With Wings

1

I was in one of the awkward middle years when Opal shuffled into the geography classroom and changed my life.

You know those middle years. It's like middle child syndrome, except it only lasts for a year (maybe two); and EVERYBODY in that year, regardless of their birth order, feels it. It starts in elementary school - in first grade, everything is so new and big and slightly scary but also really exciting, so you behave. And then in fifth grade, you're the oldest and you have to act mature and cool, so you behave.

Second, third, and fourth grades are the middle years, and those are all the kids you hear screaming like the apocalypse has started.

Then, in sixth grade, you get those big starry eyes of wonder again, and behave. And then in eight grade, you think to yourself, "When I graduate at the end of the year, I'll finally get out of this hellhole; I can't screw up," and you behave. But in grade seven - ohhhh, grade seven. Puberty! Hormones! Parents! Everyone's super angsty and angry and emo! All! The fricking! Time!

But high school - high school's the worst. In tenth and eleventh grade? You can do whatever you want. And people do whatever they want. Only tenth and eleventh graders skip class to smoke weed or have sex or whatever they do under the bleachers. Only tenth and eleventh graders miss school because they're too hungover, or too high, or were beaten up in a fight they had after school, or just utterly wasted in every possible way you can be wasted. Only tenth and eleventh graders throw huge parties just barely on the other side of orgies not just on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, but on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesday, and Thursdays. Twelfth grade is when stuff gets serious. And some ninth graders who want to get in good standing with the older kids participate in that stuff, but most ninth graders are too scared to do anything, because high school is flipping huge, and also they're kind of awed and impressed and feel grown-up. It's funny, isn't it, that no matter how old you get you never fail to be awed and amazed by new things.

Well, actually, when Opal walked into geography, four or five weeks into the start of eleventh grade, with only 25 minutes of the class left, she didn't particularly strike me as the type of girl to be awed and amazed by new things - or by anything, actually. And, honestly, I wasn't particularly awed or amazed by her either. But she was different. The girls at my school were either scary - prim, proper, aggressively straight posture, perfect French manicures, perfect high ponytails - or scary, loudmouthed, plunging necklines, reeking of marijuana and cheap beer, snapping gum loudly as they stared at you insolently. I live in Miami. You're either filthy rich, or filthy poor.

Another things about these girls - this was a performing arts school. So these girls were all seriously talented. And, by some cruel twist of Fate - why does Fate always deem this, that the ones who are talented are also the ones who are hot and popular - they were all also seriously beautiful.

But Opal - well, Opal was also scary. But she was different. She was Asian, for one thing - her last name was Korean, I later learned; I was still very ignorant about everything that didn't relate to me (which was a lot) at this point - and not a lot of Asians lived around here. Her hair was unwashed and scraggly and so long she could sit on it, her bangs uneven and hiding her eyes. She wore a sweatshirt and sweatpants despite the sweltering heat, and both were several sizes too big for her. She wasn't beautiful - not by a long shot.

But she was different.

I found myself interested and intrigued by her - for no particular reason. No, there was a reason - but I can't explain. I can sort of explain. It was like - like she was Saturn, so bright and shiny and different. And I was a piece of junk floating aimlessly around the galaxy when I was gently drawn into her orbit just as naturally as anything - more naturally than most things, actually. And, as a part of her halo, I was no longer a piece of junk. I had a purpose. I had something.