Somewhere I Belong

The breeze that was gently pushing the leaves from the tree’s was cool as it his Jessica’s bare legs. She shivered a bit regretting wearing the frilly skirt and blouse combo her mother had picked for her first day at her new school. She would have been content with jeans paired with one of her many band shirts that her mother truly did despise. ‘terrible noise’ and ‘horrid racket’ was always how she described the music Jessica listened to. It just appalled Jessica how someone could hate such great music, I mean who doesn’t like Black Sabbath? She had to have some kind of mental disability. Her mother had whined and pleaded for her to wear something ‘nice’ to make a good impression and her Led Zeppelin t-shirt wasn’t going to cut it.

“Just one day Jess’, you can do it” she mentally told herself. Their new house wasn’t too far from the school so she walked; the fact that she didn’t have a car was also a pretty good reason for it too. Her mother had offered to drive her but the outfit and bickering was more than enough mother-daughter time for her. Besides, she wanted to see the neighborhood, it was a lot different than what they had back home in Oklahoma. She wished this was all a bad dream and that she could go back and finish high school with her friends. The new job offer from the company Mr. Crowley, Jessica’s father, worked for was too good to pass up and if uprooting his only daughter to some crazy town in New Jersey was the price for it well, she knew what he would always choose.

The school was just ahead with a big arch sign that said ‘Reginald High School’ across it. With a sigh Jessica walked towards the front of the school where she was immediately intercepted by a perky little red head that beamed a huge smile towards her. “Your new right? Well I hope so because I’ve never seen you” she chirped with a laugh at the end. “um, yeah, Jessica Crowley” she reached out to shake hands and the red head nearly tore her arm off. “Ally, it’s so good to meet you, I know you’re going to fit in so well here”. Ally led Jess in to the school entrance where hoards of high schooler’s prowled the halls trying to finish their conversations before the first bell rang. “Oh, Mr. Flint!” she waved a teacher-looking type over to them. “Would it be alright if I showed Jessica around? She’s new” she put emphasis on the ‘new’ part. The teacher or whatever he was smiled and said sure.

After about an hour had passed Ally finally returned Jessica back to the front entrance of the school. Now she knew where practically everything was in the two story maze of a school and where all the good spots to watch the boys sports teams practice were, not that she cared but Ally made it a mission to show her so that she could ‘bag one’ as she said. “well I have a test to make up so I’ll see you in an hour at lunch” she smiled and took off up a flight of stairs. Jessica stood there, finally alone and able to take it all in, she was not looking forward to it.

“Shit!” she cursed aloud, she had forgotten to ask where the office was, the one place Ally neglected to show her. Jessica started to walk around knowing it had to be on the first floor somewhere. As she walked she saw someone walking down the hallway, his back towards her. She began to walk after him, the stupid flats she was forced to wear tapping and clacking on the floor, but he kept his back to her. “Hey! Hold up” she finally yelled as she got close to him but he didn’t turn or even stop, just rounded the corner of the hall. She rounded it too and saw the boy bent over taking a drink of water from a fountain and giving her a sarcastic “can I help you?” look. “um, I’m sorry you must not of heard me i-“ he cut her off, “no I heard you. I just chose to ignore it” he gave her a halfcocked smile along with a hell of a lot of unwanted attitude.

Standing up he appeared to be tall, well taller than her at least, he was wearing all black and a crimson red tie. His hair was somewhat long and matched the color of his clothes. Even though he was being a jerk she felt something, an unknown something but it was strong. She couldn’t help but get a little lost in his evergreen eyes that shimmered with a gold tint in the light. There was something about him.

‘wow, ok then” she was honestly shocked someone would just come out and say that to a person they didn’t even know. “can you just tell me where the main office is?” she pushed wanting to get away from him as quick as possible even if there was something telling her to stay. “What? The little red head didn’t give you the grand tour of hell?” the small laugh he made at the end sent a chill up her spine. “Go back to your friends new girl, you don’t want to be seen with me; people like us don’t mix well” he started to turn his back to her. “what are you even talking about?” she almost demanded of him, he turned back “you’ll see” he sounded almost sad as he left her standing alone once again.