Flicker and Snaps

'The average person will walk a length equal to walking around the world, twice, in their lifetime.'

My Gym teacher Mrs. Pringle was doing a good job at making that happen for us; except we were running not walking. Eight laps is a little extreme for me, not to mention it was a little early to be running laps! It wasn't even 9 o'clock and I had a over peppy barbie of a teacher running behind me clapping.

What was the point of clapping?

Did it make me want to run faster?

Did it make me more excited about exercise?

Did it make having Gym class first hour, okay?

No, No, and how about: No?

What was wrong with this woman? You would think that because I was new and all, that I would be given a day to put my crap away and see what the class was about. No such luck.

I have no idea why she was clapping and following me for, Cicil was about a lap behind the rest of the class, the boy showed little effort, and was generally horrible at running. That makes me wonder how he was able to sneak up on me so easy...

At first I had thought that he was simply lazy, until I saw him whip out the inhaler, apparently he has asthma. Okay, maybe I should've guessed that by the bulge in his pocket but how was I suppose to know? It was not like we sat around the kitchen table and shared secrets with each other.

I did apologize on the bus to Gage, and I tried to apologize to Cicil, but he refused to listen to me. He was angry, and from the looks he was sending me at the moment; I could tell that he was still angry at me.

I didn't blame him, I mean I know it is cheesy to say that him yelling at me opened my eyes, but it did. It doesn't mean that I am going to be all buddy-buddy with Cicil and Gage, and become their best friend, but maybe I didn't have to plan their demise?

He did give me my earplugs after all.

Okay, so I had an attitude problem, that was true, but still I was a nice person when I wanted to be. Bitchy, but still a nice person none the less. I think at least I was?

"New-Ashton and Bly, partner up on the volleyline, now," Mrs. Pringle said quickly causing everyone to stop.

I had only stopped for like five seconds before she was paring us up for something new, all over again.

"Um, I'm Smithson, not New-Ashton, please!" I said quickly correcting her as I got on the volleyline, as she said to do, waiting for my new partner to step forward as she quickly called out the other groups to the line.

The girl who got behind me was about as lanky as I was, if not more. Like me she was a shade paler than death, and thin as a rake. I lived in Chicago, so I had a reason for not having tan skin like all these southern'folks did. Unlike me she had bright blue eyes, very light blond hair, and a smile on her lips.

Walking up to me she reached out her arm holding it out, no doubt, for a handshake. Something I normally avoided... Yet, for face sake I took her hand in mine and allowed a quick, and awkward for my part, handshake.

"So, I finnaly get to meet the famous 'Jade,' Cicil has told me so much about you, I'm Karia-Lynne, Karia for short." She said, her voice thick with an accent, not the kind I was expecting though. I would've thought she'd have a southern accent, like most of the kids that lived here did, her's on the other hand, was more European.

"Um, ya, so you know Cicil? I guess it is nice to know someone who is not tanner than leather." I said shaking my head, some of these kids were down right weird looking with their deep tans, more than one looked almost orange.

It felt odd giving her so many of my precious words, but she said she was Cicil's friend- and I had to find a way back into his good graces...At least so I know he wouldn't poison me in my sleep!

"Cicil and I go way back, we've been friends since my father and I moved here in sixth-grade, he was the only person who was not horrible to me because of my accent and being new and all, that's why I am so pale, trust me I try and tan, but my skin burns worse than a ginger, I tell you!" She said gabbing away almost excessively.

I could already tell that she was not like me at all; looks aside, of course. If she wasn't so pleasant and her accent so interesting I would wonder what I'd gotten myself into. Our conversation stopped for a moment as I spotted her for her crunches.

"So, where'ya, from?" I asked guessing that it was okay to ask this.

"Sweden, my mom still lives there, after the divorce my dad took a job over here, I think he enjoyed the few extra hundreds of miles or so." She said with a strange voice. It wasn't exactly sadness that I could tell, or even anger. Her voice showed almost, in my mind at least, the sound of acceptance.

