Saturate

Angel Jane Dennison rushed to the high school. The damned forecast called for sunny skies and high eighties. Fucking bull shit, a sudden down pour just hit as soon as she arrived on the high school campus. She made it into the halls and began heading towards her locker. She shook out her hair really quick which was a red color this time.

She decided that her natural color looked better than any other color. She sighed as she was walking down towards her locker. Then she accidentally ran into some guy. He was pretty tall, he had a slim physique with broad shoulders. He had short black-brown hair and bright brown eyes that were cast downward.

What caught Angel by surprise was how he seemed to be somewhere else as he bent down to pick up the books that fell from his hands. She picked one up and handed it to him. "I'm sorry..." She started.

"It's fine." He said as he took the book from her hand as he stood and began walking away.

She watched him leave and then found her locker. She opened it up and grabbed her notebook that she had forgotten over the summer when she attended extra classes.

"So AJ, you coming to class?" Asked Raquel as she stood by her friend.

"What do you think?" AJ asked as she looked up at her friend Raquel.

Raquel was a very interesting person. She was your typical rich kid in a sense. Her parents had bought her older sister a brand new car for graduating and getting into a good school. But Raquel and her sister were quite different. Raquel was smart, not just academically but wordly.

She was short with straight blond hair and blue eyes that shined all the time. And her sister was a bit taller with brown hair. AJ never really talked to her though, not as much as she did Raquel.

"I was just asking. Anyway, I was wondering about something..." Raquel said as she turned her whole body towards her friend.

"And what might that be?" AJ inquired as she grabbed a thick book from her locker and began searching through the text.

"Well, I've been thinking..." Raquel started as she rolled her eyes up.

"Damn, that must've hurt." AJ retorted as she extracted her assignment from the book and put it on the ground.

"Shut up, anyway have you ever thought about having a boyfriend?" Raquel asked as she crossed her arms.

"No. Unless he can play the guitar well, write decent songs that have deeper meanings, maybe we'll talk." AJ said as she replaced the book inside her locker.

"God, you're such a snob." Raquel said as she pulled out her compact and fixed her lip gloss.

"No, I just don't want to waste my time." Said AJ as she slammed her locker shut.

"And some how you do so everyday." Said Aaron as he rushed up behind AJ slyly.

"Shit! You scared the hell out of me Aaron." Said AJ as she shoved him.

"Sorry, but I wanted to see if I could steal this girl from you." He said with a huge grin as he motioned towards Raquel. He was a little taller than AJ, which wasn't saying much. But his frame was small, but toned. His brown hair was always left on it's own as his brown eyes sparkled.

"Yeah, what do I care? She's just annoying me anyway." Said AJ as she waved a hand at Raquel.

"That's so mean, I don't like you." Said Raquel as she glared and pointed at AJ.

AJ just laughed as Aaron dragged her away. She turned and headed the other way as she walked towards her first class. She sighed and entered the room which was filled with preppy bitches and jocks. Of course there were the occaisonal "loners" but most were fakes. She took a seat near the back.

Usually some guy sat in front of her but since he started dating Shelly, the head cheerleader, he sat by her. Instead, the guy that she had run into was in front of her. He was hunched over his notebook busily writing something.

She poked him in the back and he turned around. "Look, I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't look where I was going." She apologized once again.

"It's fine. I wasn't paying attention either." He said quietly.

She smiled, "I'm Angel. But my friends call me AJ."

"I'm Ben." He said with a smile.

"Ben, that's a nice name." AJ said with a nod.

"Thanks. So what does the "J" stand for?" Ben inquired as he turned more towards her.

"Jane. Angel Jane, I think it's a weird name combination." AJ said with a shrug.

"Not at all." He said with a weak smile.

AJ had to look down as she felt her heart twitch. First day of high school, and she already had a crush, and on a junior. "Thanks. So whatcha writing?" She asked as she tried to hide her burning cheeks beneath her palms.

"Nothing. Just some song ideas." He said as he closed his notebook and turned back towards her.

