Just One More Minute

Chapter Two: Superman Had His Flaws

The boy named Frankie lead me to the cafeteria, which wasn’t that far from the library entrance. Even if it was, I didn’t seem to notice. I was too busy focusing on Frankie. Who was he? His eyes and manners told me he was kind and good hearted. I wanted to know what made him tick though. I needed to know, like an addict would need a drug. I had the urge to ask if he was foreign, or who his friends were. I wanted to know his birthday, his likes, dislikes, fears, and dreams. But I restrained myself from the interrogation. It would just be too awkward.

“We’re here,” he said to me. I shook my thoughts away quickly and looked up at him. He was looking at me curiously, cocking his head to the side, and continued to hold the big wooden door. I rushed inside, not wanting to watch him struggle, and thanked him graciously. Then, to find the table.

The lunchroom was small to me, considering I was used to one that was bigger than the gym. But this school had only about seven hundred kids in it, whereas Seattle’s local middle school had over two thousand. I guess I’ll get used to it.

Each table, like Seattle, had it’s own clique. The one in the far right, closest to the windows were the artists. In the middle, there were kids with skateboards and Circas on their feet, kids dressed in all black with dyed hair, bleach blonde cheerleaders, jocks of all types, and the girls who were model gorgeous. In the back, there were band geeks, chess players, the girls way too skinny, and the kids way to fat.

We were at the rectangular table between a group of painters and the drama geeks.

There were kids already sitting there, talking and laughing like everything was normal. I hope they accept me. “Guten Tag!” Frankie cheered, his fist thrown into the air. Good. He’s cheerful. That’s a great sign.

Everyone cheered a greeting back, smiling joyously. I stood quietly behind Frankie, looking down at my shoe as it scuffed the linoleum. Then, I felt something. A stare on the top of my head. I looked up, only to see a girl, blonde and quite pale, staring back at me with a row of perfect teeth.

“Listen,” Frankie started. He walked over to me and pulled me over by the wrist. His hands were warm and gentle. Soft too. “This is Hayley. She’s new to the school, and I kinda sorta ‘bumped’ into her near the library. I figured she could sit with us. That is, if you guys are okay with that.” I gulped, praying everyone would be okay.

Everyone, to my surprisement, nodded enthusiastically. A dark haired boy that was sitting next to the girl with the Donnie Osmand like teeth told him, “It’s about time we got someone new. Everyone else was getting boring.” And to that remark, the girl sitting next to him hit him playfully, but laughed in the process. It was obvious that they were already a couple.

“Great!” Frankie replied, very excited to have someone new to talk to, “Okay Hayley, this Mary.” He gestured to the girl with the perfect teeth. She smiled and waved. “Jimi.” He pointed to the bushy haired boy that was Mary’s (obvious) boyfriend. “Jen.” A girl with platinum blonde hair and bright blue eyes smiled. “Jay.” The boy sitting across from Jimi, with light brown hair and dark eyes. “Linda.” A girl with dirty blonde hair waved. “Kelly.” A red haired girl smiled at me. She was sitting next to three empty chairs.

“And you already know me,” he stated, a smirk on his face. He took my hand and led me to a chair next to Jimi, sitting my down gently. “And then there’s you.” I smiled. I liked being accepted already.

I looked around the table, taking it all in. My surroundings, the people, the joyous aura hovering over us. All was good. The first thing that caught my eye though was not any of that. It was the empty chair next to me.

“That was another boy’s seat,” he told me. I looked up. He noticed I was eyeing it? “He was a friend of ours and-” he looked over at Mary. She nodded solemnly. “Mary’s ex-boyfriend.”

I nodded. I understood why they would kick him out. He hurt Mary deeply, or she felt he wasn’t a good person to be around. That must have resorted to him moving to another table, or being kicked out. I couldn’t help but scale the room, trying to find the boy’s face.

“He’s in high school now.” Frankie told me. And with that, I turned away from the other kids that never cared and never will. Instead, I focused on the people at the table. They were all in their own little conversation groups. Linda and Kelly were talking about a movie they’d seen, and Jay, Jen, and Jimi were all talking about an English project they had due in two days. Frankie had gone to get a bottle of water.

“So,” Mary started. I turned to her. “You’re Hayley, right?”

“What?” I asked. I hadn’t been paying attention. Damn attention span! “Oh, yeah.”

“It’s nice to meet you Hayley,” she greeted, holding out a hand. I looked at it for a second before shaking it. She’s so... formal.

