Fall Out Girl

It was the first day of my last year in this hell hole. My plastic mask was on my face. It’s hard to be the popular one- no matter what people say. Everyone always looks up to you. And for some odd reason, everyone hated you, too. It sucked.

As I headed up the steps, I spotted Pete and remembered that Pat was supposed to show him around. “Yo, Patty-kins!”

“What do you want?” he asked, huffing beside me.

“Can you show Pete around?”

“Isn’t an SGA member supposed to?”

“Yes, but we’re all busy today and I elected you to do it.”

“You fucking suck.”

“Love ya, too! Byeness!” I ran up the last few steps and went into the office.

“Hey Emmy,” Mrs. Jacobs, the secretary, said as I walked through the doors.

“Hey, Mrs. Jacobs, and how was your summer?”

“Good. And yours?”

“It was really good.” I said with a big smile. I put my organizer behind her desk and walked into Dr. Green’s office. He was on the phone. I smiled and sat down.

“Ok, that’s great! Thank you. Goodbye.” He hung up the phone. “Good news: the mayor just increased our budget for upcoming events. I don’t know what you said to him, but thank you.”

“You’re welcome? I didn’t say anything at all, just shook his hand.”

“Well, whatever happened was a miracle. Thank you, Emmy, really. Now, you have ten minutes before the announcements go on you can just go and to drop your stuff off in Mr. Zeiger’s class-”

“Dr. Green, have you seen the hallways? I can’t go to the other side of the school and back in those halls.” He laughed.

“Ok, but you know this means that we’re going to put you to work.”

“Of course, have you had anything from the teacher’s breakfast in the lounge? The muffins are particularly good.”

“Why, no. I’ll go and do that right now.” He got up and escorted me out of his office. I skipped up to Mrs. Jacobs’ desk.

“I’ll take the phone if you do everything else.”

“No.” she said, answering the phone. The ten minutes passed by pretty quickly and I jumped up to grab the phone.

The bell rung and I waited a minute before speaking into the intercom.

“Hello, Class of 2002!!!!! This is Emmy here. Are you ready for senior-hood? I hope so, because this is going to be one hell of a year!” Dr. Green shot me a look. “Whoops, sorry Dr. Green, I’ll keep it on the DL. Ok. Teachers: despite what was said yesterday at the staff meeting, we are on normal schedule. The staff meeting today is also cancelled and, yes, it is perfectly acceptable to celebrate right now.” Dr. Green cracked up from behind me. “Upperclassmen, please be mindful of the freshmen- you were once one, too, so didn’t give me any crap. There is a mandatory Varsity football and cheerleading practice today after school. If you don’t show, then you won’t be on the squad or team. Also, competition squad is practicing, as will Marching Band. The coaches say that they’re cracking down this year. Seniors, when you get your acceptance letters and scholarship offers, please bring a photocopy of the letter to Mrs. Jacobs in the main office. If you will now rise for the national anthem and pledge to the flag.” I waited a moment. The anthem played on a pre-recorded tape. When it was finished, I slowly said the pledge. “Have a great day!”

I smiled and put the intercom down. Dr. Green nodded, a silent statement that meant I could go to homeroom. I smiled wider, grabbed my organizer, and skipped down the hall. I went into my Econ class. They cheered me in.

“Welcome, Emmy. You’re sitting in front of Mr. Wentz.” Mr. Zieger said, returning to calling role. I went and sat in front of Pete.

Amanda Conner, one of the girls’ soccer players, leaned toward me. “Did you have a fun summer? What did you and Parker do for your two years?”

“It was great!” I said. “He took me to Chicago to this new restaurant. The food was to die for! Then, we took a walk to the park, we were supposed to see the fireworks, but Pat called and I had to go home.”

“Aweh! That’s so sad! But at least you had fun.”

“Miss Stump, Miss Conner, I should not have to separate you two- you are seniors after all.”
I rolled my eyes. He started handing out the syllabus. This class was going to be so boring! Who the fuck gives a shit about Economics? I’m not going to need it, that’s for sure. All you really need to learn is Scarcity, and the Supply-Demand curves…that’s it! Forty-five minutes later, the bell rang. I took my time getting my stuff.

“Hey, Pete. What do you have next?” I asked him.

He checked his schedule. “Um, looks like Physics. Room 89.”

“Oh, that’s Patel. He’s cool. My class is on the same hall. Do you want me to show you where it is?”

“Whatever.” He said, slinging his bag on his shoulder.

I shrugged and walked to the door with him. Amanda fell in step with me as we talked on our way to AP Bio. “So, my sister’s a freshman this year.”

“That’s cool.”

“Yea, but the thing is, she’s trying to take on my identity. She joined all the clubs I’m in- well, I’m not in cheerleading- she’ll be your stalker for that.”

“Meh, she’ll grow out of it.”

“Yea.”

“Hey, Emmy!” Claire, the “geek” of the school greeted.

“Hey, Claire! Did you have a good summer?” she nodded her head. “Cool!” I looked back to see Pete dragging his ass. “Hey, Pete. This is Amanda. Be more social!”

“Hey, Pete!” Amanda greeted. Pete grunted. She looked at me. I shrugged. “Oh, well, Soccer should be interesting this year. Have you met the new coach yet?”

“Nope. And I’m not going to be in the gym until cheer practice this afternoon.”

“Oh, I heard he’s a tough ass.”

