Everything Has Changed

Chapter 1

        She was alone again. 

     People all around her were pairing up. She sighed, knowing that she'd have to partner with the teacher. Again.

        Every single PE class during the partner activities, due to the odd number of people in class there was always a loner. And always, that loner was Marina.

        Always.

        It wasn't until a long time had passed that she realized that everybody was looking at her. Probably internally laughing at her unpopularity. She could see the look of pity in Ms. Rusignuolo's face, but she wasn't going to let others see how much it affects her. 

        As Ms. R approached her, Marina could hear her shouting, "Class, pay attention! Marina and I are going to demonstrate a good chest pass. Look," she said as she took out a basketball and forcefully pushed it towards Marina.

        Marina, not having been gifted with coordination, automatically failed and got hit in the face, falling to the ground. Laughter immediately erupted around her. She stood up, humiliated, as Ms. R silently jogged over and offered her a helping hand. "Do you want to sit out?" she asked, genuinely concerned for her student's well-being.

        Marina silently nodded as she picked herself up from the ground. She looked down, blushing, and stared at her feet the whole way out of the gym. It was like this the whole day, every day. She wondered what it would be like to be genuinely... liked. 

        Even the word sounded foreign.

        She wasn't bullied though, far from it. Most of the time she was ignored, with the occasional laugh tossed her way when something embarrassing occurred, like what just happened in P.E. 

        Hugging her chest, she walked through the desolate hallways, glancing at the peeling paint on the lockers. The walk seemed even longer without the distraction of other people.

        "Hello?" 

        Marina glanced up, startled. Her gaze met grey eyes that she was sure she hadn't seen before. She didn't have friends, but that didn't mean she didn't observe people from a distance. "Uh, h-hi?"

        The grey eyes crinkled with a smile. "I'm new here, and I was wondering... do you know where the math classroom is?"

        Marina was stunned. Somebody had actually talked to her of his own free will. It slowly sank in that he had asked her a question. "I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" she asked, flushing.

        "Um..." he stepped beside her and showed her his schedule. “Apparently right now I have math with..." he paused and peered at the paper. "Mr. Robinson."

        Marina stepped away, disturbed by the random stranger disturbing her personal space. Maybe that was why she had no friends. "It's right around the corner. Turn left, and it's the third classroom on the right."

        He turned to walk in the direction she had pointed, before remembering and turning around to thank her.

        But she was already gone.

*************

        It was the last class of the day, and Marina was anxious to go home. She was sitting alone at the desk in the back corner, forgotten by all. Ten minutes before the bell rang, the door opened. Dead silence settled in the classroom as the students all sat up straighter in their seats, hoping to get a glimpse of the latecomer. Marina couldn’t even see the teacher through the people sitting in front of her. It was one of the cons of sitting in the back.

        As they settled down, she could see a blonde boy hand a slip to Mr. Shepherd. She assumed it was a tardy slip. This was soon confirmed as Mr. Shepherd nodded and wrote down something – probably the stranger’s name -  in his ‘Tardy Book’, a notebook filled with the names of all the poor people who had the misfortune to be late to his class. Mr. Shepherd said something to him then coughed loudly, so that the rising murmurs of the class fell again.

        Mr. Shepherd turned to the mysterious stranger. “Do you want me to introduce you, or do you want to introduce yourself.”

        The new student seemed to ponder the question for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll introduce myself.”

        That was already a difference between them. Marina would rather stand in the corner while the teacher introduced her, or better yet, get here on time so the teacher wouldn’t bother interrupting the class to introduce her.

        The new student turned to the class, Marina recognized the same grey eyes as the ones she had seen in the hallway. So that’s why she hadn’t seen him before, she thought. It’s because he wasn’t here before.

        “Hi, everybody,” he said, looking around. Marina, ever the observer, saw a flash of nervousness in his eyes, before it disappeared, replaced by confidence. “My name is Ethan Putnam. I’m from Chicago, and I moved here because my dad got a job here as chief of police.”

       The class whispered. They knew why the Chief had to be replaced. There was a mass uproar of crime in their area, and the gang who had killed the Mayor, and had threatened the city’s future, the children. The citizens of LA had protested until the chief had been replaced by a stricter, better chief. This connection automatically granted Ethan a place near the top of the social pyramid.

       "I am 16 years old, and I play soccer. I'm a striker," he continued

       Again, the class murmured, as Marina rolled her eyes. This guaranteed him a spot even higher. The school revolved around soccer. Another one of those stupid jocks. Soccer wasn’t everything.

        “And,” he concluded, “that’s about it.”