A Year in the Life of an American Teenager

Chapter 2

The luck didn't last. Fate decided to intervene and Kendall's day turned for the worst very quickly.

She and Colleen were on their way to history class, talking about their vacations and discussing what other classes they may have together, when suddenly Colleen waved to someone Kendall didn't know and said to her, "Hey, you didn't tell me that Ethan was in our class."

Kendall felt her heart start to race and stomach turn from the flashbacks that instantly popped into her head, but she said as steadily as she could, "Oh, well we never discussed our schedules so this is definitely a..."

She paused when she saw his face--brown hair, light brown eyes, defined jawline, the signature dimple that showed up only on his left cheek when he smiled--and she felt all her nerves disintegrating and being replaced with anger. His relaxed smile made her even angrier. She looked away before he caught her looking at him and finished tightly, "...surprise."

Ethan's best friends, Michael and Keegan, along with some other guys from the basketball and baseball team, were also in the class, making the matter even worse than she had already anticipated. Some of the guys had already noticed Kendall walk in, and they immediately looked away when she made eye contact with them, acting like they didn't see her.

Kendall then focused on facing forward as she walked toward the desk that was in the complete opposite direction of where Ethan was sitting, trying to relax, since she knew that she shook uncontrollably when feeling nervous, and Colleen followed, confused by the whole situation.

"Don't you want to sit with Ethan?" she asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

Kendall sighed and then wondered if she should tell Colleen, knowing the consequences if she decided to. When one friend knew, the rest knew.

"Well...I would but..." she bit her lip, her mind racing to make a decision.

"Oh my gosh," she said suddenly, her deep blue eyes widening, "you guys broke up, didn't you?"

Or Colleen could just figure it out on her own.

Kendall nodded once, wringing her hands together anxiously and looking at the floor, trying to calm down to stop shaking. Colleen didn't seem to notice and just sat there silently, probably waiting for Kendall to tell her when and why it happened. The when was easy. The why was a different story.

But before Kendall could say anything, their history teacher walked in, shutting the door behind her to get the class's attention. She was pretty short, even though she was wearing heels, and she was wearing a lot of purple. Purple dress, purple heels, purple accessories; she looked ridiculous. The tips of her blonde hair were curled outward, like a 1950's mom, and she had wide green eyes, which excitedly looked over her students. Despite her matchy outfits and classic hair style, Kendall pinned her as an easy A teacher.

"Good afternoon, class! My name is Mrs. Robin, spelled like the bird!" she said, her voice unexpectedly loud, which made the whole class jump back in their seats.

"She's the teacher for honors gov and sociology?" Colleen whispered, her eyes wide with her eyebrows raised.

Kendall just looked back at her, mirroring her facial expression, except her mouth was also slightly ajar.

"Well! This class is certainly larger than my first honors class! You guys fill up all twenty-five desks, and everybody seems to have at least one friend they know in here, which is great! But sadly, I don't know any of you yet, so I have an activity that will help fix that!"

Mrs. Robin handed out a sheet to everyone, and when Kendall and Colleen got their copies, Kendall read aloud, "'All About You.' Oh great. It's middle school all over again."