The Western Front

Chapter Three...

Walking down the art hallway, I could smell the paint and the wax of crayons and sculptures that other students in the school have used. I walked into my Biology class and sighed in dismay before taking my seat in the middle of the classroom. My teacher was always late, but today he sat perched in his chair with a grave look on his face as he looked out at his students in his classroom. He knew that most of us were going to leave here early to join the fight against the Axis just as well as the boys in the class did. I wondered if he worried how many were actually going to come back.

The bell rung and he immediately started class. The lecture was not even closely related to Biology, unless you counted the death of two thousand innocent American soldiers biology. He was telling us about what happened yesterday, but I was too numb to care. I heard the words Pearl Harbor and just closed off my ears. I didn't want a retelling of what I already knew. The students in the class all flashed a cautious glance my way before my hand shot up in the air, "Mr. Smith can I please use the lavatory," I choked out refusing to glance at him out of fear that I would break down. He replied, "Very well," and I shot out the door.

I raced down the hallway to the bathroom before I looked in the mirror and walked to the sink. I splashed water on my face multiple times and I could feel my hair falling but I was too absorbed in my activities to notice. I was cut off by the footsteps that approached me slowly. I could tell by their light sound that they were that of a woman. A girl to be exact. "Michael," she whispered in.

"Bonnie, go away. I don't want you to see me like this," I spoke for the first time since I entered this forsaken building.

"Michael, please come here. I don't want to get caught in there," she whispered again. She then murmured something to herself and next thing I knew, we were holding each other in the men's room in a conservative school in New York City. She pulled away from the hug and looked into my eyes.

"You're obviously not ready to see any of this yet. Let's skip this part of the day. What do you say?" she beamed at me.

"Are you asking me to skip school with you?" I asked her smirking at her boldness. I was normally the rebellious one. She was the exemplary role model. She gave me a smile that couldn't melt butter.

"No. I'm merely asking you to accidentally miss your classes all day," she smiled again.

"I'll definitely accidentally miss classes all day with you," I smiled at her again. She took my hand and pulled me out of the bathroom.

We hid under the stairs for the rest of the period and the forty-five minutes was filled with endless talking and apologies. She apologized for how she had yelled at me this morning, and I had apologized for what I had said because I genuinely regretted it. I looked in her eyes, and I could tell she believed me. I held her hand and gave it a slight squeeze, one she returned, and looked out the window. Snow started to fall a little harder than it did yesterday, something I took as a sign that God was weeping but his tears soon turned cold once he realized how many of his son's lives were taken in vain. I shook my head trying to rid my mind of the thought.

When the bell finally rung, we found our way into the flow of people and grasped hands. We casually wandered towards one of the doors by my car and slipped out carefully. We sprinted together with gleeful giggles escaping our mouths at our rebellion. We slipped and fell a few times, something that wasn't acknowledged with bouts of uncontrollable laughter. The cold snow was penetrating my shoes making it almost impossible to feel my toes. I quickly jumped into old Nancy, my Ford, started her up, and shot her out of the parking lot onto the main road. Once we got out of sight of the school, I parked the car on the side of the road and looked at her. Her blonde hair streamed across her pale face and her cheeks were rosy from the cold. She showed me her smile once again and I reciprocated the gesture and she took out a quarter.

"Pick a number between one and twenty," She bit her lip teasingly and giggled.

"Why?" I smirked.

"Just do it," She bantered.

"Twenty," I let out.

"Okay now drive to that intersection up there," She pointed ahead and I complied, "Now I am going to flip this coin at every intersection until we hit twenty. Heads means left. Tails is right," She allowed and flipped the coin. Tails.

I turned right and continued down the long and winding road, "And what happens when we reach twenty?" I asked.

"We see what is there and make the best out of our surroundings," She smiled proudly at her idea and looked through the windshield.

A comfortable silence ensued and I put my hand on her knee. She entwined our fingers together and looked at me. If it was a warmer day, I would open the windows, but I settled for turning on the radio. The smooth sounds of the big bands streamed through the speakers and I bopped my head along to the beat of the trumpets. Bonnie and I came up to another intersection. Heads.