Broken Smiles and Hidden Scars

Chapter 2- Sea Sick

            I walked into Mr. Shuster’s 1st period Theatre Arts class and took my usual seat. Our classroom was the backstage to the stage which projected into the cafeteria. Our class was situated to where we had our class area and then there was the other 3/4s of the room which was for our productions. Our chairs were positioned in a rainbow shape, all facing a common center point- a deep blue spin chair in the front for our teacher. Looking at the rest of the room the stage itself was split in half by a large, heavy, velveteen, deep red show curtain with yellow ropes hanging in various locations. The opposing wall in the room had mirrors on the wall, one next to the other, with vanities in front of them as a sort of make-up area for the performers. The mirrors had beautiful LED lights looping around them, giving them a Broadway appearance. The blank spaces on the rest of that wall were covered on pictures of famous actors, actresses, singers, and performers. There were two doors that read “Women’s dressing room” and “Men’s dressing room” and had the same LED lights around the doorframe as the mirrors had. The rest of the room was boxes and closets of props, papers, and costumes thrown about in a semi-organized manner to anyone who was in that class. But to anyone who hadn’t been there quite a few times, it seemed like a chaotic mess. But we made it work. Our school has claimed 7 national championship dramatic arts wins in the past 10 years. I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of three of them (me being a junior).

            The rest of the class started to file into their assigned seats and soon a small chatter arose from friends conversing back and forth. I heard the shrill noise of the bell once again, this one meaning “if you’re not in class yet, then you’re late”. We all gradually stopped talking and waited for Mr. Shu to come take his seat, but no one saw him. We all confusedly started looking around to see if we could contort our bodies in such a way to see where he was hiding. Less than 2 minutes later he walked through the doors talking to a student who appeared to be new. The hushed whisper of the rest of the class confirmed no one had seen him before, so he must be new. Mr. Shu patted the boy on the back and walked over to his chair.

“Good morning everyone how are you guys?!” He asked energetically. Mr. Shu always got everyone hyped up over nothing but never failed to make every student smile and feel important.

“I’d like to introduce our new student-“he paused, evidently not able to recall his name.

“Jameson. But you can call me James.”

In that instant I let the voices of everyone else fade out of my mind as I took in the man standing in front of me. He looked like someone hand-crafted by a God, he was gorgeous. Flawless almost. He looked to be about my age, so I assumed he was a junior as well. He was about 5 feet 10 inches tall and had a toned body. He had perfectly styled dirty blonde hair, a killer jawline, and sea blue eyes you could almost get sea sick if you lost yourself in them for too long.

I let my concentration reestablish itself to the rest of the class, but still let my mind linger on him.

“Go ahead and take the seat next to Autumn. She’s my best student and I think you’ll like her.” Mr. Shu said with a wink and a point in my direction. I looked at James and saw him smile as he walked towards me and I couldn’t help myself but to smile back. His teeth were perfect. He would have every girl on him in no time at all, so it’d be useless to try to get anywhere with him.

I pulled my mint green Jansport backpack off of the seat to my right and James pulled the chair closer to me and sat down.

“Hi, I’m James.” He said as he offered me his hand.

“I’m Autumn. I like your accent. Greek?” I said, trying to hide my pink cheeks and admiration for his knee melting accent.

“Actually yes. You’re the first person to guess it correctly. Might I say? I love your eyes!”

“Thanks. I like yours too.” I half whispered back. For the first time in what seemed like forever, I got a compliment. A genuine compliment. We hit up a casual conversation and when I heard the dismissal bell ring, I found that I didn’t want to stop talking to him. Just knowing I might seem him again that day was good enough for me. We said bye and walked our separate ways. I to Spanish and him to Athletics. As I walked down the halls again, I no longer pondered the deep stares being thrown my direction or the inconsiderate slurs whispered a bit too loudly, I couldn’t get my mind off of James. I guess I got lost in his eyes, and I got lost just long enough to become sea sick.

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