The Past is Only the Future with the Lights On

Walking into homeroom, trying to contain the happy smile playing on my lips, I noted that my friends were already in their regular seats. I walked over towards them, taking my seat beside Dahlia and in front of Frank.

Nearly every kid in the class was having a conversation with someone else, or even with multiple people. This was no different with my friends.

Upon noticing my entrance, however, all their lips sealed and eyes glued to me. That was it for me. I couldn’t hold the smile back anymore. Dahlia was the only one who really noticed though, go figure. The guys never really paid attention to those sorts of things. Which I was thoroughly grateful for. But I was sure, once D’s mouth opened that would quickly change.

“Ohmigosh!” she squealed childishly, her face lighting up with a huge grin. “Congrats, hun.”

I smiled thankfully at her, not wanting to say much about it. I mean, it wasn’t that big of a deal anyways, right? Its not like one of her friends hadn’t ever gotten a boyfriend before…So there was no need for a big deal to be made of this.

I turned to face the front of the room in my seat, ignoring the confused glances Mikey and Frank were shooting me and Dahlia. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to disregard them for long.

“What are you congratulating her f-” Frank cut himself off mid question, the wheels in his head clicking as he made an ‘O’ shape with his mouth, realizing what had happened in the short time I’d left our spot to ‘talk’ to Skyler.

Also upon grasping this, Mikey continued to stare at me, a dumbfounded expression on his face. I suppose the guys really weren’t expecting something like this to happen - neither was I. Like I said, they were convinced Frank was the one who liked me, and that it was us who were meant to be together.

Well, sorry to disappoint you guys, but it doesn’t appear that something like that will be happening any time soon. I guess you guys were wrong. And I wasright all along.

Turning around once more, I stared straight ahead at the white board, praying that our teacher had planned some sort of lesson for us today. That normally doesn’t happen though, seeing as how this was just homeroom. But I really didn’t want to interact with the guys at the moment. Dahlia was okay, I just wasn’t fond of the stares I was receiving from the other two. Noting that, even at five minutes into class, our teacher was still seated at her desk, the computer screen illuminating her face, I collected that we would be sitting here all period.

Unwillingly rotating back to the guys and D, so that they wouldn’t get mad at me for ignoring them or anything, I saw that Frank was now sketching something in his spiral notebook, and the lovely couple to our right was playing a game of hangman on their own piece of paper on Mikey’s desk. Not wanting to interrupt them, I turned to Frank.

“Whatcha doin’?” I asked him, trying to sneak a peek at his lined paper. He looked up at me, then, without returning his gaze to his desk, closed the notebook.

“Just doodlin’,” he answered in a monotone voice.

I nodded, expecting him to say something else so we could start a conversation or something. But when silence continued to fill the air between us, I gave up. Flipping my hair of my shoulder, I returned to the correct position in my chair, hearing a sigh emit from behind me.

“Kelly?” I faintly heard Frank say.

I slowly turned back around, facing him once more. “Yes?”

He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again, seeming to be searching for the right words to say to me. Most likely so he wouldn’t say the wrong thing, and we would be able to avoid a fight between us. “Uhm…Are you, err…happy…like, with your decision?”

It took me a second to understand what he was referring to. Then it clicked. I smiled lightly. “Well, its kinda early to tell, don’t you think?” I chuckled, seeing him force a smile on his lips as well. He looked down at his notebook cover, but immediately shot his head back up once I’d continued speaking. “But, yeah. I guess I am happy. I mean, he’s a cool guy. And I know that, had he ever tried anything stupid with me, I have this amazing group of friends to turn to, to beat his ass for me.” Now that was a real Frank smile. Not some lousy, artificial one.

“Skyler really is a lucky guy,” Frank told me. I smiled sweetly, playfully ruffling his hair. “Seriously. I hope he realizes the importance of what he has now.”

I attempted breaking my stare away from Frank’s intense hazel eyes, but couldn’t manage. They were so sincere, I couldn’t help but look straight into them. There was some sort of hidden message behind his words and eyes, I just couldn’t seem to understand what, exactly, that was. Finally, he looked down, his hair hiding his face from my view. Damn him for not cutting it!

With an eyebrow raised in confusion, I slowly faced myself forwards, hopefully for the last time.

That was a rather odd thing for Frank to say. What was that supposed to mean? Importance? That certainly couldn’t have been in reference to me.

Whatever his silly words meant, I pulled out my own notebook and a pencil, and decided I’d finished my Music History homework, seeing as how I was a bit too busy to do it last night. Last night’s assignment was an easy one anyways; pick a band and write about the affect they’ve had on musical culture. Only, I had never really thought about which band I’d do it on. I knew everyone would be using the Ramones, or the Stones, or the Beatles, or even Green Day - you know, some of the more well known bands - so I shunned any bands like that from my mind.

Then, suddenly, a band popped into my head. I was positive no one else would be using this band, simply because of the fact that not many people had ever heard of them. They were a band that affected punk music in their own small, barely noticeable way. But I still loved them.

Putting the tip of my pencil to my paper, I began writing the Slammin’ Watusis on the top of it, then proceeded to write my name in the top right corner.

Holding my pencil in my right hand, I tapped the fingers on my left hand on my desk thoughtfully. Then, I made a stupid mistake.

I looked down at my hand.

And that was all it took for all thoughts and plans I had for this assignment to flush right out of my head, for, on that hand, was the thin silver ring of ink that would forever stay there.