Maybe we did have more in common than I thought, although her move was far lager than mine at least.

"That sounds exotic, all I can say is I came from Chicago. Nothing special, I mean sure it is a heck of a lot bigger than this town, but with Atlanta less than an hour away, there really isn't much of a wow-factor." I said, trying to pay a compliment to her. I knew that I should've said something reassuring about her mother, but I was never good at that sort of things, so I just let it drop. Heck- It was a wonder I got so many words out, the only reason I finished what I was saying was somewhere in the middle it became thoughtless and more like emotionless dribble of facts.

"At least you didn't have to learn an entirely new language, now that was hard, I mean I'd taken English as an elective all throughout school, but coming here, I realized a little too late, if I wanted to fit in language wise I should've moved to England. I may have learned English, but it was the wrong type for here! Not only did I have my Swedish accent, but it was mixing horribly with the British dialect I was trying to use! Thank'God for Cicil, or I would still be talking in that horrible accent!" She said, having little language slip-ups, not too many, but I could tell that she was still not fully integrated.

The girl had a set of lungs, she was able to get all of that out while doing like fifty crunches! As she did them Mrs. Pringle was not over her shoulder clapping and egging her on, at the time she was bothering Cicil, who looked as though he was about to pass out. He was not doing even half the amount or half the speed of Karia, but boy was he doing the gasping for both of them.

Actually, I was kinda worried as I watched him wheeze away, I could picture his throat closing up real tight, hardly a sliver of air passing through. His poor lungs trying to pull the much needed air in, yet failing. His heart beating like a drum as he would fall over dying right in front of everyone, on an average eleven people died in a day from Asthma attacks, what made Cicil any different from the other percents? The thought was enough to give me shivers.

Blinking I realized that everyone was staring at me, in the time that I had taken to doze off into my own little space, Mrs. Pringle had called for a switch, meaning I should've been the one doing crunches. Yet, like always; I'd missed it, because I was too busy thinking about something else.

By the time I'd even realized were and when I was, Mrs. Pringle was shaking my shoulder, yelling at me to do my crunches.

This allowed a chorus of snickers and giggles from the class, except for a worried few; such as Cicil, Gage, and Karia.

Hopefully frowning, I squirmed out of her reach. Ignoring the stares I got down as quickly as I could and started my pathetic attempt at crunches.

Needless to say, P.E. sucked.

I'd hoped that Math would be better, I mean, I had really-really-really hoped it would be better.

I wouldn't have to talk in Math, I could just do the work and be happy. Yet, apparently, that was not going to happen, from the moment I stepped into the strange room, I felt unease. I knew not a single face among the crowd, and everyone was looking at me.

Looking down I had made it my mission to not run away but to make it to the front of the room and to hand my slip explaining why I was here in the first place to my teacher.

He was a broad man, with large shoulders and a full set of dark brown hair, he had a hard face that when I dared to glance at it gave me a look of questioning that made me want to walk right back out of the door.

I didn't though, that was a big thing for me. I looked confrontation right in the face and lived to tell the tale.

Looking at the sheet that I had handed him, I saw anger set in him, that made little sense.

"Debra likes to push my buttons doesn't she?" He said annoyance filling his voice as he quickly looked me up and down.

"What?" I asked totally lost.

"This is for the mathematically exceptional, you don't qualify for this class. I only want Seniors to take this class, you wouldn't last a day in here." He said quickly dropping the chalk that he had used to write a problem on the board. I watched as the chalk hit the ground, bounced up into the air, and hit it again. Bending over as he walked over to his desk I grasped the piece of chalk in my hands, not daring to look at the small group of students around me.

Coming in I had noticed that there were less than 15 in all. Small, but from what I heard from him some of the most accomplished of my school.

A knot filled my stomach as I listened to him talk angrily on the phone to Debra, the office assistant that apparently had wrongly put me in this class.

