Go Around

Kennedy woke up the next morning with all of her lights still on and three books spread out on her bed. She had been reading until four o’clock in the morning to keep her mind distracted from thinking about Jack and Alex and she must have just fallen asleep while she was reading The Great Gatsby, one of the novels she’d read more than just a few times.
She got out of bed and looked at the clock. 5:43 am. She pulled her hair u into a messy ponytail and shut all of her books then got off her bed. She made her way around all the boxes that were stacked in her room because, even though her mother had unpacked all of the things in her room, Kennedy had not. Unlike her last house, her room had a bathroom attached to it so she wouldn’t have to make her way down and across the hall anymore while she was wrapped in a towel.
She hopped in the shower and washed her hair and was in there for only a half an hour. She couldn’t believe that it was going to be her re-first day at Dulaney High School. She got out of the shower and started playing music and left her iPod on shuffle. She plugged in her flat iron and blew dry her hair really quickly and threw it back up in a ponytail. She had grown so accustomed to flat ironing her hair and whenever she blew her hair dry she would sweat on her face and in her hair line so she would throw her hair up to keep it off her face.
She went over to her closet and started sifting through all of her clothes. She decided on a pair of boot cut jeans that had tears all over them, a lacy blue tank top and a pair of knee high boots to go over the pants.
She laid all the clothes out on her bed then flat ironed her hair and parted it far over to the right and did her makeup – just browns for a neutral look.
She knew that she wouldn’t have any classes with Alex since she was so much more advanced academically than he was because, unlike him, she gave a shit. She put her clothes on and put on a simple necklace that her best friend, Audrey from New York, had given to her and then she grabbed her bag and ran downstairs.
Her mother was still asleep so Kennedy had to keep it quiet to make sure that she wouldn’t wake her. She grabbed an english muffin with some cream cheese and raspberry jam and scarfed it down.
She went out to her car and looked at the time. It was seven o’clock. She started her car and started driving and she didn’t realize that she was on her way to Alex’s until she drove in front of his house. She saw him in his room upstairs through the window and saw him putting his shirt on and she looked down and drove as quickly as she could away from his house.
She knew that she was going to be too early to school so she decided to stop by her favorite coffee shop and grab her regular drink while she waited for time to pass. She took the time to go inside, sit down and sip her caramel latte diligently.
She left and drove to school. She knew that she shouldn’t be nervous since she went there for three years, but she was nervous for everybody’s reaction to her being back. She knew that she would have absolutely no friends, but she tried to not let that faze her as she pulled into the school parking lot. She saw Alex, yet again, with his arm wrapped around Lisa as they were walking into the school.
Kennedy let out a deep sigh and got out of her car and locked it up. She walked to the office and asked the secretary to talk to the principal.
“Hello, Kennedy Morinson,” he greeted her and stuck out his hand which she shook politely, “welcome back.”
“Thank you,” she said as she pulled her hand away and let it fall by her side.
“How did you enjoy New York?” he asked her. Most principals don’t take the time to get to know the students who aren’t troublemakers but since Kennedy had done so spectacular in school he took the time to get to know her and everything about her.
“It was perfect,” she told him, and she meant it. Even though she had been upset to leave Maryland when she had, she had been even more disappointed to move back and the only reason she didn’t move in with Audrey was because she wanted to see Alex and Jack again.
“That’s good,” he told her, leading her to his office with a manila envelope with her records in it, “I just have to say that we are all glad that you’re back here – you always had such promise,” he told her and shut his office door behind them.
“I really appreciate you saying that,” she told him and took a seat opposite him.
He sat there and smiled at her for a moment before opening her envelope, “Of course you got straight A’s while you were in New York and you never got into any trouble,” he said as he glanced at the transcript. “Perfect,” he said and shut it. “I have your schedule for you,” he said and handed her a piece of white paper with her schedule on it, “and if you need anything let me know.”
“Thank you so much,” she told him and got up and left his small office and went to find her first class. She had math, english, science, pottery, lunch, AP Spanish, then history. It closely resembled her schedule last year only pottery had been thrown in.
She was a little apprehensive about taking pottery because she didn’t have one artistic bone in her entire body, but she needed it to graduate so she figured that she’d just have to suck it up.
The beginning day went by rather quickly and in every class she heard whispers about her, where she’d been, why she was back and all that other nonsense. Not every tid-bit of information would equate to a Gossip Girl episode.
When she finally made it to her pottery class, she was relieved. She’d been so busy taking notes and getting homework to catch up that pottery now seemed like a good relaxing class to have. She walked up to the teacher and introduced herself and he assigned her a seat in the middle on the right hand side. He told her that she sat next to a boy and that he was usually late.
After telling her how to work all of the instruments he let her do whatever she wanted and she observed other people making bowls. Someone sat down next to her and she looked up and recognized him immediately. She all of a sudden wanted extremely stressful classes that she didn’t have to worry about running into Alex Gaskarth in.
He stared at her, “I didn’t know you would be taking this class,” he said simply after a minute.
