Silence Beyond Words

White Pine Bay High

Norma held onto the straps of her book bag with more strength than necessary. She wished she didn't live so close to school so that she would have given herself more time to think. To breathe. Now, she stood on the sidewalk opposite from the crowded building, near a tree, large enough for her to hide behind all day if she wanted. She couldn't believe she was doing this again.

She scrutinized the school from afar. A modest building that looked nothing like her other schools. This one seemed as if it could only hold about two hundred kids inside its walls, not more, not less.

Another thing she wasn't used to. You had an advantage when the structure had more than four buildings. It's easy to hide among the huge crowds and go unnoticed when the student body reaches absurdly the high numbers. Not this. This school was smaller than that one house she got to live in for a couple of months in upstate New York.

She looked around, eager to spot another newbie on plain sight. She could recognize them in a second. They weren't much different from her in a way. Like her, they also looked like outsiders. Completely lost and yearning, deep inside, that they could fit in. Not Norma, though. She's done this far too many times to care. She's past that point. Way over it. She wasn't here to make friends. Or to have fun. She's an expert on that, and she had her mother and Vincent to blame.

Norma lets out a profound sigh when she's unable to find another outcast in the rough. She can't be the only one, can she? But Norma had such bad luck that she wouldn't be surprised if she's the only newbie of the bunch.

Norma planted one foot in front of the other and marched her way inside the unfamiliar territory. She's done this a million times. The closer she gets to the entrance, the less apprehensive she feels. She could sense the anxiousness leaving her body with every step she takes. 'Come on, Norma. You can do this. It's a piece of cake,' she tells herself. Indeed it is. A really dry, but also mushy, piece of cake.

The front doors are wide open, and her nose instantly distinguishes the methodical scent of White Pine Bay High. Every school has its own distinguished aroma, she likes to think. She remembers her school in San Francisco always had that fall and pumpkin-ish fragrance. It was always clean and crisp. The one in Nebraska and New York were pretty similar, too. North Dakota smelled of fresh cut grass all the time, and she hated it. Georgia had a rich combination of lupins and bad hair spray. But White Pine Bay? She couldn't quite put her finger on it.

The halls were graciously brightened thanks to the numerous windows circling the building instead of concrete. Norma admired that it gave the school a more serene ambiance. It looked more open and less compressed. She's always loved areas with a lot of windows.

Norma follows the small crowd, students forming a single file line. She peeks and sees the large sign that reads 'PICK UP YOUR SCHEDULE HERE' in long blue letters. She gets in line and patiently waits for her turn. No one's paying attention to her yet, and she likes it although she is sure that she won't be able to fly under the radar for much longer.

"Name?" the older lady with crooked, lipstick-stained teeth demanded once she got in front of the line.

"Norma Calhoun," she spoke softly.

The old lady found her schedule rather quickly and handed it to her. She showed her yellow teeth, smiling broadly at Norma before yelling 'Next!' over Norma's shoulder.

Stepping out and away from the old lady's glare, Norma unfolded the neatly presented paper. A quiet squeak left her throat as she scanned her schedule eagerly and with much joy.

White Pine Bay High School
1622 Valley Ln,
White Pine Bay, OR 97086

WELCOME
S•E•N•I•O•R•S
CLASS OF 2019

Student Name: Calhoun, Norma L.
Student I.D.#: 542808078
Lunch: B
Locker #: 9614
Class Schedule:

First Period: Trigonometry
Second Period: AP English 4
Third Period: U.S. Government
Fourth Period: Calculus A/B
LUNCH
Fifth Period: Human Anatomy and Physiology
Sixth Period: Environmental Science
Seventh Period: Art

"Yes!" she whispered to herself. She got every single class she had chosen at the beginning of summer via mail.

"These are difficult subjects, honey," her mother had commented after seeing her daughter's uncommonly schedule for someone her age. Norma nearly scoffed at her mother's simplicity.

"No, they're not. All I really need is three more credits to complete my entire semester. I could graduate early if I feel like it. These classes are just for fun," she had responded wildly. "They pretty much forced me to take an Elective. Art sounded better than P.E., in my opinion."

Francine laughed. "Seriously!?"

Norma grinned widely. "What? You know I'm not athletic. I can unleash my imagination and express my anger and turmoil on a white canvas way better than on a field."

Francine had rolled her eyes but managed to smile at her daughter. "Always so dramatic."

"Wonder where I get it from."

Norma smiled at the memory. She didn't mind that her mother knew close to nothing about the importance of these subjects. How good it looked on College applications. She was happy, though, with her daughter's 4.0 GPA.

The classes were divided into small sections. Half of her classes seemed to be on the second floor. The classroom numbers were recorded at the bottom of her page, and Norma thanked the Heavenly Father for such a feature. She'd hate to have to wander around like a lost puppy looking for a needle in a haystack.

The lockers are in plain sights, like in every other school. Norma started her search hunt, eager to find her own before the last bell rung. She didn't want to deal with jammed hallways on top of all the locker slamming that always occurs before class.

More than anything, she didn't want to overhear how fantastic everyone's summer was. The latest gossip or how fast the couple of the year replaced one another in a blink of an eye before July. These types of conversations amongst girls, most of the time, were always out on display as if everyone else had the right to put in their two cents.

She wanted to hear none of that. Norma Calhoun needed to find her Trigonometry classroom before all hell breaks loose.

"Aha!" she mumbles lowly, spotting her locker from afar. That side of the continuous hallway was practically deserted. She made work of her locker combination and flew it open with much grace.

After taking her binder out of her bag, she settled her book bag inside the clean locker, taking out of it two pencils and one pen. She is quick to place them inside the pocket of her cardigan, seizing her schedule.

She compressed the light pink binder to her chest. Her left hand keeping it secured and steady upon her body. Her right hand clutching her schedule tightly. Her eyes scan for room 221, and she smiles sumptuously the second she spots her designated class.

"Here we go," she tells herself. She takes a deep breath as the rest of the student body roamed around her down the corridor.

"Let's have a good day," the tone of her voice skeptical and weary. "You got this. It's not the first time you do this. And it's certainly not the last."