Bruises Heal (Damage Control)

Status Report: Junior Year. At a new school halfway through the first semester. Gender: Male. Age: 16, 17 in a couple months. # Of Friends: old school: 50 | New school: 0.5. Status: Single. Name: Eric, Eric Danielson.

Ok. So my first class of the day didn’t go so well. Except for the fact that I got matched with the cutest girl I’ve ever seen. Sure, there were a whole bunch of ok-looking girls in science, and all of them were looking at me, hoping I would be paired up with them. All of them, except, Cassey. By the way Alexis—I think that was her name—was so upset when I got paired with Cassey makes me assume that she’s the popular girl who always gets what she wants. And by the way Cassey was contently sitting by herself, tells me she chooses to be the outcast that nobody really accepts as normal but doesn’t bother anyone with her presence. Once I sat next to her, I could see why. She doesn’t talk much. She’s not shy. That much is obvious just by the way she would look me directly in the eye and deliberately answer without speaking. She’s guarding something. Herself, most likely. But, why? Why does a gorgeous girl like Cassey, choose to be an outcast. She has beautiful fiery, red hair that looks amazing against her vibrant green eyes. Not to mention she has the perfect figure. With just a slight splash of perfectly located freckles across her nose. With hair like that, you would’ve expected her to be outgoing and loud, but she’s super quiet.

Despite the warm weather, she’s wearing a thin sweatshirt that covers her arms while everyone else is wearing tees and tanks.

I breeze through the rest of my classes, not having to think much considering school has always been easy for me. At lunch, I’ve already received a million invites to sit with people. I look around the loud, big cafeteria and sigh. I’m more comfortable when everything is a little quieter. Everyone here seems to want my attention all the time, and I don’t think anyone has stopped talking long enough to remember to breathe. It’s so chaotic. I look around. A person at every table is smiling and waving to me, inviting me to join their table. I smile politely back, but remain in my spot looking around for a table. I spot Cassey heading to the empty tables outside and I follow, preferring silence to chaos. I watch as she sits down at a table as far away from the doors as possible. It’s the perfect table. Shaded by a big oak tree, yet with enough sunlight to keep it nicely lit up. I walk over to her and wait for her to see me.

“Hey,” I say quietly, not wanting to bother her. “Do you mind if I sit here?” I ask and she shakes her head before looking back down.

“Why are you always so quiet?” I ask as I sit down across from her.

She shrugs and looks up at me, her eyes meeting my gaze without flinching. We sit in a comfortable silence as we finish our food. She finishes first and stands up. Swinging her bag over her shoulder and picking her tray up with the other hand, she stands up.

In a quiet voice, so soft and sweet I’m sure I’ve dreamed it up, she tells me with a smile, “Come over after school and we’ll start on the science project.”

I’m struck dumb by the sound of her voice alone, not to mention her beautifully blinding smile. Only after she leaves and I feel a hand on my shoulder do I realize I’ve been staring at her disappearing figure as she floats around the school to her next class.

“Hey.” My new buddy, Mike, plops down next to me. We met in English and he seems to be genuinely glad in my company. Like he actually appreciates my personality not all the attention that has been surrounding me.

“Hey.” I pry my eyes away from Cassey’s point of exit and look at him.

He stares at me. “She actually let you sit with her?” The disbelief is evident in his voice. He pats me on my shoulder. "You've already done the impossible."

“That’s a good thing?” I ask hopefully.

“Yup.” Mike smiles. “Usually it takes longer for her to warm up and say anything at all. 'Hi' is a good thing.”

“So it’s not just me, she doesn’t talk to anyone much?” I verify.

“Haha, she doesn't talk to anyone ever.” He laughs. "Well, ok, maybe on the rare occasion she's said like 2 words."

“Yeah.” I sigh.

“She talked to you?” He asks, and, again, disbelief is ringing from every point of his voice. “On your first day?” I nod. "Wow." He sighs.

I frown at him. “What?” I ask curiously.

“She rarely talks to the old kids, let alone new kids. She keeps to herself. I don’t see why. If she just had a little fun and let anyone in, all the guys would just be lining up. But with her silence…it freaks everyone out…” He explains quietly.

“Oh. Yeah, kinda freaked me out, but, I like it better than that freak show.” I jerk my head towards the cafeteria doors. He laughs and nods.

“Come on, let’s get you to your next class.” He tells me and we walk off.

I’m in my last class of the day, staring at the paper with Cassey’s elegant handwriting scrawled across it. I’ve already memorized the info, I just like looking at it. On the back, there’s an amazing drawing of Pegasus, rearing up and spreading its wings. The detail is so amazing that it almost looks real…except for the fact that it’s drawn in pencil so it’s like a black and white photo.

The bell rings and I’m jerked out of my hazy trance. I stand and grab my things, heading to my locker.

“Hey, Eric!” A high-pitched voice scratches at my ears as Alexis appears next to me, with two other girls in tow. “So…how was your first day?” She asks, smiling and fluttering her makeup-caked eyelashes. It’s just so unnatural to see a girl with that much makeup.

“Fine.” I answer, returning a small smile and continuing walking down the hall.

“Did you need help with any homework?” She asks, looking up at me innocently through her lashes. “You could come over to my house.” She offers brightly.

“Nope, thanks, but I think I’ve got it for now. I gotta meet Cassey for the science project.” I tell her, struggling to keep irritation out of my voice.

She pouts. “Aww…” And flutters her eyelashes again.

“I gotta go, Alexis, later.” I tell her, shutting my locker and swinging my back over my shoulder.

She smiles when I say her name and waves. “Bye, Eric!” She giggles before turning to her friends and giggling some more.

