Chance Encounters

That Guy at the fair never sent me a text like he said he would, But I wasn’t totally surprised. I kind of gave it to him spur of the moment. That song, Call Me Maybe had been blasting from one of the rides, and it was kind of like a push to me. It was like Carly was saying, ‘ITS TIME TO MOVE ON! HE’S CUTE! GO FOR IT!’

Aye Aye ma’am! I had pulled out a piece of paper from the flyer advertising the fair and wrote my number on it. The color of the flyer was pink and my pen was purple, I just hoped he could read it at the time, I hadn’t even really considered him not caring enough to try and read it. But when he took it and my heart fluttered a little bit. And the smile that came after it when he said he would text me as the carnival lights lit up his face was enough to make my heart melt.

We spent a while longer together after the ride ended. It was the fourth of July, and the last day of the fair so there was going to be fireworks at the fair that we could watch from the parking lot. All of us (Sarah and his friends) went and lied down in the bed of Sarah’s truck. It was a little bit cramped but I was laying in between Sarah and Luke, our hands brushed briefly before I got embarrassed and clasped them together on my stomach. We watched as the lights flash and colors danced around in the sky. After a while Sarah got bored and started shouting out the colors of each firework, it wasn’t long before we all joined in and were annoying the entire parking lot.

I got a picture with all of us before we left the park. I set the timer button on my camera and set it on the side of Sarah’s truck. I managed to reach the spot in between Sarah and Luke with two seconds to spare. Before the timer his zero Luke put his hand on my shoulder again and it made me blush. In the picture I had the goofiest smile on my face. It was the perfect end to a great day. And the kick in the butt I needed to get my life on track.

That night when I got home from the fair I went to talk to my parents. I explained to my parents what I had been going through for the past few months before school ended. I didn’t want to go back to that school. Those who weren’t siding with my ex boyfriend and friend because of some lies they were spreading, knew everything about the breakup, even things that I knew didn’t happen. The school was a hostile environment now. They asked me why I hadn’t told them before, or told a teacher. I had to explain to them that, doing that didn’t fix problems anymore. It made things worse nowadays if you were labeled a snitch or too weak to handle the shit that was dished out to you.

We talked for three hours before I finally convinced them to let me transfer schools when summer ended. They said I could move in with my moms sister. My aunt Mary, who was about 3 years younger then mom, and frankly a lot more laid back. She lived far enough away that I didn’t have to worry about anyone hearing rumors about me, but close enough to where I could still come back down to visit them without too much hassle.

Sarah had been so pissed when told her I was moving. She refused to see me on the day I left my home and for a little bit she stopped talking to me. She thought I was abandoning her. She had stopped being friends with Her (She who stole my boyfriend shall not be named) when it happened too. She had been one of the few people who stayed on my side, even when the rumors went from bad, to downright disgusting. I didn’t want to lose her too. It took me a whole month out summer to convince her to forgive me.

I called her every day, I texted at least twenty times a day and Facebooked her CONSTANTLY. She didn’t answer for a while but at some point she must have gotten irritated at my basically harassment that she finally answered one of my calls. It took me two and a half hours to get her to understand that staying in that school was bad for me. It wasn’t that she meant any less to me that she had, I just didn’t want to be bullied so much I ended up some teenage suicide statistic. Honestly convincing my parents to move out was so much easier, and I was the baby.

By the time summer ended I was bored, lonely (there are some voids even txting cant fill.) anxious and REALLY sick of Tofu. It turned out my aunt was not only a health nut but a vegetarian too. Tofu Tofu Tofu, I used to like it in Miso, soup whenever we would go to a Japanese resturant when I still lived with my parents but now just looking at it made me feel sick. I started buying my own food with the allowance mom and dad sent me. I was surviving off PB&Js along with every flavor of Ramen Imaginable all summer.

