Side By Side

5.

Lily talked enough for the both of us. When she and Lissa we're together I wondered if there was even a chance for a moment of silence. All the way from the quad to business classroom her arm was looped in mine like Lissa did, And was chatting away about all the things I needed to know.

"Dress code doesn't really matter unless principle Myers is fighting with his wife; on those days all the girls wear sweatshirts just to be safe, because even the smallest sight of bra strap will get you a weeks detention. The water fountain by the gym is the best and the coldest, and the washroom upstairs is the cleanest. Oh, and never go in the stairwell by the science labs,"

"Why not?" I asked slightly out of breath and trying to keep up with Lily's fast talk and equally as fast walking.

"Thats where kids go to... you know...," she bounced her eyebrows with a suggestive smile.

"Got it," I grimaced. I remembered at my old school we had a storage closet that the janitor always forgot to lock. Same idea as the science stairwell.

"I'd say you're just about ready to be an official student of Riverbank high," we rounded the corner into the business classroom. It was cold, and at the end of a long, dark stretch of hallway.

"Just about?" I asked, "I know where to go, where not to go and when to goof off. What else do I need to know?"

"Who to avoid," she said simply. We wondered to the back of the class and sat in a long desk with two chairs behind it. Above, pencils dangled, their sharpened tips holding them in the ceiling. The classroom smelled strongly of paste and perfume.

"Alright you see that guy in the front, red shirt," I followed Lily's eyes and nodded, "That's Kelly Peter, never call him by his first name unless you want to end up in the hospital,"

"Right,"

"Also, never make out with him. He always tastes like a rotten PB and J," she tacked on. I laughed quietly.

"Speaking from experience?"

"Unfortunately," she groaned.

"Oh, and her," she pointed with the thrust of her chin to a girl who's hair was as orange as her spray tan, "that's Tiffany Hitch,"

"Oh. I know all about her,"

Tiffany Hitch wasn't exactly a queen bee, as far as I knew Riverbank didn't really have anything like that, but Tiffany had always wanted to be. She had briefly been apart of Lissa's group when she was trying to date Marcus, it ended in flames, Tiffany blamed Lissa for what happened, and I really wasn't allowed to tell what happened. I doubted anyone else other than Lissa, Tiffany and I knew what had really happened, and Lissa wanted to keep it that way. Everyone of course knew the basics. Everyone also knew Tiffany hated anyone associated with the group.

"Truly a bitch on steroids. When we were sophomores she messed up her Chem project on purpose so it would blow up in her lab partners face," we were now pretending to work on a worksheet our teacher Mrs. Ascah gave us with a kind but also unbothered smile.

What was a sophomore again? I tried to remember but we didn't use those terms where I went to school.

"Can't that get you expelled?" Asked writing my name down.

"Yep, it should've. Except when you've got boobs and are willing to show them off to get what you want. But also they couldn't prove it was her and not her partner," Lily told me.

"So stay away from her. Got it,"

The bell rang, and I had made it through my first class with no incidents. I even managed to finish the worksheet by the end of class, despite the extensive lessons on our classmates.