1 Being Half Naked in High School
Walking up to the set of double gray doors, this feeling of uneasiness comes over me. Shaking myself internally I keep walking. Spending my Senior year in a different school from all the people that mattered to me is something I really was dreading. I cannot believe that I am going to the same school my mother did. Opening one of the doors, I can almost see her and her bestie, my Aunt Leann, standing in the foyer like in so many stories she told me. My mom all her five feet 3 inches of sun kissed skin, long deep brown hair and big brown eyes leaning into a locker. While listening to Leann who was almost six-foot-tall then, long curly light brown hair, with rosy cheeks tell her about the latest crush of the week. A smile creeping to my face as I make my way through the hall towards my homeroom/first class. The halls are full of teens of so many assorted sizes and shapes, they all look almost like the school I left. Almost like the same class mates that I grew up with my whole life before my mom moved us here after the BIG divorce. But, yet not the same at all.
Trying my best to not look too out of place. I keep my chin up and my eyes not on any certain person. After what seems like forever I find room 147, homeroom. Taking a few steps in the room I scan to find an empty seat. Not really wanting the front and of course there are plenty. Slowly walking toward the far side of the room to choose one when I just stop. My body would not move, I did not want to take another step, almost like this pull that I needed to go back the way I came. My body was not wanting to move forward, fighting myself to not turn around and go back out the door. What felt like forever was only a few seconds and then there was a release. It was as if someone let go of me. Nearly falling I caught myself and continued moving to the very first seat I could find.
Trying to control the full body shaking, my arms go around myself as if to hold it together. "What in the world was that?" thinking to myself, "Are my nerves really that shaken, that I freeze like that?" I snap to when I hear everyone get quiet. Feeling the self-conscious run throughout myself, I try to use my peripheral vison to see who was staring at me and my freak like show I just put on. And then there were no one, not one soul looking at me. Everyone was facing the door. Being brave enough to look the same way, I notice the guy standing there. Almost as tall as the door, this maculate species of a male, with his blonde hair, ice blue eyes, and chiseled bone structure made him seem unreal. This God like boy was looking at me, and his face has so much anger as if I just killed his dog or something.
Slouch into my chair trying to hide from his glare, I cannot help to wonder what is wrong with this guy. With each step that he took into the room, my heart beat became faster. My breathing was rugged, I could feel the heat raising from my neck all up my face. God boy gets to my chair, stops without taking his eyes off me, my emotions are all over the place. Between, fear, anger, and excitement I don't know what is going on. The eyes that were staring into mine as if he was trying to read my mind almost searching for my soul. He turns and walks down the aisle to a seat that just somehow becomes open.
Knowing that this unrealistic looking human is behind me, I start to go over everything that I did so far today. Wondering if I somehow upset this guy, maybe I parked in his spot. That's it, I took the first open spot without a teacher assigned number on it this morning. Out of everything I did, that had to be the reason for his anger towards me. Having an explanation of what it could be, I feel my shoulders relax. And the excitement moves out of my body.
"Brynn McComas? Is there a Brynn McComas here?" I become aware of the teacher has come into the room and has somehow gotten to my name in attendance. "Here" I shout too loudly for a room of this size. Giggles float up and around me knowing that yes, I have been noticed by everyone and made a scene now. Clearing her throat, the teacher moves on to the next student.
"What a Joke" I hear without knowing where it came from and not wanting to turn around to find out. Another hour and I will be out of this class and away from hopefully the only horrible experience for today. The teacher stands up and she walks to the middle of the room, there is a paper in her hand. You can hear moaning of non-pleasure coming from a few students.
Mrs. Rose starts walking around the room reading different titles of books. Some that I knew but for most I have never even heard of before. I am one to enjoy a good book but, only ones that are fiction and presses the normal a little if you know what I mean. And these titles alone make me cringe knowing the brain cells I am going to lose making myself read these. After the last title is read Mrs. Rose tells us, "Now that we all know what this class is going to consist of for the whole year, let's get out our first book and turn to page 245 and start reading umm Allison, out loud and everyone will follow." This is going to be so hard to have this class first thing in the morning. Mt. Dew is so going to be my friend this year.
