Spring Meadow

Devil's Right Hand

As we exited the car, a boy about our age bounded toward us. After a bit, I realized that it was one of his friends. I had him for government last year. His name was Jordan. He was a smart kid who was very open and eccentric. His spiked up light brown hair and sparkling dark eyes added to his character. It seemed he didn't really notice me though.

"Hey, Michael, you're showing up to practice after school, right?"

"Yeah. Coach would kill me otherwise." I came to the other side of the car where they were talking. Michael was so different from how he had treated me. He was friendly and sociable. His smile was bright and radiant. I guess I was lucky he wasn't like that with me. If he ever smiled like that at me, I would probably die.

A voice snapped me from my thoughts. "You're riding to school with Amber now?"

I looked up at Michael, not trusting myself to answer. I didn't want to give him another reason to hate me.

He glanced at me and then looked back at his friend. "Yeah, it's this sort of stupid thing that our parents decided to make us do. They feel she needs to interact with others more and since our parents are friends, guess who had to help."

"Oh c'mon. That isn't all bad."

"Whatever."

Jordan looked over at me, smiling. "So, Amber, are you going to watch us at practice today?"

I glanced at Michael for a second then looked back at Jordan. "Seeing as he is my ride home from now on and I have nothing else, I suppose so. Is it alright with you?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't it be?"

I shrugged, a bit embarrassed at such an enthusiastic answer.

At that moment, Michael coughed. "We need to get going. Our first period teacher said he wants the summer homework on his desk before the warning bell."

"Oh shoot! I forgot about that. Sorry, Amber. We need to go."

"No worries, my friends said they wanted to meet up before first, anyway."

Jordan waved as he turned to follow Michael. "Okay, see you at practice!"

I waved back and giggled a bit at their obvious playful banter as they walked over to the science building. I turned towards the math and English building, where I was to meet my friends. Most of us had Mrs. Mantana for first period Euro Lit this year. We had had her last year for American Lit last year, so we decided to meet in her classroom.

As I walked into her class, I saw my friends sitting at the one of cluster of tables. We didn't have rows of desks like most classes. Mrs. Mantana liked interaction more so she set tables in groups to encourage discussion. Megan was sitting up on top of one of the table animatedly talking to one of my other friends, Christen. Megan's long blonde hair shimmied around and her green eyes were lit up while Christen looked cool, maybe even bored, with her sleek black hair tied into a low ponytail and her dark eyes staring into some unknown place. Lisa looked like a supermodel as always with her light brown hair up in a French braid and her beautiful blue eyes. She was chatting with Ruby, a girl we had met only last year. She was absolutely adorable with short dark brown hair and bright brown eyes. Mrs. Mantana was at her best stapling some papers. I went and sat down in the empty seat next to Christen.

Megan immediately stopped explaining whatever she was exploring when she saw me. Instead she cried out, "Hey, Amber! I am so sorry I didn't make it to the party." Her family was extremely close to mine. I had become friends with her in second grade. Some business when we were in middle school resulted in our families intertwining some branches in our businesses. This meant that her family would have definitely been on the party guest list.

"That's alright." I looked over at the others. "Hey, guys, nice to see all of you again."

"Hey," they all answered collectively.

"So, what did you all do over summer vacation?"

"Oh no you don't," cut in Megan, "We want to know who you have in store for your future. So was he cute?"

I felt embarrassed. "I-I, um..."

Ruby looked helplessly confused. "I'm sorry, who?"

"Um, may I?" Christen looked over at me. She wanted to know if I was comfortable telling Ruby my secret. I nodded. I hadn't known Ruby for very long but we had gotten very close last year.

Christen looked back over to Ruby. "She has an arranged marriage. She had a party two weeks ago where she met who she was engaged to."

"Exactly," Megan said, "so the question is was he cute?"

An image of Michael in the black tux he wore that night appeared in my head. Oh, he was definitely cute, really cute, but there was no way I was going to say that out loud. I couldn't, however, stop myself from blushing.

Megan laughed. "Oh, so he was cute! Do you have a crush on him before or something? I've never seen you blush so hard!" This only made me blush harder. In truth, I've admired him since the second grade, actually from before I met Megan.

Ruby looked perplexed. "I thought you never got crushes on anyone, Amber."

Megan narrowed her eyes at me. "She doesn't." She slammed her hand on the table. "So is it someone we know? Heck, does he go to this school?"

"Of course not," I answered, voice even. She stared into my eyes for a bit as I kept my gaze with hers.

"You're lying."

That was the thing with us. Megan was very good at lying, yet I could tell when she was. I wasn't exactly open about what I was thinking either, but she could tell what I was hiding. We both survived by reading others and acting upon that. We just took different approaches. I was polite but reserved, while she was friendly and appeared open. Lisa said that's why we were so close. Since we couldn't manipulate each other, we chose to befriend each other instead.

The bell rang announcing to get to first period.

Megan got off the table and looked at me. "Knowing your parents, you two have mandatory hanging out time, particularly the ride to and from home. Good thing I have a free day today because it looks like I'm going to be spending it with you!"

Ever since freshman year, Megan had gotten the nickname Devil's right hand. I always understood it. I knew of her plans. Sometimes, I played my part in them. But now I was starting to fully appreciate what a perfect name that was.