One Step at a Time

Chapter 1

I woke up, staring at the grains of the wood that make up the floor of my living room. As I tried to sit up, my head began to pound. Still in a daze, my hand found a golf ball sized lump on the back of my head, jerking me to my senses. Whenever this happens I run myself through a simple list of questions:
1. What is my name? Duh, it's Marilee Carson.
2. What is my favorite food? ICE CREAM.
3. Who is my best friend? Carly Addison.
4. What school do I go to? I am a sophomore at Maroon Hawk High, the biggest hellhole you will ever visit.
5. What day of the week is it? Crap. It's Monday.
Phew, at least my memory was still in tact. I stood up and looked at the large clock that hung above our television. It read 7:30. As quickly and quietly as possible, I ran upstairs to get ready for school, trying not to wake my father who was still snoozing on the sofa.

Setting my new record time, I dashed out of the house in five minutes flat. As I ran down the sidewalk, a blue Audi pulled up next to me. It just so happened to be Carly's car.
"You are a god, Carly," I said, still out of breath from running only a block.
"Actually, I would be a goddess, but you're welcome," said Carly. As always, she is my chirpy, wiseass best friend, ready save my life. We still had five minutes until the warning bell would ring as we pulled into a parking spot of the school lot. Right before I stepped out if the car, Carly said,
"Hold up and stay still." She reached over and I felt her hand touch the bump on my head. Wincing, I turned around and shouted,
"Ouch! Don't touch!" With a concerned look on her face, Carly asked,
"Did you have another 'episode' last night?"
"I don't want to talk about it," I responded, a little harsher than I meant to.
As we began walking into the school, Carly insisted,
"Well, you need ice on that boo boo, ASAP, so I'm taking you to the nurse."
"That really isn't nec-" I tried to resist, but she practically dragged me to the nurse's office. Carly explained to the nurse how I hit my head getting out of the car and how she had to get me to stop crying before we came in the school. Why does she have to be so over dramatic sometimes? Anyway, she got me the ice pack. Together we walked to first period, which just happened to be chemistry. Thank goodness we were both in the same class, or I probably would have already been dead. I have no other friends in that class, which means that without Carly, I would have no lab partner. We arrived at Mr. Franklin's classroom and took our seats in the back right corner of the room.

"Alright little overachiever nerds, minus our junior friends. Take a seat!" Shouted Mr. Franklin. It was a usual, chaotic morning, with not one person willing to shut up. At least they were listening enough to sit down in the tripods that the desks were set up in. That meant the one empty desk in the room was at the tripod that Carly and I sat at. The room finally began to quiet down a slight bit when Mr. Franklin began to call attendance. For some reason, he calls everyone by their last name, never their first.
"Addison!" As usual, the first name to be called.
"Present!" Squeaked Carly. That made everyone let out a chuckle, and Carly's face shed a deep shade of red. Mr. Franklin called two more names, and then came mine.
"Carson! What did you do this time?" Asked Mr. Franklin in a joking manner. This was the forth time in the past two months that I have come in with an ice pack on my head. "Nothing major!" I responded, my face turning as red as Carly's.
"Run into a pole again?" Chuckled the kid sitting in the next tripod over. Of course that was the excuse Carly used last time. Rolling my eyes, I responded sarcastically,
"Shut up." Just as Mr. Franklin was about to finish roll call, the door swung open and a kid I had never seen before walked in. Damn, he was hot.
"Is this Mr. Franklin's class?" Asked the new kid.
"Why yes, this is indeed. You must be David," responded Mr. Franklin. "Why don't you go sit in that empty seat by Marilee in the corner." Shit. First of all, he knows my name, and second of all, he has to sit next to me. At the sound of my name, I looked up and accidentally made eye contact with David. Just as quickly as I looked up, I looked away.
"You must be Marilee," said David. Damn, his voice was even hotter. I must have been taking too long to respond because Carly had to for me.
"Yep, that is Marilee! She's not much of a talker. I'm Carly by the way." I forgot to mention that I'm kind of shy. No, extremely shy. Especially around boys. I have no clue as to why that is, but I always freak out when one even tries to communicate with me. That also basically means that I have no guy friends. A matter of fact, I don't even have that many friends. Really it's just Carly and a couple of people who are more just her friends and my acquaintances. And, I'm single (if that wasn't obvious enough), but definitely not ready to mingle. After my first boyfriend, I decided that I was not really interested in the whole dating thing for now. But of course, the holy grail of hotness arrived and had to sit right next to me. I decided then and there that to avoid screwing everything up, that I would never get into any kind of relationship with him. Or so I thought.

"Mar!" whispered Carly. I snapped out of my daze and quickly realized that Mr. Franklin had called on me.
"Are you sure that head bump is minor?" Joked Mr. Franklin. The whole class burst out into fits of laughter and again, my cheeks turned to a dark shade of red. But I was determined not let him get me down, so I came back with a rebuttal,
"Sorry sir, I've just got a sad case of the Mondays." The whole class started to laugh again before Mr. Franklin spoke,
"Okay then, whatever you say Marilee. Who else knows what Avagadro's number is?" He still looked really concerned about me, but kept the class going anyway. How do I attract so much attention to myself? I looked over at Carly and she looked concerned too. Seconds later, as if our silent conversation never happened, she of all people answered Mr. Franklin's question,
"Avagadro's number is s-"
"Six point zero two times ten to the twenty-third power," cut in David. So he is not just attractive, but smart too?
"Yes, well done," responded Mr. Franklin. The rest of the class went by really slowly, but as usual, Mr. Franklin ended class ten minutes early.

Normally, Carly and I would just talk, but as of today we have a new member to join us. Being the social person she is, Carly of course began the conversation,
"So are you a sophomore or a junior?"
"I am a junior. I'm guessing that you two a sophomores. By the look of it, most of the class is the same. Is this class supposed to be for sophomores?" asked David.
"No, it is really for juniors, but we have the option of taking it early and most people do," responded Carly. "Here, let me see your schedule and maybe we can help you get around. I know what it's like being the new kid and all." Carly moved from New York when we were in seventh grade, but she had no problem fitting in. She motioned me to come over and help her examine David's schedule with her. Obviously, he had chemistry first, but the rest of his schedule looked something like this:
1. Chemistry
2. Pre-calculus
3. U.S. History
4. Physical Education
5. Honors English 11
6. Spanish III
7. Study Hall
8. Computer Math
"Dude, you both have practically the same schedule!" whispered Carly.
"What, no way!" I responded. But she was right. Except for history and English, we had the exact same schedule.
"Well it looks like you shouldn't have any trouble getting around at all because you and Marilee here have like the same schedule!" exclaimed Carly.
"That's great! I was afraid I might get lost here," responded David. Then it occurred to me, why is he taking P.E.? It is only required the first two years of high school and David is a junior.
"Why do you have to take P.E.?" I asked.
"Look who finally decided to contribute to the conversation!" said Carly.
"Shut up," I said back.
"Well, back in California, if we participated in a school sports team, we were exempt from taking it. Here they don't count that so now I have to take it," responded David.
"You're from California? Why did you move to Virginia of all places?" Asked Carly.
"My dad got a new job in D.C. so we had to move here," responded David. RIINNGGG! That signaled the end of the period and off we were to pre-calculus. So exciting (not).