“Nice to meet you too,” I replied, pulling my hand away softly. Silence fell over us. I looked around, trying to find a way to bring up conversation. I noticed she was wearing a green sweater over a cream colored dress and had jeans on underneath. That didn’t help. I saw her bag out of my peripheral vision. It was a regular bag, with a few beaded key chains. That didn’t help either. But it did keep me from noticing a soft playing Green Day song.

“Um, your phone is ringing,” Mary told me. I snapped out of my thoughts and pulled my bag up onto the table. I pulled the small phone out, and turned off Homecoming. That was when I heard Mary squeal with joy.

Jimi whipped around immediately. “What happened?” Mary was pointing at my phone. Jimi stared at it for a while and sighed. “Oh. That.” And with that thought, he turned back to his discussion on irony.

“What?” i asked. “I don’t understand.”

Mary pointed to my phone and shrieked, “PENGUIN!!!!!!!!”

And low and behold, my old penguin key chain was there, flapping it’s wings in the breeze.

I put the phone away slowly. “I’m sorry,” Mary sighed. She relaxed for a minute. “I like penguins.” Pause. “A lot.”

“I can see that,” I replied jokingly. Mary smiled and nodded. Silence fell again.

“So,” Mary breathed, “Where are you from?”

“Seattle,” I told, “The rainy city.”

“It must have been pretty though.”

“Meh. You get used to it, and really don’t notice it anymore.”

“I see,” Mary inquired. Another pause set into our systems. I eyed Scott’s old chair again. Part of me wanted to know what made them break up, or at least what he was like. Another part of me told me it would be too awkward to ask.

“You can ask me if you want,” Mary said. I jumped back, surprised at what she’d said. Did she have super powers? Could she read minds?

No. Probably not.

“Ask you about what?” I asked. I knew exactly what though.

“You can ask me about Scott,” Mary explained, “It won’t bother me or anything. He’s a thing of the past, and I won’t have to deal with him for a while. So, it really just doesn’t matter.” She leaned in on the table. “He was a total dick though.”

I chuckled a little, as did Mary. It seems like we’re gonna get along goo. No, I take that back. We’re gonna get along great.

Frankie walked back to the table at that point, with a bottle of water, a bag of cookies, a couple of chip packages, and Snapple. He handed everyone what they wanted, and headed back to his seat at the head of the table.

“Glad to see you two so merry,” he told. I smirked at the sound of his proper, kind of old, but formal and unique, english.

“Yeah,” I started, “Mary showed me her love for penguins, and it took off from there.”

“And all is well with the world,” Frankie replied. Everyone nodded their heads in unison. Okay, the unison thing creeped me out a bit, but it was pretty cool. It showed they all agreed on my presence. It’ll go over well.

But for the rest of the period, I still felt a pressure in my stomach. It was like a swarm of butterflies were trapped in there, fluttering around, and looking for escape. What was I so nervous about? Maybe it’s first day of school nerves kicking in. Just maybe.

The bell rang before I knew it, and everyone got up to go their separate ways. Jimi, Jay, and Jen all started to head for their English class with Miss VanHalen, and Linda started to head to gym, which was in a separate building outside of the cafeteria. That left Frankie, Mary, Kelly and me. Alone.

“So,” Mary turned to me, “What class do you have next?”

“Oh,” I paused, “I don’t know.” At that moment, I pulled out my schedule. I scanned it, looking for period six. Next to it said Music. “Music,” I told. They all nodded. Again, with the unison.

“I have music as well!” Frankie exclaimed, “As do Kelly and Mary.” They nodded. “May I ask which sort of music class though?”

I looked at my schedule again. It said something I didn’t expect: Chorus. How the fuck was I in chorus? Goddammit mom, you had to fucking sign me up didn’t you?

“Chorus,” I mumbled, ashamed. I had a sucky voice.

“I didn’t know your liked to sing!” Frankie replied, startled. “I’m in chorus too, as well as Mary. Kelly’s in band though.”

“What instrument do you play?” I questioned. I wanted to know.

“Guitar,” she replied, making a guitar playing type movement with her fingers. Funny, she looks like the guitar type.

“We should all walk together,” Frankie said. It was obvious it was more a command then a suggestion. Though, I’m sure they all walked together anyway, whether I was there or not. “And quickly, before we’re late.” We all looked up at the clock, only to realize we had barely two minutes to get to class.

Frankie pulled us all along quickly, and we did eventually make it to the music hall on time. But the Kelly’s guitar lessons were in the first classroom, and the chorus room was on the other end of the wing. We all broke into a sprint, and skidded to a halt at the door just as the bell rang. Frankie held open the door graciously.

