Caution Tape

“Your quiet.” I look over. My biology partner all of ten minutes makes an obvious observation about me. So I make one back at him.

“So are you.” I practically sigh. I hate first days of school. They seem pointless…well everyday seems pointless.

“You’re new.” Another obvious observation.

“Yep.” I add emphasis on the P.

I’ve never had a problem with assigned seats/partners before. At my old high school I had less than zero friends, so whenever the teacher gave us the ‘choose your partner’ option I was usually the one left without one. And that resulted in me having to go up to the teacher, who gave me a look that screamed ‘your pathetic’, and then added me to a group of two girls who usually didn’t want or need my presence. In this case I wasn’t assigned this seat, I picked it all by myself. All the others were full so I sat next to him and he didn’t seem to be too disappointed, that might be a good sign.

The clock ticks loudly over the voices of the crowded room. With a school this small I anticipated classes that had less than 20 kids per room. But this class, my third hour, is packed. My earlier two classes were about empty.

I jiggle my leg under the table, I’m antsy, for some reason. Probably nerves, I usually do some sort of compulsive thing when I’m nervous. My partner starts the conversation again. “Do you like it here so far?” His voice is quiet and really shy. I’m thankful for this. The last thing I need is an obnoxious loud mouth that asks a hundred and two questions.

“It’s a little opposite of me.” I say, my voice level reaching no louder than his. He gazes down at me to observe my wardrobe. My clothes back up my statement well, I’d spent an hour here and I already knew the majority of the school’s dress. It was opposite of me, but I didn’t have anything against it. It’s just you tend to stick out in a band T-shirt and skinny jeans amongst a crowd of pink polo shirts and plaid shorts.

“You dress a little darker. But you’re not the only one.” He informs me.

“Dully noted.” I tell him. It’s my turn to observe his wardrobe. He wasn’t as far off as I was but it was still a bit different. He’s dressed in black jeans, a gray button up shirt that’s open to reveal the white shirt underneath, and black tennis shoes. He looks a lot older than a tenth grader. He looks about my age actually. I wonder if he was held back too.

I forget to look away, which is a usual thing for me. So instead of commenting on his style I just end up ogling his chest for two minutes. It may sound stupid but he actually has to clear his throat to get me to look away. Naturally my face blushes and I turn my gaze away and look at the clock, and pretend nothing happened. Agh! Ten minutes to go! It thought this was suppose to be a half day why are the classes so long?!

The silence continues on. The teacher, Mr. Carsh, is at his desk talking on the phone. He’s laughing and his feet are kicked up, obviously the first day is pointless for him too. The awkward feeling doesn’t fail to last the whole rest of the period, so when the teacher moves the phone away from his mouth to dismiss us I pretty much fly out of my seat and run to the door.

When I said I had less than zero friends I was referring to the fact that a lot of people hated me. That was at my old high school, people there didn’t like my nervous twitters or how quiet I was. At this new one, I’ve been to three classes and it already felt like I had less than zero friends. I’m pretty sure my biology partner didn’t appreciate me staring at his body.

After that class the day flew by. I didn’t make any friends but I talked to a few people. One was a girl who I had in two of my classes. I sat next to her in 6th hour Spanish and she seemed to recognize me.

“Hey you were in my drama class this morning?” Her voice is a little abrupt and rough but somehow remains warming.

“Yeah.” My voice was still shy from the new surroundings and all the people. But I try to make is sound more welcoming.

Before we have any chance to talk our teacher walks in and you could have guessed he wasn’t Hispanic. But, he twitched. First he’d twitches his noise, then his eye, then them both together. It was a little hard not to stare.

His face basically seizures as he explained to us our supply list and how we all need it by Friday. A few people were whispering to each other while they pointed at his face. I couldn’t help but feel bad for him. After the 15-minute lecture he gave us permission to talk freely for the last ten minutes. The majority of the class got up from their seats and moved around, I just sit in my desk and watch the clock.

“You’re new?” She asks with that same almost rude sounding voice of hers. But she didn’t act like she was intentionally trying to be rude to me; it was like she was just naturally stuck up. Like she’s always had a giant pole up her ass.

I nod with a small simile.

“Did you move here?”

