Identities

Partners, Friends, and Davenports

My first few classes were a snooze-fest. Nothing all that exciting happened like it does on TV shows. It's work, work, and more work. There was also a pop quiz that I didn't have to take since I didn't learn the material. That was awesome, considering how everyone was complaining about how hard it was afterward.

English is where things started to pick up. Yesterday, the class was assigned groups for a project. Each group had to either act out a scene from Romeo and Juliet or make a representation of the scene in some way like a poem, letter, or song. The groups were in twos, since it's an even number class. At least, it was an even numbered class. I made it odd.

"Jaime, you can find a group to work with. I'm sure any group would be happy to work with you!" Ms. Mell said oh-so happily. I looked around, and no group seemed to acknowledge that I was even in the room, except for one. I walk over to them, and Ms. Mell jots my name down on her clipboard as that group's new partner.

"Hi!" the girl sitting next to me said. "I'm Bree. Your name's Jaime, right?" It takes me a while, but I nod. Stupid name change! The boy in the group waves, but is intently staring at a piece of paper. "That's Carson Beck, but everyone just calls him Beck. He's trying to get inspiration by staring at the paper."

"Oh. So you guys are doing a representation?" Bree nods excitedly.

"Yup! We've decided to write love letters back and forth between Romeo and Juliet. We have to come up with two for each character. So far, we've got nothing. Here's a piece of paper and a pencil. Start writing. We really need some ideas."

She slides the paper and pencil over, and as soon as my fingers wrap around that overly sparkled pencil, I get some inspiration. Words begin to spill out of me onto the paper. Most of it is just sentence fragments, but I'm very confident in what I'm writing.

When I look up from my paper, both Bree and Beck were staring at me, mouths open. "I got inspired," I blurt out. It's more of a question than a statement.

Beck snatches the paper from in front of me and says, "Let's see what you've got James."

"I prefer you call me Jamie."

"Okay, Jamie. Let's see. Oh, here's a good one. 'Romeo, Verona seems so empty without you. The moon is my only comfort, for its changing gives me hope that you will return, that we may be together.' Wow, Jamie! Nice stuff!" He throws the paper back at me, almost giving me a paper cut on my nose.

Bree turns to me and smiles. "Can I just say how thankful I am that you're in our group? Now I don't have to do all of the work!"

"Hey!" Beck says, acting offended. "You weren't going to do all of the work. I was going to type it up."

Bree crumples up a sheet of paper and throws it at him. "Whatever." She glances at the clock. "Class is almost over. Do you guys want to meet at my house after school to work on this? I have work until four, but I'm free afterwards." Beck nods. I nod. It should be fun. "Cool! I'll text you both the address."

My face gets hot. Time for the embarrassing truth. "I don't have a cellphone. Could you write it down for me?" Bree looks stunned for a moment, then rips off a piece of paper from her notebook and writes it. "Thanks."

The bell rings, and we file out, and by file I mean rush to the door in a giant hoard. Again, nothing all that interesting happens in my classes, so I'll skip to the end of the day.

Bree meets me at my locker. "Remember, my house, four o'clock."

"I'll be there."

"Be where?" a familiar voice asked.

"Ugh! Chase, quit being such a prying snoop. I'm talking to my friend, not to you," Bree snapped. She turned back to me. "This is my brother, Chase. Just try to tune him out as much as possible."

I wave to Chase who is now standing parallel to my locker. "Hi Chase! I'm Jaime. I saw you earlier when you and Adam were arguing with Principal Perry over pants."

Chase's face gets red. "You saw that? Sorry. Adam doesn't know when to stop, especially when it comes to the topic of pants."

Bree nods. "It's true. He's very excitable when it comes to pants... or anything else that exists. He's like a tall, freakishly strong five year old."

"So Jaime, how come I haven't seen you before?" Chase asks.

Suddenly my shyness kicks in. Moving is a tough topic for me, since I've moved a lot in my life. "Today's my first day. I just moved here."

"And she's coming over after school! Beck is too!" Bree chirps excitedly.

Chase rolls his eyes. "Beck, Beck, Beck. It's always about Carson Beck. 'Oh Chase, isn't Beck so cute? He's soooo dreamy.' It's gross."

"I'm a girl. Fawning over guys is one of my specialties. Ask Jaime. Even she probably thinks he's cute."

Both of them stare at me, expecting me to say something about him. I can only tell the truth. "He is really cute."

"Ew. Girl talk. I'm leaving now. If I keep talking to you two any longer, I'm going to have a desire to paint my nails pink and put on a dress. Bye, Jamie."

I wave good-bye as he walks off to talk to Adam and some other short, scrawny kid. Bree sees her friend Kaitlin and walks off, leaving me at my locker alone. I should probably get on the bus to go home now, but I have no clue where my bus is.

Principal Perry walks by, and I decide to ask her where my bus is, even though she probably won't be much help at all. I was right. She just called me Jerry, then told me to hitch-hike. Thank you, Principal Perry. Thank you so much.

Adam, Chase, and the scrawny kid walk over. "Hey, Jaime," Chase says. "I'm sure our dad can give you a ride. I mean, he's driving Bree and me to work, but he could drive you home."

The scrawny kid piped up next. "Yeah. Big D would do anything for a friend of Chase's, considering Chase has no friends but you, and I wouldn't call you friends yet."

Chase elbowed him. "Quiet, Leo."

"Big D?" I ask. That's a strange nickname.

Leo answers before Chase does. "Big D is my stepdad and their dad. His real name is Donald Davenport."

Davenport? I'm friends with the Davenports? I'm going to the Davenports' house later? Suddenly everything goes black, and the last thing I hear is "Get her help!"