People here are so strange. I walk down the front steps of the school and pull out my cell. Texting my parents that I’m going over to Cassey’s house for science, I pull out my bike and ride out of school.

I pull up on Cassey’s driveway nervously. A bike is already leaning against the garage. I drop my bike and ring the doorbell.

“I’ll get it, Mom!” I hear Cassey’s angel voice call. I look up and notice one of the windows is open. The door opens and there stands Cassey, in a black sweatshirt that covers most of her turquoise tank, and jean shorts with frayed ends. “Hi, Eric.” She tells me, in her soft voice.

“Hey, is it alright that I came right after school?” I ask, since we didn’t specify a time.

She nods and opens the door wider for me to come in. I step in. The furniture and wall colors, along with the few things decorating the walls, are simple, yet cozy and look great together at the same time. A pillar stands in the open corner of the kitchen. I’m standing near enough to it to see that there are some fist imprints and dents in it. At the bottom, there’s a faint red stain. Cassey sees me looking at it and cringes. I turn away from the pillar and look at her. She turns and walks up the stairs to the first door, going slowly enough for me to know that she expects me to follow. The room we enter is what I assume is her bedroom. In one corner, there’s a grand piano, gleaming beautifully, though well loved and worn. Her bed is next to it, far enough not to intrude the piano’s space, but close enough to separate it from the rest of the room, silently saying that the piano is a special area not to be messed up with clutter and knickknacks. On our side of the room, are a desk and two beanbag chairs. The beanbag chairs are on a fluffy carpet in front of Cassey’s bookshelf—which is stuffed with books. In front of one window is a window seat, casually cluttered with enough small pillows and stuffed animals to make it soft and comfy but enough space for someone to sit or curl up. At one end of the window seat is a blanket.

Cassey walks over to the desk and grabs her laptop before walking over to the beanbag chairs and sitting down. She motions for me to sit next to her. I plop down and lean towards her so I can see the screen.

“Ok, so…what’s our topic gonna be?” I ask as she types our names at the top of the project template. She shrugs her shoulders and opens up the instructions and details of the project that Mr. McGovern posted for the class.

She looks over the instructions for a few moments before handing me the laptop and standing up to grab a paper from the desk. Plopping down next to me, she pulls out a hardcover picture book about animals and sets it in her lap, placing the page on top of it. On the top of the page she writes Science Project and then underneath she starts doodling science-y stuff, like atoms and molecules, test tubes, Bunsen burners, a flaming cheese puff, a brain. She doodles this stuff as methodically as the title she wrote on it. It actually looks really cool.

As she doodles, Cassey taps her finger to her mouth, obviously thinking. “Hmmm…” She mutters as she looks around the room for ideas.

I look at her doodles and spy the book underneath it. “Hold on a sec,” I tell her as I gently lift the paper to glance at the cover advertising sharks, bats, and lions, along with other animals. “What if we did it about fear of animals, how that works? Like, why people are afraid of certain animals while fascinated by others?” I suggest.

“You mean…like if we did our project on the way fear is created in the brain through experiences and what you're exposed to?” She verifies curiously. I nod. She smiles and writes it down, adding a sketch of a shark and two brains: one brain screaming and running while the other stands in awe.

“Perfect.” I tell her quietly. She smiles. “You’re officially in charge of all graphics, diagrams, and images on our project.” I announce. She laughs quietly and nods in agreement. “Ok, lets get a setup of what we have to research and what we need to do.” I tell her, pointing to the page. ”First, we need to find out what a group of people are scared of and why.” She writes it down as I tell her. “Second, we need to find people who are fascinated by that same thing and see why.” Again, she writes the sentences just as fast as I create them. “Last, we’ll need to go through the data and organize it, find a conclusion.” I finish, satisfied with our rough draft of the project.

Cassey flips the page over and scrawls the words PART I across the page. I watch as she doodles a table with us behind it.

In front of the table are two long lines of people, one line leading to her and one to me. We have a camera set up recording each answer every person is telling us one by one. Doodle-Cassey is smiling politely but not very much, while doodle-me is laughing along with the person at the front of my line. The people in my line look eager to get to the front and answer questions while the people in Cassey’s line are looking sort of longingly towards my line. All the faces of the people in line are shaded so that they appear in the shadows except for one girl in my line who I can immediately recognize. Alexis. Doodle-Alexis is leaning towards the front of my line in obvious hope to get there faster. She’s applying lipstick and wearing the same scrawny skirt and tank as today.

“Why?” I ask quietly, pointing to the entire drawing.

She shrugs her shoulders. There's a feeling a resignation to her demeanor.

“It doesn’t have to look like that.” I answer; ignoring the look she gives me. “It doesn’t have to end up like…this.” I whisper as I quietly reach over and pull the pencil out of her fingers. I flip it over and erase her head. Pulling the page slightly onto my lap, I draw her head, tossed back in laughter, her red mane shaking back and falling down her shoulders like a waterfall. I draw her bangs covering one eye like they always are, and then I draw her other eye, making sure to add in her long eyelashes and the intensity of her eyes with an added softness. I draw her mouth slightly ajar to let the laughter come out, the corners tipped up in a smile.

She looks up at me, a smile trying to fight it’s way into her eyes, but not making it.

I look at my watch and realize what time it is. “Shoot. I gotta go. Dinner.” I tell her as I heave myself out of the beanbag. “Tomorrow?”

“Break. Library.” She answers as she walks me to the door. She raises her eyebrow questioningly.

“Yeah, you’ll see me then. We'll figure out the rest of the details.” I reply as I walk out the door and mount my bike. I wave as I ride away.