It's Friday, I'm in Love
One
Going to a new school always sucked, and I was always going to new schools. If we weren’t moving to follow my father’s job prospects, we were moving because my sister had found yet another dirt-bag boyfriend who’d decided to stalk her incessantly after she broke it off. Yes, another.
It was always the same thing on repeat. I wasn’t sure if this was comforting, or if it annoyed me to no end. I’d rock up late on the first day, because I could blame it on getting lost, and then I’d receive a tour of the school by some senior student captain or a member of the administration staff. They’d then introduce me to a bunch of people that dressed the same as I did, and tell me I’d do well at their school.
“Katherine Phelps?” I nodded at the lady behind the reception desk who was finally looking my way. “This way please.” She got up, and I cringed as the chair she was sitting on made a horrific squeaking noise.
I followed the lady, who I later found out to be named ‘Barbara’, throughout the school, my nerves gushing madly as I saw we were finally headed to the cafeteria which is where most tours ended.
“Now let’s see…” Barbara murmured to herself as she took a look around, before looking back at me and giving me the once over. I thought I cocked an eyebrow, but she didn’t seem to notice regardless. “Alex and Stacey over there are lovely girls; let me introduce you to them!” Her smile dropped as she turned, which made me doubt her cheerful tone.
I wandered through my peers and thought to myself just quietly that the students here didn’t seem too different from those at city schools. They looked the same, dressed the same, and as someone was tripped by a much more confident-looking girl, i realised they acted the same, too.
“Alex, Stacey, this is Katherine. I’d like you to show her the school’s spirit of welcoming people of… all kinds.” Smooth. Okay, so I’d been pretty quiet and was dressed in something that was probably not too appropriate for one’s first day at a new school. Everyone else was in the school uniform. “I expect you to have your uniform sorted by the end of the week.” I nodded, and sat down beside Alex. They were both staring at me for an uncomfortable amount of time before Alex finally said hi, and we had the kind of conversation 3 strangers have when they first meet.
Surprisingly, Lexi and Stace weren’t so bad. Yes, they even let me use their nicknames and had taken to calling me Kathy. I wasn’t sure I liked that any more than my own name, but it was just a name after all.
“This is Mr Henderson. He’s… well, you’ll see.” Lexi giggled, something she’d been doing throughout most lessons which had already got me into trouble with one teacher.
“Class, we have a new student today.” I wasn’t used to receiving so much attention at a school before. I was used to classes of 30 or so students, in schools of at least a thousand, whereas this school had maybe a few hundred at most. My classes had all been small, and as such I’d been asked to introduce myself in front of each one. “What’s your name?”
“Katherine.”
“Katherine what?”
“Katherine Phelps?”
“Katherine, sir.” He shook his head at me and turned back to the blackboard, where he began writing down the lesson plan. So, great. I’d already pissed him off.
“He’s always like that. He’s so anal,” Lexi giggled beside me, nudging me in the ribs.
The rest of the lesson went much the same, where Mr Henderson would ask me questions and I would continuously piss him off. I hadn’t meant to, of course. I knew it wasn’t a great idea to get on a teacher’s bad side on your first day.
“Katherine, I’d like to see you,” he asked after class, stopping me as I was walking off with Lexi and Stace. I watched as everyone else left and was made to sit in the chair that rested beside Mr Henderson’s desk as he sat at it, looking over a few papers before finally resting his eyes upon me. “The school runs a tutoring program for those that are a little… behind, and judging by your work today, I’d say you should seek out this help. I don’t know what they teach in the city anymore, but it sounds like utter nonsense…”
“Yes, sir.” Way to make a girl feel special. My shoes scuffed against the floor as I made my way from the room, my head bowed down as to hide the tears that were forming in the corners of my eyes. I’d never been told I was behind before. I’d always been a B average kinda student, which had always been good enough.
I’d decided I’d spend my afternoon in the library the school shared with the general public, as I had a free until home time and apparently wasn’t allowed to just leave early as I could at other schools. I found a nice spot to sit and an equally nice book to read through, but wasn’t nearly done with it by the time I heard the last bell. I wanted to borrow it to read when I got home, but apparently they hadn’t sorted my library card out just yet.
“This is ridiculous,” I complained to the man at the front desk, who rolled his eyes as if to say it wasn’t his problem. He was the librarian in charge. Clearly, it was his problem.