“Mister Parker,” a voice stated. It sounded like the minister from A Walk To Remember, but that could have been from the fact that Landon’s last name sounded like Frankie’s. Oh well. “You’re late for the second time this week. Do you have a pass?”

“Yes I do Mister Cook,” he explained. He pulled me up to be in front of him. “I was helping the new girl find her class. That’s all.” I felt like I was being searched by an airport security guard as mister Cook looked me up and down. I waved and smiled to add effect. He sighed.

“Take a seat Mister Parker,” he instructed, “And don’t be late again.”

The three of us took a seat together in the front, for those were the only seats left. The teacher then began to play us a song from some obscure play from the thirty’s (probably) and handed out sheet music. No singing was done in class. Not even a warm up. This class is gonna suck.

Frankie and I had gym next, with Jay and Jen. We did badminton, which I really did put the “bad” in. I accidentally whacked Jay in the back of the head, but he didn’t seem to care. He just didn’t stand too close to me for the rest of class. I was not a sports person, which Frankie took a minute to point out after we were out of the locker room.
We had to part at that point, which made me sort of... uneasy. I don’t know why though. I mean, a barely knew the boy. So, why was I so emotionally attached to him already? It was just plain strange.

“Excuse me,” someone called behind me. It didn’t take a genius to figure out it was a female teacher standing behind me. I had no choice but to turn around and face her. She had blonde hair and black eyes that burned with anger. Menacing sight, isn’t it?

“May I help you?” I asked politely. I already was used to a good act towards teacher. Playing innocent almost always worked. Almost.

“I’m sorry to say that you really only made my job harder today,” she explained. What the fuck?! “Your shirt, I’m afraid, is not ‘school appropriate.’”

“Why?” I asked. I wanted to know her reasoning.

“Because being gay is disgusting,” she told me. I felt like I wanted to fucking punch her! How could she say that? And in New York at that! That’s really fucked up. I bet you anything she’s a principal aid or some shit. Or the AP. I just bet you she is.

“Why’s it disgusting?” I asked. I wanted to know her reasoning even more.

“Because,” she stalled, searching for an answer in you closed up mind. It just goes to show that homophobia just takes too much of an effort. “Being gay, and dating people of the same sex is.... it’s inhuman! It’s disgusting, it’s inappropriate, inhuman, and just plain wrong!”

“Than I’m afraid Miss Dullsmith,” a voice started behind me. A familiar voice. I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders, pulling me into a warm hug. “That I am an alien. A gross, sinful, unorthodox creature from an outside world.”

“Mister Parker!” she gulped. It’s obvious she didn’t like him, and wanted to avoid him at this time of day. “Shouldn’t you be in class?”

“Ah, but I am in class Miss Dullsmith,” he told, “It appears my mentor no longer goes to this school, but has decided to transfer for whatever reason. Most likely your doing, but I digress. So, I noticed Miss Bhloo was in your Honors system, so I thought that maybe she could be my new teacher.”

“Absolutely not!” she protested. Debris fell from her lips in wet droplets. Ew.

“Thank you for your concern. I really do appreciate it,” he exhaled. “But I am afraid it is impossible for you to refuse. I have no one to teach me proper English now, for all of the mentors are long taken.” He looked straight into her eyes. “And you wouldn’t want a failing grade to be in your class’s past history, now would you?”

Miss Dullsmith gulped again. Hard. “Fine,” she gave in, “Do what you please Mister Parker. But do stay out of trouble, and away from me.”

“I understand.” And with that, he led me to an English room down the hall, where there were groups of two at several tables. I looked at the door where there was a sign that said: Honors/Assisted English. Those fortunate helping the lesser folk. I was confused. This was a tutoring class? And I was tutoring Frankie?

“You’re in Assisted English?” I asked him. He nodded.

“I was raised by a German family a while back,” he told me, “I mean, I know enough English, but I’m not very good. I may speak it well, but it doesn’t mean I can read it.”

“Wow,” I replied, amazed by his past. So I was right. He is foreign! “I thought with your nice friends, good looks and cunning that you were, well, perfect.”

He laughed at that and looked at me. “Even superman had his flaws,” he told me. I smiled at the remark. It was really a silly saying, but oh so true. He started to pull me along to a table. “Come on.”

And with that, he sat me down and pulled out a yellow textbook, with a stupid title in blue lettering that saidEnglish Is Fun! We both laughed and agreed the title was stupid, and began the lesson of adverbs and pronouns.

But as we read, I wondered something:

Did I just make my first friend?