I Just Wanna Be Bad Enough For You

“Wake up honey,” I heard my mom say calmly from the door way. She flipped the lights on and walked over to my bed. Waking up this early was not apart of the plan. I pulled my comforter over my head to try to block the light from my closed eyes. My mom positioned herself on the edge of my mattress and tried to coax me out of my slumber.

“Can’t I just skip today? We just moved in yesterday. Forcing me to go to school today is a crime.” I know that no matter what I say my parents will not let me skip. But, I can try - can’t I? My parents are those typical nice and understanding parents, but they strive for me to be the valedictorian type. Which, I am totally not. So skipping school without a completely valid reason is a definite no-no.

“Honey,” my mom stroked my hair,” you are going to love it here. The school apparently has a very good honors program. And last night the family from next door came over to introduce themselves, they have a daughter that is only two years younger than you.”

“Mom!” I shot up immediately. “You can not expect me to be friends with a sophomore. If I am going to try to salvage any sort of social life here I need to make friends with kids my own age. Being a new kid is hard enough. Coming in senior year as a new kid is going to be almost impossible.”

“You are being over dramatic,” she stated in a matter-of-fact tone. She shook her head before getting up and leaving my room.

I fell back onto my bed face first and screamed. How could my mom just expect me to just pick up my life in Texas and move to Baltimore, Maryland of all places. I know, I know. I should be happy that my dad got this big opportunity in D.C. to be the head architect for whatever the hell they were building. I understand that this project is going to take like five years or whatever, but I was so close to being done with high school. Couldn’t my just have waited like one more year to move out here? Who cares about my brother. He is just now going into middle school so it’s not like he had a social life before we left. I had to leave all my best friends behind, and my boyfriend of two years. Of course, he didn’t think he could handle the distance so we broke up.

I threw the covers off of my body and swung my legs to the side of the bed. I stood up to reveal my tiny frame that was only covered in a t-shirt and a pair of underwear. I walked over to my desk to check my Facebook and turn on some music.

“I've been waiting for a good day

I've been holding back long enough

I've been hurting to tell you some things

It's not the falling of the temperature

That's making all our bones run cold

It's the breeze you make

The presence felt when you're around me.”

I was spinning around in circles and dancing along to the New Found Glory song when I spotted my little brother standing in the door way.

“Perve!” I screamed as I ran over to the door. I managed to slam the door shut with out crushing any of his fingers. “UGH!” I let out in frustration. I ran my fingers through my long, blonde layers.

I walked over to the stack of boxes labeled ‘CLOTHES’ and started to sort through trying to find something presentable to wear. I decided on an all-black ensemble that included a pair of black skinny jeans, a black loose-fitted shirt, and a black sweater that drapped in the front. I grabbed my black combat boots from under my bed and laced them up. I applied my typical gray eyeshadow along with the everyday mascara and eyeliner.

“Done,” I mumbled to myself.

I took my time towards the kitchen. The last thing I want to do is sit with my whole family at 7:30 AM and have them try to converse with me. I am not normally cranky in the morning, but I really don’t want to go to school today. And my mom is just a little too perky for my taste.

“What are you wearing Mackenzie?” My mother stood with her hands on her hips glaring at me.

“You might want to focus on not burning those pancakes mom,” I informed her. I took a seat next to my brother at the counter.

“You are not wearing that to school today young lady.” My mom was trying to be way too controlling. Why can’t I wear whatever the hell I want? I am seventeen. She placed two pancakes on my plate with out looking at me.

“And why not?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. I leaned back in my seat and raised my eyebrows at her. She can’t expect me to want to put on a pretty floral dress and prance around school all day. And, you’d think by now she would realize that I wear a lot of black clothing to begin with.

“Because no one is going to want to talk to you if you look...” She was now waving her arms around in the air trying to think of how to finish the sentence.

“Like I want to kill myself?” I questioned.

“Mackenzie Grace!” She screeched at me.

“What do you really expect mom? You take me away from my home, my best friends and my boyfriend. You want me to be happy about it? Because I am not in anyway shape or form happy about it. You are lucky I even got out of bed,” I explained. “Plus, today just felt like the perfect day to wear all black. I am going to reinvent myself. I am already committing social suicide by even showing up at this dumb school anyways.”

“You are being so over dramatic. Go change before you are late to school.”

“Mom. That is kind of the point,” I informed her.

“Go change or I will take away your phone and laptop so you wont be able to talk to your friends, your allowance so you wont be able to buy any new clothes, and your car so you wont be able to leave the house.”

“Fine.”

