Cheyenne: The Art of Love and Jealousy

Chapter Three: See You At The Flag Pole

The next three weeks went by astonishingly quickly. Most of Cheyenne's classes were becoming interesting now that they were actually doing real work. The trouble was Cheyenne wasn't used to the quick pace at which they were learning. She was struggling so much to keep up in her math class that she spent all her time at home at her desk, trying to get just her math homework done. Her other subjects were fairly easy, but she had always struggled with math. No one had taken the one-on-one time to break it down in simple terms for her. Sarah had finished her trial period at work and was now working various hours so she wasn't home to help very often.

Cheyenne was staring at a problem on her math homework at 9:30 at night. (The perimeter of a right-angle triangle is 60 cm. The area of the same triangle is 150 square cm. Find the three sides of the right angle triangle?) She was far too tired to think and she was frustrated. If this kept up, she was going to fail and that was unacceptable to her. After ten minutes of staring at this one problem, she gave up and decided to get up a little early to try to finish it in the morning. She turned off her light, crawled under her warm covers, and drifted to sleep.

At five the next morning Cheyenne smacked her alarm hard as it beeped loudly, startling her awake.

"Dammit," she muttered sleepily.

She got out of bed slowly and walked over to her desk. She fumbled for the light for a moment, then, upon finding it, clicked it on, and sat down to finish her Algebra homework.

Cheyenne worked for half an hour before she finished. She decided she'd rather turn in something, even if the answers were all wrong, than not turn in anything at all. The last person who didn't turn in their homework was publicly shamed in front of the class.

She put her homework in her orange math binder and put the binder in her backpack. She went downstairs and made a cup of green tea with honey, and a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries. She sat at the table quietly, reading 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' as she ate her breakfast. Today was just going to be one of those weird days. At least that's what Cheyenne's gut said. If she had her way, she would just stay home. Cheyenne decided to go to school for two reasons: her mother would be mad if she skipped school and she wasn't actually sick, and today was the first time her Theater class was going to do anything in the theater. She didn't want to miss it.

Cheyenne finished her breakfast, closed her book, and walked upstairs to get dressed. She put on her favorite jeans, her favorite pink floral lace top, and her favorite earrings. She put her hair in the usual side braid and slipped on her favorite cowboy boots. She grabbed her denim jacket, a scarf, and her backpack and left the house.

It was a slightly cloudy Tuesday morning with a mild chill in the air. The sweetgum trees and the ponderosa pines in the park seemed to be dancing with the breeze and waving good morning as she passed by. The fresh dew on the grass was shining like diamonds as rays of sun broke through the clouds. The sight made Cheyenne a little homesick. It reminded her of her hometown and she suddenly wished she was there, rather than here.

A cold breeze hit Cheyenne, nipping at her skin. She buttoned up her jacket, wishing she had worn a sweater instead. She walked onto campus towards her usual morning spot by the rose bushes, when she spotted a large group of about twenty people gathered around the flag pole in a disorganized circle. A couple of them were even from the middle school across the street judging by the white and khaki uniforms they were wearing.

"What's going on?" Cheyenne asked one of the girls in the group as she approached.

"See You at the Flagpole," said the girl. Seeing the confused look on Cheyenne's face, she explained. "Every year, high school Christians all over the country gather around the flag pole on their campus to pray."