A Love Like War

That evening after school, my mom and I went over to the Gaskarths’ flat for dinner. Nothing was said about Alex ditching me at lunch. I barely looked at him the whole time, but I could feel his eyes on me through at least half of dinner. It was awkward, no doubt, but I was determined to get past that and bring myself back to hating Alex.

Why exactly did I want to hate him? Because I knew if I didn’t hate him, I’d end up developing a crush on him, and that would just be shit.

Alex, I’d figured out, was not a deeply emotional person. He cared about popularity, his looks, and his music. That was it. He may be nice to talk to when he wasn’t with his friends, but I’d become convinced that it was all just part of an act to get himself to the top of the popularity pyramid.

I was done with him.

---

Second day of school. I hoped it’d be easier than the first, now that I knew some people.

English with Jack was fun; he was entertaining as always. I realized that Kara was in my science class and Rian was in my P.E. period. That was relieving, now I had a friend in two more classes. I also made friends with a girl that sat next to me in my history class. Her name was Cory. She had short layered blonde hair and glasses, and dressed in vintage-y clothes. I decided she and I could be good friends when she told me her favorite band was also Green Day.

At lunch, I sat with Jack and everyone from yesterday. The first thing I noticed when I sat down with them was that Matt was wearing cologne.

“Hey Kristin, guess what!” Jack said excitedly. I was starting to think Jack was always excited about something.

“What?” I asked.

“Me, Rian and Matt are starting a band!” He grinned from ear to ear. I could tell they were really enthusiastic about it, so I decided not to dampen their hopes of ever succeeding by telling them it probably wouldn’t ever happen.

“Really? What instruments do you guys play?” was all I said.

Matt spoke up then. “Rian drums, Jack and I play guitar. We’re looking for a singer.”

“Wow, that’s really cool. I’ve always wanted to start a band,” I replied, smiling off into space at the thought of standing in front of a microphone in an auditorium full of people waiting to hear me sing.

“You’re musical?” Kara asked.

“I, uh, I’ve been in choir for the past three years,” I laughed nervously, hoping it didn’t sound too much like I wanted to sing for their band.

“DUDE! You should totally be our singer!” Jack yelled.

“Shhhhh! I don’t want everyone in here to know I like to sing!” I shushed him.

“Sorry, sorry,” Jack whispered. “But seriously.”

“Yeah, Kristin, sing for our band!” Matt said, an encouraging smile on his face.

“No, no no no,” I said. “That’s your guys’ thing. I don’t want to intrude . . .”

“It’s not intruding if we’re asking you to do it,” Rian said, grinning so wide you could almost see the sparkle on his teeth.

“Are you guys sure . . . ?” I asked.

“Definitely,” Jack said. “What kind of music do you like?”

“Uh, rock I guess. Green Day’s my favorite band.”

“Perfect! We can be like a Green Day/Blink-182 cover band!” Jack said.

I winced. “Blink-182? Really, you guys like them?”

All four of them stared at me blankly. After about a minute, Matt said, “You don’t?”

“Not at all,” I said quietly, suddenly self-conscious.

“Well, if you wanna be in our band, you’re gonna have to deal with them once in a while,” Rian chuckled.

“I can do that,” I sighed.

“Good, then we have a band!” Jack said.

They all cheered.

I smiled to myself, because I’d been in America for less than a week and I was already joining a band with my new friends that I met yesterday.