Chapter 1, Part 2 - Asia

Senior year is simply more time to socialize for social butterflies like Asia, and so far is going according to plan.

            I left Dawn at the hallway intersection that led to the main stairwell. Her outbursts didn’t bother me, because it was usually just Dawn blowing off steam. She always kept everything locked up so tight, sometimes she just had to let it out. The scary thing was when Dawn wasn’t venting. That’s when you knew it was bad.

The stairs in school always seem so high. The steps are wide and long, so that lots of kids can fit up and down them without falling over on top of each other. Whoa, that’d be a major crisis. Sometimes I run up the stairs just so I don’t get stuck on them with everyone else, I really hate being squished up against all the gross guys in school. And they never move when you’re in that situation, just stand there and make lame attempts to inch forward. So annoying. But today I ran up them just for the sake of getting to class on time. I would be late enough times this year, I was sure of it, but I didn’t want to start that habit on the first day of a new year.

The bell rang right as I made it into the classroom. Everyone else was already seated; hands neatly folded and backs straight, in that eerie first-class silence. Our teacher had marked our seats with new assignment books and big nametags that I prayed we wouldn’t have to wear. We were seniors, for Christ’s sake! Weren’t nametags a little kindergarten-ish?

A quick glance around the room revealed many familiar faces but no real friends. I had learned a long time ago to tell the difference between the two. I recognized a bunch of girls in the middle of the room, and some guys slumped over the desks in the back, but no one that I wanted to sit with. I didn’t mind, though. I had also learned that I was pretty good at talking to people, because I always smiled at them and kept conversation rolling. I liked meeting new people, and they seemed to enjoy meeting me. That fact that I had no actual friends in English class didn’t worry me at all.

I flipped my hair off my face and strolled to my desk, on the other side of the room. A lot of people glanced at me, wondering who was already late on the first day, but I didn’t mind. Let’em know! Half of them would be doing the same thing later, stretching out the four minutes between classes to the max. As far as I was concerned, I was arriving in fashion. The teacher looked up at me as she rose to start calling roll, and I pulled my chair out with a long squeak and a big smile.

“Well, well, senior year!” the teacher began in a slippery voice. “How exciting is that?”

A few people nodded, but others just kept stony. Yeah, senior year. But more exciting would be actually leaving.

“We’re in for an easy year. You get most of the hard stuff in Brit Lit, but World Lit is a piece of cake. We’ll be reading a couple different pieces, some stuff from Africa, and Angela’s Ashes, which is a really really great book…”

I stifled my yawn and focused instead on the new assignment book; dark blue with the mascot, a “wood nymph” which looked more like a sinister little leprechaun, dancing around in gold.

“There are also quite a few short pieces we’ll take a look at, nothing too difficult. Now, of course there will be papers, but they’ll all be based off of in-depth discussion we’ll have in class. We’ll also be able to write a few fun pieces, a memoir and a found poem and…”

Booorrrrrringggg. English class wasn’t really my forte. This was the kind of thing that Dawn and Maggie would love, they’d get together and read all the books on their own, and then Maggie would dominate the class discussions while Dawn wrote A++ essays. I was lucky just to be awake.

“Now, you’ll notice that under your name cards, there is a poem. We’ll be reading this again later on, but for now as an icebreaker, I’d like you to please read it with someone in this class that you don’t already know.”

“What if you already know everyone?” Beth, the cheerleading captain, looked around superiorly. I had to keep from laughing. Beth and I had once been close friends, and I knew that there was no way she knew everyone. Ever since ninth grade, Beth only talked to the other cheerleaders and football players. Even though she was super skinny, I generally recognized her as a cow.

“Try to find someone you’re not as close to. Go on, choose a partner! I’m giving you twenty minutes to read and discuss.” The teacher went back to her desk as the girl next to me grabbed the girl on her other side and hissed “Screw that, I’m working with you.” The rest of the class seemed to share her sentiment.

I vaguely wished that my seat was in the middle of the room instead of on the side. If I had been near other people, I would have a partner already. Behind me, I heard someone sigh as if they thought the same thing.

“Alright then, I’ll work with you,” I said, turning around. The guy behind me gave the impression of being trapped before smiling sheepishly. Eyes wide, mouth partially opened. I might as well have stuck a gun to his head. “Oh, unless you don’t want to.”

“No, that’s fine.” He picked up the poem, about to start reading it, but I shoved my hand into his face.

“Hi, I’m Asia.” Chances were that he already knew who I was, as most people did, but introductions were always polite.

“Oh, I know.” He grinned. See? “I’m Andrew.”

“Nice to meet you.” I smiled at him, using the time to evaluate him. He wasn’t superstar gorgeous like my old boyfriend Derrick, or built like an athlete like ex-boy Tyler, but he was certainly attractive. He had a sort of baby-cute charm. His face was soft, with round green eyes and full lips, topped by neatly combed dirty blond hair. I couldn’t be sure, but he was probably a few inches taller than me since he was taller than me sitting down. And he was wearing plaid. For some weird reason, I love guys in plaid. Doesn’t matter what color specifically, but he was in various greens, which worked well for his complexion.

