me, texas, and the popular boy

chapter 3

All I could think about as I fell asleep that night was Matt. His eyes were perfect. He was tall, and his smile lit up the room. But he was just so arrogant. Completely oblivious to anyone other than himself. But maybe he was just confident? Maybe he was genuinely sweet? I thought 'He's probably an idiot, all those concussions'. But his biceps were so large, he could likely lift 3x what I could. But East Sunfall had a decent sized school. And he let it slip he was a senior. So we would probably never see each other, right? But I secretly hoped we did.

When I woke up my father was gone. He was on the managing staff for the Texans, and the season was starting soon. So he had busy days ahead of him. Of course, I often called him a traitor, because no matter how lame football is, I'm from Boston, so, Go Pats.

I wore blue denim shorts, a wrap top, that may have been a little too scandalous for Texas high school, and my red Chuck Taylors - with bird socks of course. I put my hair into a ponytail that sat practically at the top of my head. I had wavy hair leaning towards curly. It was an Orange day, so I packed my school provided gym clothes into my plain black bag. That's all I really needed, it was the first day of school after all. I hopped on my bike and rode to my first day of school.

I parked my bike, walked into the lobby, and realized I was a complete idiot. I had no idea where anything was. I didn't even know whether the spanish room was to my left or to my right. I looked down at my schedule. Spanish was in room 265A. The only thing that told me was that it was on the second floor. I didn't even know where the staircase was. I was completely lost. The lobby was crowded with people chatting rapidly. I thought about asking the secretary in the front office, but she was just and she might just --

"Molly Manchester, Junior Class President!" A girl with perfectly cut blonde curls and green eyes seemed to pop out in front of me. It would be a stretch to call her 5'2. She looked like Goldilocks. She had a little more weight on her, but she carried it well. She also carried a clipboard. Her smile blinded me. Her short floral dress only added to her perfectly manicured look, "Are you a freshman?"

"Uh, no," I realized my deer in the headlights look must have attracted her, "I'm a junior, but I am new."

"Ooh, double score. I get to show someone around, and I don't have to deal with a freshman," She winked. As much as it might not seem so, Molly Manchester was exactly the kind of person I liked. As I was not type A, others that were were nice to have around, as long as they weren't snitches, "What's your first block?"

"Spanish. Honors Spanish IV," I looked down at her, she was about half a foot shorter than I.

"As a junior? Just where are you from?" It was almost comical how pronounced her southern drawl was. She paused, "Also what's your name? And give me your entire schedule please"

"I'm from Boston, I took it in eighth grade," I placed my schedule in her outstretched hand, "I'm Skip Hanahan." She wrote my name on her clipboard.

"That's a really cool name, Skip. Also we have PE and Lang together today. My friend Perejil is, like, also in Spanish four, she speaks Portuguese, so she started in Spanish three sophomore year," She clicked her tongue and looked up, she spoke fast, "It's also really really cool that you took spanish in junior high. My brothers are like in fifth grade or something, and their class is already taking the equivalent of, like, Spanish III. They're the worst. Heaven forbid they ever, like, even speak to you."

"Heaven forbid" I smiled. She laughed. She laughed a lot.

"You're funny, Skip," We started to walk to my class, "I like you."

Molly and I meandered down the hall, and just as we were about to go into the spanish room - Molly wanted to say hi to Perejil - she looked at the time.