A Step to Love

At sound of Aunt Delilah’s, “Hello there, Senior Girl”, I woke up, meeting up with a comfy breakfast in bed. There was a nice plate of fried eggs waiting to be eaten along with some orange juice trapped in a nice blue cup. I greeted her with a hug. “We’re leaving in an hour, so get ready,” she said, before leaving me alone.

I walked up to my bathroom; I brushed my teeth and went to eat my food. I had never gotten breakfast in bed, so I made sure to enjoy it as much as possible. That’s when my mind drifted back to Alex, making me giggle unwittingly.

Alex was starting college in exactly two weeks from today and that was when we were going to find out if the relationship was going to be as easy as it sounded. I wasn’t worried or anything. I had decided to remain calm and let things go.

I looked to my right, just above the bedside table where a picture from The Recital stood. I smiled contently.

I decided to pick up the phone and dial Alex’s number.

“Morning!” he greeted from the other end.

I laughed. “Are you okay?” I did not think Alex was a morning person. Well, he had always been weird before, but he was never a happy morning person.

“Never been better,” he replied. “I’m taking Brit to school, so you know what that means…”

I walked toward my closet and rummaged through the clothes I had laid out. The rest were still tight in boxes. I had my "going out" clothes in here. “I get to see you?” My hand touched a purple skirt hanging out. I didn’t remember this. I grabbed it hesitantly. I never liked dresses or skirts before, but, maybe I could try something new?

“You bet.” I heard him laugh.

“Why are you dropping her off, anyway? Brit knows how to drive.”

“I just want to see you.”

After hanging up, I waited and waited for my aunt to get ready and drive me to school. I think we left around 7:34am. Thankfully school was only fifteen minutes away. My heart was pounding fast, nervous as to what the people in school looked like. I was also nervous, fearing we weren’t going to get there on time. I felt my aunt’s car go faster and faster which led me to hold the seatbelt tightly against my chest.

We reached there with a sudden stop and I kissed her goodbye when my eyes caught Alex leaning against his car. I nearly ran toward him, embracing him.

He kissed my forehead. “Hello,” he whispered, eyeing my purple skirt.

I held my bag tightly before looking at Brit. She greeted me before telling me she was going to check on Joe.

“You should be getting your schedule. You only have ten minutes left.”

“I figured,” I told him, and then something came to me. “Come with me.”

He doubted before leading me to the office. Some places around us where being remodeled, so we had to take a weird shortcut which didn’t end up being so short after all. I greeted the secretary with Alex’s hand linked to mine, some people giving us a few looks before we got there.

“Lillian Elyse Parker, right?” she asked and I nodded. She got up from her spinning chair and slowly went in to check the piles of folders she had behind her. My foot was tapping the floor nervously as the clock in front said I only had two minutes before the bell rung. I didn’t even know what my first class was! “There we go,” she whispered, sticking out a paper. I smiled; the tapping stopping. “Oh, wait.” My smiled faded. “This isn’t Lillian Parker’s, its Lillian Matthews’s.”

After a while, she got my schedule and handed it to me. “Thank you,” I said, and as if on cue, the bell rung. “Fuck,” I whispered to myself. I quickly checked to see I had English class first. Then, I remembered I was still holding on to Alex’s hand before making my quick escape.

He only smiled understanding, and I took off. I retraced my steps, giving him a kiss. “Do you want to come over in the afternoon?”

He nodded and kissed me again.

Gosh, I knew nothing was going to ruin this perfect year. I could feel this year was the perfect time to let loose or I don’t know, whatever. I just knew I had to stay calm with all of the things that had happened. I was truly going to miss Sasha more than anything.

When I reached the door, I thanked silently whoever was listening because the students were only starting to get in. I followed behind, still holding on to my bag.

Students started to settle in and I couldn’t find Gabriel anywhere, meaning he wasn’t taking English with me. I just hoped Brittany was doing all right. Besides them, I didn’t know most of the students in school. I didn’t socialize with them as much as I did with the tenth grade last year. Mostly, all of them thought I was a nerd. And a simple nerd, or just plain weird.

“Well,” the teacher started. He was a fresh looking teacher I had not seen before. His eyes were hazel wrapped around some heavy blonde lashes that matched his hair. “As you can see, eleventh and twelfth grade are no longer together.” Everyone instantly looked around to make sure he was saying the truth. “They were missing a Home teacher, and well, here I am.” He reached to his desk and picked up a chalk before writing on the blackboard with it. “My name is Cory Roberts—Mr. Roberts to all of you, of course.” He turned after he finished writing his name down. “I will be your new English and Home teacher. Welcome to the school year twenty-0-eight and twenty-0-nine, Seniors.”

I sighed and starting tapping my foot nervously. He didn’t seem nice at all passing instructions with an arrogant tone. “I will make my first assignment easy. I am not your friend, nor do I want to become one. We’re here to learn and learn only.” He paused, and his eyes took a hold of mine as he spoke his next words. “I don’t care for special treatment. You will not receive some from me.” Then his eyes shifted to the rest of the students. “I have some authors I would like you to study during this semester. Don’t disappoint me.”

The rest was pretty much bummed. We were beginning to study John Keats and I felt my life being sucked out as I heard Mr. Roberts rumble on and on about John Keats’s life. The only upside about this was that Mr. Roberts was very attractive, so at least I didn’t bore myself to sleep.

He actually didn’t say anything when we all left his room.

I looked up at my schedule I saw that Math came in next. I walked to the door, and gasped when I saw some blonde locks step right in front of me.

“Jenny…” She turned and glared. I gasped when my eyes took a hold of her boobs which seemed more developed than last time. “Had a fun month?”

She smiled devilishly. “Oh, yeah, I specially loved seeing Brody behind bars.”

“You went to see him?” I asked, my face getting softer. Brody… I sighed.

“Why do you care?”

“Just because he did what he did does not mean I should stop caring. Though, it is reason enough.”

“Go to hell,” she sneered. “You took both of my boyfriends, and I don’t think Brody needs part of the little sympathy you own.”

She tried to walk in the classroom, but I took her by the elbow and led her outside. She tried to scratch my hand off, and I looked at her angrily. “Okay, let’s settle this down.”

“We don’t need to settle anything. You stole what was mine, and that’s it.”

“You know there is so much more than that, Jenny.” I paused. “I didn’t take anything from you. You treated them like crap—cheated on them. Boys are not some Skittles. You can’t simply pick the ones you don’t like and throw them away.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

I flexed my fingers through my hair that had already gone to its normal brown color. “What I mean is…You need to be careful with the things that you do, and try to stop earning new enemies that don’t mean to make war.”

She scoffed before telling me she didn’t care about anything that I had just said.

“Fine, but Brody and Alex are both humans. I don’t know if you’re human, but humans tend to feel.”

“They never felt anything. Alex: just another Brody. You made them feel. You made Brody fall for you and all I ever did was try and win him back.”

“I—”

“You talk about being selfish and whatnot? You don’t even look at yourself.” She swirled her hair and hit me in the face with it. Why do I always continue things instead of ignoring them? I refused to think about her words, but when Math class also got a little tiring, led me to think the worse.

Oh, Ms. Drama, won’t you please leave me alone for a moment?