Innocence

Mr. Varner called on me a lot during the hour to give examples. I knew what to say most of the time, and wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Now that he saw I was one of the people in his class that actually knew what he was talking about, he called on me often.

I glanced at Trevor a lot, and noticed he was sitting next to a blond boy that looked like the one I saw in the mall yesterday, but I didn’t think it was him. His eyes were a light blue, not a dark black. Neither Trevor nor the other blonde one glanced at me. If they had, I was sure I could have felt it burning holes in my face.

When the bell rang for class to end, Mr. Varner didn’t stop talking but continued to talk while everyone got up from their seats and headed out. I followed Maryana’s lead and left with the rest of them.

Maryana took the schedule I was looking at from my hands. “Seriously?” she asked, a smile touching her lips. She gave me back the schedule. “We have second and fourth hour together too. That is so cool.”

I smiled back. At least I would know someone in those classes. “English literature?” I asked, looking down at the schedule.

She nodded, towing me through the hallways again. We past a large hallway that looked like computer classes and into another pod class on the other side of the second floor. “All of your classes but math will be up here on the second floor. That’s a plus.” She laughed. “And this is the extras pod, where the left over classes go. Don’t worry about it though, it doesn’t mean your dumb or anything.”

“Thanks.” I mumbled.

She let go of me and tapped another male teacher on the shoulder. This man looked even older than Mr. Varner had, but his hair was thick and honey colored. He was also taller…and wider.

He turned to look at Maryana, squinting like he couldn’t see her right. “What do you need?”

“This is Candace and she’s a new student.” Maryana said, smiling politely even though the man sounded rude.

“Okay?” he asked, leaving both of us standing there.

Maryana brought her lips up to my ear and whispered, “He’s always a grouch during this hour. You’ll see why in a few minutes. We sit in the back so we don’t get the blow.”

She pulled me to the back of the room and sat me down in a chair next to her. The girl next to her started gushing to Maryana about a boy. I tried not to listen but his name got my attention.

“He was outside this morning standing by his car and he all of a sudden smiled at me, like he knew I was looking at him before he saw me. Trevor is so hot.” The girl gushed. “And have you seen Aiden today? That shirt looks so amazing on him.”

Maryana smiled at her friend. “I saw Clark today in first period. God is he gorgeous.”

It was like the girl saw me for the first time and smiled at me. “I’m Atarah.” She said, nodding in my direction.

I played with the sleeve of my shirt. “Candace.”

A boy popped his head into the classroom, his shaggy red hair reminding me of Mike. He waved in my direction. “Hey, Maryana!”

Maryana waved back, blowing a kiss in his direction.

“Hey Stewie.” The boy said to the teacher before ducking back out.

Two girls came into the room then. Right away, even though I didn’t want to admit it, they were trouble. As soon as people saw them, they stopped their conversations and watched as the girls sat down at the empty table in the front row where only four others were, forced to sit up there because there were no seats left. Except for one next to Atarah.

The teacher…Stewie that boy called him…sighed.

The bell rang and the two girls up front giggled.

The teacher sighed again. “Carly, please don’t do this to me today.” The teacher said, his eyes closing in frustration.

“I’m not doing anything Mr. Stewart!” the girl to the right yelled too loudly.

I scowled at her, already hating her.

Maryana was in between a smile and a frown.

Mr. Stewart opened his eyes. “Go and sit in your assigned seat.”

“Why doesn’t everyone else have to sit in their assigned seat?” she yelled.

Mr. Stewart tried to keep calm, but he was losing it, his face turning red with rage. “They are in their assigned seat.”

“Fine!” the girl yelled, grabbing her friends hand and tugging her with her. Carly sat down in the empty chair next to Atarah, placing her friend on her lap. They both laughed, the class quietly joining in. Me, Maryana, and Atarah didn’t join in with the laughing students.

“So stupid.” Maryana mumbled, shaking her head.

“Please sit in your assigned seats.”

“We are.” They said together.

“What are you waiting for? The girl sitting on Carly’s lap asked. “Start class! You’re wasting all of our time! Don’t you want us to learn anything!” she laughed then, slapping her knee.

Mr. Stewart grabbed the phone of the hook on his desk, and dialed a number. “Yes, them again. No, it’s fine. They’ll be right down.”

The girls got up without being told, and left the room laughing at Mr. Stewart.

The teacher sighed with the rest of class. A boy right in front of me leaned on the back to legs of his chair. “I don’t even get why they come to class. You should make them drop this class and take it next year when they are all seniors.”

Maryana lifted her hand in the air toward the boy. He turned around and gave Maryana a high five like she had wanted, turning to face me. He winked, then turned back around to face the teacher.

Maryana leaned forward on the table and smacked him across the head. “Don’t mess with the poor girls head.”

The boy rubbed the sore spot on the side of his and mumbled an apology while laughing to himself.

I rolled my eyes. This was crazier than Atlanta, and that had been crazy.

Maryana dropped me off at third period, just a few doors down from my second period. The teacher, Mrs. Chalk was rubbing her pregnant belly when I walked in, her long curly hair around her face. Her eyelashes were the longest I’ve ever seen before.

There was only one other person in the room with us. A girl that I could have sworn was Maryana. The girl looked me up and down, smiling the same way Maryana a did. Her face was the same, except she wore glasses. The true difference was that This girl had blonde hair, and the Maryana had dark brown.

