Core Four: Freshman Year

Elijah

I might have lied to Kiana when I first met her. The police cars were jarring and loud in the small South Kona neighborhood when they dropped her off. She carried trash bags of belongings, which made me sad. She deserved more than a trash bag to move. Even my own mom would give me a duffel bag, but I definitely wasn't suitcase-worthy.

My mom loves Jesus above anything else, which left my brothers and I scrounging for food. We had been out of shampoo for a month, but Mom donated all her money to the church. The little money we had always seemed to escape us for the sake of God. I know religion has commendable meaning, however I don't think neglecting your kids was the message God left behind for us.

When Kiana emerged from the police car, I was enamored with her long, muscular legs and wavy hair. The brown and black shades of hair flowed to her waist and my eyes couldn't leave it. She was a beautiful local Hawaiian girl, the opposite of my pale, white skin. 

One of her hands held a basketball, while the other gripped the trash bag tightly. So, with nothing left to do, I watched Debbie's house each day to see if she left the house with the basketball. And yesterday, my moment appeared.

Unfortunately, my first impression moment was defeated by giving Kiana a fat lip.  Then today, in Honors' English class, she was me throwing a fit about being in that class.  I'm smart, but not the kind of smart that words hard, too.  An Honors' English was not where my 50% effort level belonged.  I give school 50% of my attention, while the rest is taken up by searching for food and messing around with my little brothers.  Now I realized that Kiana was going to take up some of that 50% as well, and this was something I was willing to compromise on. 

After the treacherous events in Honors' English, the only person who calmed me was the kid sitting on my left side.  On my right sat Shasta, who by all accounts was overdressed for school.  She also seemed far too perfect.  Every piece of hair, makeup and clothes sat exactly where it should.  On my left side was a boy who was almost as pale as me.

"I'm Lexi, and yes, my parents named me after a dictionary."

"I don't think Lexi means dictionary," I stated.  Although I was not one to be a vocabulary hero, I felt like a further explanation was needed.

"He's Lexicon! Didn't you hear the teacher call his full name?  That's a dictionary," Ms. Perfect, otherwise known as Shasta, felt the need to assert her intellectual dominance.

"Ok, well I guess it's better than being named after a mountain," I loved having the chance to taunt Shasta.  Her know-it-all-ness irked me.  Kiana was good at basketball, but at least she could physically live up to the hype. Shasta was just a jerk about her knowledge.

"Really? Ugh, well don't count on me to help you catch up.  Slacker Elijah!" Shasta angrily stated while slapping my arm.  I almost replied with a snarky comment, but something about her voice sounded flirtatious.  Instead, I turned my attention to Lexi.

"Hey, do you know where the cafeteria is? I'm going to need to find it after ceramics class, and I don't know my way around," I pleaded.  My stomach growled.  I had missed the free breakfast window and longed for food.  

  "Yeah, let me see your schedule.  We can probably go to lunch together," Lexi stated.  I handed him my schedule and he studied it.  "Ok, right here, just wait for me and I will meet you outside ceramics class.  I'm next door in the computer lab." As Lexi was saying this, he flipped around his long, green hair.  The dye had really stuck to it, and the color green was beaming.  He reminded me of a rainbow, except his hair was all one color. 

"That's quite the hair color!" I sounded impressed instead of sarcastic.  I suppose I was also jealous.  My super-conservative mother would never allow for me to dye my hair.  She kept my brother's and my hair short and simple. 

"Yeah, I like the long locks," Lexi proceeded to flip it back again, but I could tell he was doing it in jest.  "I really just do it to get my parents attention, but they don't even notice it.  Or maybe they just don't care to notice it."

"Hmm...I get it.  My mom only has eyes for..." I like to leave people hanging when I say it in this way.  I could be talking about my mom's boyfriend (she doesn't have one) or a bad habit she has (not sure worshipping counts as a habit, more of a hobby).  However, I'm just explaining her love for Jesus Christ. "...Jesus." 

Lexi could not contain his laughter.  "I really thought this conversation was going in a different direction! Also, I wanted to tell you, I didn't read the books over the summer either."  

"Well, at least you knew about them.  I'm not even supposed to be in this class!" I was still salty about the placement.  

"You're working with Kiana, right?" Lexi asked.

"Yeah, that's what the teacher wants us to do."

"Do you mind I join the group? The chances of me being able to accurately talk about a novel in front of the class is low.  I could ask the teacher if you think she would mind," Lexi offered.

On one hand, I didn't care if Lexi joined the group.  I needed more friends.  My best friend from 8th grade, Rocky, had moved away over the summer.  There was a part of me that wanted to work with Kiana alone.  She obviously didn't feel comfortable to tell me about her past, but I wanted to know everything about her.  "Umm, let's ask Mrs. Kaneta tomorrow." Class was ending, and I was secretly hoping the teacher would not agree by tomorrow.

"Oh okay, see you at lunch!" Lexi took off down the hall.  I watched his green hair swish in the light breeze.  Now I had to figure out if he was my competition.