She watched as Aaron walked in with Raquel, they looked unusually happy about something. "So what are your songs about?" She asked as she focused back onto his warm honey brown eyes.

"Uh... well nothing in general. Just weird things that happened to me." Ben replied with a shrug.

"Oh, do you have a band or something?" AJ asked hoping that there was. It would give her more of a reason to see him.

"No. I'm kinda too shy for that." Said Ben as he looked down at his shoes.

"Oh..." Said AJ. "Excited for the first day?" She asked as she tried to change the subject.

"Yeah. Then after this year is over I'll have one more year left." Said Ben as he sighed.

"I know the feeling. So what kind of classes do you have?" She asked as she removed her palms from her cheeks as they were no longer flushed.

"Um... Band, Creative Writing, Geometry, Chemistry, PE and some other classes that I have to talk to the counselor about." Ben replied as he took a look at his schedule.

"Interesting." AJ said with a nod.

"What about you?" Ben asked as he tucked his schedule back into his notebook.

"Well I've got about the same plus Choir, and Beginning Voice." AJ said with shrug as she leaned back in her seat.

"Oh, so you like to sing?" Ben asked as he cocked an eyebrow.

"Yeah." Said Angel as she pulled out a notebook.

"That's cool." Ben said with a smile.

They turned when they heard the door open and the teacher walked in, "Good morning class, I'm Ms. German and welcome to Creative Writing." She turned and picked up a clipboard from her bag that she sat on her desk. "Okay, so we shall start with the role. When I call your name, you shall respond and after everyone is accounted for we will have you choose partners to sit with." She looked down the list and began calling their names.

AJ sat back as she waited to hear her name.

"Ben Burnley?"

"He's gone." Said some girl as she wrapped her gum around her finger.

"No, I'm here." Said Ben as he raised a hand.

"Alright. What about Raquel Channing?"

"Here." Said Raquel as she waved a hand.

"Excellent, Angel Dennison?"

"Right here." Said AJ as she raised a hand.

The teacher merely nodded and continued on with the list. After she finished she sighed and pulled out a folder from her bag.

"Alright, so as you might have noticed, we have the luxury of double desks. So, find someone that you wouldn't mind sitting with for at least a semester." She said as she put a piece of paper from the folder and placed it on the clipboard.

AJ didn't move anywhere because she liked where she was at the time. Raquel smiled and pointed to Aaron, signifying that she was going to sit with him. AJ nodded and sat back in her chair.

"Why don't you move?" Asked Shelly as she looked down at Ben.

He looked up at her and stared intently into her eyes as he got up and moved his stuff next to AJ. Shelly glared at him as she took his seat and had her boyfriend sit next to her.

AJ sighed, "Don't worry about her. She's nothing but a stupid prep."

"What did you say?" Asked Shelly in a snotty tone as she looked at AJ.

"Did I stutter? And besides, who invited you to join my conversation? Just turn around and pay attention will you?" Asked AJ as she began twirling her pen.

Shelly huffed and turned around once more as the class began.

AJ smiled to herself as she imagined Shelly having to come to school with a big zit on her face or something that would "kill" her. She then began drawing something that resembled a person trying to set another person on fire. She quickly turned the page when the teacher began walking around.

"Okay, so I'll pick on some random person and let's discuss our writing experience." Said Ms. German. "Let's start with Angel, since you're so interested in something else."

"Oh, uh... I've been writing mainly for my own entertainment, but sometimes I might write a song or the occasional poem. I like sticking to the Sci-Fi genre though." Shrugged AJ as she began picking at her nails.

She saw that Ben was smiling absentmindedly. She half smiled as she began writing something down in her notebook.

"What about you Ben?"

Ben looked up and AJ looked at him. He looked like he was nervous, hell who wasn't at this point?

He cleared his throat, "Umm... I write songs mainly. Anything else that I might write is either for school or something that just needs to be put down on paper." Said Ben as he folded his hands over the desk.

