In My Arms

“So how did it go?” Brian asked me when I got home. I sat down on the couch and turned on the TV.
“Fine.” I said shortly.
“Do you like the person?” He asked trying to start a conversation.
“Yeah, he’s alright.” I said flipping through the guide.
“Are you going back?” He asked.
“Three times a week.” I muttered.
“It can’t be that bad.” Zacky said sitting next to me. I shrugged my shoulders, not really wanting to talk about it.
“Hey Kasey?” Matt asked as he sat down too.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“What school did you go to before I adopted you?” He asked.
“Valley Village.” I said. It was a nice school. I had a couple friends, but not best friends. The teachers were nice and so were most of the kids.
“What grade were you in?” he asked.
“Eighth.” I said.
“Well now that you’re living with me you’ll have to go to a closer school.” He said. I wasn’t really disappointed. Actually, I kind of liked the idea of starting over.
“Where?” I asked interested.
“Well there’s a couple of schools around here. We went to Huntington Beach High School. But there’s also Marina High School, Edison High School, and some private school.” He said.
“Did your teachers like you?” I asked.
“Well…” Matt said.
“We were…” Brian began.
“And they didn’t…” Johnny said.
“No not really.” They all muttered.
“I’ll go to Marina High School than.” I smiled.
“Aww why not Huntington Beach High School? They liked me.” Zacky whined.
“That’s only because Mrs. Aiken had some type of weird old lady crush on you.” Matt laughed.
“At least I actually passed her class the first time!” He shot back.
“Why don’t you want to go to our old school?” Jimmy asked walking in.
“I don’t want my teachers to hate me because of you guys.” I laughed.
“They won’t hate you.” Matt said.
“Fine, I’ll go to your old high school.” I gave in.
“This means you get to go school shopping!” Jimmy shouted.
“When do I start school?” I asked Matt.
“I’m not sure. I’ll call the school and find out.” Matt said. I nodded my head and went back to watching TV.
Jimmy’s P.O.V.
“Hey Jimmy?” Matt asked me as I was in the kitchen getting a beer.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“Do you mind taking Kasey to the mall? I hate the mall.” He said.
“Sure.” I said.
“Thanks. Here’s my credit card. Get her whatever she wants. If it’s sparkly buy it, if it’s fluffy buy it. I want this credit card company calling be scared.” He said handing it over.
“Will do.” I smiled.
“Make sure to get her a laptop, phone, and ipod.” He reminded me. I nodded my head and went to find Kasey. But before we left, Matt pulled me aside.
“And remember, don’t lose her this time.” He smiled.
“Haha. Very funny.” I said sarcastically. When Kasey and I got to the mall, we first went to buy clothing. Then we got her a new bag, and some school supplies. The last thing we went searching for was a laptop, phone, and Ipod. When we finally got home, Kasey was even more excited about school.
Kasey’s P.O.V.
“Dad! Come look what I got!” I shouted as I ran into the house.
“What did you get?” He smiled. I sat down in the living room with the few bags I had, while Jimmy brought in the rest.
“This is the laptop I got.” I said pulling it out of the box.
“Nice.” He said.
“I know it’s so pretty! Can you set it up?” I asked sticking my lip out.
“Sure.” He said taking it from me.
“And look at all the clothes I got.” I said pulling them out of the bags.
“You’re gonna be the best dressed kid at school.” Zacky said.
“And this is my new phone. Who wants to set his up?” I asked smiling.
“I’ll do it.” Johnny offered.
“I think you should know that Johnny has gone through 9 cell phones in the past year.” Jimmy said. I looked to Johnny and stuck my hand out.
“Hand it over.” I said. There was no way I was going to let him break it. Once he gave it back, I handed it over to Jimmy and he began to set it up.
“Did you find out when I start school?” I asked Matt.
“You’re going in on Friday to take a couple tests. And then if you’re on target then you’ll start on Monday.” He said.
“Ok.” I said.
*****
“Well after going over your test results, I’ve concluded that you are far ahead of your class.” Mrs. Chambers, the school principle said.
“So what does that mean?” Matt asked her.
“It means that instead of starting ninth grade, you can skip ahead to tenth grade.” She smiled.
“Awesome.” I said. She handed me papers and I looked at them.
