Status: Active, work on it every now and then.
The Simplest Thing in the World
Ten
I don’t know what I was expecting when we arrived at the school. Maybe a whole bunch of red double decker buses dropping off students, or matching uniforms, but St. Clair’s looked like any other high school. Harold ushered me into the building and toward the main office. He spoke quietly to the lady at the desk while I sat in a chair off to the side. I caught parts of the conversation. “Granddaughter.” “First day.” “Talked last week.” I looked out of the big window at the groups of kids wandering about the school, killing time before the bell rung. A few of them glanced at me, sizing me up I suspected. Everyone is always interested in the new kid in the beginning, but they soon grow bored with you and spit you back into the treacherous waves of high school. I’d never even been a new student before, and I knew this.
“Here you are,” Harold said, handing me an array of papers. “Schedule. Map. School rules. Locker number and combination. And…that’s it. Think you can handle it from here? Or should I stick around for a few minutes?”
I stood up, “No, no! You go! I’ll be great. Really. Thanks for breakfast, and bringing me and everything, but I’ll be fine.”
A part of me didn’t want him to go, but I was already going to be the new weird girl with a funny accent. I wasn’t too keen on also being the girl who had an old guy following her around.
“Right then. Well, have a good first day then. Stay out of trouble,” he said ruffling my hair like a child.
As Harold’s back shrunk in the distance, I dodged students on the search to find my locker. The lady at desk, Deborah, had pointed me in the general direction. People stared at me in the hallways, obviously sensing I didn’t belong. I found my space, stuffed my things inside it, and began searching for room 103, Calculus. Let’s just say I was a little less than thrilled to have math class first thing in the morning. The room wasn’t difficult to find.
“Can I help you?” The teacher asked me after my standing by her desk for several minutes.
I felt my face flush with embarrassment.
“Um…I’m new.”
Her face lit up, “You must be, Celia! I’m Mrs. Geiger. Let’s get you set up shall we?”
When the bell rang, students of all kinds began filling the empty seats around me. I sat near the back of the room by the window which I was perfectly fine with. I almost felt secluded a tad bit. Perfect. Mrs. Geiger had given me a new textbook as well as the notes for the day ahead of time. I kept my head down as they filed in, not wanting to see their curious eyes. Suddenly, I felt a hand brush my shoulder, and I became very aware of someday standing next to me.
“Hey, there.”
Two words, and then he moved on. I looked up in time to see the boy from the library looking back at me with a smile as he went to his seat. I felt a little better knowing I knew at least one person in the class. He sat a few rows the right of me, and a few seats up. I sat on the edge of my seat so I could see him perfectly. Once at his desk, he looked at me again and waved. I waved back. I knew it seemed kind of odd, but seeing him there…it comforted me like a teddy bear might comfort a child during a thunderstorm. I didn’t fully understand it, but I wasn’t really trying to either. I was thankful that Mrs. Geiger did not introduce me to the class, and I was hoping my other teachers would be just as kind. When the teachers make a new student stand in front of the class, they feel like insects pinned to a corkboard in a protective case while strangers push their noses up to the class and inspect every aspect of him. No, that isn’t terrifying at all. Instead, she carried on with her class as I suspect she did every day. I tried my best to look interested in what Mrs. Geiger was teaching and tried to follow along to the notes, but it was as if she were speaking a completely different language. No comprende, Señora Geiger. I could see Charlie scribbling away in his notebook, trying to keep up (Señora wrote pretty damn fast). Every so often when he’d catch a break, he’d look back at me. It was always very brief. And very subtle, but I knew I still saw it. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I slipped it out and smiled as I saw Sean’s name light up the screen.
Hey, babe.
Silently, I counted the hours to calculate the time back home. Two AM.
What are you doing up? Go to bed, silly!
Sean had a bad habit of thinking he could stay up real late and be fine the next morning. He was wrong. He’d always end up being grumpy and snappy with everyone he talked to.
I can’t! I miss you too much! I hope everything is going well. :-)
I felt myself smiling down at the phone, which probably made me look like a crazy girl smiling at her crotch. Man, she must really like what’s going on down there.
“Miss Kay, do you have a calculator app open on your phone there?”
I looked up, my shoulders slumping with embarrassment.
“No,” I said in my smallest voice.
“Well, let this be your only notice. Phones are not to be out unless they are being used as a mathematical tool. Understand, Miss Kay?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
For fear of getting off on the wrong foot with Mrs. Geiger, I sat up straight and kept my eyes on the bored, taking in the gibberish as if I could translate it.
I looked for that one familiar face in the rest of my classes, but I never found it again. Security blanket gone. I hadn’t made any friends either. It had never been my strong suit. In fact all the friends I had back home had sought me out, not the other way around. Damn this awkward personality. After school I pulled out my phone hoping to use GPS to find my way back home. Harold had told me to call when school let out and when I was ready to leave so he could pick me up, but….I’m a teenager. I don’t exactly get a kick out of my grandfather picking me up from school. The only reason I had agreed to let him drop me off that morning was because I hadn’t known how to get to the school, but now that I did… My phone lit up with a path with my desired destination at its end. Reading the directions, I slowly started off down the street.
“Planning on getting lost again, are we?”
Charlie stepped in front of me, proving to make a very good wall.
“What do you mean?” I asked, a little annoyed.
“You’re going right when you should be going left.” He said, pointing in the opposite direction.
