Learning To Talk

Fall was ready for her first day of school. She couldn’t wait to face new challenges and meet new people. She got dressed in a white dress with blue flowers and wore her crocheted white hat with the matching crocheted blue flower attached. She put on her white flip flops and curled her reddish-brown hair. She went to the kitchen and had a bowl of cereal with Summer and Spring. Winter came rushing in at the last moment and grabbed a pop tart. The ride to school was too quiet in Fall’s opinion. Then again, any silence was too quiet according to Fall.

They pulled up to the schools and once they had dropped Summer off at her school, they headed to the high school. Fall got her schedule and headed to her first class. Her first class was English with Mr. Thomas. She walked into the room and everybody looked at her.

“Hello. I’m Fall Wright, the new girl. This is my first class,” Fall said, without fear. Mr. Thomas took her schedule to double check then handed it back and motioned towards the desks.

“If you would please sit beside Mr. Richards. Aiden, raise your hand please.”

Fall looked over the boy who raised his hand. He had straight black hair that covered a bright green eye. Fall normally wouldn’t want anything to do with someone like this, but she found herself oddly drawn to this boy.

She sat down and he smiled at her, causing her heart to jump.

“Aiden,” he said, extending his hand.

“Fall,” she answered, smiling.

Fall sat down and took out a piece of paper. She started doodling. She wasn’t nearly as good as Winter with art, but she wasn’t too bad at it. Aiden looked over. Fall tried to cover her drawings but Aiden stopped her hand.

“Those are really good,” he said with a smile. “I’m horrible at art. Not too bad at guitar though, if I do say so myself.” Fall laughed.

“Thanks. I can’t say I’m too good at music. I can sing a little, but probably not the music you’d like.”

“You’d be surprised. I listen to a lot of music,” Aiden said, smirking. What a cute smirk.

“Umm… JoJo, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber. Stuff like that. Oh! And Taylor Swift.”

Aiden chuckled. “You’re right I don’t listen to any of that. Except Taylor Swift, but don’t tell anybody,” he whispered the last part in her ear, making her laugh loudly.

“Ms. Wright, please don’t make me give you a detention on the first day,” Mr. Thomas scowled.

“Sorry sir,” Fall answered, smile on her face. She turned back to Aiden. “You jerk!” she whisper-yelled and hit him in the arm.

“How was I supposed to know you were going to laugh that hard? That hurt my feelings by the way,” Aiden pouted down at Fall.

“Fine,” she sighed. “I’m sorry. But don’t think that pouts going to work every time. Really, though? Taylor Swift? I mean I never would have pegged you as a pop-country type.”

“Shut up! Do you want everyone to hear? Besides her lyrics speak to me,” Aiden chuckled.

“You are so odd!” Fall said back to him. He didn’t answer so she went back to doodling.

The bell finally rung for second period, and Fall got up to leave for second period.

“Hey, wait. What do you have second?” Aiden asked as he stopped her. Fall handed him her schedule. He looked it over. “You’re not in my second period but you are in my third. Not in forth though. Hey, check it out! I have all of tomorrow’s classes with you!”

Fall smiled at him. “That’s great! I’ll know somebody!”

“OK, well I’ll see you in third period,” he gave a little wave and a half grin as he walked away. Fall beamed as she walked to second period. She had never quite liked his type, but for some reason, he was perfect to her. She hoped she could get to know him better.

As Fall walked into her second class, French I with Mrs. Tharp, she caught sight of someone she thought she’d get along with. She walked up to her fearlessly and offered her hand.

“Hi, I’m Fall. What’s your name?” She asked the blonde sitting in front of her.

“I’m Evangeline, but you can call me Eva,” She said with the thickest southern accent Fall had ever heard.

“I just moved here and I really need to make friends with somebody,” Fall explained.

Eva laughed and said “I get that I would wanna be friends with someone too! I’ve never moved before. What’s it like?”

“Stressful,” Fall complained. “The movers lost one of my boxes with my shoes so I can’t find my favorite pair, but I can’t go shopping until the weekend, when my aunt can give me a ride.”

“Oh sweetie, that sounds like a crises! I tell ya what, how about we ask our parents and I get my boyfriend to drive us into town to the mall after school.”

“Oh thank you so much! You’re already my new best friend,” Fall exclaimed hugging her new best friend.

“No problem, but while we’re there, you have to tell me about the boy you were grinnin’ over when you first came in. Deal?” Eva said, smirking a little.

“Deal!” Fall answered, happy to be able to talk about Aiden to somebody. They laughed their way through second period and because they had third together also, they walked there together.

As they stepped into the room, Fall looked around for Aiden. He wasn’t in the classroom yet so she looked down at her schedule where he had circled the classes they had together. Sure enough, there was a circle around Biology, her third period class. He must not be here yet.

As soon as the thought went through her head, he walked into the classroom.

“Hey, Taylor,” She said with a playful smirk.

“His name ain’t Taylor,” Eva said, looking between the two, confused.

Aiden, who had a playful pout on his face, couldn’t hold it in anymore. As he made eye contact with Fall, they both burst out laughing. This, of course, just confused Eva more.

“Y’all are weird,” She said. “And how do ya know him anyways, Fall?”

“Oh we go way back,” Aiden answered sarcastically.

“Yeah, cause first period is so far back,” Fall told him, now laughing so hard she was crying.

