Masquerade

Second grade

When I was seven years old I sat it Mrs. Fin's second grade class day dreaming about which silly bands to trade today when our teacher got pulled into the hall by the principal. When she came back in a boy was walking behind her the new kid. I was in love at first sight...of course now that I'm seventeen I know that's totally unrealistic but bear with me...Mrs Fin bless her gosh darn heart was older and they tried to keep all the "problem children" out of her class. Little did the administration know this new kid was the definition of a problem. At least he was for me.

"Alright my darlin's this is Simon Westland"

"West" he whispered

"What's that sweetie?" She asked sitting in her rolling chair everyone in the class knew she could only stand for about ten minutes with her hip.

"It's West I don't go by Simon anymore only my mom and grandmother call me that it's West" he talked with confidence this time, a confidence that anyone paying attention could see would last. And trust me everyone was paying attention especially me.

"Well alright West you can go sit next to Dory over there Dory hun raise your hand."

I was so focused on this new boy that I had to get nudged by my best friend Lucile, I called her Lu Lu. I raised my hand so quick I almost fell right out of my desk I made eye contact with West he sighed and walked over.

"Your name is Dory?" He asked me with a small smile.

"Ya" I said blushing "it's Dorthy after Dorothy Hodgkin she was a chemist and my mama's a chemist and so she named me that and I think she wants me to be like her too but all I know is that I much prefer singing and dancing to anything to do with math and science." I said it all in one breath smiling at the end with a small blush. "Everyone tells me I talk to much but I can't help it I just want people to know what I'm thinkin'"

"I like it" he smiled "it's like the "Wizard of Oz" that's my favorite movie. I also like how everyone talks here it better than New York it all smooth and stuff."

"My daddy calls it a southern drawl. He's from Chicago so when he and my mama fell in love and moved back to her home town he liked how everyone talked too!" I was so happy to have something in common with this mysterious new boy that I didn't notice Mrs. Fin coming over to tell us we best be getting quiet for silent reading time. We both looked slightly embarrassed but not enough that we didn't keep whispering for the rest of the day, the whole next week, and honestly the next ten years.