“All you two need to do is sign these papers, and I can get you your schedule.” She said. After I signed my part, I handed them back to my dad to sign.
“Our school is very different from other schools. Instead of six classes a day all year long, we have our students take three or four classes for one semester. And there are two semesters in a year. You will need to take a math class, science class, history class, English class, language class, and an elective throughout the year to complete the requirements. If you would also like to take two extra classes you may. If you take three classes you will get out of school at 1:12, but if you take four classes you will get out at 3:06.” She said.
“What classes will she be taking this semester?” Matt asked.
“That’s up to you. Just take a look at this course schedule and tell me which classes you would like.” She said handing me a paper. I looked over the sheet and circled three classes for this semester.
“Alright I’ll go process this and get your program card. I’ll also have someone show you two around the campus.” She said and walked out. A few minutes later, she returned with my program card and girl that seemed like a year or two older than me.
“This is Emma, she’s going to show you two around.” She said and handed us off to her.
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you, I’m Matt and this is Kasey.” Matt told her.
“It’s nice to meet you two. I’m a junior here. We’ll start the tour off at the front of the school.” She smiled. We walked with her to where we entered the school.
“This is the main entrance to the school. Once school begins all the other gates are locked and they don’t open them until school lets out. To your right is the senior lawn. We have Huntington Day there, which is just school spirit day. This is the Main Building where there are three sets of staircases in the building that lead to the second floor. The library is also on the second floor. The first floor holds the main office, counselor’s office, nurse’s office, and the dean’s office.” She said as we walked into the main building. Then she led us down the hall to the left and out of the building.
“Here are some classrooms, and then the last building is Suffle Hall. Now I’ll show you to the gym lockers and the gyms.” She said. We walked down to flights of stairs and came to a couple small buildings.
“Here is the big gym. Straight back are the boys PE locker room. Over there is the small gym, and the girls locker room is to the side of that. The gap between the gyms and the Main hall is where a lot of kids hang out during lunch. Then we have some old lunch tables and cafeteria. We now use the cafeteria inside another building so unless you’re in band, you probably won’t come to these tables. Speaking of band, that’s the band room. If I were you I would stay away from it during second period because that’s when they practice. And they sound like dying cats.” She laughed. I laughed and nodded my head.
“The stairs going up to Quad is where a lot of the skaters hangout. And we have pep rallies on the quad. Next to the quad is the auditorium. Past the cafeteria and the auditorium are the bungalos. And then the football field and the baseball field are right next to the gyms. That’s basically it. Any questions?” She asked stopping.
“How are the teachers?” Matt asked.
“Most of them are pretty cool. But if you’re going to be taking any science classes, stay away from Mrs. Parkman, she fails over three fourths of her students.” She warned me.
“What about the kids? What are they like?” I asked.
“Well one thing you’ll like is that there is no campus ‘it’ couple and there is no top of the food chain. For the most part everyone treats each other equally unless you’re extremely geeky. But that’s not to say that we don’t have cliques. It’s just that people know different people in different cliques, so we all learn to be tolerant of everyone else’s friends.” She said. This school sounded amazing so far. I couldn’t wait to start.
“How is the school food?” Matt asked.
“Unless you want to get sick, I suggest you bring your own lunch. That’s what almost everyone does. But if you look out, you might find a couple classrooms that are selling food. Also look out for people with gym bags, they normally sell too.” She said.
“Cool.” I said simply.
“So do you guy’s have any more questions?” She asked both of us.
“No, I’m good, You?” I asked my dad. He shook his head no.
“Ok then. I’ll just walk you guys back to the Main Office and let Mrs. Chambers take it from there.” She said. As we walked back to the office we passed by a few classrooms that were open. There was a guy who was sitting by the door who caught my eye, and he winked at me. To me it was extremely funny.
“Thanks Emma.” I said once she handed us over to Mrs. Chambers.
“No problem, it was great meeting you. And if you need someone to hang out with at lunch tomorrow, I’ll be in the cafeteria.” She said and smiled.
“Ok, I’ll definitely look for you.” I smiled. At least I would know someone. About twenty minutes later, we were walking back to the car with my program card and new books. I had English for first period, Photography for second, and history for third.
“So what do you think?” He asked me as I climbed into the car.
“It seems interesting. I can’t wait to start.” I said happily.
“That’s great!” He said and kissed my forehead.