“This is my sister Nadia.” Maryana said, smiling at her sister now. “Take care of her while I’m gone.”

Nadia smiled wider. “Oh you know I will.”

Nadia was almost the same as her sister in the way she talked with you and the way she carried herself, but she was quieter, and didn’t talk to any of the other kids during class. She kept to herself, only occasionally talking to me to fill in the silence.

Fourth hour was a computer class, and I didn’t get to talk during this period, which I was glad for. On the other hand, I hated it. My mind wandered then, thinking only of Mike and where he would be right now. He would be in school definitely, but where exactly? Where would I be now if I was still there? I wish more than anything I could be with Mike…

Everything was just so new.

Lunch was more hectic than my morning. Maryana pulled me to her table and sat me down next to a group of her friends. They all smiled at me politely and waited for me to introduce myself.

“I’m Candace.” I said, trying to smile back. All of this smiling was making my cheeks hurt.

A boy out of the group smiled back, his brilliant white teeth shining. “That’s my mom’s name.”

Without even thinking about it, I responded. “Your mom must be kick butt if she has my name.”

Everyone was shocked for a second then laughed.

Maryana wacked the boy on the head like she had to the weird guy in my English class. “Richie, be nice.”

“Adrian.” A boy sitting next to Richie said. Atarah was there, and Nadia, both staring at me intently.

I tried not to notice, but when Nadia screamed with excitement, moving the lunch table slightly, you couldn’t ignore her. “Ralf!” she yelled, clapping her hands together.

Richie rolled his eyes. “What are you on about now?”

Nadia stuck her tongue out at him. “I picked a name for Candace. Ralf.”

I wrinkled my nose, making everyone laugh. I thought my plan was to not make any friends. But who couldn’t like all of these people?

A girl who had not introduced herself to me yet laughed. “Maybe not. Why don’t you find another name for her? Ralf is so…” she trailed off.

Maryana cupped her hand over the girls mouth. “I don’t think you should argue with Nadia about names Dawn. Your fighting a losing battle.”

Dawn ripped Maryana’s hand away from her mouth. “Cut it out Mare.”

Someone sat down right beside me, holding an orange out to me. “Does this look right to you?” she asked me.

I glanced at the fruit, trying to figure out what she meant by ‘right.’ “Yeah, I guess.”

The girl shrugged. “Okay. I’m Lexi.”

“Candace.” I said for the umpteenth time. So many introductions and so many names to try and fit with the faces.

Dawn started to raise her voice at Nadia who were both arguing about the name they wanted to give me. I sighed and took a sip of my soda, holding it with the wrong hand. It slipped from my grasp, my cast in the way, and it fell to the table wit a clatter. Before it could spill all over my lap, a hand reached out and caught it.

The hand was from behind me, smooth and opaque looking. I looked up to see Trevor staring down at me. “Careful there Candace.” He said before leaving.

Once he was gone, all of the girls started to giggle and scream about him except for Maryana and Nadia who were looking at me. “Do you know him?”

The boys rolled their eyes, getting up from the table of babbling girls. Once they were gone, another boy came and sat down net to Maryana, kissing her full on the lips. It was the boy that reminded me of Mike, back to make me feel miserable.

Maryana now distracted, Nadia was the only one who was interested in me now.

I tried to ignore her question, but she asked again. “You know Trevor Westcott?”

I smiled, blushing. “He’s my neighbor.”

The table went quiet then, all eyes on me. Lexi was the one to speak. “What did you say your last name was?”

“I didn’t.” I said, glancing at all the shocked faces. “It’s Heart.”

Atarah shrieked. “I thought it was you! No way, I can’t believe it!”

I frown. “What?”

Lexi shrieked too. “So you’re like, Nathan Heart’s daughter? Oh my God he is such a good movie director…and producer.”
I frowned even more. “What?” Were the stars of movie and all of the celebrities the big thing for teenagers, not the producers and directors?

Dawn was across the table from me, smiling broadly. “I didn’t know he had a daughter.”

I wanted to say “He doesn’t,” but thought against that. Instead I said, “Why is he so important?”

“He is so hot.” Lexi said, blush coming to her cheeks just think about it.

“Ew…” I said, pushing my tray of food away from me.

The rest of lunch everyone gushed about my father and all of his movies. Nadia was the only one who came and sat next to me, actually wanting to converse about important things.

“How did you break your arm?” she asked, eyeing my cast.

I covered it with my sleeve again, looking down at it. “Car accident.”

The boy that Maryana was sitting on gasped. “Wait a second; are you the one that crashed on the highway just off the Heart Mansion?”

I sighed. His voice even sounded like Mike’s. “I don’t know where I was when it happened.”

“Yeah, I think it was you. It was all over the news! And you were driving an Aston Martin, right?”

“Yeah, but—“

The boy laughed. “Bad luck chick. It exploded didn’t it?”

I nodded, feeling sorry for my car right now. It was only on the road once.

The boy laughed again. “And you got out…saved by someone.”

My brows creased as I thought about it. I didn’t know who it had been, but the voices I heard in my memory gave me a relatively good idea. I looked to where Trevor was sitting with three others; the black haired one and two others, one blonde haired and one bronze.

I gasped, seeing that they were all staring at me intently.