Past Secrets Consume Us

"Oh my god, I've only been here for 3 minutes and I'm already making a fool of myself," I thought as I scrambled to pick up the papers that had flown across the hallway when I tripped. "Nice going, Helena. Why don't you paste a neon sign on your forehead that says I'm a big, fat loser," I mumbled to myself as I tried to stand and fell again. "Who's Helena?" said a beautiful male voice. I looked up and saw a gorgeous guy. He had long, ebony hair, pale, perfect skin, the most beautiful green eyes I'd ever seen, and a perfect ring of thick black eyeliner around his stunning eyes. "Umm, I am. I didn't think anyone heard me talking to myself," I said blushing so hard it hurt my cheeks. "Oh, well hello Helena, I'm Gerard." he extended his hand and I took it. He pulled me to my feet and helped me collect all the papers that had flown away. "Are you new here?" he said, handing me the last run-away paper. I couldn't help but smile as his hand accidentally brushed mine. "Yeah, is it that obvious?" he smiled and shook his head. "I'm not sure if it is to them but I just figured that you were new because I'm pretty sure I would have remembered seeing you before." I blushed again and glanced at my schedule, "Do you know where Mrs. Schrader's class is?" He smiled and said, "Sure that's where I'm going!" With a flourish of his arms he motioned the direction of the class and held the door for me as I entered. We took two seats in the middle of the class and waited patiently as a flustered, middle-aged woman entered. "Good morning, students. I am Mrs. Schrader. I will be your instructor for drama this year. Since it is the first day i would like you to get to know one another. You may talk amongst yourselves quietly," she stressed the last word and pulled out a threadbare copy of "Gone With the Wind".
Gerard tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around to face him. "Helena this is Ray, Ray this is Helena." I took Ray's hand and shook it. I was pretty sure that I would always recognize him because he had a very unique hairstyle. "Hi Ray, it's nice to meet-" I stopped mid-sentence as a flustered looking freshman burst into the room. "This is for you, Mrs. Schrader," he said, glancing around the room obviously intimidated by all of the upperclassmen glaring at him for interrupting their socialization. "Thank you," she said taking the paper and reading it, "Will Miss McWest please come to the front of the class." I sighed quietly and stood up. I was so used to the 'new student speech' that I could recite it without a second thought but, this time, I was nervous because Gerard would be watching. "Class, pay attention. This is Helena McWest and she just moved here from Mississippi. Helena, would you please tell us a little about yourself." I shifted my weight nervously from one foot to the other. "Actually, it's pronounced Hell-ih-nuh not Hell-ee-nuh. I just moved here from Mississippi but that's not my home town. I was born in Georgia but, being an army-brat, i've had to move a lot. We have lived in Atlanta, Memphis, Ontario, Helena, and the last place we left was Brookhaven, Mississippi. This will be our last move though, so it looks like y'all are stuck with me.". A group of preps burst into an eruption of giggles at the word y'all and a large football player sneezed "Freak" into his hand. I clenched my jaw but walked back to the desk I had been occupying earlier. [It's everywhere -if you don't dress like them, talk like them, or want to be them you are automatically labeled a freak. It's even worse when you happen to posses all three characteristics; like me.] When I sat down I noticed a folded up sheet of paper on the desk it said: "Wow, you've moved a lot. I'm glad you are staying here. You seem really cool. Don't let jerks like Jackson(the football player) get to you. If anybody messes with you just let me handle it. I'd be glad to help. -Gerard." I smiled and turned around to talk to him. "Thanks, I'm pretty used to it. Every school has jerks like that. The only problem is not every school has you." he smiled and said, "Lucky them". We laughed and for about fifteen minutes Ray, Gerard, and I talked about our interests. They seemed to love music just as much as I did.
In the middle of Ray explaining how they planned on making a band one day a paper flew across the room and hit me in the head. "What the hell?" I said looking at the paper. It was the same color as the schedules so i opened it to see whose it was. "Who the fuck did that?" said Gerard, "Jackson, of course." He stood up and walked over to the huge linebacker. "What the hell is your problem? She didn't do anything to you." Jackson opened his mouth probably to say some snobbish comeback but none of the students got the chance to hear it. Just as Jackson's mouth opened Gerard pulled back his arm and punched him in the face. Jackson sat there shocked, jaw gaping and blood pouring out of his nose. "Mr. Way, to the office. He will need an escort." My arm rocketed up without my brain having any say in the matter and Mrs. Schrader smiled, "Miss McWest you may be his escort and Mr. Toro, please take Mr. Stone to the nurse." The four of us exited the room.
Jackson was still too shocked at the fact that someone stood up to him to speak so he and Ray headed toward the right in silence. I suddenly realized that i had no clue where the office was so i just stood there dumbly. Gerard started to laugh and slid down a locker to sit on the floor in a fit of hysterics. "Umm, are you okay?" I said sliding down next to him. "I'm fine, I just always wanted to do that and never had a reason." I smiled and thanked him. "I don't really know where the office is." He laughed and stood up, offering me his hand. "They know me pretty well there," I laughed and said, "I'm really sorry for getting you in trouble. It's only the first day and it's all my fault." he laughed, stopping in the middle of the hallway. "Don't worry about it. Leaving that class gave me the opportunity to do this." He kissed me passionately on the lips. My brain told me to say something but my mouth just wasn't cooperating. I just stood there with a shocked look on my face. "Helena?, " he said, looking kind of nervous, "I hope i didn't freak you out. We can forget that ever happened i just-" I cut him off by kissing him back," Now why would i want to forget that?" I said. "This is gonna be a great year after all," I thought as we walked hand-in-hand to the office.