“Yeah, well, I need it to graduate, so it was either this or drawing and I figured that I would be better at this,” she told him, rambling because that was what she did when she got really nervous around Alex. “How was the rest of your night last night?” she asked him after a minute.
“It was fine. Jack left a little after you did because I just needed to think,” he told her and shook his head while getting started on his own bowl like thing.
“I understand that. I drove into New Jersey, not on purpose, because I just wanted to think,” she confided in him. “I’m kind of surprised Lisa wasn’t with you,” she told him.
“Why would you say that?” he asked, not getting angry.
“Because that always one thing you seemed to love about us – having the ability to be able to spend the night with me whenever you wanted and I just figured it’d be the same for Lisa,” she told him, trying her hardest not to sound cocky.
“I do, most of the time, but you just took me by such surprise last night that I couldn’t bear to have her over when I would be thinking about you all night. It wouldn’t have been fair to her,” he told her.
She nodded, but remained silent. “Do you think you or Jack will ever forgive me for what I did?” she asked him.
He gave a bitter laugh, “I wouldn’t hold your breath, Kennedy. I may love you, but you absolutely killed me and that killed Jack. I don’t think either of us will ever be your real friend again,” he told her, being completely honest. It killed her. Killing him and Jack killed her.
“I understand, I just want you to know that I didn’t meant to hurt you guys,” she told him.
“Then what did you think it would do?” he asked her, his temper starting to flare, but he was trying to keep it under control.
“I don’t know, I thought it would be an easier blow than if I told you. If I told you I wouldn’t have been able to leave you and I had to leave. I know it makes no sense to you, but I honestly thought that it would hurt you less if I left the way I did,” she told him and then the bell rang. They both looked up at the clock and quickly washed their hands and grabbed their bags.
She tried to keep up with him as he walked down the halls, but she lost him and she thought that’s what he wanted. He didn’t want to talk to her in front of people they knew, like Jack or Lisa, because he didn’t want them getting the wrong impression.
Kennedy let out a sigh and ate lunch in her car; an apple, a half a tuna sandwich, and some lemonade. She went to AP Spanish which was, ironically, the only class she could keep up in.
She was sitting in her history class after talking to the teacher and they were waiting for all the students to show up. She saw a gorgeous, tall, brunette, holding hands with Alex walk into the classroom and she shut her eyes. She regretted not signing up for AP history.
She opened her eyes to see if they were still there and Lisa had her back turned to her and she was kissing Alex who was staring at Kennedy. They pulled away from each other, “I love you,” Lisa said and after Alex said it back, Alex left and Lisa sat in the seat right in front of Kennedy.
Even though Kennedy didn’t know Lisa all she wanted to do was reach up, entangle her fingers in her hair, and pull out a good chunk of it, but she decided not to because she didn’t want to get in trouble on her first day.
The bell rang and their history teacher started talking about a new project that would be due in a month from now and how everybody had to work in partners. At first everybody was excited to work in pairs until their teacher told them that he had already assigned the groups. He put the pairs on the board and he had written in Kennedy’s name. She was paired up with, who else but, Lisa.
Lisa turned around, with a smile spread across her face, “You’re Kennedy, right?” she asked and Kennedy was still so jealous of her.
“Yeah, you’re Lisa, aren’t you?” she asked, trying to play nice even though she didn’t want to.
After everybody found their pair, their teacher further explained the assignment and how they would have to do most of it at home because he didn’t want it to be a school project, but they would still have some days to work on it in class.
Lisa and Kennedy discussed their options for their project on World War II. Each pair had to pick a country to do the aspect from and they had decided to do it from Germany’s. They brainstormed a bunch of ideas. Class was almost over when Lisa said, “Give me your phone?”
“Excuse me?” Kennedy asked, a little surprised.
Lisa laughed, “So I can put my number in it. We need to be able to contact each other for the project,” she said and handed Kennedy her phone. Kennedy took Lisa’s phone and grabbed her own out of her pocket and handed it to her. They each entered their numbers in the phones then handed them back.
Lisa put her phone back in her bag and shook her head and laughed again, “What?” Kennedy asked against her better judgment.
“The guys were right about you,” was all she said and then the bell rang.
Kennedy tried to ask her what that meant but she was already gone and down the hallway. She walked up to her car and saw Alex leaning up against a new car, better than hers, and waiting for Lisa most likely. Kennedy wondered if the car was Lisa’s or Alex’s. It didn’t really look like something Lisa would drive, but then again Kennedy’s car didn’t look like something she would drive either.
She got in and pulled out of the parking lot. She drove home and her mom was gone by the time she got there. She went up to her room and looked at all the boxes piled on top of boxes before she decided that she ought to put everything away.
She started undoing boxes and all the while was thinking about Alex and Lisa. She couldn’t believe that she’d gotten stuck in a class with either of them and was right next to both of them! As much as Kennedy wanted to hate Lisa for having Alex, Kennedy was finding it rather difficult because Lisa and she got along so well, a lot better than she thought they would.
She wondered if Alex missed her as much as she missed him.