forget-me-nots [h.s.]

two

Fall 2010

The sound of an eraser scraping against paper made me sick to my stomach. It was one of those sounds that was like nails on a chalk board--horrifying and chilling. The sound of it made the hairs on my arms stand up and my heart drop. I did not like it one bit. But still, the tip of my graphite pencil continued to scratch against the surface of my paper. 

School hadn't even been in session for more than a week and I already had a ton of assignments. I was sitting in the middle of a back-to-school assembly doing pre-calculus problems. I had my feet braced on the bleacher seat below me and I was using my knees as a table. I scribbled equations and numbers in a notebook and tried to tune out the sound of the principal's speech.

I sighed in frustration and as I erased the marks from the page. I tossed my calculator in my bag and shut my notebook. The only bright side to being in this assembly was getting out of my physics class. God knows that I did not feel up to learning about Newton's laws or acceleration today. I ran my fingers through my hair and pulled it into a ponytail. This school held assemblies outside under a covered awning—still; it was too hot for this. If only summer had lasted a week longer. 

This school was smaller than my last one; perhaps it was because the town was smaller. There were about three hundred in the senior class alone, whereas, my old school had nearly seven hundred. It made me feel like an insect under a microscope--less people, less places to hide. If anything, at least graduation would go by quickly.

The assembly seemed more like a pep rally as the cheerleaders cheered and the drum line played—which only added to my irritation. My phone had been blowing up all morning with texts from my friends from my old school. They all wanted to know how I was and how was the new school. I couldn't be mad, but part of me felt cheated that I moved going into my senior year. It was the year that I was supposed to spend with my friends before we all went in separate directions for college. Now,  here I was going in a separate direction early without any of my good friends beside me. 

When I looked around at my new classmates, I saw a bunch of strangers. Sure, there was some familiar faces—people from my classes that I sat next to, but they were not my friends. There was nothing lonelier than being in a new place with no allies. Below me, there were some girls from my art class, besides me there was a boy from my literature class, and behind me, well, I was in the back so there was no one behind me.

I was cornered by unfamiliar faces.

My eyes wandered the crowd as it ebbed and pulsed with energy. In one of the front rows, I spotted a familiar mop of chocolate curls. He was clapping along with the school's drum line, and laughing with his friends. After the pool party, I thought that I would never see the charismatic fool again. But as they say: man makes plans and God laughs. The boy with the curly hair was in my history class, and had decided to sit right next to me. 

I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy his company.

He was sweet and endearing. He was also refreshing--most kids here were pretty well to do, and seemed to be pretty pompous about it, but he wasn't. He seemed to just enjoy living, and that was nice. Diana seemed to approve of our budding friendship--she told me that he was one of the most genuine people she had ever met--and that was saying something because Diana knew a lot of people. 

He turned back and saw me. His green eyes lit up and I lifted my hand in a greeting. He waved in return, and the boy sitting next to him looked back to see what he was staring at. The boy spotted me and whispered something to him. Harry chuckled and smacked the boy's arm lightly before standing. Harry made his way through the crowd of students to reach me.