Starry Night

During our speedy car ride to Middleton High, I watched the magnificent palm trees fly by and shrink into the distance. The windows were rolled down all the way and I let the wind rush between the spaces of my fingers. Brandon's short, wavy hair flew around his face, nearly covering his eyes and it was a wonder how he could even watch the road or where we were going. But he would occasionally steal glances at me anyway, even if his hair blinded him. Finally, after at least three smirks in my direction, I couldn't take his mysteriousness anymore.

"What are you looking at, Brandon," I asked.

His face turned quickly back to the road and he smiled his brilliant smile.

"You caught me," he said sarcastically.

"I'm serious."

"Okay, okay," he agreed, his grin starting to disappear. "I was looking at you. When you gaze outside a window, it's like you lose yourself…I don't know, it's hard to explain."

"Seems like everything is hard to explain lately," I said.

He nodded, finally keeping his eyes on the road. Only soon enough did we pull into the school parking lot when the bell rang, interrupting our conversation. I sighed, annoyed, but relieved that we arrived to school on time.

Brandon handed me my backpack and quickly brushed his winded hair back to where it should be with his fingers. I quietly laughed at him, but then climbed out of the car and started walking towards the brick building that we call Middleton High. Then, I heard Brandon running to meet up with me.

"Hey, hey, hey," he said, "You were supposed to wait for me."

"Didn't know there was some type of rule against that stuff," I retorted, "I just don't want to be late for class."

He intertwined our fingers together and we gently swung our hands back and forth. "So do I, but you don't see me running off to class. And besides," he says, pointing his finger near the entrance, "it looks like we have Mr. Jones as a substitute anyway."

When we finally arrived to homeroom, actually belonging to Mrs. Brown, we took our seats at the front science table and waited for our substitute to begin talking.

“Good morning class,” he said in a dull, monotonous voice, “I will take attendance now. Andrews, Jacob…?’

“Here.”

“Bennett, Stacy?”

“Here.”

Unfortunately, on top of his 1700s style, Mr. Jones reads the attendance list saying the last names first and first names last. And the sad part is, is that Mr. Jones doesn’t understand the concept of the last name comma first name, but just reads it as it is. This makes it so that each time he substitutes, I have to control my laughter. In this instance, however, Brandon had to pinch my hand to stop me from losing it. I gave him a dirty look, but inside my head, I was thanking him.

Thankfully, when Mr. Jones stopped taking attendance, if you can even call it that, the loud, obnoxious bell rang again. I practically jumped out of my seat, and walked as fast as I could to my locker. Anything to get away from Mr. Jones.

Although I felt bad for making fun of him, I quickly pushed the guilt away by the time I had finished my lock combination. Brandon had passed me in the hallway to go to his physics class and Rebecca, my best friend, had appeared at my side.

“What’s up,” she asked casually, although her smile showed she had something big to tell me.

“What do you want to say,” I sighed.

Her bright blue eyes lit up with excitement and she threw her brown hair into a messy ponytail.

“Okay,” she began, practically jumping up and down, “so I saw Lucas, my longtime ex-boyfriend, and he started walking my way. I looked behind me and no one was there so I knew he was walking towards me, of all people! Then we started talking and suddenly he asked me out! Asked me OUT! I said yes, of course, ‘cause he’s, like, the hottest guy ever! Amazing, I tell you. Simply amazing.”

“Aren’t you afraid he’ll break your heart again,” I asked sympathetically.

“If he does, you’ll be here and come on! Lucas White asked me out! Why the hell would I think about that?”

I shrugged, grabbed my textbooks, and slammed my locker shut. Then out of nowhere, Rebecca asked, “Where did you get this necklace? It’s so marvi!”

My hand quickly covered it and said, “It’s not that marvelous.”

Although I really did think it’s incredible, Rebecca wasn’t a person I could talk to seriously about Brandon or other things. She only truly focuses on how hot a guy is or how much of a jerk they are. Unfortunately, she didn’t take my lame answer and persisted that I explain where I got it.

“Just a store. I forget where exactly."

“Come on! Just a store?”

"Yeah,” I lied, my conscience bothering me more and more.

Finally she gave up and I started walking to my calculus class when the bell rang again. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it in time and Mr. Miller gave me a five-minute lecture about being in his class promptly at 7:45. I just nodded while my mind wandered off onto other subjects and thoughts. Then he finally said, “Do you understand me, Stacy?”

“Yes, Mr. Miller.”

“Go take your seat, no, I have a better idea. For being late, figure out the problem on the board for the entire class.”

I angrily dropped my backpack off at my desk and grabbed an Expo marker from the white board.

“Mr. Miller, we haven’t done these kinds of problems yet,” I said, examining the problem.

“I know. It will be something you will have to figure out Stacy.”

While half my mind tried solving the impossible equation on the board, the other half was cursing my teacher. He was smirking at me, smirking, as if he knew that he had won this battle. Then, I remembered reading about sequential squared integers when I had flipped to the wrong page in my calculus book. My hand furiously started writing variables, symbols, and other, smaller equations. Finally, when almost half of the whiteboard was covered with mathematical paraphernalia, I circled my answer and smirked at Mr. Miller, like he had done to me.

His face was dumb-founded and his lips actually took the shape of an “O”. I just took my seat casually, as if the math problem had been nothing. To tell you the truth, I was a bit smug for the rest of the class, and I noticed that Mr. Miller was uncomfortable teaching the new subject to us. Eventually, the bell honked, and again, I couldn’t get out of the room fast enough. Unfortunately, his lecture about being on time had actually affected me and I ended up being three minutes early to my next period class.

Other than that, though, the rest of the day seemed to fly by. I hadn’t even noticed the time until lunch had abruptly come and I was sitting next to Brandon in the cafeteria. My fingers played with my hazel, heart stone necklace absently as people talked all around me. I was looking out the windows again…

I was startled back into reality when Brandon said, “You going to eat lunch?”

The Special K bars had been in my pocket all day, so I pulled the food out and started to munch on them. “Happy?” I asked, beginning to lose myself in the scenery once more.

Brandon opened his mouth to talk, but the main office secretary interrupted him by saying, “Stacy Bennett? Your mother is here to dismiss you.”

He gave me a confused look and I returned the same expression. I got up anyway and followed the secretary back to the office. When I saw my mother there, I immediately asked what was going on. She stalled as much as she could, but I was impatient. “What is going on,” I repeated.

Suddenly, my entire life fell to shambles as she said two simple words. “We’re moving.”