I stomped up the stairs, trying to be as loud as possible. I changed into a flowy, maroon, floral tank top that hit a little above my waist and found a dark grey cardigan at the bottom of one of the boxes. And then I exchanged my combat boots for a pair of black wedges. This would have to do. I grabbed my phone off of the charger and threw it in my bag before heading back to the kitchen.

“Happy?” I snapped at my mom.

“Yes,” she stated simply. “Now, you better get going. You don’t want to be late for school.” She was just trying to push my damn buttons.

The used, black 2002 Camry would just have to do. My old car would not have made it from Dallas to Baltimore. I threw my bag in the passenger seat and slid into the little car. There was a hot pink post-it note on the dashboard with the directions to the school scribbled down. I put the car in reverse and took a left out of the driveway. After driving down Hartfell Rd I took a right onto Padonia Rd. I recognized all of the school traffic immediately. Not a bad drive at all, what all of four minutes? I could see all of the freshman's’ over-protective parents dropping them off at school and then all the seniors already declaring their parking spot for the year. After waiting five minutes just to pull into the damn school I found a parking spot near the back of the lot. The less I was noticed, the better. I gathered my belongings are quickly walked to the front office.

I could sense people’s eyes on me as I hurried down the crowded hallways. I safely made it to the front office before the bell rang. I sighed to myself and approached the woman sitting at the front desk.

“Hello,” the woman stated warmly. Her curly red hair was halfway pinned up and she had a pen tucked behind her ear. When she smiled at me I actually felt slightly at ease. At least the administration weren’t complete bitches.

“My name is Mackenzie Roberts. I’m new here,” I explained to her. My eyes looked over the walls of the office as the woman nodded and went back into an office to search for something. I turned around and leaned my elbows on the counter. There were a few photos of the teachers of the year and some trophies from random sports.

“Here you are Miss Mackenzie. Your first class is Drawing & Painting I with Ms. Brodeaur. Take the stairs outside of this door and it will be to your left,” she told me as she handed my a sheet of paper with all of my classes printed on it. I thanked her before leaving the office.

It didn’t take my long to find the classroom, but I decided that I would explore the campus a little bit before introducing myself to my new classmates. In about twenty minutes I was able to locate all of my classes and my locker. I didn’t have a lot to put in my locker, but for future reference.

“Excuse me, Miss?” I heard a man’s voice from behind me.

“Yes?” Oh shit. It was the principle. I flashed an innocent smile.

“Are you lost?” He asked politely as he came up to me.

“Actually, I am.” I explained that I was new and couldn’t find my Drawing & Painting class. He didn’t hesitate at all to walk me to the classroom.

He opened the door for me. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes before walking in. The teacher stopped talking and all the students stared at me. And then I heard a whistle from the back of the room. Soon the whole class was laughing. My face was turning bright red from the attention that was being thrown at me. I spotted an empty seat at a table in the back of the room and quickly claimed it.

The girls sitting at the table seemed already have the titles of each other’s best friends so I just smiled politely and pulled out my notebook without taking a second glance at them. I could feel their eyes glaring into my skull. The teacher obviously could care less that I was new or that I was late. She picked up right where she left off, reviewing the syllabus.

“Hi. I’m Emma,” the curly haired brunette said to me.

“Mackenzie.” I looked up at her to see a genuine smile.

She turned back around to face the teacher. I continued to half ass pay attention and sketch in my notebook. The whole class period the table behind me was cracking jokes and laughing inappropriately. When I took a glance at them there were two guys and two girls sitting at the table. It looked like the tall, lanky boy was dating the blonde and the shorter guy was dating the brunette. Otherwise, those girls would not have been laughing like brainless bimbos.

I pretty much bolted out of the class room. Emma seemed nice and all, but she was wearing a cheerleading outfit. I normally don’t get along with cheerleaders that well. Maybe it’s because my ex-boyfriend cheated on me with the captain of our squad back home. When I took a quick right out of the classroom my face met some one’s chest. I then managed to drop my notebook and pen on the ground. When I went to pick them up, so did he. We bumped heads and I fell on my ass.

He started laughing hysterically. “Sorry,” he managed to squeeze out in between laughs.

“OWW,” I emphasized as I grabbed my pen and notebook. “Well are you going to help me up?”

“Sassy.” He held out his hand and I spitefully took it to pull myself off of the dirty tile. I could feel the callus's on his finger tips. I plastered a fake smile on my face as I looked at him. To my surprise he was not bad looking at all. But after laughing at me I don’t know if I really want to talk to him. So after getting myself dusted off I stepped away and continued down the hall to my next class, AP Literature.