I Am

Chapter 7

I got out of the car and went around to open Briella's door. As we started walking towards the school I reached over to grab her hand. She pulled her hand away. I looked her in the eyes.

"You're scared of me now, aren't you," I said to her, feeling kind of hurt.

"No," she replied, "Of course not. Peter, I trust you more than anyone."

She reached down and grabbed my hand. Her hand fit in mine perfectly, like they were made for each other. Nevertheless, I felt like we would never have a perfect relationship. I had a rough past, she had a rough present. I couldn't see how things were ever going to work out.

I glanced over at her. She really was beautiful, in a non-conventional way. She had dark brown hair, falling just past her shoulders. It had a slight wave in it, like a curl waiting to form. She had an oval shaped face and lightly tanned, but still light, skin. Her eyes were very deep brown, you could tell by her eyes that she'd been through a lot of pain. Her nose was the kind that layed close to her face. She was a little bit short, but she had a great body, not that she was showing it off, you could just tell.

We walked up to my friends. I realized that I had never properly introduced my friends to her.

"Briella, this is Matthew," I said, pointing at the tall boy with brown hair. His hair was close cropped all over. He had light green eyes and an oval face. His skin was tanned, even though it wasn't summer yet. The only downfall to his appearance was his awkwardly large nose. Though, in a sense, his nose made him unique, so I guess it wasn't all bad. "He's the lead singer in our youth band."

"Hi, Matthew," Briella said in a fake-happy voice. She was still upset about our conversation earlier.

"Hey," Matthew replied with a smile.

"This," I said, gesturing to the boy standing beside Matthew, "is Samuel." Samuel had light brown skin, I think he was mixed-race. His eyes were stunningly hazel. His black curls fell awkwardly around his face, they were jut long enough to make him look slightly disheveled. He was a short boy, especially compared to Matthew and I. "He plays the keyboard."

"Hey Samuel," Briella addressed him in the same fake-happy voice.

"You can call me Sammy," he said as he smiled at her. "What grade are you in?"

"I'm a Freshman," she replied. "You?"

"I'm a Senior," he replied.

"And I'm a Sophomore," Matthew said.

The bell rung and I gave Briella a quick hug and kiss on the cheek before going to class. We weren't really on the best terms right now but I wanted to show her how much I cared about her, without disrespecting her.

Matthew and I were in the same first period, English 4. Felix, our acoustic guitar player, was also in our first period.

"Hey guys," she smiled at us as we walked in. Felix was very pretty. She had deep brown hair, so close to black that if the light was dull you would think it was black. In the contrast, when the sun shined down on her, it looked like there were gold strands in her hair. Her hair fell just long enough that the ends curled under her chin. Her eyes were blue, but they were close to purple. In fact sometimes I swore they were purple. Her skin was very light, not ghostly pale, but pale in a Victorian era definition of beauty way. Her skin looked especially pretty against her pale blue shirt. Her face was squarish, but not so much that it looked boxy. Her cheeks had a slight pink glow. Though she didn't need make up to look pretty, she had golden brown eye shadow, a slight cat eye from eyeliner, and a bit of mascara. Her pink lips had a shimmer from lip gloss.

We all three went and sat down at three desks in the front row on the far side of the room.

"How are you and Briella?" Felix asked me as we were getting our textbooks out.

"I told her," I said in a grim voice.

"How did she react?" She asked simply. She was trying to keep our conversation casual sounding so no one snooped on us.

"She was just shocked," I replied. "I think she's kind of scared now."

"Peter, if I didn't know that you really did change, I would be scared to," she replied.

"I tried to tell her, she just doesn't get it."

"Have patience," she said.

The teacher, Mrs. White, started talking and the class went silent.

***

As soon as the last bell rung I headed over to Ms. Em's room for Bible Club. Ms. Em's room was in the Sophomore section, right across the campus.

I walked in the classroom. Hana, a girl from our youth group, Elyse, the drummer from our youth band, Mabel, the electric guitar player from our youth band, and Kyle, a boy from a different youth group were already there. I went over and started talking to Elyse and Mabel.

Elyse had long, straight, medium brown hair. She was about average height and build. She had blue eyes and a few freckles over her nose. She never wore very much make up. She wore rectangular glasses that made her look smart.

Mabel was a tall girl with waist length blonde hair. She had a preppy look but she was very nice. Her naturally blonde hair had been curled at the ends, like Princess Aurora's hair, and pulled into a ponytail. Mabel's welcoming brown eyes were lined with thick black eyelashes, probably enhanced by mascara. She wore a light pink lip gloss. Though Mabel was tall, she didn't look lanky. She had a good build. She was the kind of girl that the other girls tried to look like. Mabel and Elyse were both Juniors.

Pretty soon Matthew and Felix walked in. A few minutes later, Sammy walked in. Just when I was about to call a search party for her, Briella walked in. I went over to her and led her back over to my group of friends. I introduced her to Mabel and Elyse.

Ms. Em walked in the room and everyone found a seat.

"How was everyone's week?" She started.

***

"Peter," Briella addressed me as I was cranking the car, "I'm going to have to go home tonight."

I sighed, "I know."

We drove the rest of the way silent to her trailer.

"Do you want me to walk you to the door?" I asked as I put the car in park in her driveway.

"No," she looked at me. She looked really scared. "Just wait here for a few minutes."

She walked up to the door, opened it, and went in. I waited for a few minutes before leaving. I never heard any screams, she never ran out of the door, so I assumed everything was ok. I started to drive off towards my own house.

***

"Peter!" My younger brother, Marco, exclaimed as I walked in the door. The kid looked so silly! He was wearing a tiara, no shirt, swimming trunks, a snorkel, and floaties. His dark blonde hair was sticking in every direction.

"Hey, Marco!" I replied.

"Peter! Peter, you're home!" My older younger sister, Eva, shouted as she ran up to give me a bear hug. Eva was wearing her Princess Ariel dress. Her black hair was also sticking in every direction. Eva was a very petite little girl, adopted from Taiwan. I figured they had probably been playing some sort of mermaid game.

"Peter," my dad shouted from down the hall. "Come quick, Avery and McKenna are sick!"