Eternal.

Chapter Twenty

Monday. My first day back at school in a week. I pulled myself out of bed, put on an old style jean that looked from the 1980s, and a tucked in flowery blouse to go with it. I straightened my hair for half an hour. When I was done there was still a bit of wave to it, which annoyed me. I took fifteen minutes perfecting my makeup. Then I ran downstairs and heated up a Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sandwich before scarfing it down on the way to school. I didn’t really need to walk fast; school is only fifteen to twenty minutes away.

I colored in the corners of my handout the teacher gave us about a research project. The project was we get into an assigned group and make a poster based on research about someone who has changed some part of history. For example, my group decided on Sigmund Freud. Other groups chose famous painters or poets. One group even settled on someone who changed the fashion industry. We all got up and shuffled downstairs to the computer lab. I swear I saw Jenny Taylor in the hall glance at me then stick up her nose as if she was wafting in candy perfume. Then she perfected a runway kind of walk carrying her skinny binder down towards the music room.

Boys jumped over tables to get to the computers closest to the walls. There were there boys and one girl in my group. I got an isle computer and sat next to stiff boy in my group. His name was Greg. Next to him was the most talkative one, Dan. Next to Dan was a very ADHD kid called Erik and next to him was a girl named Ashleigh. “Okay, so what do you guys want to do?” Dan asked. “We find information on this guy” Greg said pointed at his screen. He was already logged on and had an article up. “I could make a document on Google Docs and share it with you guys so we could put all our information down” Ashleigh’s little voice came out as she punched in her password on her computer to log in. “You do that” Erik said pushing a pencil into Dan’s face. “No! We have to get to work!” Dan says swiping the pencil away, but Erik was relentless on shoving it in Dan’s eye. I looked to my screen and the internet had just loaded up.

 I went on Google and typed in SIGMUND FREUD and 1,880 results showed up in one second. The first link was an article from Wikipedia. Every teacher has told me to stay away from Wikipedia because of the validity of it. But the information in the article made sense. “Bridge, what’s your Email?” Ashleigh cranked her next to see me around the boys. I went over to her computer and typed in Brigitteallyson@gmail.com. Erik Was still shoving a pencil in Dan’s face, and Dan was still trying to take it from him. Greg switched back and forth between articles and a pixelated computer game. Ashleigh was highlighting sentences and using them in her Google Docs. I had only read half of my article on Freud’s childhood because I kept getting distracted.

After lunch, I headed to my last class of the day. Once the hallways cleared, the teacher instructed us to go around the room and talk to classmates about what they think the government should do about Brownsites.  My anxiety started acting up. I stood up and watched my classmates go around the room talking to each other. I don’t have any friends here. I don’t know anything but their names and what they look like. My heart started pounding in my ear. My hands started shaking. I couldn’t do it. I stumbled up to the teacher and asked to go to the bathroom.

On my way down the hall I saw Jenny Taylor bent over a water fountain.  Jenny Taylor stood straight and I adverted my eyes to the tall sea-green lockers across from us. “Nice shoes,” she said as I passed her, “You might want to think about getting some new ones though” I slowed my pace and looked down to my sneakers. They were old and worn, they’ve even got a tear in the front. “Are you going to talk to me?” she asked. I turned around and saw her weight on one leg, and her arm folded across her chest. “Oh you were talking to me,” I said in a sarcastic voice “Sorry, I thought you only had a voice for Alexavier”

“He called me by the way” she sounded defensive. “Okay” I said. She continued, “He told me about you being a selfish bitch. Honestly I don’t even know why you two were friends. Aren’t you the reason why he moved?” Could she be right? “No, he moved because his mom couldn’t pay for the house anymore. They raised the taxes in my neighborhood.” I said with pride. I loved feeling like I knew something about Alex she didn’t. Jenny Taylor looked at me like I was the most pathetic creature in the world. “That’s not what I heard” she said and clicked her silver stilettos down the hall. Her dirty blonde hair lay dead on her back as she walked. Ever since I cut mine short I was jealous of all girls with longer hair than mine.