This was one of the worst things that had happened today. I felt like I was going to puke, upset my fingers began to twitch looking at the problem that I could tell he had put up to make the class fail, I felt my mind racing towards the answer.

I couldn't help it, I could not help but blurt it out. I knew it would make him even more mad, but I could not help it.

"Five," my voice broke out all scratchy, not even loud enough for him to hear over his own voice.

So I tried again,"It's five." My voice shook but was audible.

"What?" He said giving me a look as if I was wasting his time.

"The answer to the problem is five," I said pushing confidence in my voice.

"How did you... Um, one moment Jade," He said quickly turning back to the phone he quickly whispered a hushed apology and hung up turning back to me his eyes were overtly large.

"Who gave you the answer?" He said quickly looking behind me for someone to fess up, no one did, because no one had given me the answer.

"No one, I figured it out in my head." I refuted more confident now.

"Fine, although I doubt it, if you got that one, try this one," he said erasing the problem and writing one twice as large as the one he had on before.

squeezing the chalk in my hand I lightly lifted it up and down as I mentally did the problem, annoyed I realized that I was off somewhere, but not being able to check it I zipped past it hoping for the best, calling out my answer I saw him smile for the first time since I had arrived in class.

"The answer was 14.42 but 14.41 is close enough for me, welcome to the class, take a seat right here in the front." His voice traveled with a pitch of excitement, after seeing me work out such a detailed long problem in my head.

He'd meant to embarrass me but in the end was won over. That, was a good feeling indeed.

The class time went quicker than I would have liked, filled with lovely problems that had a calming effect on me.

By time I moved on to Spanish I was in a pleasant mood, I was even able to give Karia a smile as she called me over to sit next to her in class.

Sure we worked on our congregations, but really we just talked. It was easy to tell that she had a crush on Cicil, the amount of times she would bring him up as we talked. She also liked to talk about Gage a bit as well, it was hard to tell who she had more of a crush on Gage or Cicil.

Okay, so befriending the girl who had a big ass crush on both of my new step-brothers was not something I should be doing. This would cause problems in the end, but she was one of the only people to talk to me.

This school was small, everyone had been friends since they were in kindergarten, I was a stranger, and not well cared for.

I would take my friends where I could get them, that's for sure. I was not a social person, but even I wouldn't last here without any friends.

"Jade, so like I was saying, you are more than welcome to sit with Cicil and me at lunch." Her voice dripped into my thoughts holding what I was thinking true, she was nice, but not smothering.

"Sure, that would be nice, um, so you were talking about your dad?" I said trying to add what had dripped into my thoughts earlier.

"Oh-Ya! He is the local doctor, I help him out a bit, we live on a farm about five or so miles from your house." She said quickly writing something in her notebook, ripping it out she handed it to me, "It's my phone number in case you need patching up or want to go to the mall or something." She said leaving the conversation open for discussion later on. Taking her number I stuffed it in my notebook, making note in my mind to write it down somewhere.

"So you live on a farm?" I asked wondering a bit about it, I had never been on a farm before.

"Ya, ya'know the usual, a cow, a few chickens, hogs, cats, dogs, ducks, the whole works." She said brushing it off.

"No horse?" I asked laughing as I watched her face twitch.

"Actually we have three and a foal! It is only a month old, I have a lot of chores of course, but I love it, I like living here much more than Sweden, what about you? Do you like living in that old spooky mansion of a house?" She asked a laugh in her voice as well.

"I am not sure, I think I like Chicago more, but... Ya'never know right? Wait- what do you mean about the house?" I asked giving her a laughable look. Really, though I did not think I would like anywhere more than Chicago.

"Your house is crazy scary! It creeps me out, big time." She said shaking her said as she jokingly grabbed her shoulders and gave a mock shiver.

"It's fine, why do you think it has ghosts?" I asked almost laughing as I quickly wrote down one of the conjugations.

"I don't believe in ghosts, but you have to admit that at night when it's storming that it is kinda scary." She said shaking her head as if she knew from experience how the house could get.

