I reached up, and with shaking fingers, tucked a thick hank of my ash blonde, shoulder length hair behind my heavily pierced ear. Before I could think better of it, I took a look at my surroundings.
Big mistake. Big, big mistake.
People stared. They stared right at me and none of them even attempted to hide the fact that they were staring when I looked their way. Some of them had their mouths hanging open with a look of shock on their upturned faces. Some were pale and looked frightened. Of what, I had no idea, but they were looking right at me and not trying to hide it. A couple of people wore looks of pity on their otherwise curious faces. Pity was the worst. There was a group of very pretty, very well dressed girls that were grouped together and they were openly glaring at me with faces so hostile I had to fight off the urge to take a step back away from them.
What in the world? The pity I kind of understood, I didn’t like it, but I could understand it. I was the new girl in a really small, tight knit, probably everybody grew up together since birth, kind of town. They would consider me to be an outsider and some of them were bound to feel sorry for me. But the rest of their looks were really freaking me right the heck out. The glares and the anger, I didn’t understand at all.
I bit my bottom lip hard in an attempt to stop myself from crying. Not a very good start to my first day. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Thankfully, the urge to cry didn’t stick around for more than a few seconds, the pain in my lip took away the tears. Pain could always be counted on to calm me down.
With nothing for it, I looked down to my schedule which was crumpled up even more than it already had been, and continued on down the hallway. This was going to be a really long year, I could already tell. Five minutes in and I was dooming the whole entire year.
As I walked past people I caught snippets of their hushed conversations.
“...new girl…”
“…what’s her name…”
“…can’t believe he talked to her, he doesn’t talk to anyone…”
“…I heard she and her mom moved in with Mr. Cole…”
“…neighbors…”
“…sad really. My mom says she’s trash and that I should stay away…”
“…pretty, but still, he won’t even look at…”
“…lucky bitch…”
Thankfully, I rounded the c
orner and heard no more. My class room was the first door on the right. I had my schedule and where all of my classes were memorized but I still liked to have the actual piece of paper to hold on to. It made me feel safe. Orientation was two weeks ago, and I had made pains to remember where everything was so I didn’t look like a total fool wandering around not knowing where in the heck I was going. Also, I didn’t want to have to ask anyone for directions. Which was smart because, apparently, they wouldn’t have been all too keen to help me out if I had asked for directions. At least I didn’t have to worry about the looking like a fool part, not when I’d already successfully accomplished that.
When I entered the class room I took a chance and glanced around quickly. I froze at what I saw and my heart seemed to start beating double time inside my chest.
I knew it was Mr. Menacing Voice. I didn’t get the chance to see him from the front but his hair was unmistakable. It also helped that he was now scowling ferociously and looking right at me with the coldest eyes I had ever seen in another person, my mother included. They were such a dark, deep brown they could have passed for black. I shivered as those cold eyes swept me from head to toe. They remained cold and hostile, giving nothing away.
I blinked in shock. Not only from the hostility radiating off of him but because he had to be the most handsome boy I had ever seen, even with the ferocious scowl on his face. Maybe he was even more handsome because of it. What a strange thought. Also, maybe it was me who’d gone crazy now.
“Oh, look. He’s staring at her now,” one of the Pretty Princesses in expensive clothes from the hallway, this one blonde, murmured to her friend as they walked past me. Once she was in front of me she turned her head to the side, glanced over her shoulder and shot me a glare identical to the one she’d given me in the hallway. “It’s like she’s an animal at the zoo or something.”
She was abnormally beautiful and perfectly proportioned. Her long blonde hair was pulled back in a low, sleek pony tail. A gold, glittery headband rested on top of her head. Small, diamond studs shone brightly at each earlobe. She wore a light pink short sleeved t-shirt with a tiny pocket over the left breast and crisp white short shorts. I could tell her clothes and her earrings were expensive, just like I could tell she liked knowing her clothes were of a better quality than most of the other students I’d seen so far. She had really mean eyes for one so pretty.
The corner of her upper lip curled in an ugly sneer as she turned her back on me with a flip of her pony tail. This was not the kind of attention I had wanted to garner on my first day. Or my second day. Or my fifth month. Or ever, for that matter.
“You don’t have anything to worry about,” one of her minions rushed to assure her. This one a brunette, but otherwise she looked almost like a clone of the blonde girl. So much so it was kind of weird and I couldn’t help but wonder if before school they’d called each other and coordinated their outfits so they matched. “It’s not like she’s prettier than you or anything. And, like I’ve told you, like, a million times, he’s probably gay. That’s the only way he wouldn’t want to go out with you. You’ve got the wrong parts. He likes dicks.” She giggled loudly as they rushed to take their seats.
Only one more year, Ariel Kimber, then you’re free, I told myself. To hell with them all.
I quickly scurried to an empty desk on the opposite side of the room from the boy with the cold eyes and menacing voice. I didn’t care about the pretty girl with the mean eyes and ugly sneer. She didn’t scare me, but something about that boy sure did, though. Before I could sit in the empty seat I’d chosen someone else beat me to it.
“Seats already taken, freak show. Find a different one. Now.” A boy with short blonde hair snarled at me. He had sky blue eyes that upon first glance were lovely, but after staring into them for a few seconds I realized they might be pretty to look at but they held no warmth. I took in the rest of him. Pretty boy face. Dark blue jeans. White football t-shirt that had Devils and the number fourteen in large red print on the front, it probably housed his last name and the same number on the back. He looked like he could be twins with the mean girl. Go figure.
The freak show comment really stung. I could only assume it was due to the fact that I had a black hoop through the right side of my lower lip and a whole lot of shiny studs running up the crest of my ears. I didn’t imagine they got a whole lot of people who looked different from the norm around here. Still, people had never been this blatantly rude to me before in my whole life.
I clutched my book bag to my chest with both hands, like a shield, stepped back away from the desk and turned towards the front of the classroom. I made this maneuver without muttering a single word. When I faced the front of the classroom a balding man with thin, wire framed glasses and ill-fitting (ill-fitting because his stomach stuck out like he had a basketball placed under his button up shirt, narrow hips and his shirt was tucked into his trouser pants) clothes stood, arms crossed, glaring disapprovingly at me from half way across the room. He had thick, bushy white eyebrows and a gross wart popped out on the side of his nose. I fancied there were long, pubic like hairs sticking out of that wart.
If I wasn’t so upset by my classmate’s behavior towards me I would have giggled at the sight of him, him and his basketball shaped baby belly. He looked about ready to either pop or give birth to triplets.