Five

Chapter 2

The following day, I wake completely unaware of what time it is. School is starting soon. I smell breakfast waiting for me downstairs, but I'm not hungry. I quickly roll out of bed, turn off my TV, and hurry into the bathroom to brush my teeth and splash water on my face in an attempt to get out of this house as quickly as humanly possible. Once my shoes are tied and my earbuds are in, I head outside.

The breeze is nice since it's rather warm outside today. I like the sound the gravel makes as it crunches and grinds underfoot. The air smells of crisp, new beginnings. 

On my calendar in my phone I had a meeting for this new club at school marked. Today is the first day of orientation for the new incoming freshmen, and my first day as a mentor. This should be fun - something to get me out of the house for a few hours along with giving me a chance to help the youth. School is starting soon and I can't help the small surge of excitement that jolts me at the thought of being an upperclassman finally.

I start my walk to the school - it isn't far. Cars breeze past, reminding me that I need Caz to pay for my driving school soon. If I have any intentions of getting Mom's truck up and running for me to drive I'll need a license. 

A yellow monarch flutters by and it makes me think of the future and the plans I have for myself in the future. I want to move out of Ohio, but where would I go then? New York? Probably not; concrete jungles never seemed ideal to me. I mean, where do all those people find places to sleep? No, I want somewhere that has a nice balance of greenery and civilization.

A car beeps loudly at me and I jump. Guess I didn't look both ways before I crossed, but pedestrians are always right, if you ask me. I decide to ignore it and create some scenario in my head that makes my death by vehicular homicide completely their fault. 

I'm considered legally blind without my glasses - I could say that my prescription went bad a long time ago and I didn't see the damn car. It would ultimately be my word against theirs and if I was lucky, I'd be alive to tell my story and milk them for all the cash they had. 

But, alas, I was not run over and my high school is within sight. There'd be witnesses to my perjury too - there are people outside. I sigh and think maybe next time as I walk through the doors of my school and pause my music, pulling the buds from my ears. The auditorium where everyone is supposed to meet is abuzz with activity. It's nice to be apart of something in my school finally. Clubs and sports were never really my thing, but it's not really all that bad now that I'm actually taking the plunge.

I go over to the plastic table set up along the back wall when I walk into the auditorium. I take a cup of lemonade and two cookies out of the many snacks set out for everyone, then grab my name-tag and stick it on the left side of my shirt. Where the heart is.

I take a seat with the other club leaders and smile and greet them. I know most of them, even if they don't know me. Everyone quiets down when the principal starts talking to us, saying how we're all special and we set the precedent, and we've been chosen to make this school a better place. He's laying on a little too thick, if you ask me. It's like he's trying to sell us some expensive TV. I've already signed up to buy the damn thing, no need to try and further convince me how much I need it - that'll only make me feel even more shitty about spending the money I really don't have and -

"He always this talkative?" A voice whisper-yells into my right ear. I noticeably jump and I'm immediately embarrassed. I turn to see who took it upon themselves to interrupt this great talk from the boss. I'm not displeased by what I see, either. He says his name before I get a chance to ask. "Cooper," he says, dragging his first finger underneath his name-tag as he says it. "Westmoreland."

"That's a mouthful," I mumble, turning back around. 

      "Five syllables," he scoffs. I smirk. Five syllables too many, if you ask me. He's definitely new, probably transferred recently - I haven't seen him anywhere. It pays off knowing everyone; when someone new shows up you can spot them out of a crowd. In this case, that wasn't required.

The principle wraps up the talk with some stupid slogan our school uses to justify the weird shit that goes on within it's walls. Sort of a satanic group chant. We all disperse and wrangle up our freshmen that we're supposed to take under our wings this school year. My kids all seem easy enough to manage. I remembered on the last day of sophomore year, we were told that we would have another club member to have some type of co-operative relationship with the kids. 

"Cooper Westmoreland," he introduces himself to the kids. "Five syllables," he says, giving me a side glare. I pretended I didn't hear. We all make our way to the stairs to show the freshmen around the building. I am also pretending that I'm not okay with Cooper being my other half with this mentoring gig. Something about him is alluring me already, and I tend to be a good judge of character when I try to be.

"So," I begin as the kids take their schedules and look into their new classrooms. Cooper and I stayed behind. "How did you manage to get into this club when you're new? You don't even know the layout of the school, so, explain." I tried to make this come out less abrasive than I believe it did. 

   "Why the ambush of questions...Sienna?" He says my name perfectly, and this is refreshing because many people surprisingly get it wrong.

"Not an ambush," I clarify. "I only asked one question."

  "Split up into multiple ones," he pointed out. He was only half right, but I wouldn't tell him that.

"Fair enough. Answer the first one, then. Since multiple questions seem to be rather stressful for you."

He chuckles and the sound seems genuine. I ignore the flutters it sends through my stomach. I just met the guy. "It's not like mentoring freshmen qualifies as some sort of elite club that requires a blood sacrifice or something to get into." When I don't reply fast enough, he continues. "Unless that was in fine print somewhere, and I missed it."

I chuckle too, finally. It came out as some sort of strangled wheeze, I think. Feeling like an idiot, I try and come up with something else to say. I've noticed that Cooper has a really straight, white smile, and I like it. I want to see more of it.