"I haven't been here long, it hasn't really stormed yet... But, I'll be sure to now keep that in mind, thanks." I said sighing deeply as I packed my things up so I could leave for my next class: Anatomy.

That was not a good note to leave on, I tell you! My mind swam with the endless possibilities of her statement. Lucky for me my next teacher was kind, allowing me to be partners with someone I actually knew, Cicil.

Putting on my protective clothing I noticed that the class was already headlong into the dissection of a pig. Cicil was not mad at me now, because he was very kind about running me through what we were suppose to be doing. For now he had me read out loud some of the instructions from the book, and had me catch up with what we were suppose to have done over the week, I noticed that he also had a textbook in front of him telling him which ever way he needed to cut. What made this weird was that after turning to the page, Cicil bent over reaching into his book bag he pulled out a glasses case and I watched as he put on a pair of black framed reading glasses.

I didn't know that he needed glasses, I also didn't know that he had Asthma though, so I should not have been surprised at this this development.

"Ahum?" the voice startled me, causing me to look away from Cicil to take note of the two across from us, the lab desks being large enough to hold two groups for the dissection.

The girl of the group had made the noise. I was not unfamiliar with either the boy or the girl, both I'd noticed were friends of Gage, I remember he had introduced us on the bus, the girl's name was Rosa and the boy was Benedict.

"Yes?" I answered halfheartedly as I looked back down to the page Cicil had asked me to read.

"Jade-Darling, you are soooooo lucky to have Cicil as your lab partner, he's one of the nerdiest kids in class you'll definitely get an 'A'." Rosa said laughing at her comment, I watched as Cicil flinched but said nothing to her words.

"If Jade's getting an 'A' then we all know that I am going to get a 'F', Rosa-Darling." Benedict said running his fingers through his dirty-blond hair as a smirk entered his face. Biting my lip I held in a deep breath, it had taken me a moment but I easily noticed how good looking Benedict was.

Unnaturally good looking.

He had the hottest looking blue eyes I'd ever seen, Karia's had been clear, but Benedict and Rosa's blue eyes looked almost unnatural, they were a mixture of many different blues, specks of gold and purple among other colors were present in their eyes as well. I was flabbergasted, those eyes, were so haunting yet undeniably dreamy as well.

I could not help but let out a cheesy laugh to what he said, for the moment, not even noticing that he hadn't really stood up for Cicil at all. I was too fixed on those eyes...

The southern accent had never sounded so good to me in my life. The way it flowed in and out as he spoke made me crazy, even as he insulted his sister Rosa, I could not help but be bewitched by him.

It wasn't long before I was completely off task talking to them both. Not that I liked Rosa at all, her comment had blown it for her, but Benedict had me hooked.

"Jade, you really need to read the section, or you won't know where we're at." Cicil said cutting into Benedict and I's conversation.

A ping of annoyance filled me, but I allowed it to pass as I nodded to Cicil and apologized to Benedict going back to read the section before me.

I was actually really thankful that Cicil was my partner as I left Anatomy going down to the cafeteria, because I was totally lost with the class.

God really had a sense of humor didn't he?

Chicken fried steak was for lunch today; note to self, I gotta' pack my lunch tomorrow.

Looking around I was quickly able to find Cicil and Karia sitting at a table, I am not sure why but I was shocked that Gage was not sitting with them, although Gage and Cicil seemed to be close they had little interaction, from what I could tell, at school.

Looking quickly back at Gage who was at the end of the lunch line I walked away towards the table Karia and Cicil were sitting at, only to be stopped half way by Rosa and Benedict.

"Jade, there you are! We were looking for you, you need to totally sit with us." Rosa said grabbing my arm, pulling away I turned to face her a puzzled look on my face.

"Karia asked me to sit with her." I replied blandly.

"I'm sure she did, she likes to roll out the welcoming committee, but really, I am sure you would rather sit with us, don't feel obligated to preform charity in her case." Rosa said a smile on her face as she openly bashed the one person who I'd felt had been generally a good person, and nice to me.

