Ties (Book 1)

4. Wonderful Luck

Kaitlin, Julie, and I said our goodbyes and walked towards our chambers of hell. As I arrived at the door, a teacher shook my hand introducing herself as Mrs. Randal. At that moment she seemed nice, hopefully it was not just a front.

"On the Promethean board there's a sitting arrangement for the lab tables. Take a seat as soon as you find your name."

"Okay thank you." I genuinely smiled at my new chemistry teacher.

When I entered, I saw that the lab tables were almost full. As I found my seat, I heard someone calling my name. I spotted my best friend, Mike Sullivan, as I turned in my seat. I loved that boy; he was someone that I could truly trust with everything. I had known him since we were about eight years old, my first friend in public school. Remembering how I used to be real mean to kids and how scared they were of me because for some reason I was taller than everyone back gen. At that point in my life, I was trying to get accustomed to not getting what I wanted. Material things I always got. I was a bit of a brat and rude, so I wasn't very popular amongst the students.

Remembering Mike's wide eyes filled with fear always made me feel sad and happy. Out of something bad, our relationship happened.

One day during recess there were a group of kids chanting: "he likes boys, he likes boys," forcing my inquisitive side to come out and take a look at the situation. Approaching the group of kids, I saw a defenseless little redhead crying and Fat Robert throwing little pebbles at him. Fat Robert saw me coming and I saw his fear as his eyelashes reached the bottom of his bushy eyebrows.

"Don't you ever mess with him again, got it?" I asked as I got a grab of his filthy white polo. I had never been violent, but something from that scenario had me raging. 

"Y-ye-s," he stuttered.

"Good. Now c'mon, you," I signaled to my damsel in distress who wasn't really a damsel.

He followed me towards the swings where we sat, and young Mike asked, "why did you save me?"

"Because I need someone not to be scared of me."

"Well I'm not scared of you anymore because you saved me. My name is Mike."

"Mackenzie," I said plainly.

He smiled. "I already knew your name." Of course he did. The teacher had me standing at the front of the class to introduce myself, since everybody knew everybody there. They all were familiar with each other since Pre-K. I was the fly in the milk.

From that day forward, we roamed together.

He was always honest with me and he had never revealed anything I didn't want him to. He made me get in touch with humility. It was others who did me wrong, never him. The fact I was fortunate enough to have him for a class made me feel jubilant, yes jubilant.

The bell rang and someone came inside along with Mrs. Randal. I had not been paying attention to the situation because I was chatting away with Mike until I heard the screech of the stool being pulled out next to me. I turned and looked to see who would be my partner for the rest of the year.

"Hi," said my partner.

"Shit," I muttered to myself as I drew my attention to the front of the classroom where Mrs. Randal had commenced explaining the rules of the classroom. It was going to be a long year; I could tell. It felt like life was yelling 'surprise' in my face in the most obnoxious possible way. The teacher passed out papers we had to fill out with facts and interesting things about our partner. After fifteen minutes, we would have to go to the front of the classroom and present our information.