In the Book of Me and You

The next day was my first day of school and I got up bright and early to get ready, grab a bottle of water, and bike to school rather than getting a ride from my aunt. I had loved biking to school back in Virginia and I wasn’t about to give that up because I had moved. It felt like one thing in my life was still a constant so as the already warm morning air rushed past me, I just smiled. It was a good thirty minute bike ride, but I’d left myself plenty of time to spare, so when I pulled into the school parking lot, it was with twenty minutes to spare.

Waiting for me there was Garrett who was smiling cheerfully though his hair was in disarray and he looked like he’d gotten maybe four hours of sleep. I wasn’t going to comment though, because honestly I probably didn’t look that much more rested and I was well aware that my hair was certainly not perfect.

“Morning Andy, Dakota talked to the people in the office and figured out you had study hall first, and as I do to, I was entrusted with guiding you around to your classes so you know where to find them,” he said and I just stared, a little baffled by the amount of thought Dakota put into this. Instead of responding, I walked my bike over to the racks and locked it up while Garrett just watched, presumably waiting for a response.

“Right, sorry, lead the way,” I mumbled and I could have sworn I was more articulate than an earthworm, but apparently not. So inwardly cursing my semi shyness, or really just discomfort around new people, I followed behind him as I was led inside.

We made a trip to the office and picked up my schedule and other paperwork that the kind lady in the office thought was important for me to have. All in all after she was done talking about rules, procedures, and even the lunch menu for today we had about thirty minutes left for Garrett to show me where to go. It was going well until I realized the bell was sounding and my next class, AP English was across the school and that there was very little chance I was going to make it on time with the small passing period. Sure enough, I arrived two minutes late and was nervous to find that all the other students were sitting looking attentively at the teacher who’d already begun teaching the lesson. There was an audible intake of breath when I slipped inside and tried to quietly make it to my seat.

“Oh, who is this? Do you have a clock young lady? Or any sense of time at all? Or is the reason you’re late just that you’re insufferably arrogant and think that the class should wait for you to arrive before it starts,” The teacher said, turning sharply towards me and narrowing his eyes.

“I’m Williams, uh Andy Williams, you’re uh, new student,” I said though I was certain the pause in his tirade was not to let me answer his first question. Answering with my name was the only thing I could think to do though.

“Being new is not an excuse for tardiness. See that it does not happen again Miss Williams. If you’re going to be late you might as well not show up at all,” My teacher said with a finality that told me I could sit and not endure further verbal reprimand, for now at least. All of the class’ eyes were on me while I went to sit at an empty desk in the back.

After the initial shock of the teacher’s reaction I tried to listen the rest of class quietly but I was just unfocused, trying to ignore everyone’s eyes on me and just ending up doodling on my notebook.

The bell sounded and I left as fast as possible trying to shy away from others and stay as far as I could from my evil English teacher. I texted Dakota asking for her locker number which she quickly answered with “239” that had me rushing off to meet her. As soon as she came into sight I sped up and bit and threw my arms around her when I got close enough.

“Jesus, Andy was it that bad, what’d you have?” DJ said looking at me in worry when she’d pulled back from the hug.

“AP English 12. You know how I’m a year ahead in English? Yeah well I have Griswold for it and I was two minutes late-” I began and I guess she knew what happened next cause she sort of gasped like my classmates had and gave me a sympathetic look.

“He’s a nightmare if you’re ever late. That was a horrible first impression as well, I’m so sorry that that happened. And it was in front of seniors too…” DJ said and my stomach flipped a few times. That was just what I needed, to look horrible in front of classmates and seniors at that. So I resolved to blend in more in my next classes.

In my next class my presence was mostly unnoticed, however, in the second my teacher made me stand in front of the class and introduce myself. Nevertheless, that experience was still much better than my one in my first class. And after study hall, AP English, Honors Precalculus, and AP Government, it was finally time for lunch. I met with Dakota and she led me to a table with her friend group where I sat just drinking some water, not feeling particularly hungry.

“Introduction time!” Dakota said enthusiastically when we’d sat down and effectively stopped all conversation. In front of me were an assortment of different guys, from left to right there was: a tall gangly boy with a brown mullet and large hazel eyes, a tall average built boy with long slightly blondish light red hair and green eyes, a shorter brown eyed long brown haired mousy looking boy, Garrett (who I’d already met), a sort of strange messy brown haired tall gangly boy, and a tall, skinny messy red haired boy. I was informed that their names in that order were John O’Callaghan, Jared Monaco, Pat Kirch, Garrett Nickelsen, Eric Halvorsen, and Nick Santino.

“I’m Williams, Andy Williams I mean,” I said, feeling stupid for once again introducing myself by my last name instead of my first but it just didn’t feel quite right yet. For the most part everyone just said hi but John smirked at me and proclaimed he already knew my name.

“Well done being late to your first actual class, that’s quite an accomplishment,” he said and where I would usually just close in on myself I instead shot him a glare and was able to shoot back a quick insult, saying “It’s quite an accomplishment having a girl’s hair style and still thinking your cool.” This drew ooooh’s from all the table’s denizens besides John and me whose eyes were locked in a battle.

“Aw Johno, look at that, someone who’s a match for you,” Dakota said with a giggle, patting me on the back, “I mean, except the fact that she’s taking an English AP 12 even though she’s just a junior where as you are actually a senior. So maybe she’s more than a match for you,” she continued to another chorus of ooooh’s.

“At least I’m capable of reading a clock,” he shot back, still looking at me intently which I returned, not intimidated.

“I’m sorry that I was late getting to class in an unfamiliar school, I guess that’s a capital offense. We’ll see who’s laughing when English grades come back,” I said, trying to wipe the smug crooked grin off his face. It didn’t really work and I decided I wasn’t a fan of John and I decided to talk to Garrett, Nick, and Dakota for the rest of the lunch period. We talked about music, games, and teachers while Halvo and John whispered about something that was probably thoroughly unimportant and Jared and Pat discussed a new animated movie coming out.

After lunch I had three more classes which were Physics, AP Economics, and US History and were completely uneventful which meant I could go home feeling a bit better about the day than I thought I would after English. I found I had both AP Econ and AP Gov with Nick which meant I had someone I could sit with during those classes and chat quietly too if I got bored, which was likely at least in government. By the end of the day the sunlight had left, clearly because thick clouds had kicked it out of the way, and the nice day had given way to gloomy rain. And I could pretty much tell by everyone’s reactions that it was uncommon to have such hard rain for such a sustained period of time.

“Strange, they weren’t forcasting rain,” Dakota remarked at the end of the day when I met her by her locker. I nodded though I really had no idea because I wasn’t in the habit of watching the weather.

“Yeah, it’s gonna be a wet bike ride home,” I murmured as we walked outside and under the overhang, looking out at the heavy rain. I didn’t really mind the rain, it was just the fact that my backpack and my purse weren’t waterproof, I supposed though I could put my purse in my backpack and that I had a rain jacket I could put over the bag that would keep the water out.

“Why not just let mom take you home? You could leave your bike and have it for tomorrow once you get here..” DJ said but from her expression, she already knew what my answer would be.

“A little bit of rain never hurt anyone, I’ll be fine. I’ll see you at the house, alright?” I said, having a hard time calling it home. I shoved my purse into my backpack and zipped it closed before putting my rain jacket over the back and making sure it was fairly water tight. With my purse in there, it was too small to fit over the backpack and on me at the same time so I figured I’d just deal with getting a little bit wet. I had to go somewhat quickly though because I knew Aunt Amy would never let me bike home in the rain if she got here so with one last wave goodbye I got my bike from the rack and took off.