Take a Sad Song and Make It Better

Bailey's POV

“Let’s go, Jay! We’re gonna be late!” I yelled up the stairs to my sister. I didn’t want to be late on our first day at our new school.

Jade came bouncing down the stairs, as usual, and grabbed my pop tart that I was going to eat and started to chew loudly.

“Okay well, Bailey has the directions to the school,” our aunt Clara said as she packed her purse. She said something else but I didn’t pay attention to it; it wasn’t like Clara was into the whole school scene with kids.

I looked at my blurry reflection in the kitchen window as Jade tied her shoes. My brown hair had grown over the summer, and was now past my shoulders. I didn’t straighten my hair, so there was a slight wave in it as it flowed over my red sweatshirt. I adjusted my white shorts and slipped on white converse and led Jade out the door.

“Can you turn that down? I can hear it from here,” I told Jade as we walked up the steps to the school after our long, carless walk. Jade’s music was blasting like usual, but I could tell she was even nervous because I couldn’t hear the pumping drums and guitar, instead a lighter beat. Jade hid her worries very well but she always could be a little on edge, even though she was guaranteed to fit in and find friends effortlessly.

==========

“Have a nice day girls and welcome to Dulaney High!” The lady in the attendance office told us, but Jade was already bouncing out the door. I gave the women a lopsided/ apologetic smile on behalf of my sister and jogged a little to catch up to Jade, who was already walking through the sea of people, comparing our schedules.

“We have English together. And lunch,” I said dully after we looked over our own schedules. Jade nodded and gave me a sympathetic look. At our old school we had plenty of classes together and spent almost the entire day together, so I wasn’t used to being away from my sister for very long and lately, since I’ve been grieving and moved to Aunt Clara’s, Jade was watching me closely consequently I wasn’t comfortable with us separating in to an alien building. Unfortunately we had to; Jade pulled me into a hug and we went our separate ways.

I read over my schedule. Trigonometry, Physics, English, Sociology Lunch, European History, Painting. Awesome.

“You must be Bailey Bates, since out of these wonderful 34 students, I don’t know you!” A young man said cheerfully as he put the papers he was looking through away and stood up. He seemed way to enthusiastic to be awake at 7:40, but then I looked past his hand shake and saw a large coffee sitting on his desk.

Joining a new school almost two months after the first day wouldn’t have been my first choice. In trig, my new class was two weeks behind my advanced class back in New Jersey and the same went with English and History. The next few weeks would be easy for me.

The day went by in a bore. My teachers were very differing in personalities and that was probably the most interesting part of the classes. Most kids didn’t bother to introduce themselves to the new, shy girl that could only smile and blush when confronted.

When lunch came I was thankful to see my sister again. For some reason, lunch was always nerve-racking for me. I was never fond of the boys who ran and shoved to get first in line for the plastic chicken and chewy carrots or the long tables where every one tried to squish in which usually ended up in someone pressed so close to the others that they were just about sitting on their neighbor’s lap.

Luckily Jade had an eye and spotted some familiar faces from our English class earlier, so I followed Jade’s movements as she cleared a path for us both to greet the girls. A girl I recognized to be our neighbor, Melanie, introduced us to her friend Kaylie and I tried to be polite, but I lost myself in thought as the other girls talked.

As pathetic as it sounded, I already missed my parents and my old school. I hated being new and seeing everyone’s eyes linger on me a little longer than normal because my face was unfamiliar, strange, intriguing, skin that hadn’t been peeled back, my secrets weren’t known and my life wasn’t floating down the halls through girls’ lips. As scary as that was, that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want the kids that I had grown so close to in Jersey to tilt their head to the side and baby me, see how I was doing and ask how my family was holding up. And even though I hated my new situation, it’s what I wanted, no matter how paradoxical it sounded.

“--Then you must be Bailey,” I heard an unfamiliar face direct her greeting towards me, so I smiled largely and tried to come off as friendly. “I’m Kara.”

“Rian’s Kara? Well if what Rian says is true, we'll be the best of friends by the end of this lunch period,” Jade said excitedly after Kara confirmed her and Rian’s relationship. Rian? Of course, my sister had already made a bunch of friends.

“So Bailey,” Kaylie turned to me after Kara and Melanie started to engage in a serious conversation about some kid in their science class. “How is your first day so far?”

“It’s going okay, I guess. It’s hard because I don’t really know anyone,” I laughed lightly and Kaylie chuckled along with me.

“I definitely know what you mean. Seriously. I was the new kid last year!” I thought I was going to like Kaylie. She was super sweet; I could just tell in the way she talked and acted. Her black and red choppy hair fit her beloved personality. She was almost six inches taller than me at six feet and it seemed like her pleasant personality made her friends with anyone she talked to, but with Kaylie, she didn’t want all those friends so she stuck with a few close ones. I liked that about her, or possibly because Kaylie didn’t ask questions or dig her nose into places it shouldn’t, she minded her own business.

“We newbies gotta stick together!” she smiled sweetly and linked her arm with mine and stood up as the bell rang. I felt good as I went European History because I felt like I finally made a connection with someone who didn’t make small talk with me and wanted to find out more about me.