“I’m sorry, but as you’re not yet on our system you can’t yet borrow our books.”
“Well can’t I create an account here now? I mean, it’s a public library and I’m a member of the public.”
“You’ve already got an account through your school, it’s just not up and running yet for some reason. It must be something on their end because I can’t see the problem here…” I groaned, jumping in shock as someone came up beside me and placed their own books down on the counter.
“Excuse me, but did it look like I was done?” I mouthed off, which I immediately wanted to take back as this stranger looked down at me with complete and utter innocence written across his face.
“I was just going to offer to borrow the book for you. I mean, I’m sure you’ll return it, right?”
“Right.”
“Well then. I’d like to borrow these books, please.” He grabbed the novel from my hands and added it to his pile, to which the librarian rolled his eyes once more. I waited for them to all be scanned, along with the stranger’s library card, before he passed the book back to me.
“Thank you. I promise I’ll return it.”
“I have no doubts.” I smiled at him before I grabbed my bag from the floor and went to leave, but his fingers had wrapped themselves around my arm in a gentle manner which forced me to face him once more. “I’m Tom, by the way.”
“I’m Katherine.” The overwhelming urge to add ‘sir’ to the end of my sentence was killing me.
“So you’re new to the area?”
“I moved here not a week ago. I still get lost walking to the end of the street,” I admitted, blushing a little. He let go of my arm, but walked with me as we left the library.
“I live in town, so I don’t really know the area too well, either. I… I know a few good restaurants in the area though, if you’d like to maybe have dinner with me… Friday night?” I tripped as I walked and did that nervous laugh thing people do when something unbelievable happens to them, and there’s nothing in their memory to tell them what to do next.
“I… guess I’d love to.”
“Well I’ll give you my number, and maybe you can call me in the week so we can organise something?” I nodded, and smiled like crazy as he got a pen out from his bag and scribbled his number on the back of a flyer before handing it to me. “I’ll be seeing you then, darling.” He smiled brightly before walking away in the opposite direction, and just like that, he was swallowed up by the world. Had that even happened? I hadn’t had the time to properly analyse the situation. He’d been a nice guy, I guess, and it’d be an understatement to say he was attractive, but I wasn’t even sure if I was allowed to go on dates with guys. My mother had always told me that as soon as I was 16, I was my own person, but I was sure she’d have a few things to say about my 17 year old ass going out to an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar person.
It was always the same thing on repeat. I wasn’t sure if this was comforting, or if it annoyed me to no end. I’d rock up late on the first day, because I could blame it on getting lost, and then I’d receive a tour of the school by some senior student captain or a member of the administration staff. They’d then introduce me to a bunch of people that dressed the same as I did, and tell me I’d do well at their school.
“Katherine Phelps?” I nodded at the lady behind the reception desk who was finally looking my way. “This way please.” She got up, and I cringed as the chair she was sitting on made a horrific squeaking noise.
I followed the lady, who I later found out to be named ‘Barbara’, throughout the school, my nerves gushing madly as I saw we were finally headed to the cafeteria which is where most tours ended.
“Now let’s see…” Barbara murmured to herself as she took a look around, before looking back at me and giving me the once over. I thought I cocked an eyebrow, but she didn’t seem to notice regardless. “Alex and Stacey over there are lovely girls; let me introduce you to them!” Her smile dropped as she turned, which made me doubt her cheerful tone.
I wandered through my peers and thought to myself just quietly that the students here didn’t seem too different from those at city schools. They looked the same, dressed the same, and as someone was tripped by a much more confident-looking girl, i realised they acted the same, too.
“Alex, Stacey, this is Katherine. I’d like you to show her the school’s spirit of welcoming people of… all kinds.” Smooth. Okay, so I’d been pretty quiet and was dressed in something that was probably not too appropriate for one’s first day at a new school. Everyone else was in the school uniform. “I expect you to have your uniform sorted by the end of the week.” I nodded, and sat down beside Alex. They were both staring at me for an uncomfortable amount of time before Alex finally said hi, and we had the kind of conversation 3 strangers have when they first meet.
Surprisingly, Lexi and Stace weren’t so bad. Yes, they even let me use their nicknames and had taken to calling me Kathy. I wasn’t sure I liked that any more than my own name, but it was just a name after all.
“This is Mr Henderson. He’s… well, you’ll see.” Lexi giggled, something she’d been doing throughout most lessons which had already got me into trouble with one teacher.
