A few hours later, I arrived at school. Tugging at the arm of my sweater, I silently prayed that no one noticed the result of my recent breakdown. Granted, I’ve been good at hiding them so far. Make-up truly is a girl’s best friend.
“Aubrey!”
Hearing my name, my head automatically snapped up in search of its origin. Locking eyes with Maci, I sighed and shook my head. Of course it’d be Maci; no one else would be fully awake, and loud enough to break sound barriers at 8 in the morning, but my whirlwind of a best friend. I stopped in my tracks, watching her skip over to me. Stifling a laugh at her perfection of five-year old childlike behavior, I still manage a smirk at the contrast between her behavior and her sense of style.
Finally reaching me and handing me a huge coffee, Maci began her latest spew of drama, starting with this morning. Although I’d normally tune in, just enough to give the appropriate nod or small comment to make her think I really care about her latest event with her boyfriend or her brother or her parents or whatever else she can think of in the morning, something about her tone actually caught my attention for once and I started to listen closer.
“… and there’s this new kid. Total loser, nice to look at though, I’m just not sure about him. If he’s like any other guy here, he’ll be all over you in a matter of seconds. Not sure about his name, A… something.” She paused. “Oh look, he’s over there in the courtyard.”
Even though I hadn’t noticed that we were walking in the opposite direction of our class, the guy Maci wouldn’t shut-up about was suddenly right in front of us. Of course he stared when he saw us. Everyone does. It’s just a pretty face. I thought at him. If he only knew the disaster that even trying to be associated with me could cause him. At least he wasn’t drooling. In fact, it seemed like he was looking through me. Maci was right, with his piercing blue eyes and messy black hair brushing against his face, he was definitely worth watching.
“I don’t know Mace,” I broke eye contact with the guy to turn to my best friend, who actually might have been drooling. So much for subtle, I noted. “Something about him doesn’t feel right.”
Okay yeah, he was hot, but something changed right before I turned away from him. The tiniest hint at a smirk crossed his face, but it felt like he could knew something, something about me. It wasn’t normal, but I couldn’t explain it. I didn’t know what it was.
“Oh, well in that case, he’ll be a nothing before the day is out.” Maci chimed, interrupting my thoughts. That’s just how it was here, I spoke, and it became law. I’d never questioned it before, but this time, I didn’t want to damn some random kid before he’d been here a week. I knew that could go horribly wrong. I was living proof of that.
“It’s not worth it. I have a feeling he’ll be shunned on his own soon enough.”
The first bell rang then, and Maci and I hurried to make it to first period before being subjugated to the Nazi guards (also known as hall monitor nerds) that would threaten to write us up. Sometimes I would actually dare them to try to get me in trouble, but today, I didn’t feel like wasting the effort. The new kid had me distracted. His intense expression totally caught me off guard. I was starting to have a really weird feeling about this year.