“Hm, oh well. Pete, this is your class.” I told him, pointing to the lime green door.

“Thanks, Emmy.” He said before walking through the open door.

“What’s up his ass?”

“I don’t know. He’s always been like that.”

“Oh, how’d you meet him?”

“New neighbor. He’s Mrs. Whittaker’s grandson.”

“Well that’s odd.” She said, taking a seat in the second row. I sat next to her.

Pat came in and sat behind me. “Hey, Lil’ Sis! Have you seen Pete?”

I turned to face him. “Yea, we have Econ together and he has Patel now.”

“Oh, that’s good. I was in Jasper’s with Joe. I was wondering how he would get here.”

“Yea, I showed him. Here, take the keys. I have practice today.”

“Ok, how are you getting home?”

“Parker will take me home.”

“Ok.”

“Oh, God. I have the Stump twins,” Coach Ellenberg, one of the JV football coaches exclaimed as he walked out of his office. Pat and I gave him cheeky grins.

“Aw, you know you love us, Coach E.”

Parker walked in and sat in the other seat next to me. He pecked my lips light. “Hey, Sweetie, how are you?”

“Really excited. You’re still taking me home after practice, right?”

“That’s the plan.” I smiled back to him and looked back to the board.

AP Bio was a blast. The time literally flew by and the bell rang for third period. I parted ways with Hunter, Pat and Amanda as I walked into the Psych classroom.

“Emmy, it’s great to see you again,” Ms. Taylor said. I sat in the second row next to Jake.

“We need to schedule a meeting for the freshman officer election.” He said in an authoritarian tone.

I sighed. “My only open day is next Wednesday.”

“Ok. Wednesday after school sound good?”

“Yea.” The seats filled quickly and the tardy bell sounded.

“I’m Ms. Taylor and this is Psychology. Since you are all either juniors or seniors, I expect nothing less than the best from you. Read over you syllabus at your leisure. We will be watching five films that relate to psychology: “Girl, Interrupted.” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “The Three Faces of Eve,” “Sybil,” and an educational film on the brain. You are expected to write at least a two-page paper on each film and how it correlates to the part of psychology we are focusing on at the time the film is introduced. Now, you may talk quietly amongst yourself.”

“What do you have after this?”

“SGA aide period with Angela. We have to straighten out the events calendar.”

“That sounds fun.” He said sarcastically.

“Tell me about it.” I then talked to others around me. I associated each person with their name and a particular trait that stood out to me. It is so much easier to remember them that way. The bell rang and I went to the front office to drop off my stuff in the SGA room. Angela and I sat down and sorted through the massive amount of events that various clubs were planning. The bell for second lunch dinged.

“You wanna go? All the freshmen are out.”

“Yea, sounds like a plan,” I said, bookmarking the page I was on in the giant notebook.

We walked to the cafeteria in silence and got our food. The tables were packed. I spotted Joe and Chris. “Follow me,” I said to Angela. She followed. I sat in between the two losers. “Hey guys, what’s up?” Angela sat down hesitantly on the other side of the table.

“Argh, I hate Zeiger! He’s such a loser!” Joe exclaimed.

“When do you have him?” I asked.

“Now.”

Chris and I laughed our asses off. “So sorry for you. What about you, Chris?”

“S’ok, I guess. I got Sheldon right now.”

“You actually managed to get in an AP class?”

“No, I’m re-taking junior English.”

“Oh, I forgot about that.”

I could see that Angela was clearly uncomfortable. Pat came and sat next to her. “Hey, Emmy. You’re Angela, right?” Angela nodded her head. “Cool, I’m Pat. That’s Joe and Chris.”

“Nice meeting you.”

“Aw! She’s shy! Emz, can we keep her?!” Pat said, hugging Angela.

“Pat, down boy! You’re scaring the poor girl!”

“Aw, I don’t mean anything by it. Hey, have any of you seen Willie?”

“Nah, not since we shanked him earlier.” Joe said.

“You did what?!” I yelled.

“You know we’re kidding.” Pat said, rolling his eyes. “Gosh.”

“Hey, Emmy. We have a lot of stuff to do.”

“Gar, I hate it when you’re right. Ok, see you guys later!” I said, standing up. Angela followed. We dumped our trays and headed back to the office.

“They’re…interesting.”

“Yea, but they’re all really sweet guys. It bugs me to know that they’re considered the outcasts of the school.”

“Oh.” We hit the books for the next hour. We finally managed to get everything straightened out. I walked the calendar to Dr. Green.

“Here’s the calendar for every single event happening this year and descriptions for each event.” I said, putting the massive notebook on his desk.

“Good job. Better get to fifth period.”

“Yes, sir.” I grabbed my stuff and walked to Physics with Angela.

I loved this class. Yes, we learned about physics, but we also learned how to apply them to real life…and, well, extra information on the side. Patel taught like it was a college class, which I liked.

The class soon ended and I headed down to “the dungeon” for English. Pete was again in my class, along with Parker, Ryan and Martina. Claire was also in there.

“Hey, Ms. J.”

“Hey, Emmy, I just had your brother.”

“Really? That’s odd.” I sat in the only seat- the one behind Parker. He groaned and put his head on my desk. I chuckled as I raked my fingers through his hair. We were in our own little world. Life was good. I could do this. Looking back, if I could freeze any moment of my life, this is the one I would choose, sadly, life's not like that. It could only go downhill from here.