Light In The Dark

Part 1 - The New Kid

I looked out the window of my dad's practically broken down Mercedes, looking down at the wasted streets of Washington,  DC. My name is Michael Jameson, but my friends at my old school had called me Mike. My dad rested his hand on my shoulder, but kept his eyes on the road. "Seems like a nice place, huh?" he asked me. I rolled my eyes and scoffed. "This place looks like a piece of shit, dad. Do I have to look at this road every day?" I asked. My dad nodded, and he said, "Hey, the sights get better." He wasn't wrong. As we progressed through the streets, in about ten minutes the school was in sight and the place looked better. My dad pulled up at the school and sighed. "Good luck out there, sport. Try not to get laid," he said, then punched me in the arm. I got a chuckle out of that, and then said, "Love you dad." I then closed the door, and as he drove away, I stared at the huge school and the big letters on the front perimeter reading "Jefferson Academy."  I sighed, and took off towards the front door. This is gonna be a good day, a new one, new start, new school, I thought. It was also gonna be an interesting. As I walked through the front door, I was practically pushed in by the clustering students. One of them caught my eye; a girl with blond hair, small body, (yet not at the same time)and she had a grey shirt on with dark blue jeans. What really caught my attention was the mask that covered her eyes that had a smiley face on it. I tripped over, and I bumped into her. She fell over as well, and even though she was wearing a mask, I could feel her glaring at me. "S-sorry!" I stuttered, and quickly got up. She muttered something, and walked away. I looked at my papers, which had said the time periods and classes. "Room 623, English" was the first period. It also contained a map of the school grounds, (lucky me) and I navigated my way over to the classroom. After about five minutes, I found the room and walked in. I could hear the noise from outside the room, and almost the instant I opened that fucking door, the whole room went silent. I put my chest out, (not too much) and put on a straight face. "Y'all got a real deal on your hands," I said as I walked over to the first empty desk I saw. "I'm not a force to be reckoned with. I'll steal all of your phones if you fuck with me, and I'll take all of your Manga," I said. The class laughed at that, and one shouted "Amen!" as I sat down. The moment my ass hit my seat, I realized that the girl with the grey mask was sitting next to me, laughing loudly. The moment that she noticed that I was looking at her, she stopped and seemingly blushed as she looked down at her paper. I was startled as the door opened and the writing teacher walked into the room. "Hello, class," she said. The class responded with a halfhearted "Hello Mrs. Jeffery." So her name was Misses Jeffery, eh?  Seemed like a nice enough name to me. She did the role call and I found out the girl with the mask was named "Jaiden Holland." Seemed like a pretty name. I shrugged and went on with my day. The day went fine, until around lunch time... 

I walked into the lunch room to realize that there was a stage off to the side of the room. I smiled, because I loved singing. There was a piano, and there was someone playing it. The entire lunchroom was fixated on her. "A talent show?" I thought. She was really good at singing and playing the piano. "And you know that I'm still standing, better than I ever did! I'm lookin' like a true survivor, and I'm feeling like a little kid!" I instantly thought of the song, "I'm still Standing." I got my lunch and sat down at a table full of some nerdy but pretty looking girls. It was that moment that I realized it was Jaiden, the girl with the mask. "Isn't she amazing?" one of the girls asked me. I nodded, my eyes still fixated on her. "Why's she wearing that mask?" I asked. One girl, a redhead, looked at me. "It belonged to her mother, who used to be a theater MASTER," she told me. She held out her hand. "I'm Vanessa," she said. I took it and replied, "I'm Michael, but you can call me Mike." The other girls told me their names. There was Vanessa, Rebecca, Fiona, and Raven. Some pretty names, I thought. The girl on stage finally ended the song, then asked if anyone wanted to go next. No one volunteered. I looked around in joy and practically sprinted towards the stage. The entire room was silent, but my mind already had a song in mind. .

             END OF PART 1