Melodies of the Broken

record III: permanent reminder

By the time the lunch bell hit, everyone had taken notice of the blonde, green-eyed stranger.

Word about this new student seemed to have spread around the school like the plague; so much so, I even saw teachers bundled up in a corner talking about him and his background. 

A single question popped up when I experienced this: Teachers gossip too?

But no one seemed as excited of the new meat than the girls attending Kimberly High. When I tried to enter the bathroom stalls, a group had halted me and said the place was, "Temporarily reserved for important matters."

At first, I was suspicious as to what they had meant with 'important matters'. Then, I saw them walking out with their faces painted like the clowns in a circus, and I couldn't help it but roll my eyes.

The nerve on these girls to get laid. 

I had given up in trying to get to the bathroom, seeing as another group stepped in after the last one, and decided to walk towards the cafeteria.

Shouts mixed with the clatter of spoons against plates met my ears as I placed my headphones around my neck. The large room was already filled with students chatting amongst themselves, each of them taking their respective seats across the white-and-blue titled room. 

The food line was longer than usual, earning a look of disbelief on my behalf. 

My next class would be in less than thirty minutes, and the people hoarding the line seemed to be taking longer than that. My legs made up their mind way before I did, and before I knew it, I was standing in front of the broken snack machines at the back of the cafeteria.

"Hey, it's the mute kid!" I heard someone from behind me say out loud.

I feigned ignorance and instead took out the pack of Chips Ahoy the machine had graciously crumbled to bits. 

Another person spoke up afterward, "Ooh, better watch it, Smith. I heard she bites."

I turned around just as the first person, who I knew to be Marlon Smith scoffed at a redhead and jabbed a finger in my direction. "Seriously? The mute kid bites? I call bullshit on that one."

Scribbling quickly, he turned to me in surprise when I shoved a piece of yellow notebook paper at him. His brown eyes widened as he skimmed through the black ink, then looked at me with uncertainty.

I only smiled as innocently as I could, although there was promise in my stare.

Then, his friend took the paper from his hands and read it out loud, "Wanna bet?"

While his table stared at me like I had suddenly grown two heads, I took this as my cue to leave  and walked away while I opened my bag of cookies. 

I was mere seconds from opening the cafeteria doors to go outside, when the doors suddenly swung in my direction and the glass met my face. I barely had time to register the pain as the sheer force of it sent me tumbling backward and my lower back smacked against the floor. 

A wince left me as my back sprung up with new bruises. Through squinted eyes, I turned to look up at the one who threw me to the ground. 

Standing tall beside Laura Brenston was the same blonde guy that had taken all of the girls' hearts away. And almost their bras. 

At that moment, I didn't even care that he was new or that he was some sort of celebrity amongst the student body now. Who opened doors as harsh as he did?

My apathy for him deepened when I heard him laugh, earning a dark glare from me. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry, we didn't see you there," he said. What struck me first was his accent: a weird blend of American English with hints of British here and there. And while, in a normal situation, I would've questioned him about it, I was in no mood to play friendly with him.