Color My Heart

Chapter 4

Mackenzie walked down the hall of Panorama high school after her last period at school had finished. She zipped her backpack open and shoved her sheet of Spanish homework inside. Spanish had been a nightmare. None of her friends or Katie were in the class with her, and she hardly knew the language at all.

She sighed in irritation as she opened her locker. She couldn't believe the workload that she had been given. And on her first day too. At least her English project wasn't due for two months. And speaking of her English project, Mackenzie scanned the hallways hoping to find Katie somewhere in the crowd. She spotted her several lockers down talking to her dark haired boyfriend and several other friends.

Slowly, Mackenzie walked up to them and tapped Katie on the shoulder. Katie turned around and green eyes met blue.

"Hi," Mackenzie said.

"What?" Katie asked in a harsh tone.

Mackenzie flinched slightly and Katie's eyes softened in apology.

"Uh, sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you," Mackenzie said. "I was just wondering if you wanted to talk about this assignment that we had for English."

Katie grabbed her arm and dragged her away from the noise of the hallway.

"Mack, do you think we have to start now? I mean we have two months."

That was normally what Mackenzie would have said, but this year she was determined to be smarter.

"I know from personal experience that even though that may seem like a long time now, it'll go by really fast. I mean we don't have to start today, but we should work out a time to meet or something."

Katie smiled her genuine smile.

"Okay cool. Well today is Tuesday, so I mean we could do tomorrow or Thursday if you're free."

Too embarrassed to say that she never had any plans after school, Mackenzie just said,

"I'm free tomorrow after school. We could like, go to your house. I mean if that's okay with you."

"Yeah sure." Katie grinned. "Just wait for me outside after school, or I'll wait for you."

"Don't you think it would be more convenient if we met in the lobby? I mean outside can get a little confusing."

Katie looked cautiously over at her friends, who were still looking at her in a half confused, half judgmental kind of way, and Mackenzie knew the disappointing reason she wanted to meet outside.

"I mean, outside is cool. Lets meet by that big oak tree."

"Ok cool, see you tomorrow," Katie said as she walked away.

Mackenzie smiled and turned around to go back to her locker, but before she could somebody grabbed her shoulder. She turned around.

"Oh hey Olivia."

"Hey Mack, what were you doing talking to Turner?"

"Turner, you mean Katie? Oh we got paired together on our English project."

"That sucks I'm so sorry."

Mackenzie frowned.

"I like Katie, she's been really nice to me."

To that, Olivia scoffed.

"Please that slut isn't nice, she's part of the populars. Actually she's the queen of the populars."