A Sky Without Stars

Part 13-New Chances, New Beginnings (August)

August was hectic, to say the least, and not in a good way. Outside, it was still blazing hot, and I had lots to do before school started. I guess you could say I was not in a good mood, and I definitely did not want to start thinking about school.

It didn't help that Isaac cancelled our "date" to Steak 'n' Shake, again. I didn't even pay attention to his excuse this time, because I was so upset. All I wanted was to hang out with him, and he kept canceling, over and over again! Was there something wrong with me? Was it something I said? I didn't know.

Maybe it was good that it got cancelled, though. Because I still had a very long Spanish packet to do. Not to mention the enormous amount of summer reading that I'd barely started. Fine...I hadn't started at all. My school summer reading books still sat untouched in the corner of my room, waiting for the pages to be read and filled with annotations.

I spent the last few weeks of my summer reading Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, and Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. Both were pretty good novels, but the problem was that I'd waited until the last possible minute to finish up my reading. So, I was stuck trying to finish them both while simultaneously trying to make last minute plans for various get-togethers with friends. It wasn't an ideal situation.

About a week before school started was when we would be receiving our schedules. And let me tell you: I was terrified. What if I didn't have any classes with my friends? What if I didn't have any classes with Isaac? I probably wouldn't, which would be an absolute disaster. Then the two of us might drift apart and I'd never have a chance with him. Not that I had much of a shot now, and my feelings were still a bit fuzzy, but things could still work out. If we didn't have a single class and didn't talk, I'd probably go back to liking Castor again. Even though I had no chance with him either. Or maybe I'd try to find another guy who would never like me back. Better still, I could manage to conceal all my feelings for awhile and take a break from guys.

I nervously sat in the back of the car as my mom drove, telling me that everything would be fine, and that I'd have plenty of classes with my friends. But I wasn't so sure. There were so many different classes that it was highly unlikely to have more than one or two with some of them.

Grudgingly, I walked up to the library, where our schedules were placed in stacks alphabetically and by grade. Miss Hawthorne, I noticed, was standing in the library...standing dangerously next to Mark Anderson, as usual. Her face was leaned in towards him as close as possible without flat-out leaning on him, and Mark looked downright annoyed. He looked over at me and waved with wide eyes that screamed with irritation, almost as if he was trying to send me a message asking for help. I waved back sympathetically then walked over and pulled my schedule out of the stack. Then, I turned around and ran straight into Coda. Apparently, he'd just gotten to school and was about to get his schedule.

"What classes do you have?" I asked, after he took his schedule out of the stack.

Coda rolled his eyes. "Geez, Pearl. Relax. I haven't even looked myself."

I looked at my own, and my first semester looked like this:

First period: Drawing, Miss Fabien
Second Period: Honors English 10, Mr. Gifford
Third Period: Honors Chemistry, Brother Ben
Fourth Period: Lunch
Fifth/Sixth Period: AP European History, Mr. Young
Seventh/Eighth Period: Honors Algebra 2, Mr. Thompson
Ninth Period: Honors Spanish 1, Señora Mara
Tenth Period: Religion, Mrs. Ernest

I frowned. Wasn't Mrs. Ernest the same religion teacher that I had first semester of freshman year? She must have moved up to teacher sophomores, or something. I was a little disappointed not to be having Mr. Ritterback as my teacher again, though. He had been an awesome teacher.