AJ looked at his hands, she could've swore that she saw something on his arm, but it was hidden under his jacket sleeve. She decided not to worry about it and continued writing in her book. Soon everyone had gone and then the bell rang as if on cue. AJ stood and collected her things and rushed off.

Aaron stopped her, "Wait! Who was that sitting next to you?"

"Ben Burnley. Why?" AJ asked as she stared at her cousin as he held her by the elbow.

"Why? Did you not hear him?" Aaron asked excitedly.

"Did he say something that I wasn't there for and you're beginning to over react on?" AJ inquired as she pulled her elbow from his grasp.

"He said that he writes songs. Maybe I can get him into the band." Aaron said matter-of-factly.

"First of all, it's not a band yet. You just have one guitarist and Mark for Bass. That doesn't qualify." AJ said as she rolled her eyes before continuing to walk.

"So? We're trying to get Jeremy and maybe this guy can play guitar too!" Aaron said enthusiastically.

"I don't know. Why don't you go and talk to him?" AJ said with a shrug as she headed towards the gym, luckily they both had the same class.

"I was hoping that you would." said Aaron.

AJ rolled her eyes, "You are so lame. You know that right? You would probably end up being his best friend or something."

"Fine, I just thought that I might give it a try." Aaron said half disappointedly.

"Give what a try?" AJ stopped and put her hands on her hips.

"Trying to make you talk to more guys. Duh?" Aaron said as he walked to the back of the gym towards the lockers' entrance.

"Well, I don't talk to guys, unless they happen to be like you." Said AJ as she disappeared into the girl's locker room. She didn't like PE, not really. Well she liked playing some of the games, but the warm-ups were the part that she didn't like. She walked through the girl's locker and sat down near the fold up bleachers as sat her bag beside her.

"Cheer up emo kid." Said Raquel as she walked up to her.

"Shut up, you're more emo than I am." Said AJ.

"No, I'm a neo-emo. Get that straight." Raquel said as she put her hair up into a ponytail.

"Shut up, you don't even know what that means." Chuckled AJ as she shoved Raquel playfully.

Raquel smiled as she sat down, "Yes I do. And you know why? Because I just made it up."

"So what does it mean?" AJ asked as she began putting her hair up into a ponytail.

"It means someone like me. Duh!" Said Raquel as she rolled her eyes and flipped her hair.

"You mean someone that's emo, but disguised as a prep?" Asked AJ as she tilted her head in an attempt to be cute.

"I don't look like a prep." Raquel hissed as she slapped AJ's arm playfully.

"Hey Rocky!" Said Shelly as she walked by.

AJ looked over at Raquel as she tried to contain her laughter.

Raquel just sighed, "Shut up. I don't talk to those fucking preps."

AJ couldn't help but laugh as she watched Raquel lean her head back and hit the bleachers.

"Ow, that hurted." Said Raquel as she began rubbing her head.

"That's what happens when you do things like that." Said AJ with a grin.

Raquel just shook her head as she pulled out her little notebook. "This will be our notebook. Okay?"

"Umm... what do you mean by that?" AJ asked as she looked at the pink notebook that said, "Girl's Rock" in black glitter on top of a guitar.

"We'll write each other inside and give it back." Said Raquel as she began writing something down.

"Oh, like we did with the folder. Alright." Said AJ as she began looking inside her bag for a pen.

Raquel smiled to herself as she continued writing.

"Are you following me?" Asked AJ as she looked up at Aaron.

"No, I just thought that I should come and join your circle. You know, since we've been friends for years." Said Aaron as he sat between them.

AJ smiled as she watched Raquel shove the notebook in her bag once more. Aaron got up when he seen Ben walk in.

"AJ, you should let Ben join our circle." Said Aaron.

AJ rolled her eyes, "You are so gay." She said as she stood and began walking over to Ben.

Ben smiled shyly as she drew nearer. "Hey, you're from my English class."

"Yeah. I wanted to introduce you to a couple friends of mine." She said as she motioned to Aaron and Raquel in the distance.

