They're Playing Our Song

After about sixty seconds of silence, Mary looked over at me.

“Would you like to explain to me what happened back there?” she asked warily. I smiled.

“What do you mean?” I asked with fake innocence.

“Oh cut the crap.” she said sourly, pushing her glasses up her face. “From what I heard back there, you A: Not only got into a fight with this school's biggest football star today, but won said fight, and B: now somehow have an intimate relationship with the notorious Mr. Way. Now, being your fairly new fairly best friend, I would appreciate an explanation. In other words, spill.” She turned to me and put her hands on my shoulders, stopping me in my tracks.

“Okay, okay!” I laughed. “Jerk-face...err...I mean the football dude, well he threw a sandwich at me, so, in a time of trouble, I followed my gut.”

“And your gut told you to fight him?”

“No, my gut told me to kick his ass. Which I would have done better if Mr. Way hadn't pulled me off of him.” I said grudgingly. “And what do you mean 'intimate relationship'?” I raised my eyebrows.

“Well...” she said reluctantly. “It looked really intimate. He was all like, looking into your eyes and...and...understanding and...stuff!” she said exasperatedly. “Look, I'm not very good with this kind of thing, but I could tell there was something going on.” she said, looking me in the eyes and pushing her glasses up her face. Again. You'd think she'd have better fitting frames for those things. “Isn't there?”

“No. Eww. He's like, older than me.” I said unsurely.

“Only by a little.” she replied smugly.

“Yeah, well, It's not like that okay? He just...he gets me. I think. I just met him today for god's sake! Theres no way this can be what you think is is. Whatever you think it is.” I said defensively. She scoffed.

“Okay. Whatever. I still think its strange that Mr. Way of all people would say something like that.” she shrugged.

“What do you mean?” I asked, still confused. At this point we had reached the front doors, and pushing through the heavy glass we stepped out into the freezing September air.

“Well...they say he's a little...different...” she said. “He doesn't exactly open up. What he said to you back there....the whole thing about “knowing how you feel”..... its like...historic.” I looked at her.

“Explain?” I asked a bit confused.

“Okay. Well, he went to art school and everything, but he still needed a job before he could do what he wanted to, so he came here, and I don't think he expected a school full of rich kids and nerds.” she chuckled, pushing her glasses up. “And he doesn't even teach like any other teachers. He doesn't have like tons of rules or anything. He listens to like, heavy duty rock music and stuff. And he's the only dude with black hair at this school. And he has almost nothing in common with anyone. And the only reason I know any of this is because my old friend Stella takes his class.” she sighed sadly.

“Oh.” I said.

“Yeah, but then she....well its a long story, but thats pretty much over and done with...” she trailed off, dismissing it with a wave of her hand.

“Aw.” I said, giving her an awkward side hug. Then I sighed. “This school isn't what I expected.”

“What did you expect?” she asked.

“I don't know. Not this.” I sighed again.

“Oh. Well. Besides beating people up, and having a heart to heart with a teacher, and being the cultural opposite of almost everyone at this school, how was your first day?” she gave me a big dorky smile.

“Well, I met a really nice girl. Her name is Mary.” I laughed. Mary smiled. “And I met a Jackass named Gavin.” I said, crossing my arms and rolling my eyes.

“Yeah.” said Mary nodding her head. “He is really stupid sometimes.”

“What do you know about him?” I asked, trying to maybe get a better understanding of him. “You seem to have all the dirt on the teachers.” she chuckled.

“Well, his parents are really famous doctors, so he has oodles of cash,” I knew it, I thought. Just another rich kid.

“Go on,” I said.

“Okay. Well when he first moved here there really wasn't anything special about him. He was just another kid. And then he got his piercing, and it turns out that he had dyed his hair blonde and it grew out to be brown, and nobody cared because he's so rich he could pretty much do whatever he wants around here.” I rolled my eyes. I knew it.

“Just another snotty rich kid.” I mumbled, surprised that I was slightly disappointed. When I saw the tattoo..... I thought maybe he was different after all......maybe he could have been just like me. But I guess I was wrong. Mary nodded and patted my shoulder. We had finally reached our street, after that long conversation, and I was freezing.

“Gosh I'm cold.” Mary muttered.

“Me too.” I said. Then I thought of something as my house came into view. “Hey, which house is yours?” I asked.

“Um...that one.” she said, pointing to a cream colored house just a little bit farther down the road from where we were. “The cream one with the red door.” I smiled. Next to that house was a pale blue one, which was the one I had just moved into.

“Yay!” I said excitedly, jumping up and down, the action warming my muscles.

“What?” Mary asked, clearly a little confused at my random action.

“We're neighbors!” I laughed, feeling the cold rush of air sting my lungs in a somehow pleasant way.

“Yay!” she giggled back. And then, me and my new best friend laughed all the way to our houses.