“No, actually I went to O’Ryan High for ninth grade and an online home school last year.” I wasn’t sure if I wanted the entire school to know about my past, which trust me at a school this small they would, but at the same time I didn’t want to give her one word answers.

“So your in eleventh?”

“Nope.” I add emphasis on the P again. “I was held back.”

“You got held back from home school?’ She sounds curious and amused.

I smile weakly, already regretting even mentioning it at all. “No I didn’t really do the home school. I would just mostly hang out around the house and stuff. So I sort of took a year off from school I guess you could say.” I notice my leg jittering under the table.

She smiles and nods. “Nice.”

I smile at her in response. It was the first answer I got like that, from anyone. Most scolded me or rolled their eyes and told me how stupid I was.

“Sooo, how’s your first day been?” She perks up a little for this statement, trying to sound extra interested.

“Okay I guess. I thought I was going to get a lot of looks but so far I’ve been invisible. So…that’s good I guess.”

She laughs. “Lucky. I’ve been getting looks all day.” Her voice sounds a bit strained form this statement.

“Why?” I ask.

She sticks her chest out at me. Something I failed to notice earlier was how low cut her shirt is. It’s like breaking the dress code low. It’s a cute shirt nonetheless. It’s a bright orange color with puffy sleeves; the only negative thing about it is swooped down so low that it almost shows her nipple. Which also gets me thinking that she can’t possibly be wearing a bra with that on. “Oh.” Is all I manage.

“Yeah it’s really weird when the guys you’ve known since Kindergarten make comments like ‘Are you serving those for lunch?’”

I laugh lightly, “Yeah just a little bit. You’ve been here since Kindergarten?”

“Unfortunately yes. I only wish I had the privilege to go to a huge ass school like O’Ryan. But no I’m stuck here till Graduation. That’s okay though only three more years of sexual harassment and I’m free.” She smiles at the last part and opens her small pink purse to pull out a compact mirror and lip-gloss. She begins to apply some while continuing the conversations. “So what’s your name?”

“It’s Naomi.” I say shyly. I doubt I’ll ever have enough confidence to hold a conversation.

“That’s a really pretty name. Mine’s pretty stupid. It’s Amy.” She smacks her lips at the mirror and puts the lip-gloss away.

I scrunch my face a little and tell her. “Amy’s not a stupid name…”

“Yeah but it’s so common. I’d wish it’d be a bit more unique. Like your name is unique, well not that unique since I’ve heard it before. But you’re the only Naomi at this school. I’m the third. And that’s pretty sad considering how fucking small this school is.”

I laugh and smile, “That’s funny. But why don’t you just change it?”

Mr. Hardwelch, or as I’ve decided to name him, Senior Twitchy, dismiss us and both of us get up.

“I might just do that.” She pulls her purse over her shoulders and smiles at me. “See ya later.” And she walks off.

My last class was also rushed and I’m thankful for it! I just wanna get out of this hellhole as quick as I can. But I can’t run home just yet. I had to wait for my sister. This was her second day of school and by now I’m sure she made to many friends to count.

It takes her ten minutes to get out and say goodbye to everyone. I impatiently wait for at the gate across the street. She gives this person their forth goodbye hug and rushes over to me. A smile was across her lightly tan face. “How was your first day?”

I shrug. “Alright. I don’t know. How was your second day?” My sister being a freshman had to go a day earlier than the rest of us. The school thought it’d be less scary for freshman if they had one day to become familiar with the school and the process of switching classes and what not. I had to do it at O’Ryan but it didn’t really work. The school stilled scared me shitless even after a head start.

Rachel smiles at me. “IT was fine. It was harder to get to class today because of all the students but other than that.” She finishes the sentence with a shrug. I know she’s lying to me, she had a really great day, I can tell. She’s only saying it’s all right at my expense. She’s sparing me my dignity, to bad she doesn’t know that I don’t have any left.

We start walking. Both of us volunteered to walk vs. the other option of having to take the bus. The bus ride was only five minutes but it was another five minutes out of our way just to get to the bus stop, where as the walk home was fifteen minutes. So in only a five-minute difference we could avoid the fear of the bus showing up too late or too early. And it wasn't a bad walk either, except I don't know what we were going to do during the wintertime when there's snow on the ground. That is assuming I'm still making my way to school at that point.