“Class, we have a new student today.” I wasn’t used to receiving so much attention at a school before. I was used to classes of 30 or so students, in schools of at least a thousand, whereas this school had maybe a few hundred at most. My classes had all been small, and as such I’d been asked to introduce myself in front of each one. “What’s your name?”
“Katherine.”
“Katherine what?”
“Katherine Phelps?”
“Katherine, sir.” He shook his head at me and turned back to the blackboard, where he began writing down the lesson plan. So, great. I’d already pissed him off.
“He’s always like that. He’s so anal,” Lexi giggled beside me, nudging me in the ribs.
The rest of the lesson went much the same, where Mr Henderson would ask me questions and I would continuously piss him off. I hadn’t meant to, of course. I knew it wasn’t a great idea to get on a teacher’s bad side on your first day.
“Katherine, I’d like to see you,” he asked after class, stopping me as I was walking off with Lexi and Stace. I watched as everyone else left and was made to sit in the chair that rested beside Mr Henderson’s desk as he sat at it, looking over a few papers before finally resting his eyes upon me. “The school runs a tutoring program for those that are a little… behind, and judging by your work today, I’d say you should seek out this help. I don’t know what they teach in the city anymore, but it sounds like utter nonsense…”
“Yes, sir.” Way to make a girl feel special. My shoes scuffed against the floor as I made my way from the room, my head bowed down as to hide the tears that were forming in the corners of my eyes. I’d never been told I was behind before. I’d always been a B average kinda student, which had always been good enough.
I’d decided I’d spend my afternoon in the library the school shared with the general public, as I had a free until home time and apparently wasn’t allowed to just leave early as I could at other schools. I found a nice spot to sit and an equally nice book to read through, but wasn’t nearly done with it by the time I heard the last bell. I wanted to borrow it to read when I got home, but apparently they hadn’t sorted my library card out just yet.
“This is ridiculous,” I complained to the man at the front desk, who rolled his eyes as if to say it wasn’t his problem. He was the librarian in charge. Clearly, it was his problem.
“I’m sorry, but as you’re not yet on our system you can’t yet borrow our books.”
“Well can’t I create an account here now? I mean, it’s a public library and I’m a member of the public.”
“You’ve already got an account through your school, it’s just not up and running yet for some reason. It must be something on their end because I can’t see the problem here…” I groaned, jumping in shock as someone came up beside me and placed their own books down on the counter.
“Excuse me, but did it look like I was done?” I mouthed off, which I immediately wanted to take back as this stranger looked down at me with complete and utter innocence written across his face.
“I was just going to offer to borrow the book for you. I mean, I’m sure you’ll return it, right?”
“Right.”
“Well then. I’d like to borrow these books, please.” He grabbed the novel from my hands and added it to his pile, to which the librarian rolled his eyes once more. I waited for them to all be scanned, along with the stranger’s library card, before he passed the book back to me.
“Thank you. I promise I’ll return it.”
“I have no doubts.” I smiled at him before I grabbed my bag from the floor and went to leave, but his fingers had wrapped themselves around my arm in a gentle manner which forced me to face him once more. “I’m Tom, by the way.”
“I’m Katherine.” The overwhelming urge to add ‘sir’ to the end of my sentence was killing me.
“So you’re new to the area?”
“I moved here not a week ago. I still get lost walking to the end of the street,” I admitted, blushing a little. He let go of my arm, but walked with me as we left the library.
“I live in town, so I don’t really know the area too well, either. I… I know a few good restaurants in the area though, if you’d like to maybe have dinner with me… Friday night?” I tripped as I walked and did that nervous laugh thing people do when something unbelievable happens to them, and there’s nothing in their memory to tell them what to do next.
“I… guess I’d love to.”
“Well I’ll give you my number, and maybe you can call me in the week so we can organise something?” I nodded, and smiled like crazy as he got a pen out from his bag and scribbled his number on the back of a flyer before handing it to me. “I’ll be seeing you then, darling.” He smiled brightly before walking away in the opposite direction, and just like that, he was swallowed up by the world. Had that even happened? I hadn’t had the time to properly analyse the situation. He’d been a nice guy, I guess, and it’d be an understatement to say he was attractive, but I wasn’t even sure if I was allowed to go on dates with guys. My mother had always told me that as soon as I was 16, I was my own person, but I was sure she’d have a few things to say about my 17 year old ass going out to an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar person.
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