I watched as Benedict laughed loudly at what Rosa had said, a smile on his face as he nodded in agreement.

I'll give it to him, he's cute- but not that cute.

"I think I'd rather sit with her, thank you for your offer though," I said lightly brushing her off as I walked away.

Over my shoulder I heard her send me some final words,"have fun," before I was out of earshot and closer to the table.

Only four people including Cicil and Karia sat at the table, the other two were an Asian boy and an African American girl, who looked a bit younger than the rest of us.

"Jade, there you are, this is Marcy, and Hyun-Ki," Karia said introducing me to the others, only seconds after the boy's interesting name left Karia's mouth, the boy interjected.

"Just call me Greg, please," He said groaning as he said it. I could tell easily that he did not like his name.

"Greg, when are you going to get into your Korean Heritage? Your grandparents spent forever picking that name out, to present it to your mom, you are the first born after all, and how will your little brother come to respect his culture if his older brother denies it so?" Asked Marcy as she linked her arm with his.

"My brother does not have to have such an awful name, really, Robert is no where near as different as Hyun-Ki! We can't all obsess over our past like you Marcy." Greg said shaking his head as he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, obviously they were a couple.

Placing my things down next to Karia I listened as they fought on the subject for a while. After a few moments I looked around taking notice how Cicil and Karia's knees were brushing under the table, and how she would give him sideways glances over her lunch box as he unknowingly listened to Marcy and Greg's conversation.

The girl had a huge crush on him, I could not deny it. I could not deny it one tiny ounce. She had fallen hard for my reclusive, cute, and kinda geeky new step-brother. Good for her.

Looking down I wrinkled my nose. Karia had out the weirdest lunch I had ever seen, even with the crap that I had ate down here, this was disgusting.

"What is that?" I asked repulsed at the mixture of lettuce, fish, and god'knows'what'else!

"Swedish herring salad, my mom use to make it for me all the time back home, it's nice to have something like this when I am feeling a little homesick ya'know." Karia said brushing off my comment as she took a bite out of her blob of a lunch.

"She has the weirdest appetite, we have to get her, her own pizza because no one can stand the smell of anchovies and garlic! Speaking of which, party at our house this weekend, when the 'rents are away the kids will play! You know what that means, Marcy I think it's your turn to spring for pizza." Gage said taking a bite out of his ham sandwich.

"Wait, does Chad know you are having a party, when mom and him are in Chicago for the weekend?" I asked knowing that most likely the answer was no, mom would want no stress as she and Chad got the last of the items from the house and signed the appropriate papers.

"Does Chad ever know?" Marcy said laughing knuckle punching Greg before she took a bite out of a salad. That answered the question really well for me.

"What kind of party are we having?" I asked unsure of what was ahead of me.

"Depends on which party you go to." Cicil replied as he took a sip out of his Dr. Pepper.

"There's more than one party?" I asked confused.

"Ya, Gage has a big sweaty sex filled kegger thing for the jocks and the cheerleaders, and then the four of us have our own party down in the old slave cabins." Greg said before he stole a chip from Marcy's bag.

"How does Chad not find out?" I asked giving him an odd look, really, I had to doubt that Chad would not find out about it.

"The grace of god, and the fact that I am smart enough to lock up almost the entire house before hand, having only like two or three rooms open makes clean up for him a lot easier." Cicil said rolling his eyes as he took another bite of his sandwich.

"What goes on at you guy's party?" I asked curious.

"Um, basically we all bring our sleeping bags, one of us brings the food, music, drinks, and anything extra. Then we just hang out and watch movies, play some games, relax. The old cabins are refurnished, they have electricity, air conditioning and all that, it's really nice." Karia said smiling as she talked about my house knowing more about it than I did.

I had to admit I'd seen little besides my bedroom and darkroom.

I really needed to go home and look at the entire house.

"Why did you get those rooms furnished anyways Cicil?" Greg asked suddenly in between eating all of Marcy's chips.

