California Dreaming

Chapter Two

   I didn’t know what I was expecting when I entered the school building, apart from the fact it wasn’t this. When I had imagined what high school would be like, it was never like this, with the tall, metal lockers and checkered linoleum floor. I would have thought that the way they were depicted in movies would be as far from the truth as possible, when in fact, it was the complete opposite.    

   “Schools actually look like this?” I grimaced, looking at different cliques of people gathered at various corners of the school hall. 

   “What do you mean?” Gabriel laughed, going to his locker and taking some stuff from it, a few books and a biro, which he promptly slid behind his right ear, catching in tufts of brown hair. 

   “Well, it’s just so clean,” I replied, “and big and just like the movies.” 

   “What did you expect it to be like?” He raised a single eyebrow and I looked down at my feet modestly, embarrassed to confess to him what I had imagined the high school to be like. 

   “I don’t know,” I shrugged submissively, “not like this.” 

   “Hey, do you still only eat the insides of Reese’s Cups?” Gabes wondered, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his trousers as we wandered through the hallways. 

   “How do you remember that?” I asked, smiling shyly. 

   “How could I not?” He exclaimed, “Don’t you remember that time when you stashed all the chocolate in the bag, and it was summer, and it all melted and then it got in the pool and your mum thought someone had pooped in the pool?” He laughed. 

   “Yeah! I remember that!” I grinned. 

   “It hasn’t changed much, the pool and stuff,” Gabes shrugged, “do you remember we used to sped like all our time in my-” 

   “-Treehouse? Of course I remember, why else did you think I brought it up before?” 

   “You should come over after school, we could do homework up there,” he suggested. 

   “That would be really nice,” I admitted, looking up at him and feeling my cheeks blush pink; why were they doing that? Gabriel reached for the door handle of the nearest classroom but I pulled him back, forcing him to stop in the middle of the corridor. 

   “What?” He queried. 

   “Just, just give me a minute,” I breathed out deeply, brushing hair out of my eyes and adjusting the length of my skirt, catching sight of my reflection in a window and stopping to check my makeup hand’t smudged. 

   “You look great,” he reassured me. 

   “I don’t want to look great,” I disputed. “If I look great, people will notice me, and that is not what I want to happen on my first day here.” 

   “Don’t be stupid, come on,” Gabes rolled his eyes and held out his hand, waiting for me to take it before pulling me into the classroom, despite my reluctancy. 

   The classroom was large and full of students, all wearing the same navy and white uniform, the school emblem embroidered onto the pocket of the jacket. They all turned in their seats to stare at me and I felt my chest heave with nerves, as if I wasn’t getting enough oxygen to my lungs. Gabriel squeezed my hand reassuringly before leading me down to where there were two empty seats, relatively close to one another. 

   “Mr Fitzgerald, and why might you be late?” The man at the front of the class spoke, flicking a piece of salt and pepper hair out of his eyes. His skin was leathery from all of the sun it must have endured and his eyes were pale grey, cold.