You and me | Pacey Witter

twenty-three

TODAY WAS the first day of junior year. To say the least the twins were nervous about their first day, though Lucas tried not to show it. Neither one of them had changed much over the summer, Aurora dyed her hair blonde, but besides that, she looked the same. Same height, same style, same, old, boring, Aurora Benson.

Lucas left earlier to meet up with Dawson and Pacey. While on the other hand, Haley and Aurora decided to meet up beforehand to grab a coffee. God knows they were going to need it. The two walked into the auditorium and took a seat toward the back.

An unfamiliar man walked up to the podium. "Good morning. I'm Principal Green. Like all of you, in my junior year of high school I had a new principal. My first day back, he stood before us and imparted some earnest and touching words, words which were meant to usher us into what he called one of the best years of our lives. This is not that speech. We live in a different time. You children are living and thinking like people twice your age, and why shouldn't you? The rites of passage which once marked growing up are all but extinct."

Aurora took a sip of her coffee; a small smile made her way to her face when she felt Haley's head rest on her shoulder. "In short, I'm onto you people," Principal Green continued. "And I'm one step ahead of you. For example, like that gentleman in the fifth row who's talking."

Haley furrowed her eyebrows and looked around to find the boy who had supposedly been talking. The mystery was soon solved, as a familiar voice spoke up. Pacey pointed to himself with a smile, "me?"

"Please stand, sir," Principal Green instructed. Small laughs could be heard around the auditorium. Aurora looked up at the boy who slowly stood up as she shook her head. It wasn't even the first day and he had already been getting in trouble. "What's your name, sir?"

"I don't suppose you'd accept Che Guevera, would you?"

Students laughed as Principal Green smiled, "probably not."

"Pacey Witter."

"Mr. Witter, I'd like to applaud you for being the first student I've met at Cape side who behaves like one," he stated. Aurora raised an eyebrow at the unexpected chillness of the man. "It is my hope that someday you all will act as such. Reclaim your youth, live, learn, screw up. Keep up the good work, Mr. Witter."

Everyone applauded the man in amusement. Aurora and Haley shared a look before they both smiled and looked back up at the front, joining in on the applause. "Let's go, Pacey!" Aurora cheered.

"And, uh, I'll see you Saturday, for detention."

- - - - - - - - - -

AURORA WALKED into the cafeteria where different clubs and sports had been posted around to sign up for. She walked past one of the tables, and didn't get the chance to keep going when, Belinda stopped her. "Hey, Aurora," she called out, a fake smile plastered to her face. "Maybe, if you'd lose about 15 pounds you could make the squad."

Haley noticed after the small remark that Aurora had slowly wrapped her arms around her stomach. Aurora scoffed, "please, as if, I'd want to be representing a school like this one," she retorted. "Also, news flash, Belinda. You're not going to be a high school cheerleader forever, so you should lower your ego a tad bit, before you get demolished in the real world."

Haley grabbed a hold of her hand and lowered it away from her stomach and walked away with the girl. "Don't listen to her, Rora. You're beautiful just the way you are, okay? Don't let her make you think any different."

Aurora forced a smile and nodded, "yeah, thanks, Hales."

Meanwhile, Lucas adjusted the strap on his backpack as he snuck out of the conversation with Pacey and Dawson. He looked up at the sign that read 'football' and picked up the pencil, writing his name on the sign-up list.

Lucas joined the two boys once again. Pacey had been on this long rant about the new principal. "Mr. Green seemed like a pretty cool guy, you know, good sense of humor. He was kidding about that whole Saturday detention thing, right?"

"No, Pace, he seemed-"

Dawson's voice trailed off and eventually had stopped. Lucas furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the Leery boy. Him and Pacey shared a look before they tried to snap in his face. "Dawson?" Pacey questioned. "Dawson, is there an ending to that sentence, or-"

Dawson turned back to the two of them, "your right, I'm going to break," he admitted. "I'm gonna crumble." Pacey raised an eyebrow, confused. "Joey Potter at 3:00." Both boys looked up and noticed the brunette not too far away from them. "Just get me out of here. Anywhere."

"Anywhere?"

"Anywhere that Joey Potter will not find me," Dawson added.

"Well, for a mere twenty-five dollars, young sir, I think I have just the place," Pacey stated.

Ever since the incident that included her father and the icehouse fire, she had kind of been avoiding everyone in the friend group. She picked up shifts at the yacht club to continue to make some sort of money for her family. 

- - - - - - - - - -

AFTER SCHOOL it had kind of been lonely. Aurora had caught small glimpses of Pacey, but during the summer, the two agreed to take some time apart after a small incident that occurred between the two of them. But in the meantime, Aurora and Haley had been starting to hang out a lot more and they were pretty much inseparable.

But this time there was really no one else. Her dad had still been living with them, but she hasn't had a full conversation with him, she couldn't bring herself to do so. Joshua was currently at his new job that he had gotten during the summer. Lucas was with Pacey and Dawson. Joey was avoiding everyone, and Jen and Jack haven't said anything to her yet. She could have invited Haley over, they had fun every time they hung out, but she felt like she needed a quiet, afternoon to herself.

So, the entire night, Aurora had found small things to distract herself from the thoughts that had been trying so desperately to come into her head. She had soft music playing in the background, she tried to sketch for a little, then attempted to reorganize her room, and finally tried a small work-out routine. 

Aurora was tempted to prove Belinda wrong. She wanted to prove to her that she was able to be the weight 'required' to be a cheerleader. If that meant to exercise more, she'd do it. It wasn't much to lose. Fifteen pounds wasn't a lot. She could do it.