"Umm... Okay." Said Ben as he began walking with her.

"So out of curiousity, do you happen to play the guitar?" Asked AJ.

"Yeah, why?" Asked Ben as he smiled softly.

"Just wondering. I remember that you said you write songs and I just thought I'd ask." Shrugged AJ.

Ben smiled, "Well I guess that works."

AJ smiled, "Okay the prep is Raquel and the fag is Aaron, my cousin." She said jokingly.

They both glared at AJ as they waved at Ben.

"You'll learn that AJ isn't the nicest person in the world." Said Aaron as he elbowed her.

"She's been pretty nice to me so far." Said Ben with a shrug.

"So, I hear that you write songs. What kind?" Asked Aaron as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Actually, they're rock songs. I just do my own when I'm bored. You know, just something to do to pass time." Said Ben.

Aaron nodded, "Well I was wondering if you would want to be in a band. I'm starting one with a couple friends of mine and we're pretty much missing a vocalist and another guitarist."

"Well, I play the guitar but I don't know about singing." Said Ben as he crossed his arms.

AJ noticed that something in Ben changed, he seemed more open this time than what he was in English. She crossed her arms and continued listening to their conversation.

"Okay, so tonight we will have a practice session at my house. You can come and see how it feels then maybe you can decide later." Said Aaron.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll be there. So how would I get there?" Ben asked as he leaned against the bleachers.

"Well AJ can show you where it is." Aaron suggested with a shrug as he slyly winked at his cousin.

AJ looked at Aaron, "Uh... Sure. Just meet me back here about ten minutes before." AJ decided that hanging around Ben wouldn't be so bad, but she'd still have to kill Aaron just in case.

"Yeah, so be here at 5:00 and she'll get you there." Said Aaron as he smiled at AJ.

"Okay, everyone on the bleachers now." Said Mr. Common (pronounced: come-on).

AJ sighed and sat in the top corner. Raquel sat next to her as Ben and Aaron continued talking. Raquel pulled out the notebook from her bag once again and handed it to AJ. AJ took it and read the first page.

Guess what? Well, Aaron just asked me to go out with him and I said yes. I hope that you get a boy friend sometime soon. You need one. Anyway, who was that cute guy that you ran into earlier? I think that he would be good for you. I think that he might be into you too. I seen you guys talking during English. You guys looked really interested about it. So what were you guys talking about? Well here comes Aaron. Write me back.

AJ smiled as she read this. Raquel seemed really nosy about Ben. She took out a pen and began writing on the page behind it.

It's so cute that you guys are going out. I don't need a boyfriend, thank you very much. That guy was Ben, as you now know. Anyway, I was just apologizing about running into him and then we started talking about random things. He's a nice guy, but something worries me about him. I don't know. I just wanna know what he's hiding. I know, you're probably thinking that my imagination is going too far, but I swear that it's not. You just need to calm down about me having a boyfriend. When I find a suitable guy, I'll know and take action. But for the time being, it's not that smart of an idea. Well, I guess I'll just stop right there since we're going to be put in lines and the bell's going to ring in about five minutes anyway.

She closed the notebook and handed it back to Raquel who smiled as she opened it and began reading. That day went by relatively fast for AJ. She let out a breath of air as she exited the school building. Now it was sunny. Naturally.

She decided that she should go home and find something to do before she had to go back to the school and lead Ben over to Aaron's house. She walked into her room and decided to start on her homework. She turned on her CD player and grabbed a book that she had started reading for her History assignment.

While over at Ben's house was another story. Ben entered his room. The only things that hinted the fact that someone lived there was: a bed, a nightstand, and a desk with a binder sitting on it along with a dresser next to the desk. Ben flipped on the lights and sighed. He opened the closet and grabbed his guitar.

He opened the case and looked down at his prize posession, it was a silver color. It was a generic Fender that he had bought some years previous. He reached inside and held it as he began to tune it. The cold strings felt good against his fingertips along with the vibrations from the pick. He smiled as he finished and placed it carefully back in it's case.

