Looking in Her Eyes

Chapter 2

I kept my head down as I walked to my first class, flicking through a few papers to make it seem as if that's what I was doing - not avoiding people's looks. I desperately try to not care what people think about me, but the truth is I really do. I wondered if they ever got new kids in this town. Judging by their stares and whispers, I assumed they didn't very often. 

I looked at my schedule again, this time actually reading it, rather than staring in the direction of it absent-mindedly. I had English now. Okay, that's not too bad. I usually liked English, and I was fairly good at it. At least I'd enjoy my first class on Mondays? 

I walked into the classroom after what seemed like a lifetime of walking. I think I somehow took the long way to class. I'd need to figure this stuff out eventually. I looked around to see only a few people near the front of the class. Nerds, I assumed. Okay, that was kind of mean of me. Maybe they aren't nerds. I shouldn't judge people by first looks. I thought about what people may think of me the first time they saw me as I took a seat in the middle of the row next to the window. The middle was always safe. I didn't want to seem like a geek and sit in the front, nor do I want to sit at the back and seem like a loner. So I chose the middle. 

I looked outside at my new city. It didn't seem too different from my hometown. It was probably just as busy and had nearly as many people. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad living here. I looked out at the basketball court and soccer field and watched everyone playing. I hoped there would be some sports that I could get involved with, especially figure skating. I looked past the field and out at the pond. There were a few people walking around it. I would probably go there for a jog after school sometimes, until I found somewhere to jog by my house. I hate not being active. I looked past the pond to see what appeared to be an arena. Struggling to make out what the writing said I guessed "Twin Rinks". 

"Yes!" I said to myself. There was a rink right next to my school. How perfect! 

"Alright everyone. Sit down now." I heard a deep male voice awake me from my thoughts. "Come on. Hurry. I know it's Monday morning, I know." 

I looked around to see the class. Somehow I didn't notice everyone else come in. The words "dumb blonde" came to my mind and I smiled a little. 

"Okay. Attendance time." He said, a little too cheerful. I looked around as he called out name, after name, trying to put a face to each of them. 

"Jonathon Doyle? Samantha Green? Albert Hann? Julia Hart?...Julia?" He looked around the classroom, looking for an explanation. A boy whose name I remember to be William Coady raised his hand for a second to get the teachers attention.

"She's probably in the gym. Cheerleading tryouts were this morning." He smiled to his buddies, who I assumed were football players.

"Oh! That's right. I remember her telling me she would be late today. Okay, moving on. Amber Inkpen?" He went down through the rest of the names then looked around. I put my hand up."Yes?" he looked at me, and the rest of the class followed his eyes to me. 

"I'm not sure if I'm in the right class? I'm new. I don't know if Mrs. Cahill told you or not." I could feel everyone's eyes on me, and then I could hear the whispers starting. Typical. 

"Okay, yes. I remember her mentioning something about someone new! Okay. What's your name?"

"Amy Beazley." By now I wished everyone would just look away from me. It was starting to get awkward.

"Great! Welcome to Phoenix High-" He was interrupted by someone coming in through the door.

"Sorry. Sorry I'm late, Mr. Bowne. I didn't think tryouts would last this long and were still not done!" A girl excliamed fairly out of breath.

Mr. Bowne chuckled, "That's okay Julia. Just sit down." She took a seat next to me, smiled, and looked back at Mr. Bowne. Then she done the cutest thing ever. Her face screwed up and she looked back at me, confused. I couldn't help but smile at her. As she examined me, I examined her. She had long, chocolate brown hair, that she could almost sit on, and round, green eyes, but not a dark ugly green. They were quite stunning. Rather, she was quite stunning. She had pale skin, with a few freckles on her nose and cheeks. She had the cutest button nose I've yet to see and perfect lips. That's it. She was my dream girl. I knew it was too good to be true, so she had to be straight.

"As I was saying," Mr. Bowne interrupted my thoughts, and hers too apparently, because she jumped a little and whipped her head around to the front of the class. "Welcome to Phoenix High, Amy. I'm David Bowne, and I hope you enjoy it here." He smiled a genuine smile and I smiled back, kind of absent mindedly, still thinking about Julia.

He handed out copies of an old newspaper article, told us to read, write our thoughts about it, and place it on his desk on the way out.

The article was about a young girl who was raped and murdered in a barn outside of a city. Not even half way through the article I realized  the story was very familiar. Looking at the title again, I noticed the picture of a beautiful young girl  and recognized her immediately. Tears started to form in my eyes. "Courtney." I said to myself. I couldn't finish reading. I scribbled the words "Rape, as well as murder, is an unforgivable crime. It hurts everybody. Friends, and family are not the same after any sort of involvement. My best friend, Courtney Smith, was raped and murdered in a barn outside my town. I have not been the same since." I grabbed my stuff, laid my paper on Mr. Bowne's desk, and left the room. I looked back to see his face, a mix of shock and guilt, and felt guilty myself. It wasn't his fault, he didn't know. I'd have to apologize to him later.