Making my way through the once again crowded hall to find my fourth period class. Hoping that it goes as smoothly as the last two have. I realize that my right shoulder is hurting. Its time I find my locker to put these books in before I fall over from being top heavy on one side. I remember the secretary telling me that since I am a Senior my locker is in the foyer next to the gym. Making the right turn out of the hall in to the large commons area, there is a lot of noise toward the middle of the room. I continue down the right side to avoid all the kids pushing together to see whatever was going on. Finally, locker 143, at least it's a top locker I would not be able to hunch down below someone. Getting my combination lock out of my back pack, opening it and hang it on the handle, I place all my books from my earlier class in.
"I always knew you would fall right on your face!" someone yelled. Now I am intrigued, walking over to the crowd I start to make out that there are what looks like two separate groups making the first layer of the circle. Each group seems to have similarities in their features. But, both groups look totally different from each other. One group seems as if they have a height advantage, with milky skin and slender body fames. Each person carrying a different shade of hair and eye color. The other group are more muscular, average height and weight but something is off with this group. In my mother's words, my woman intuition is going crazy right now.
In the middle of the group was the guy that I saw in homeroom and another. This other guy was about the same height with more build to him. Dark skin, dark hair broad shoulders is all I could tell from the back of him. This guy had the relaxed stance. The only way you knew that there really was a problem between the two of them were the fact of only having about three inches between their faces. I slowly made my way closer. Even though I feared what was going, or what could happen between these two teens, I did not even think about what could happen to myself if the God like boy saw me again.
The kids around the two groups become eager to see a fight of some kind. And the boys were dead locked eye to eye. There were movement to the right, of the boys. This beautiful, long legged female stepped up past the boys and was staring at another girl of the other group. This fearless girl, with her long blonde loose curly hair, bright blue eyes and wearing close to nothing. In my old school if our shorts did not come to where our fingertips touched on our legs, then we were not permitted to come to school. Let alone wearing a strapless halter top bearing our belly button ring. For this girl to not only look like a model, God made it fair with her attitude being as ugly as it was. She decided to pick on the smallest girl of the other group.
"Did you really wake up this morning, decide to wear that?" she spoke. The smaller girl did not say a word or even move. "I mean really, what a waste. With this so-called power they say you have, you'd think that you could at least try a little harder." Standing with the same posture as the guy up against the God like boy, she just smiled. "What's so funny?" asked the blonde. "One of these days you might figure it out." States the smaller one that could not be more than five and a half foot tall with red hair. With an awkward look on her face the blonde had no response. She walks up and gets in the smaller girl face. Closer than the boys were to one another. "Educate me on it then." She states. The smaller girl does nothing but, you can tell that she was getting nervous. The slight shake that went through her told on herself. I could feel myself getting upset now. I'm all about handling differences, but this is not a sized up equally at all. And I am always for the underdog. Before I know it, my feet have moved and I am now out in the middle of the circle right next to the two girls and starring at the blonde.
"Excuse me? What do you think you are doing?" she asks me.
"More like I should be asking you that. "I replied as calmly as I could. With this dumb look on her face she finally looks at me. I take this moment to push the smaller girl away and slid in where she was. Looking at this girl my blood is boiling and I don't even know why. "It seems that you were giving this girl a tough time." The girl didn't say anything to me. "Which doesn't make any sense, for looking at you and what you choose to wear today. I mean really, being half naked in high school. What are you a prostitute?" I say without even realizing what was coming out of my mouth. Giggles and gasp are heard from everyone.
This got to the girl, her shoulders became tense. She inhales while closing her eyes. When she opens them, she has the biggest smile on her face. Making her snotty laugh, she says to the smaller girl, "Now you've got norms fighting your battles for you. That's a new low." I do not take my eyes off her, she turns and walks away. As she passes the boys, her hand glides over the God like boy shoulders and he follows her. Now, I notice the dark hair boy is looking at me. I lock eyes with him for a moment but felt like ten minutes. His eyes were so green. Almost like a forest green but not really, it was a deeper color nothing I have ever seen before. I felt the presence of someone to my right and there is the smaller girl. Not really looking at me more at the dark hair boy, she almost whispers, "Thanks". As she turns the boy is gone and so are both other groups. It seems everyone is now moved on to their classes. I grip my back pack tighter and storm off to my next class.