He put it back in the closet as he heard someone come into the house. He grabbed the notebook that he had forgotten earlier and placed it into his bag. The door bursted open, revealing his father. He was clearly drunk and not in a good mood.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" He slurred as he leaned his arm against one side of the door way. The other clutched a bottle of cheap whiskey as his father took another swig.

"Right now? No where." Said Ben as he sat on his bed.

"Trying to be smart? Eh? You're just like all those fucks out there. Thinking that just because they're in school they know everything. Well you don't know shit. You don't know how the real world works." His father shouted as he pointed a finger at Ben.

Ben cast his eyes downward. His father was beginning to rant. He hated when his father was drunk. When his father was drunk, that only meant bad news for him. Ben dreaded his father being drunk.

"Listen to me boy!" He yelled as he shoved the bed once he noticed Ben was no longer paying attention.

Ben fell off because he was caught off guard. He fell on all fours with a soft thud as he caught himself.

"Get up, you worthless piece of shit." He hissed as he walked over to Ben.

Ben stood and looked his father in the eye. His shoulders were hunched. His father never really acted this way until Ben had gotten older.

"You kids need to learn how to respect your elders. In my day we said "yes sir" and "no sir". The world was a lot better then." His father slurred as he took another swig from the bottle.

Ben looked over at a clock on the nightstand, it was 3:30. He sighed and looked back to his father. "I'm going to go over a friends tonight. Just for a couple of hours. I'll be back." He said quietly as he went to go grab his bag.

"Don't turn your back on me! I'm talking to you." His father slammed Ben to the ground and got on top of him. "I don't know where the fuck you think you're going, but you're going no where." He said as he threw the empty bottle against the wall.

"Get off of me." Strained Ben for his father's weight was too much for his chest.

"Boy you need to learn some respect. And I'm going to give you a good lesson right now." Said his father as he punched him in the face.

Ben felt like his eyes were rolling and he tasted blood. Ben pushed his father off and ran downstairs. His father was chasing him and when Ben got to the door he grabbed him by the collar.

"You're not getting away that easily." He hissed as he dragged Ben by his hair back upstairs.

AJ was out walking down the street. Ben never showed, which was weird. Maybe he had backed out. AJ shoved her hands into her sweatshirt pocket and continued walking. Pennsylvania was nice, but it was more city like.

AJ enjoyed walking out towards the foresty area where there were no lights to disturb her thoughts. She gasped when she thought that she heard something moving beside her. She turned and seen someone run past her. She recognized Ben instantly and she began running after him.

"Ben, stop." She yelled as she began to follow him.

"Go away." He said with a staggered breath.

She stopped but he stopped too. Something made her continue walking towards him. They had stopped near the park as one of the lights shined a dim yellow color. It flooded them and she seen scratches and some bruises forming on his face.

"Ben, what happened?" She asked as she went to touch his face.

"I don't wanna talk about it." He simply replied as he looked off to the side as he pushed her from him.

"Ben, you need to go to the hospital." AJ stated as she continued looking at him with concern.

"I'm fine." He said as he pushed past her.

She turned and grabbed his arm, "Ben, don't. You need medical attention. Please?"

"Why do you care anyway? It's not like you're my friend." He spat.

She shoved him against a nearby tree as she got her face closer to him, "I may not be your friend and you might not like me, but you look like a mess right now. Alright? I, unlike other people, care about people. So I suggest that you go to a fucking hospital before I drag your ass down there myself." She spat as she held him pinned to the tree. She let him go and he continued staring at her.

Never in his entire life had anyone talked to him like that. Hell, most people didn't even say "Hi," to him. But here was this little freshman, standing at only four foot eleven and she took it upon herself to help him. The gesture made him glow inside as he sighed, "Fine. But only if you go with me."

"I'll go with you. Now come on, I'm not parked that far from here." Said AJ as she began leading him to where she had parked her car.