I was excited to start at my new high school. The prospect of Cafeteria food was amazing to me (sad right?) but I was terrified as well. Starting in a new school would be like being a freshmen all over again, except harder, most people in my grade would have already formed their cliques the year before. This thought was definitely on my mind when I walked through the doors of the high school. I was looking for my locker, B423, and I thought that I could feel everyone staring at me while I passed. I thought every eye in the school was on me.

Let them just think I’m a freshmen, please please pleaaaaaaaaaaase. I was kind of small enough to be a freshmen. Oly 5’4’’ and around 110 pounds give or take a pound. I could easily pull off a freshman who just had a growth spurt. But then I began to wonder how much worse was the stigma for being a super smart girl, compared to the stigma of being a new girl in school. Realizing that new girl got you bitched at, and mocked less I soon dripped that Idea.

I found my locker and shoved my bag and books in it. The inside of the locker had graffiti all over it, but that’s not that unusual for lockers. ANDREW WZ HEA! FUCK The shape of a penis, you know the usual stuff. I hung up a the picture of The night at the fair, the one with my goofy smile with a magnet I had packet for it. I grabbed my schedule, a notebook and my lucky purple pen. My camera was in a bag that was draped across my shoulder. The Camera never really left my side, I guess it was a security blanket. My first class was English and I’m sorry for saying this but I really hoped the English teacher I got wasn’t one of those Peace and love, lets get to know each other with an exercise people, but considering the subject was English, and this was southern California I didn’t see much hope.

As soon as I walked into the class I heard a female voice shout out my name. “Ms. Ellie Glades!” Shocked I looked up and the teacher waved me over. What?! What did I DO? I had only just walked into the classroom? Was there a problem with my application or schedule or something? I walked up and got a few looks from some of the students already seated. I reached the teachers desk. “Hi there Kiddo.” She said smiling at me. I tired to smile back and noticed the clipboard in her hand had names with pictures next to them. She shouted another name out and I looked behind me as another kid walked in. I felt releived. So this wasn’t a single out the new kid thing.

The teacher handed me a playing card that I had to match to find my seat. There were four rows and ten columns my card was the two of hearts, my attitude was kind of meh about the card. Hearts were still a reminder of worse times. The who row had hearts in them. When the bell rang the teacher was callign out names rapid fire as students flooded in and took their cards. My row quickly filled up and I was trying to keep my head down and blend in with the desk. Every once in a while someone would bump into me and I would look up, and I would apologize. ME. They jumped into me but I was so freaked I just didn’t want to leave a bad impression.

Everyone was seated and I was still determined to hide myself from attention when the teacher started talking. “Okay students these will be your seats for the whole semester,” There was an audible groan that went through the class. And the teacher pushed forward. “There will be no seat switching unless I have given you permission, The group work will be done between you and the person next to you.” I took a quick peek at the person next to me and her was doing a better job at hiding himself than I was, his head was down and he was barely peaking out from about his arms. I looked back to the teacher as she walked down the rows and gave a stack of papers to the ACE of every suit. Which meant the boy next to me maybe half asleep got a stack of papers dropped on his head.

“One more thing before I read the syllabus,” The teacher said standing next to him. He didn’t move and I stared at him. “If I catch you sleeping in my class, You will be standing in the back of the classroom with a clipboard doing your work for the rest of the hour.” She said cocking an eyebrow. Well she definitely wasn’t a peace and love teacher. Score one for Ellie. “This is a warning Mr. Jeysen.” She moved onto the next row and Mr. Jeysen sat up in his chair and pulled the papers off of his head. He grabbed one and thrust the pile at me causing me to drop the stack to the floor.

“Shiiit.” I muttered. I got up out of my desk and knelt down picking up the 9 or so packets that had just gotten dirt all over them. I looked up at the boy, to maybe shoot a glare at him, who was now looking down at me. Those eyes. I knew those eyes. Except I didn’t see the deep and gentleness in them anymore. Only the piercing blue.