==========

“New student? New seats! Claire Anderson, Jack Barakat, Bailey Bates, Thomas Dunnel. You four are at table one,” our art teacher brushed by table one after assigning us our seats.

I sat down carefully on the hard stool and the other three did as well. Claire, the other girl at the table, was clearly the artsy type. I don’t know what made me create the first impression of the label “artsy.” Compared to the other two at our table, she seemed overly excited to get to work and brought her own brushes for painting, which were in her labeled supplies box.

“Blah!” the tall boy said as he plopped down on the stool and leaned his chin in his hand, evidently dreading the class

“Yeah Tom!” another tall boy came and gave the first boy, Tom, a high five and sat down.

“Everyone!” our teacher raised her voice over all the movement. “I have no new announcements for today. Don’t forget our first project is due Friday, so get to work. Bailey, come up and see me and get your work to start painting.”

She sat down at her desk and I went up to her and the teacher turned to me very excitedly. “Well! Let’s get you some brushes and a canvas. Now, I hope you don’t mind, but I contacted your last school and talked to your art teacher.” She must have noticed my discomfort, because she went on to clarify, “We didn’t discuss your social life or anything, don’t worry, but I asked her about your art background and it’s very impressive! So I’m just going to get you going. Right now the class is working on a mono-chromatic still life, but I’m going to let you skip that and move on to the symbolic still life, which a little trickier, but I’m sure you can handle it.”

I thanked her and went back to my seat. Claire was babbling away to the boys while she painted, but I guess my return was much needed because the boys looked fed up.

“Bailey!” The tall, lanky boy said, rinsing off his paintbrush in the water bucket and tossing it down. “That’s your name right?”

I nodded and smiled.

“Rad. I’m Jack. That’s Tom.”

“Heyyo.”

“Hi,” I said happily.

“And I’m Claire,” the girl said and I noticed she had a faint Scottish accent. I looked at Jack and he mouthed, “We don’t like her!” as he failed his hands. I chuckled quietly and tried to focus on starting my painting, but I soon found it difficult to even slightly concentrate because Jack and Tom would. Not. Stop. Talking. It was unbelievable; the things they talked about were ridiculous.

“So Bailey,” Jack said with a lisp and flick of a wrist. “What brings you here to this wonderful school full of joy?”

I arched my eyebrow and cleared my throat. “Um, well just, erm, a change, I guess.”

“Mhm, mhm,” he said acting over-the-top interested. When people mocked me, that pushed my button. That was one thing I couldn’t stand, but I blew it off and continued painting and of course, Jack continued talking. “And of course, the best class too!” he added sarcastically.

“What’s wrong with painting class?” I challenged.

“Nothing!” he said, smirking behind hand. I rolled my eyes and got up to wash my brushes before the hour ended. Jack followed me and lined up next to me by the large sink and turned on a faucet. “I’ve never washed my brushes before, so you’ll have to show me, buddy! Eh? Eh?!” Jack said, nudging my side with his elbow.

I blew the air up in my bangs to blow them out of my eyes. “You know Jack, if you don’t like painting at all, why did you take it? Just to insult the class?”

“Wow, feisty,” he laughed loudly and dried off his brushes. “So you like painting, Bay?” he asked as I walked back to our table to gather my books before the bell rang, letting me out of my first day at Dulaney. “Can I call you Bay? Ay bay bay! Ay bay bay!” Jack sang Hurricane Chris’s song and Tom, who suddenly appeared with us lining up at the door to leave, started a beat for Jack to sing to. “Ay bay bay, ay bay bay, ay bay bay!”

Finally the bell rang and blew the boys off and started towards my locker. “Okay, I guess we’ll see you tomorrow then!” Jack yelled down the hall in my direction and then I heard him start cracking up with Tom by his side. “Baybay!” Douche.

==========

“Hey Jazz,” Jade greeted me with a hug.

“Hi,” I welcomed my sister into my arms. “Ready to get out of here?”

“Hell. Yes.” We started walking towards the exit of the school and we ran into Melanie again and she acknowledged us happily.

“You guys wanna lift home? I stole my brother’s car today so might as well,” she shrugged and snapped her gum. We both nodded our head excitedly; we didn’t want to walk all the way home.

When we hopped in the car, the music started playing and we all started tapping, nodding our head, or in Melanie’s case, singing to the catchy song.

“Times like these feel so dangerous,
When you know you're gonna find out,
how right it feels,
to ignore the ones you love the most,
This can't be right.”

Story of my life.

“Yo, Mel, who is this?” Jade asked.

“You like?” she said loudly, talking over the drums. Jade nodded ferociously and I nodded too from the back. “It's my friend's band. My brother manages them. They rock right? They're called All Time Low. Maybe I'll take you to a show sometime.”

Jade seemed really eager at the mention of going to see a band’s show and I had to admit, even I was interested in them, I really liked them. Jade could sense my anticipation and looked back at me and I smiled and she winked back at me.