Cheshire Girl

Ch. 3

The dreaded morning I had to wake up two hours earlier than normal for had arrived.  I hadn't been to a new school before, so maybe I was a little nervous.  My hands trembled a little while I got ready and fumbled with my hair.  Put it up and my face feels like it sticks out.  Leave it down and it's like the first thing anyone sees.

                Note to self: invest in straightening iron.

                Mom found it all amusing.  "It's a little adorable," she said.  "Like when you first started kindergarten."

                "Five-year-olds don't have standards," I said, forcing down breakfast.  You know how some people eat their feelings?  I'm the complete opposite of that.  I was almost anemic during the divorce.  A doctor said it would be better for me if I always had something in my stomach.  Not an easy thing when you have no appetite, like force-feeding yourself.

                "Oh, come on, Bella.  If the kids at school are going to be as predictable as you think they are, then you have the upper hand.  You've seen Mean Girls millions of times."

                "That's because Tina Fey rules that universe, not this one."

                "Easy A?"

                "Insinuating promiscuity would be like putting out fire with gasoline." 

                Mom got up with our empty plates.  "Well, one thing you have that Olive didn't is a car."

                Small relief.  "Thank God.  I thought I was walking."

                "I'd hoped for that until I saw that Cheshire High School was all the way across town.  It's like the town's divided by half: residents to the south, business to the north."  She glanced at the clock, dug out her keys and tossed them to me while I'd been looking at the clock too.  "You better step on it.  Classes start at 8:30.  Do you have the forms?"

                "Yeah."  In my backpack, a soft purple (I like purple because it's soothing).

                I gave my mom a kiss on the cheek and headed out to the car.  It was only seventeen years old, a blue Pontiac Grand Prix.  He ran pretty great and was easy to drive and maintain (yes, Mom and I referred to the car as a 'he.'  Guys get to call theirs a 'she.')

                I got in and heated it up, idling for five minutes or so.  In the meantime, I dug around for any CDs I might've left in—

                Ah ha!  I found a copy of my Imagine Dragons, if I understood my scrawl on it.  I put it in and took off for school.

*

It took me ten minutes to drive there.  I found the school sign and mascot: we were the Cheshire Foxes.  "What does the fox say?" was probably big here, am I right?

                I also found the parking lot after following old cars with young people in them.  A lot of these kids had old model Fords and Chevys from, like, the 50s and 60s.  They not only inherited their parents' cars, but their grandparents' too.  I'd almost thought my car was going to be the oldest in the lot, but it was actually one of the youngest.

                A few of them were hanging out by their cars, getting together with friends.  At least I didn't stand out too much dress-wise.  Everybody looked normal.

                I got out and made my way to the administration building.  Fortunately, no one noticed me.  I didn't want to be the new girl that walked in late.  I had fifteen minutes before class started.  That was plenty enough time to study the map and my schedule and not look lost.