Your Melody Sounds As Sweet As the First Time It Was Sung

Three days later, it was my first day at Palo Verde High School. Mom suggested sending me to some Catholic school in the area, but I flat out refused. Uniforms, religion and me don’t mix. Nothing really happened over our first weekend in Las Vegas. Neither mom nor I were up to exploring the town just yet, so we stayed at home. I knew that this was just as hard for mom as it was for me. She’d had friends back in Jersey, and she had to abandon them to rid herself of memorabilia. But that was the point of this all, right? A fresh start. All we had was each other.

So about my new neighbourhood. What can I say? We didn’t really know much. An old woman lived in the house next door to us on the left. She scared me. We hadn’t officially been introduced or anything, but every now and then I’d glance out the living room window and she’d be spying on us behind her musty yellow curtain. Creepy. I made a point of closing our own curtains as much as I could. I hadn’t seen those two guys across the street again; the one’s I’d dubbed Chubby and Skinny. I wasn’t too sad about that. I can live without random strangers staring at me whenever I go outside.

So, my first day at a new school. I’ll admit I was nervous. Making friends was never really my forte. I mean, I wasn’t a complete loner back in Jersey, but I didn’t have any really close friends. Just mom and dad. The other friends I had… well, I bet we will have lost contact by the end of the next few months.

Usually, I wasn’t that fussy about what I wore, but to mark the ‘occasion’ I felt like I should have made an effort. I don’t know why I really bothered, because I ended up wearing the same sort of thing I usually wear. My blue skinny jeans and black Jimmy Eat World shirt proved difficult to put on in the darkness, and in the midst of my struggling I found myself falling over on the floor. I really am that coordinated. Once I was dressed, I opened my blinds and the early morning sunlight flooded the shiny wooden floorboards of my room. I tugged on my scribbled-on black converse with red laces over mismatched socks and stood up, face to face with myself in the mirror. I hate mirrors. Seriously, what purpose do they serve? Boost the good-looking people’s usually already over-inflated egos and make the rest of us want to crawl into a hole and die? What an amazing invention. Not. Before my reflection could taunt me any longer, I made my way to the bathroom at the end of the hall and washed my face. At least I didn’t feel so disgusting any more. I started my usual morning routine; brushing my teeth, brushing my hair, putting on eyeliner. But this time I was in a completely different state, let alone bathroom. I slipped on a hoodie, as per usual, before heading downstairs. Today’s hoodie was grey and red striped. I love hoodies.

I noticed the first day we moved in that the stairs in this house were narrower and steeper than the stairs in my Jersey home. I’d already fallen twice, and almost fallen three other times. I think I’ve already used sarcasm to emphasize how clumsy I am.

Mom was already downstairs in her pink silk dressing gown and fluffy slippers doing the washing up we had left in the sink last night. My guess was that she’d been up for hours and probably shed a tear or two.

“You okay, mom?” I asked tentatively.

“Yeah, I’m fine, honey,” she sniffed. “I’m fine.”

I wasn’t convinced, but for her sake I pretended I was.

“Okay, well I’m going to head off now.”

“You don’t want me to drive you? It’s your first day, and…”

“Mom,” I cut her off with a small laugh. “We both know you’re not ready to go out right now.”

I gestured towards her slippers and she gave a watery chuckle.

“Okay then sweetie. You know the way, right?”

“Yep. I saw it when we arrived.”

I had. It wasn’t far.

“Okay. Oh, you’ll need to take these to the main reception when you get there.”

She shuffled through a pile of papers on the table and handed me some forms.

“Thanks mom.”

She smiled. “Have a good day Charlie.”

She kissed my cheek and I waved goodbye as I stepped out the front door and closed it behind me. It was quite chilly outside, being early morning, but I guess it came to me as a bit of a surprise, seeing as Vegas isn’t exactly associated with cold weather. I hugged my hoodie tighter to me and pulled my black and grey fingerless gloves out of my messenger bag. I knew they didn’t really serve much purpose, because my fingers would still be icy, but I loved them and the way they looked. I guess that’s just the girl in me.

As I walked towards my new school, I realized that it was actually the first time I was familiarizing myself with my new town. Being in the suburbs, it wasn’t what anyone’s first thought would be at the word ‘Vegas’. There were no clubs or casinos in sight, and the sidewalks and gutters were cleaner than those in Jersey. Then again, this wasn’t the centre of the city.

After turning a few more corners into similar streets, I saw the looming shape of Palo Verde come into view. It looked pretty similar to my old school; brick buildings, concrete walls, patches of grass. Belleville High was more graffitied, though.

I walked through the wrought iron gates and glanced around. Other students were already there, hanging out and waiting for the first bell to ring. A few people looked at me, but turned away again without care. I don’t think I stood out as a new student, just not the most familiar face. After a few minutes of wandering around like an idiot, I found the main reception. The woman working at the desk was middle-aged with short auburn hair. She was wearing a purple knit cardigan over a white blouse and black skirt, and pearls adorned her ears and neck. She looked up through rectangular spectacles as I closed the door behind me and smiled, showing not-so-white teeth behind her red painted lips.

“New student?” she asked sweetly in a high voice. I nodded.

“Thought so,” she smiled, tapping keys at her computer. “I didn’t think I’d seen your hair before.”

I smiled nervously and tugged uncomfortably on the ends of my hair. It wasn’t that unusual, was it? Dark red in colour, darker streaks, side fringe, quite long...

“Don’t worry dear,” the woman said, noticing my discomfort. “It looks lovely. Have you got your forms?”

I pulled the papers out of my bag and handed them to her. I was kind of freaked out. None of the receptionists at my old school had been this… nice.

“Charlotte,” she smiled, looking over the papers. “That’s my niece’s name. Beautiful name, I think. She hates it though. She’s seven years old tomorrow, actually.”

I tried my best to smile and not zone out this woman’s chatter. She was nice. Talkative. Unfortunately, my people skills weren’t as developed.

“I’m Leanne Wilt, by the way. I work here Monday to Friday, so if you need anything or just want to say hello, I’ll be here.”

I smiled gratefully. Leanne seemed to actually care about the students here. That was the difference.

“Okay, so here’s your schedule, locker combination, and a map of the school so you don’t get lost,” she handed me a few papers that were still warm from the printer as she talked. “I’ve highlighted all your classrooms in pink, the easiest routes from your locker to your classes in yellow and your teacher’s offices in green.”

Wow. How nice is that?

“Thanks,” I managed.

“Any time, sweetie. Now your first class is double math and to make things worse you’ve got Mr Robs. He probably won’t pick on you too much yet because you’re new, but he might put you on the spot a bit to test how much you know.”

“Wonderful,” I muttered sarcastically. Math was by no means my best subject. Leanne laughed.

“Don’t worry dear, you’ll be fine. So your homeroom is room 3/19,” She pointed to the room on the map. “And your teacher is Mrs Flint. I don’t really know her very well so I can’t tell you what to expect.”

“Okay. Thank you so much, Ms Wilt.”

“Please, call me Leanne. Mrs Wilt makes me feel like one of the teachers."

I smiled. “Okay then. Thank you Leanne.”

“Pleasure.”

Walking out of the office, I couldn't help but think that at least I had one friendly face on this planet.