"Chad thought that he might as well, I think he was going to see about having them rented out in the future, I don't know. He just enjoys updating the house." Cicil said rolling his shoulders lightly as he took another drink of his pop.

"We need to find a new meeting place though," Marcy whined suddenly, I watched as everyone rolled their eyes, I knew I would regret it but I had to ask anyways.

"Why?" said suddenly, watching as her eyes darted to me.

"Hello, it is disgraceful, the buildings should be torn down! Slaves had to live in poor conditions there, it's horrible, every time I go there I can literally feel their pain! The house has to be cursed! As for that Cicil and Gage have to be cursed, it was their family that built that plantation with slave labor!" Marcy suddenly cried out, anger filling her face.

Oh, boy, she was a superstitions one, I actually saw her throw salt over her shoulder when she knocked over the shaker at the table!

"Here we go again. Curses aren't real Marcy, no matter what mumbo-jumbo you say is true, I find it hard to believe." Karia said laughing at Marcy.

"Well, just look at what happened to his family, all the people who have died over the years, not to mention how sick Cicil is all the time!" Marcy complained, not even looking at Karia anymore she was now focused on me, and Greg. I watched as Greg sheepishly looked away.

I kept eye contact with her though," There is no curse Marcy, you are acting crazy again." Cicil said letting out a deep breath.

"How do you explain your health, and what happened to your parents, and Gage's mom, and Lacy then?" Marcy said annoyance written on her face.

"Marcy, I think it is time you shut up now." Greg suddenly said interrupting her rant.

Now I was interested, who was Lacy?

"Ya, Marcy, I think it is time for us to go anyways." Cicil said grabbing her arm he lead the disgruntled girl out of the room before I could figure out what was going on.

Sighing I threw my hardly touched lunch away and quickly walked to my next class: Computers.

Gage was in this class giving me time to talk to him for once in the day, I had half a notion to ask him who Lacy was but from the look on Cicil's face when Marcy brought it up, I thought better than to. Instead I asked him about his party.

"Ya' my parties are a real blast, you would have a lot of fun you should really come." Gage said his voice filled with excitement as he told me about the things he did at his parties.

"I might come for a little bit, but I thought I would go to Cicil's party this time." I replied shrugging my shoulders as I went back to typing.

Gage had nodded and had sounded happy when I told him that. Content we both worked on our homework in silence as we waited for class to end.

Nothing interesting happened the next hour in History as well, it was simple I had the class with Cicil, but I had a lot of catching up to do so I had little time to talk to him and was eager for my favorite class to begin; Art.

Walking into Art I could not help but have a spring in my step, and a smile on my face. Although my teacher said that we were working with Charcoal and not photography at the moment, I was happy to comply and work on something for my portfolio which needed a little dusting up.

I was even more happy when I realized that the only seat open was next to Benedict.

Is it hot in here or is it just him?

Okay, so at first I was a little mad at him for how he had treated Karia, but the boy loved my photography, which he'd seen when we switched portfolios for a moment.

Not to mention his portfolio was amazing! Even better than mine dare I say it. Plus, I could not get past his eyes and voice, so hot.

"So, Jade I am going to see you at Gage's party right? I mean you live there, we should ya'know hang out or something?" Benedict asked suddenly pulling me out of my dreamy art world.

"Sure, I will be there for a while, but I am going to go and hang out with Cicil and his friends at their party for most of the night." I replied shrugging as I slashed a line across my white paper with the black charcoal.

"Why are you wasting your time with the GeekSquad?" He asked suddenly pulling me away from my drawling.

"They are not Geeks, and I happen to like them more than your fake sister." I said growling defensively, I may not be friends with them yet, but I really like those four.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset, I was just asking, can you forgive me? I get my sharpness from Rosa sometimes." Benedict said laughing slightly, as he melted me with his eyes.

I had to wonder if it was magic that made me melt so easily, then again magic isn't real, is it?