Telescope Eyes

Being the new kid was never easy. Not when you were two, not when you were eight, and sure as Hell not when you were fifteen. Micah Crosby walked down the hallways with her head down, staring at her torn up Vans. She could hear kids around the room welcoming their friends that they hadn’t seen over the Spring Break and catching up on what they had missed and she had felt so alone.

It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to this though, no. Micah was definitely used to this. There had been four moves in a matter of three years but this one was different. And maybe, if her father’s death hadn’t of been the reason for the move, then she might have found some comfort in this new destination. But the reason hurt her heart, and so therefore she refused to enjoy it. As if she could if she tried.

This move was permanent though. Her mother packed Micah and her brother up from Las Vegas and moved them to Arizona. Arizona was where her parents had met when they were just fifteen. Arizona was where Micah was created. Arizona was the place Micah had hated every summer they had come to visit though.

Sure, it had her family, all of her cousins and her grandparents, but Micah hated the heat. That was part of the reason she had hated Las Vegas as well. The summers would reach up to one hundred twenty degrees and that just wasn’t natural. She wasn’t supposed to feel as if her skin was going to literally melt off.

Micah was more than relieved when she realized that the high school she would be attending this year was located in doors. All the Vegas schools were half in and half out. The classrooms were all inside—obviously, but to walk to class you would walk through the heat and even though it was only for maybe a minute or two it was still long enough to make Micah never want to wear grey in fear of pit stains.

Micah walked through the hallway at a quick pace just trying to make it to her last class of the day in one piece. She stared down at the schedule in her hands ignoring the scoffs from upper classman about the ‘pathetic lost freshman’. She read the room number and sighed out of relief as she realized that she had found the class she had been searching for. She looked up from her white slip of paper and opened the brown door, entering quietly.

Only a few kids had made it to class so far and they were all mingling amongst one another. There were still three minutes until the bell was scheduled to ring which left many open seats around the room. Micah looked to where a younger man was sitting behind the desk. She approached him quietly. “Uhm, excuse me, I’m new to this class and I was just wondering where my seat would be?”

“Boys quiet down!” The teacher, who Micah’s paper told her would be Mr. Moore yelled to a group of boys entering the room. He turned his youthful eyes to her with a grin, he couldn’t have been a day over twenty six and for a teacher he was hot. “You must be Micah Crosby. You can have a seat right here in the back. I’m afraid it’s the only seat that’ll be left. I’m very sorry.”

“Oh that’s fine,” Micah said with a polite smile on her lips.

Mr. Moore laughed, “Oh no, you haven’t even seen why I’m sorry yet. Now, if you’ll just take a seat and I’ll introduce you to the class once the bell rings.”

Micah walked over to the seat Mr. Moore instructed her to and sat down. She was in the very back seat of the middle row of the room. There was a large window to her right and she could see cars whizzing by on the streets outside. Micah turned her gaze back down as she noticed a boy next to her pointing at her, not as sly as he apparently thought. She kept her eyes on a blank sheet of paper she had pulled out onto her desk and traced the light sketch of a flower she had drawn only a few moments before.

The bell rang and Micah felt relieved as the class quieted down and turned their attention to the man who was in the front of the room. He had a smile on his lips as he talked to the class. “Now class, we have a new student here today, so I want you to all be on your best behavior as she speaks to you, okay?”

Micah felt her stomach tighten, she had to speak to them?—as in, in front of the class? She already didn’t want to be in this course because of how soft spoken she was. Debate honestly just wasn’t her forte.

“Micah, if you’ll come up here, please,” Mr. Moore beckoned.

She sauntered up to the front of class quietly, keeping her gaze down and ignoring the comments from the kids in the room all asking their own questions and making hasty judgments.

Micah looked to Mr. Moore who stood next to her. He clapped his hand on her shoulder softly and gave her a reassuring grin. “Go ahead and introduce yourself,” he grinned.

“Hi,” Micah said gently, “I’m Micah Crosby.”

“Where are you from, Micah?” Mr. Moore questioned.

“Las Vegas, Nevada,” she answered simply, leaving out the fact that she had moved over seven times and honestly considered herself more of a nomad.

Mr. Moore grinned, “Oh, Sin City! All right, now let the twenty questions begin!”

Micah felt a rush of heat run to her cheeks as kids in the room began belting out questions in her direction. What was Vegas like? Did she party a lot? Did she live in a hotel? Were there slot machines in her church?

Micah didn’t even know where to start. She kept her mouth shut and her eyes on the floor and she was positive that her cheeks were a crimson color. She listened as Mr. Moore began laughing next to her, “Guys come on, you’re going to scare the hell out of her. Calm down.”

