch the plane to Japan on time.

“Hey, Drew,” I whispered, poking my neighbor in the side. He let out a small snort of surprise.

“Yah?” he asked, chewing his gum with his mouth open (eew).

“Uh… when you see Seth next hour tell him that I won’t be here for AP Chem sixth hour, ‘kay?”

“Yah,” he said again. That kid had mental issues, I was sure. But he was nice… and kinda cute. So it was good to sit next to him in History, because when the subject got boring, well… day-um, Drew did not.

And then, unfortunately for my lusty brain, the signal arrived. The bell after third hour! I was the first one out of my seat and through the door (once again, that’s a feat in heels). I asked the nurse to go home after faking a fever by sticking the thermometer next to a light bulb when she wasn’t looking, and she agreed. I almost sprinted to my car in excitement.

“Come on, baby, come on,” I all but yelled as I flung my car door open and threw myself in. Driving like a madwoman and buckling my seatbelt at the same time, I began my trip to the airport.

I got a lot of stares from people that I was driving by, but I guess a teenager blasting Lady GaGa in the middle of a school day isn’t that common a sight—especially sliding across the icy roads with her window down. Hm. Smart.

Sliding into a parkingplace haphazardly, I picked my way across the icy parkinglot and into the airport. Glancing up, I saw my best friends and screamed, running towards them across the ice. Once again, in heels. It was a pretty smooth motion because I then tripped and fell. After that, I continued towards the friends I’d be spending two weeks in Japan with more slowly, but bursting at the seams from excitement and joy.

“Unlimited sushi here I come!” I yelled before becoming part of a massive group hug.