I was speechless as she walked by.
“What are you looking at?” Sam asked.
“Her,” I choked out. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I needed her. She wasn’t very tall but her legs went on for days. Her hair was short in the back and got longer in the front and was a shiny lavender. Everything about her. Even from across the yard, was perfect. Her eyes were lined so dark the whites glowed. And her chest. Holey shit, her chest. They weren’t huge and gross or tiny and not worth it. A “C”. A solid “C”. I just wanted to lay my head between them and breathe her in. She disappeared into one of the buildings but I could still see her in my mind’s eye.
All around me there was the usual excitement. “OMG how are you?!” “Like how was your summer?!” “You look soooo cute!” “Dude did you check out so-and -so? Apparently all her fat migrated to her tits.” I didn’t talk to anyone but Sam. She was my best friend. My only friend. We’d met freshman year in an art class. We were with each other always so there was no need to ask about summer. We’d spent it playing video games and dicking around on MySpace.
“Mr. Miller?” My first hour art teacher snapped me out of my daze. “Did you work on any projects this summer?”
“Yeah, I projected my anger towards the school administration into cutting off vampire heads,” the class chuckled.
“I meant art projects. Not your little video games,” Mr. Frost continued asking other students.
“Dude are you still thinking about that chick?” Sam murmured to me.
“Yeah. I think she’s new.” I drifted from my art class to the usual sophomore requirements. All but two were with Sam. My second to last class was math. The teacher droned on and on about the syllabus . Giving us papers for our parents to sign. I would just forge it like I had been since second grade.
“Mommy Teacher told me to ask you to sign this so I can go with my class to see the IMAX Ocean movie”
“Sign it your self,” my mother slurred between gulps of cheap vodka.
I’ve never asked her to sign a school paper since. Sad times. But she’s three years sober and proud. We’d just given her a “birthday” party last month at the park. It was so hot the cake started melting. Passers by gave strange looks while our small group sang “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow” to a grown woman sitting before a dilapidated cake with a giant “3” on it.
The bell rang. I met Sam in the court yard.
“Who did you get for math?” Sam asked me.
“Polliski Bitch,” I groaned. “You still in dance with Sexy Simms?”
“Yeah. Mom just wont let up on her dream of me becoming a dancer. I’ll just spend most of the time drawing the real dancer, like last year,” She snorted as we walked into the since building.
“It totally blows we don’t have the same science class,” I grumbled
“Maybe if you took AP like I told you to,” Sam tossed back.
“I know. I know.”
We split ways and I walked into my final class. Biology. And ther she was. Sitting in the back row studying her chipped nails. I couldn’t believe it. She was actually in my class. My grade. I started breathing heavy and sweating. There were no seats near her. Not that I would have had the courage to sit by her anyway. I took a seat in the center of the room.
“Alright settle down,” The teacher began as the final bell rang. “I am Mrs. Sheet,” A few kids giggled. “Yes, yes get it out now because we have serious studies to get to. This is sophomore biology. This year is the last time I ever want you sitting in my class. You fail, I will not teach you again. You’ll have to take an online course. I am passing this paper around,” She said holding up a white sheet with thirty squares on it. “Please print your name in the corresponding box that represents the desk you are in now. The seats you have chosen will,” my heart stopped. Please don’t say I’m stuck so far from her for the entire semester. “Not be your seats tomorrow.” Thank you!
As Mrs. Sheet blabbered on about the usual all I could do was pray we would be sitting next to each other tomorrow.
“Hey, Linus,” someone whispered to me. I turned to see Lila VanHossmere.
“Hey Lila,” I grumbled back. I couldn’t stand this horny bitch. She’d been on my case about getting together for three years now.
“I thought you were going to call me this summer and we were going to hang out?” She playfully whined.
“Yeah, uh, I lost your number,” I lied. “Besides I was really busy with Sam.”
“So are you two like a thing yet or what?”
“Sam is just my friend,” Damn Lila is such a horn-dog. She’d hit on anything that moved. It did get her all A’s last year though.
“Oh come on. You two are always together. I see the way you look at each other,” I shook my head. “Well ther must be someone you’ve got your eye on.”
“Miss,” the teacher paused to look at the page she’d passed around. “VanHossmere? If you had been listening instead of talking to your boyfriend you would have heard me say I will not tolerate incessant talking in my class.” All the teachers were tough the first few weeks.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Lila said blushing at all the sudden attention.
The bell rang. Every one jumped to their feet. It was the fastest anyone had moved all day. I started towards the door slowly. I was about three feet behind her. Then I tripped over someone’s shoe that had become entangled I mine. As I fell into her she dropped her books. I hoped she didn’t know it was me as I rushed by to meet Sam.
“Linus! Linus!” Lila called after me. Too late to pretend I didn’t hear her. “Linus,” She said a little out of breath. “You said you lost me number. I just wanted to make sure you have it now,” Lila said blushing and handing me a scrap of paper.
“Thanks I mumbled,” Shoving it into the abyss that is my left pocket. Lila beamed and turned to catch her ride.
“You cant ignore her advances forever you know,” Sam teased. “She’s slept with just about everyone but you. And she wants your nuts bad. Just get it over with. Its not like you’ll ever have to talk to her again. No body else does,” Sam chuckled.
“Why don’t you,” I teased back. “She gives you look just as much as me.”
“I already did,” Sam said sheepishly. “Remember the weekend this summer your parents took you to that family workshop? Well I had nothing to do. I was on MySpace and she and I started talking. She was all like ‘Want to come to a party?’ and I was like ‘Sure.’ So she picked me up and we went to some senior’s party. Greg I think. Well she got really drunk. And was like ‘So I heard you like girls’ and I was like ‘Sometimes’ and she was like ‘How about now?’ I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Aside from tasting like rum and Kool-aid it wasn’t that bad.”
“What the fuck?” was all I could manage to say. I knew Sam was bi but why hadn’t she told me about Lila. Sam seemed to know what I was thinking
“I didn’t want you to judge me, especially since I told you the week before I thought your sister was hot.”
“Step-sister and she’s married. So are you and Lila going to like start going out?” I was so confused.
“I don’t know. We’ve been messaging and stuff. She says she really likes me but doesn’t want anyone to know. Worried it might spoil her reputation,” We both laugh. “I don’t know. She’s different with me than she is when I see her around guys. She’s actually pretty smart. So what about your Lavender Lover?”
I had been in such shock I’d forgotten about biology. I told Sam what had happened as we neared my house. How I ran into her and still didn’t know her name. Sam could tell how much I wanted this girl. She agreed with me that she was beautiful. And told me they had classes in the gym at the same time. Sam thought she’d heard someone call her Charlotte.
We walked inside my house. Shouted hello to my mom and headed back to my room.
I flipped on the computer and Sam started playing Halo. I was looking for Charlotte on MySpace. First I just typed in her name but about a thousand results came up. So I decided to check our school first. It wasn’t until the last page that I spotted a picture of a girl with shiny purple hair. It read "The old familiar sting" under her picture. I requisted her as a friend. Answered a few messages and sat down infront of the tv with Sam to kick her ass in Halo.
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