Seeing Stars

Chapter 2: Krissie

It was so awkward walking in homeroom.  I sat by myself, in the front, right next to the door.  I just sat and read my book.  Kinda blissful.  Except for the high social awkwardness I radiated.  That always makes everything better.  I looked around, hoping this was a horrible mistake.  But no.  I will tell the truth and say no, I was still stuck there.

"Krissie!" Mrs. Brown called.

"Here," I moaned.

For the next forty-five minutes, I read, and listened to two of the most dumb girls question what a cavity was.  I'm sorry, ok.  I know it's not nice, but they were questioning what a cavity was.  This is how the conversation went:

Tangela: "My tooth hurts."

Alexa: "Oooo, maybe you have a cavity."

Tangela: "I don't think you can feel those."

Alexa: "Uh, ya, I think you can."

Tangela: "Do they hurt bad like a root canal?"

Alexa: "I don't know.  My friends mom had one of those.  A root canal."

Tangela: "Oh."  *asking Siri* "Symptoms of a cavity."

Alexa: " All I know is that I'm on the cavity free wall."

Tangela: "Same.  That's why I'm worried."

The bell then rang.  I got up and enlightened them

"A cavity is a little whole in your tooth.  Its usually black."  I was ignored.  I sighed, slung my bag over my shoulder and headed to Chorus. 

Now, on my way there, I bumped into a kid who proceded to stab me in the hand with a pencil.  Which hurts, by the way.

"Mother of a mint chip!" I cursed.  I forgot to say, but at the time, me and my friends were all cursing in ice cream flavors.  Yep.  Real mature. 

Blood was already beading up in that spot on my palm.  I clenched my jaw, and started to walk forward when the kid who did it ran over.

"I'm so sorry," he said, eyes wide and hands fidgeting.  He put his bag on the ground, and brought out something white.  "Tissue?" he asked, obviously trying to please.  I took the Kleenex and dabbed at my hand, and the kid reached out.

"I'll throw it away," he said, still playing with his hands.  Someone needed to stop the caffeine flow on this poor guy. 

"Oooohh kay," I started, but the kid had already taken the tissue, got his backpack, and ran off.  Why would some random seventh grader want to throw away a bloody tissue for me?  Such a weird four minutes. 

More blood had already started to form a little orb in the same spot, so I turned and started to the clinic.  She gave me a bandaid, a pass to my second period, and sent me on my way.
As I walked to the Chorus room, I felt funny about that kid taking a soiled tissue.  I put it off, and enjoyed the rest of my day.

The days went and came, and the weekends went a lot quicker.  I started my mini club season for volleyball, with a great team of all my friends.  That's right.  I am a badass athletic nerd.  Deal with it.

Then Matthew came.  It was October, and about two months into school.  Everybody was freaking out about the first hurricane in eleven years that was going to hit us.  It was a category four at the time, and we were all wondering how this was going to affect our four-day
weekend the next week.  It did.  We lost our Thursday and Friday days off, and I was not happy, to put it one way. 

It really wasn't that bad.  I had been in worst storms when I lived in Texas.  Our house was lucky, and we didn't lose power.  I basically was just p.o'ed that we had no days off next week.  So I went through their wacky schedule, and took my exams.  Since my mother is great, she took my brother and I out of school to go to Disney for the day.  I was just happy to get out of that horrible prison for a day.  We went to EPCOT for Food & Wine.  We were practically stumbling around by the end of the day because of our full, aching stomachs. 

We got home around 5:30 PM, and I went straight to my room.  My mom and brother got ready to go to a haunted house with friends. 

Now, I don't like to be scared for fun.  I don't like to go upside down at high velocities.  So now you know, and I got that out of the way.  Call me a wuss, but I do a lot more brave things than pay to do something unpleasant.

So, I just stayed home.  I watched YouTube for a while in my room, and then I put my ear buds in, turned my lights out, and put my eye mask on.  I just lay there, pondering life, and listened to the Hamilton sound track.  I was just getting to one of my favorite songs, "Satisfied," and then the air got thick.