Nails on a Chalkboard

One

      Sometimes our life changes unexpectedly. We may lose someone we care about, gain a new family member, fail at something we love. We might even become a new person. Not physically, but inside, we change. We don't recognize who we are or what we stand for. We become someone else entirely.  I hate to admit it, but i'm a new person. I don't know myself anymore. I look in the mirror and see the same fiery red hair, the same teal green eyes, the same heart shaped face. But when I stare into those eyes, I see a hardness i've never seen before. During this past year, i've lost myself. I'm getting a little ahead of myself; lets start at the beginning, shall we?

        It's the start of my Senior year of high school, and i'm thrilled. I've spent the last three years being the underdog in the school, and i've finally earned my right to be at the top of the food chain. I walk through the metal doors side-by-side my best friends, Liana, Derrick, and Lucas. I know what your thinking, two girls, two boys, obviously the perfect set-up for the perfect couples. Well, you would be oh so wrong. Derrick is gay, and Lucas is too focused on sports to even think about getting in a relationship right now. Derrick is one of those gay boys that everyone can't help but love. Now, i'm not saying he hasn't had his fair share of bulling. He has. He has just gotten passed is, and still manages to wear a smile everyday. Lucas is your typical, un-typical high school jock. He's the football, basketball, baseball player whose room is full of trophies and metals. He's not the "dumb jock," though. He's the straight "A", 4.0 GPA, third in our class type of jock. Lucas hasn't had a real girlfriend since the 8th grade. Since then, he has decided to dedicate himself to sports.

       The best way to describe Liana would be to say she resembles the Disney Princess Snow White. She has raven black hair and dark brown, almond shaped eyes. She has been my best friend since second grade, when we would bake sugar cookies with the help of our moms, and decorate them with too much icing. Liana doesn'y act like Snow White in anyway other than her love of animals, though. She is very, shall we say, friendly. And by friendly, I mean she has had quite the large number of "boyfriends." She may be a bit slutty sometimes, but I couldn't live without her.

       Liana is the nearly opposite of me. I have had about three real boyfriends, all of which didn't last more than 3 months. I get uncomfortable and shy around boys, which doesn't help my case at all. Instead of being all flirty, I never know what to say.

       "Come on, Mia!" Liana shrills eagerly, as she pulls me towards our new lockers in the senior hallway. Our new lockers and about 5 inches larger than our old ones, which is a very big deal in high school, where we need all the room we can get to hoard all of our old junk and discarded papers.

       I laughed breezily, and let Liana drag me to our lockers, pulling Derrick and Lucas along with me. Another perk of being a senior is that you get to choose what locker you get, so the four of us all got lockers next to each other.

       As we were working on memorizing our combinations and decorating our lockers, Derrick asked us all what class we have first hour.

       "Psych 2," Lucas, Liana and I all said simultaneously. I heard Derrick groan, and turned to see that he had "AP Calculus" written on his schedule for first hour.

       "I hate calculus, so I was really hoping I would have it with someone I can stand..." Derrick mumbled.

       "At least we all have lunch together," I said brightly, still in a great mood because of the fact that I am now a senior.

       "We should go guys, I heard Cravez likes for his class to be early on the first day," Lucas declaire while grabbing a binder and shutting his locker. "Besides, I'm actually kind of pumped for this class. I've heard it's interesting--and pretty fun, too."

        So Lucas, Liana and I headed for Psychology, leaving Derrick sulking at his locker. I'm sure he'll have plenty of people to talk to in his calculus class, there is hardly anyone in this school that he doesn't like. He's probably just in a bad mood right now, for some reason.  Once we got to class, we grabbed three beat up desks in the back, and stared at the six words written on the chalkboard,

         Loner. Prom-Queen. Jock. Stoner. Geek. Friendly.

       "What's that about, do you think? Liana leaned over an asked me. I just shook my head and shrugged, hinting that my guess is as good as hers.

         About five minutes before the bell, once every seat was filled with a student, some eager and peppy, some laid back and unconcerned with what was happening around them, Mr. Chavez walked up to the board and underlined each word with chalk that made a screeching sound as it made its way across the board.

         "Welcome to Psych 2, class. This class is just for you seniors, because we are going to talk about some things that might be too difficult for your younger peers to comprehend." Mr. Chavez was in his early 40's, and always dressed nice. Dress shirt and tie. Everyday. "Now, lets say each and every one of you in here can be described by one of the six words on the board. What are you? What are your classmates? That's what we are going to find out today."

A/N- I'm back! It has literally been, like, 8 months since I have written ANYTHING not for school. I don't really have a perfect direction for where i am going to take this, but i'll just go with the flow. And i know, I know, Short and slow and boring. But it's the first chapter, I had to introduce the characters and the settig and the tone. So sue me. And I KNOW I got the discription thing from "One Tree Hill", but that was my FAVORITE show for 9 years, so I think I have a right to use a small idea from it. Anyways, i hope someone becomes interested in this story. Im going to try to continue with it. Mwah! -Briana