Fall sat down beside Eva. She wasn’t expecting Aiden to sit down next to her, but, surprisingly, he did. Fall looked over at him. He was smiling at her and she blushed as she quickly looked away. She felt glares on her back and turned around to see who was sending them. Sitting in the back were two emo looking girls, one with straight blonde hair, not unlike Winter’s, and the other with curly black hair and straightened bangs. This confused her beyond imagine. Why would two girls she didn’t even know hate her before getting to know her? Then it hit her like a truck hits road kill. She turned back around and looked at Aiden through the corner of her eye. He put a note on her desk.

Don’t worry about them. They think they have a chance with me, but I would never go for their shallow asses.

Fall got her pencil out and started to write back.

I’m sure you would never go for their shallow BUTTS but I don’t like being judged at first sight. So if you don’t go for those types of girls, who do you go for, Taylor?

She put the note back on his desk and listened to him open the paper and laugh at its content. Finally, she heard him replying and saw the note placed on her desk.

Aww. You don’t cuss? That’s cute. What girls do I go for? You.:) … umm… well… if you want… umm… that was stupid… nevermind… umm… yeah…

She felt her cheeks warm and she giggled out loud. Big mistake. Her Biology teacher, Mr. Rio, walked over to her and snatched the note out of her hand.

“Ah, Ms. Wright. Your first day and you’ve already gotten in trouble. Let us see the wonders that have been passed into my hands today,” Mr. Rio said, opening the note. Fall blushed even more and she sunk into her chair as her new teacher read the note out loud to the class.

Eva looked over at her, alarmed. Fall looked back and grinned. Eva just shook her head and gave her a ‘We’ll talk about it later’ look.

Mr. Rio finished reading the note and turned to her with a ‘It’s time to torture the new kid look.’ Fall felt all of the blood rush from her face.

“So Ms. Wright. I believe you still need to reply to Mr. Richards. Please, feel free.”

He motioned to Aiden and the whole class went quiet.

“Ummm… Why don’t we talk about it later?” Fall asked him, suddenly nervous, which was weird because Fall was never nervous.

“Yeah… Ok, later,” Aiden answered her with a nervous smile of his face.

The rest of the period, Aiden and Fall paid attention, not even looking at each other. Fall because she would burst out laughing if she even tried and Aiden because of the butterflies still in his stomach for asking her out.

Finally, the lunch bell rang, and Eva dragged her out of the classroom before she could even begin to think about talking to Aiden.

They got to the girls bathroom and rushed in. Eva squealed and started jumping around, excited. As Fall watched her friend’s excitement, she couldn’t help but let out the laughter she’d been holding in all period. Eva finally stopped squealing and turned to Fall.

“Oh my goodness! You! And Aiden! And that note! And oh my God ya need to say yes! That would be so cute! But not now. No. Make him wait for a couple of days! Yeah, at least until tomorrow. Yeah. Tomorrow’s good. Now we need to go to lunch so I can introduce ya to Cody!”

Fall smiled at her friend’s antics as she allowed herself to be dragged into the cafeteria and over to a table occupied only by a handsome boy, who Eva immediately sat down beside. Fall smiled at the boy and offered her hand.

“I’m Fall. I’m guessing you’re Cody?”

“Yeah that’s me,” He said, as he took Eva’s hand. Fall looked over at the lunch line.

“Are we going to eat?” She asked, her stomach growling.

“What, and commit suicide? I think not!” Eva exclaimed.

Fall laughed and snuck a glance at Aiden, who was two tables over. She went and got food, despite Eva’s warning and scrunched up her nose when she saw the disgusting looking pizza. She ate it for the sake of her well being, but it was still disgusting. As she ate, she talked to Cody and Eva about their shopping plans that afternoon. The plan was that Cody would pick Fall up at her house about an hour after school ended, so that everyone could make sure their parents were OK with it. Finally the bell rung and it was time for the last period of the day. She headed to Drama by herself, because no one that she knew was in this class. Before she reached the classroom, she was stopped by a group of five or so mean looking emo girls. Two were from her science class.

“Umm… Hi,” Fall said, trying to get this over with so she could get to class.

“Hi… Fall is it? We just came to warn you,” said what seemed to be the ringleader of the group, a mean looking girl with straight black hair and icy blue eyes.

“Warn me about what?” Fall asked timidly.

“Stay away from Aiden. You don’t deserve him. You’re a stupid preppy whore. He’s ours so don’t think about saying yes to him. And we’re not afraid to cause harm,” the girl said with a dangerous glint in her eyes. Fall was impressed. The girl actually scared her for a second. But Fall wasn’t stupid. This girl couldn’t really do anything to harm her. Fall had met girls like this before. It was all empty threats. That didn’t mean however, that the girl should be egged on.

“OK, I understand. Can I please go to my class now?” Fall asked politely. The girls moved out of her way. “Thank you.” She spent her next class trying to stop thinking about the girl’s threats and continue thinking about Aiden. Finally school was over and she went to the bus. She got on after her sisters and looked worriedly around for Summer. She was shocked when she saw her sitting beside a boy.

Fall was shocked and proud. She could only make out a few words of what Spring and the boy were saying. But she heard Spring say “best friend” and the boy say his name and each of their names. He waved at Fall when he said her name, and amazed, she waved back. Then she saw Summer laugh. Fall automatically smiled. It had been so long since she had heard that laugh. Fall moved closer to her sisters and found a seat. Right before sitting down, Winter whispered to Bailey what all three girls was thinking.

“If you hurt so much of a hair on that girl, you better be prepared for a slow and painful death, boy.”

Bailey simply turned to her and answered, “I don’t plan to.”