Happy Accidents

Kate

So the rest of the summer sucked.

In a fit of rebellion I dyed my strawberry blond hair bright pink, just to spite Vicky. She hated it, which made me happy. Ha, I thought, now you know how it feels to have something done against your will. She tried to ground me for dying my hair without permission, but Spencer kind of saved me in that respect. "Vicky," he'd said, "why do you even care. It's her hair, let her dye it whatever she damn well pleases. It's not like it's against the schools policy." Vicky huffed about it for a few more days, but never actually grounded me.

The rest of my summer was spent saying good-bye to my friends, even though I would be less than an hour away. My best friend Emily came over to my house on my last day at home. "Wow, you're, like, actually moving," she said. "This sucks."

"I know!" I moaned. "It's so stupid. Like, we are forty five minutes away, would it kill them to drive me to school out here! I'm not even all that mad about moving, this is a shitty house anyway, but do I seriously have to suffer just because some old guy died?"

"I thought you like Mr. Milk Man or whatever his name was? Didn't he used to, like, babysit you or something?"

"Norm, and yeah, I like him, but if he hadn't died, Spencer wouldn't have been promoted, and I wouldn't have to move."

"Yeah, I guess so. Hey, maybe you can hang out with my cousin! She's a sophomore there too; maybe you could sit with her until you find other people to hang out with! She's really nice, but kind of weird, so I don't know if you'll like her, but- wait; didn't you guys meet one time? Yeah, you did, at my pool party last month; she was the one who wasn't swimming. She was, like, reading."

"Oh yeah! She was really nice. I was talking to her about her book," I explained, "I had just read it and asked her if she liked it, remember, I didn't swim for like the rest of the day cause we were talking."

"Yeah, so just hang out with her and her friends, I'm sure you guys will get along."

We moved two weeks before the first day of school, so by the time it started, we were barely started unpacking. I went in a day early with Vicky to find my classes and locker, and so she could finish filling out all the forms.

I went in with her to meet the councilor. He seemed nice but when he saw I my hair I swear he almost crapped himself. Well, at least Spencer liked it...

The first day did not go well. I got lost at least twice, and bumped into some guy who promptly started a conversation with me.

 “I remember you.”

I look up, surprised. “I’m sorry?”

“Oh yeah, you don’t know me,” he laughs and smacks his forehead –people actually do that?- and continues, “I’m Sam. Did you go to a funeral earlier this month?”

“Uh, yeah.” Shit.

“Well, um, I think you kind of spilled cake on my sister.”

Shit, shit, shit. “Oh, yeah, that was me. So sorry by the way, such a klutz, right.”

“Yeah, well I kind of wanted to, I don’t know, warn you about her. She doesn’t really ever talk about it but we all know she’s still pretty pissed. Mostly about her tie; it’s kind of brown now. But it doesn’t smell like cake anymore so that’s good. But, what was I saying, right, um, I would just steer clear at all costs, lest you fall victim to the wrath of Leah Parker!” he laughs as the first bell rings. “Sorry. Well I’ve got to go. Can’t be late on the first day right?” and with that he is gone, somewhere deep within a throng of strangers.

 “Well, hi Sam,” I say to no one in particular, “I’m Katherine, but most people call me Kate. Oh, I am new here, thanks for noticing.”

But as it turned out this conversation ended up being the highlight of a day spent collecting syllabuses, getting lost, and just generally hating everything. I was looking forward to last period home ec. The class seemed easy and laid back. I arrived early, seeing as it was the only room I remembered from the day prior. I took a seat in the back, intentionally away from other people, but close to the teacher. I was sitting quietly while watching the door, when all hell broke loose and Leah Parker walk into the classroom.