Teenage Dirtbag

Ch. 1

            Being the new kid was never easy, new town, new school, no friends. "It'll be great, you'll make friends in no time," my mother reassured me on the car ride to school. Right.

            My mother has no idea how mean kids today are. I'm not a popular, gushy, girly girl. My long curly brown hair is often on a messy bun on top of my head, because morning's are far too early for me to consider brushing it. And I usually trace around my green eyes with a bit of eyeliner and mascara in the car.

            "I wish you had done something more with your hair," my mother fussed at me as we pulled in front of the school.

            "It looks fine, Mom," I answered grabbing my bag and reaching for the door.

            She sighed, "alright then, have a good day, Scarlett."

            "Yeah, yeah," I mumbled as I closed the car door behind me. This school was about six times bigger than my old school. This meant six times more people to ignore and over-look me.

            As I made my way inside I followed the signs to the office, humming the tune to Teenage Dirtbag quietly to myself. The secretary greeted me as I walked in, asking if I was the new student. "Yep," I simply answered, messing with the strap of my book-bag.

            "Great," she replied enthusiastically, "your guide should be here in a moment, your schedules are very similar, so he'll be showing you around the school until you get the hang of things," she said handing me my schedule.

            "Cool," I said, taking the paper and looking it over with false interest. I heard the door open behind me, and someone clumsily came into the office.

            "Marcel! Here you are. Marcel, this is Scarlett, you're going to be showing her around the school and too her classes."

            Folding the paper and stuffing it into my pocket I turned to meet my new school appointed buddy. I was a bit surprised at what I saw, I figured it would be the school nerd, but I was surprised at my accuracy. The hair, the thick glasses, and was that an argyle sweater? But never judge a book by its cover, he had pretty eyes and he looked like the overly-eager friendly type. "Hi," he said somewhat shyly, pushing his glasses up his nose, "nice to meet you."

            "You too," I said, giving a small smile.

            "Alright you two better be off, don't want to be late," the secretary chortled, ushering us out of the office.

            I pulled the paper back out of my pocket as Marcel started to lead me down the hall, "so, first class is Math, that kinda sucks."

            "It's not so bad, Mr. Timmons doesn't give out homework or anything. So his class is easy," Marcel answered, pushing his glasses up again.

            "Well then my morning isn't entirely ruined," I stated. We walked the rest of the way in silence and I began to sing Teenage Dirtbag under my breath as we walked, "'cause I'm just a teenage dirtbag, baby. Yeah I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby. Listen to Iron Maiden maybe with me." I wasn't sure if he could hear me, but as we approached the class room door I thought I saw a hint of a smile on Marcel's face. Maybe this nerd was a bit cooler than he appeared.

            My first few classes went by in an uneventful fashion. Go to the front, introduce yourself, tell us about yourself, all that. Marcel and I were walking to our lockers when some jock looking guy ran by yelling, knocking his books onto the floor. He huffed and pushed his glasses up, bending down to gather his fallen papers and books. I watched after the boy as he continued down the hall, shouting at random students. "Everyone here is so friendly," I mumbled as I knelt to help Marcel with his things.

            "I'm used to it," he answered quietly in a somewhat sad tone.

            "Well he was a jerk," I stated, handing him his last book as he stood, a faint hint of a smile on his lips. Marcel lead us to his locker, and then mine so we could put our books away for lunch.

            I could feel everyone's eye's on me as I stood in the food line with Marcel. Everyone always wants to catch a glimpse of the new girl. I glared at a few people as I looked around the room, causing them to quickly look away and start whispering amongst themselves.

            The rest of the day went on without any incidents, and after we'd gathered the things from our locker's Marcel walked me out the front doors of the school. "Well thanks for showing me around today. I supposed I'll see you in the morning."

            He nodded, looking somewhat shy, "I'll meet you in front of the office in the morning."

            "Alright, well that's my mom," I said nodding to her car, "so see ya then."

            "Goodbye," he said quietly as I made my way down to the car. Opening the door I threw my backpack onto the floor and climbed in, buckling my seatbelt. When I looked back up I saw that he had made his way down the steps and was walking down the sidewalk.

            "Who's that," my mom asked, as she saw me watch after him.

            "Marcel, he's been appointed to showing me around."

            "Should we offer him a ride," she asked.

            Shaking my head I leaned back, "no, I'm sure he doesn't live far."

            Accepting my answer she put the car into drive and we made our way home. She prodded me about me day several times, but I only answered with the least amount of information possible. As soon as we got home I ran up to my room to start on my homework, getting everything ready for the next day.