The room became quieter until a door opened and a few boys yelled out a name welcoming a boy into the room, “Ah, Mr. O’Callaghan, how nice of you to grant us with your presence today. Please, take a seat,” Mr. Moore, chuckled. “Oh, and on your way back there sign the tardy sheet so I remember to call your parents.”

Micah watched as the boy rolled his green eyes with a playful grin on his thin pink lips. He was tall for a freshman but his gangly limbs made his body make more sense. He had long sandy brown and blond hair and a tan complexion. He was hot, and as he sat in the seat in front of Micah’s she instantly felt nervous.

Micah watched as he high fived the boy next to him before setting his backpack on his desk and turned his eyes to the front of the room where she was standing next to Mr. Moore. He seemed to just notice her and Micah watched as the boy looked at her with an intrigued look on his lips.

“Now, raise your hand and ask a question politely,” Mr. Moore instructed the class.

Micah watched as kids hands shot up in the air. Mr. Moore called on a boy who was sitting in the back next to the boy who had been late—Mr. O’Callaghan. “Eric Halvorsen, go ahead.”

This boy—Eric, looked at Micah with a smirk on his lips, his eyebrows raised, “Are you single, Micah?”

Kids around the room started laughing as Micah felt her cheeks return to a reddened shade. “Uh, yeah,” she replied gently, looking into the boy’s green eyes before looking away quickly. He was cute too. Maybe Arizona wouldn’t be that bad.

“Sweet,” Eric smiled, winking at her subtly. Micah couldn’t help but to chuckle softly as she noticed some glares from girls around the room.

Mr. Moore called on more students and their questions were all much tamer than that Eric kid’s had been. They all asked simple questions about Vegas and the living. Many were upset that she didn’t live in a casino or the fact that she had never been to a strip club, and Micah was honestly just annoyed by the stereo type of the place she had lived for the past two years.

“Vegas honestly isn’t as great as the TV makes it seem. The only pretty thing honestly is the lights at night, but it really is just, dirty. There’s a constant haze over the sky from pollution, you smell like smoke everywhere you go, and alcohol bottles litter the street. It’s actually somewhat repulsing,” Micah finished truthfully, not painting the picture perfect seen that everyone wanted.

Micah smiled softly as she realized that no other hands were raised and she was just about to walk back to her seat when Mr. Moore called one last name, “John O’Callaghan, please keep your question appropriate for class time.”

Micah turned her gaze to the back of the room where the green eyed boy who sat in front of her was quietly residing—seeming as if he was intrigued by every word she spoke. She let her blue eyes burn gently into his and she automatically felt a connection to him; she couldn’t tear her eyes from his own.

John O’Callaghan, as Mr. Moore identified him, grinned at her, “Do you actually like The Beatles, Micah Crosby? Or are you just a poser?”

Micah looked down at her loose fitting grey, t-shirt and smirked, “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.”

She watched as John’s eyes lit up and the grin on his mouth widened. Kids around the room gave her odd looks but she could tell that the boy she spoke to understood what she was saying. John nodded his head in response, a gleam in his eyes. Mr. Moore gave Micah permission to go back to her seat. She walked back there silently, once again focusing her sight on the carpeting of the room. She took a seat in the cool blue chair in the back of the room and lifted her eyes slowly. She was met with a beautiful, bright green color of eyes.

The boy held out his large hand, “John O’Callaghan,” he smiled.

Micah took his warm hand in hers, “Micah Crosby.”

“In any way relation to David Crosby?” John questioned with a smirk on his lips.

Micah looked at the golden tan on her skin and ran a hand through her blonde hair, laughing, “Was it the long hair that gave it away? Or the moustache?”

The boy laughed quietly, trying not to get yelled at again by Mr. Moore, “I like you.”

Micah felt herself blushing at his smallest compliments. He turned to the boy next to him and nodded with his head, “This is my best friend.”

Micah looked at the boy who was on John’s right. He had short choppy brown hair and a wide toothy grin. “Hi, I’m Eric Halvorsen and I’m single,” he winked.

She laughed softly and shook his hand in hers, “Nice to formally meet you Eric.”

John gave Eric a look that Micah couldn’t understand but she watched as Eric grunted under his breath and turned away from the two. John smiled at her softly after rolling his eyes at his friend, “So, this Friday night some of us are going go-karting. You should come with us. It’s going to be a good time.”

“Yeah, uhm that’d be fun,” Micah smiled.

“O’Callaghan, turn around,” Mr. Moore laughed, returning to his lesson.

John gave Micah one last wink before turning and facing the front. Maybe Arizona wouldn’t be so bad after all.