Mitzi & Oz

Chapter 2: Teenage Wasteland

Side A: Mitzi

After the bell rings for first period, I escape to the bathroom to throw up.

Through blurry eyes I rinse my mouth out and stare at my reflection in the mirror. Straightening my hair, picking out the perfect outfit, all that work ruined because of one A-hole. Freaking Oswald Harrison. He just had to shove his way in and destroy my first day of new school success plan. All I wanted was to get through the next six months at this place without becoming the school pariah. I wanted people to think I was cool instead of a total loser who stutters and barfs when she's nervous.

I don't have much time to wallow, because I don't want to be late to my next class. History with Ms. Kelley. It's at the other end of the hallway. I hurry to get there before the bell. I'd love to be able to go in and sit down and stay invisible, but the scene from homeroom is going to replay in every one of my classes today: standing awkwardly at the front, introducing myself. Maybe I can overcome what happened in homeroom. Montbourne is a small town, but maybe there are enough students that I won't recognize anyone in my other classes.

Entering through the doorway, I see Oz standing at the front of the room.

I drag my feet as I go to stand beside him. His hair bugs me. His whole outfit bugs me. I tried so hard to look nice on my first day and he looks like he just rolled out of bed, and I'm the one puking in the bathroom? I remember how Mr. Frazier called him Ozzie and it makes me feel happy in a mean way. I'm going to call him Ozzie. No, that's too cool. Too much like Ozzie Osbourne. I'm going to call him Oswald. Or Waldo.

Ms. Kelley is the opposite of Mr. Frazier in every way. She's wearing heels and a jewel-toned blouse, her salt-and-pepper hair cut in a severe bob. She calls Oz first for an introduction, because his name is first alphabetically. "You can just call me Oz," he says with that stupid sideways grin.

"I will call you Mr. Harrison," Ms. Kelley says.

I smile a little bit.

She consults her seating chart, and makes everyone move down one seat, because of course everyone has alphabetical assigned seating.

I can see where this is going. "My last name is Howard," I tell her.

Without looking at me, Ms. Kelley snaps, "Move down two seats," and all the students grumble again, even though I just saved them a huge hassle. Ms. Kelley doesn't even introduce me. "Miss Howard, you'll sit behind Mr. Harrison."

On the plus side, no one in this class will know my real name is Miriam.

On the minus side, no one in this class will know my name. And my breath smells like puke.

Sitting behind Oz - Oswald - means I have to stare at his rat's nest hair all period. It literally looks like he hasn't brushed it. Like, ever. And his t-shirt has all kinds of holes in it.

I take out my binder and flip to the tab I marked for history. It still has pages from my last school in them. Once I get past all those pages of notes I can barely read, I smooth out the blank page and write at the top MS. KELLEY – U.S. HISTORY. Now it's time to see how far behind I am.