I held up my phone, “Well, this tells me to go right. So, no, I’m not planning on getting lost, hence the GPS.”
He took my smartphone from my hands, “I’ve never trusted these things myself.” He examined the route my phone had highlighted. A smirk crept onto his face.
“Yes….this way will get you home…eventually. If you went this way, it would be about an hour hike. My way only takes twenty.” He looked too smug for his own good.
“Here you are,” Harold said, handing me an array of papers. “Schedule. Map. School rules. Locker number and combination. And…that’s it. Think you can handle it from here? Or should I stick around for a few minutes?”
I stood up, “No, no! You go! I’ll be great. Really. Thanks for breakfast, and bringing me and everything, but I’ll be fine.”
A part of me didn’t want him to go, but I was already going to be the new weird girl with a funny accent. I wasn’t too keen on also being the girl who had an old guy following her around.
“Right then. Well, have a good first day then. Stay out of trouble,” he said ruffling my hair like a child.
As Harold’s back shrunk in the distance, I dodged students on the search to find my locker. The lady at desk, Deborah, had pointed me in the general direction. People stared at me in the hallways, obviously sensing I didn’t belong. I found my space, stuffed my things inside it, and began searching for room 103, Calculus. Let’s just say I was a little less than thrilled to have math class first thing in the morning. The room wasn’t difficult to find.
“Can I help you?” The teacher asked me after my standing by her desk for several minutes.
I felt my face flush with embarrassment.
“Um…I’m new.”
Her face lit up, “You must be, Celia! I’m Mrs. Geiger. Let’s get you set up shall we?”
When the bell rang, students of all kinds began filling the empty seats around me. I sat near the back of the room by the window which I was perfectly fine with. I almost felt secluded a tad bit. Perfect. Mrs. Geiger had given me a new textbook as well as the notes for the day ahead of time. I kept my head down as they filed in, not wanting to see their curious eyes. Suddenly, I felt a hand brush my shoulder, and I became very aware of someday standing next to me.
“Hey, there.”
Two words, and then he moved on. I looked up in time to see the boy from the library looking back at me with a smile as he went to his seat. I felt a little better knowing I knew at least one person in the class. He sat a few rows the right of me, and a few seats up. I sat on the edge of my seat so I could see him perfectly. Once at his desk, he looked at me again and waved. I waved back. I knew it seemed kind of odd, but seeing him there…it comforted me like a teddy bear might comfort a child during a thunderstorm. I didn’t fully understand it, but I wasn’t really trying to either. I was thankful that Mrs. Geiger did not introduce me to the class, and I was hoping my other teachers would be just as kind. When the teachers make a new student stand in front of the class, they feel like insects pinned to a corkboard in a protective case while strangers push their noses up to the class and inspect every aspect of him. No, that isn’t terrifying at all. Instead, she carried on with her class as I suspect she did every day. I tried my best to look interested in what Mrs. Geiger was teaching and tried to follow along to the notes, but it was as if she were speaking a completely different language. No comprende, Señora Geiger. I could see Charlie scribbling away in his notebook, trying to keep up (Señora wrote pretty damn fast). Every so often when he’d catch a break, he’d look back at me. It was always very brief. And very subtle, but I knew I still saw it. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I slipped it out and smiled as I saw Sean’s name light up the screen.
Hey, babe.
Silently, I counted the hours to calculate the time back home. Two AM.
What are you doing up? Go to bed, silly!
Sean had a bad habit of thinking he could stay up real late and be fine the next morning. He was wrong. He’d always end up being grumpy and snappy with everyone he talked to.
I can’t! I miss you too much! I hope everything is going well. :-)
I felt myself smiling down at the phone, which probably made me look like a crazy girl smiling at her crotch. Man, she must really like what’s going on down there.
“Miss Kay, do you have a calculator app open on your phone there?”
I looked up, my shoulders slumping with embarrassment.
“No,” I said in my smallest voice.
“Well, let this be your only notice. Phones are not to be out unless they are being used as a mathematical tool. Understand, Miss Kay?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
For fear of getting off on the wrong foot with Mrs. Geiger, I sat up straight and kept my eyes on the bored, taking in the gibberish as if I could translate it.
I looked for that one familiar face in the rest of my classes, but I never found it again. Security blanket gone. I hadn’t made any friends either. It had never been my strong suit. In fact all the friends I had back home had sought me out, not the other way around. Damn this awkward personality. After school I pulled out my phone hoping to use GPS to find my way back home. Harold had told me to call when school let out and when I was ready to leave so he could pick me up, but….I’m a teenager. I don’t exactly get a kick out of my grandfather picking me up from school. The only reason I had agreed to let him drop me off that morning was because I hadn’t known how to get to the school, but now that I did… My phone lit up with a path with my desired destination at its end. Reading the directions, I slowly started off down the street.
“Planning on getting lost again, are we?”
Charlie stepped in front of me, proving to make a very good wall.
“What do you mean?” I asked, a little annoyed.
“You’re going right when you should be going left.” He said, pointing in the opposite direction.
I held up my phone, “Well, this tells me to go right. So, no, I’m not planning on getting lost, hence the GPS.”
He took my smartphone from my hands, “I’ve never trusted these things myself.” He examined the route my phone had highlighted. A smirk crept onto his face.
“Yes….this way will get you home…eventually. If you went this way, it would be about an hour hike. My way only takes twenty.” He looked too smug for his own good.