“I’m not that good with poems. I do better free writes.” I warned him, glancing at the paper in his hand.

“Oh, that’s alright. I like analyzing stuff like this.” Ooo, a thinker! I didn’t often date guys who worked best with their minds.

“Really? I wouldn’t expect many guys to be that in to poetry.”

“Yeah, I guess as a gender we don’t spend much time on it. I took Creative

Writing as a sophomore to fill up space, and my teacher really got me interested in it. Just for class, though. I don’t write it or anything. I just like to understand it.”

            “That’s really cool. The same thing happened to me, kind of. I took Geology last year, and my teacher got me thinking that maybe I’d like to be a geologist, but it’s really more of a thing for class. Outside of school, I don’t really care that much.” My friends always told me I was an open book and that I talked too much, but I think it’s more that I’m just a very good conversationalist. I’m not the person who runs out of things to talk about or wonders if she should keep something to herself. If I think of something to say, I usually just say it.

            “You took Geology for science credit?” Andrew looked mildly surprised, and I remembered that most people called it “Rocks for Jocks”- the elective science class that stupid kids took in place of harder courses.

            “Yes,” I said, only slightly defensively, and then laughed. “I’d never be able to handle Chemistry or Physics, so I just took Geology.”

            “See, I would’ve done that, but my parents are crazy about what classes I take. They need me to excel so I can get into a good college, but I’m not even planning on majoring in anything big, so it seems pointless to me.” He explained.

            “What are you planning on majoring in?”

            “I was thinking Music and Education, which I can probably do anywhere.”

            “Be a professional band geek?”

            “Music teacher, thank you very much. And what are your high and mighty aspirations?”

            “Fashion. I’m not cut out for much else.”

            “Professional shopping?”

            “More or less.” I smiled and shrugged. “My parents don’t push me enough. They’re both doctors and my older sister and brother are also in medicine, so I’m kind of just allowed to do whatever I want. You know, kind of like they already have kids following in their high paying footsteps, they can afford to let me fail wonderfully.”

            “I’m sorry. That must kind of suck.”

            I shook my head. “Well actually, it rocks. My sister decided to be a nurse right before she went to college, when I was in, like, fourth grade. She just got her job a few years ago, and up until then my parents were pushing Jake and me to do the absolute best. But then she got her job, and Jake was in pharmacy school, and then they relaxed. I got off easy.”

            “Two minutes to finish up!” the teacher announced, half rising from her desk before thinking better of it and sitting back down.

            “Oops.” I grabbed the paper and tried to figure out the poem, but I didn’t have the mind for such things. Dawn would’ve had it down before it was even assigned, but I needed time. Usually a few weeks.

“It’s about religion.” Andrew hinted.

“You sure? It’s talking about, like, the desert. And a sphinx?” I couldn’t make

sense of such silly things.

“Yeah, definitely. Look at this line…”
But luckily the teacher called for attention and we had to put the poem on hold.

She went on to ramble about the different poems we’d be looking over and what the final would require of us, but I was mostly trying not to pay attention. Sitting behind me was the most perfect guy I’d met since I broke up with Mick back in June.

            When the bell rang, I swept into the hallway towards my next class and was lucky enough to spot Dawn, trailing along outside of the chaos, her eyes already cast down for the year. I caught her by the arm as I passed and stage whispered “Guess who I just met.”

Dawn didn’t have time to roll her eyes; I was already being carried down the hall by the student body. “Mister Number Forty-Six?”

Funny little Dawn, I hadn’t dated more than twenty guys…officially.

“Mister Perfect Number Forty-Six!” I corrected her as the living current pushed me around the corner.

 

Second period was Economics, which I couldn’t have been less interested in. The first day of school is always Syllabus Day, so I didn’t have to pay close attention. Somehow I lucked out, having Maggie in the class with me. She had a pretty advanced brain in her little head, despite slightly resembling a burnout with her messy hair and frayed clothes. Couldn’t help but love her, really.

The real highlight of my day, which really kicked off the year for me, was that I had three of my closest friends in the same lunch period as me. Dawn, Maggie, and Stacy, all in different classes but somehow in the same lunch. Talk about good fortune. I took it as an omen; a sign that senior year would be as fabulous as I had always expected it to be.

Dawn was waiting for me at the corner table with Maggie, both of them leaning back in their chairs, arms folded across their chests, heads bent. They had been friends since seventh grade, before I had taken notice of them. It made sense that they were friends because they looked almost like twins. Both of them short, both with pale skin. Dawn’s hair was longer, straight sheets of yellow falling just past her shoulders, pulled back too severe for her face structure. Maggie had blond hair too, but it was curly, and frizzy, bouncing around her ears like an adorable mop. They both had blue eyes, but Maggie’s were tear shaped, and bright. Dawn’s eyes were wider and seemed to change shade according to mood, which I thought was fascinating, and was the reason that I never broke eye contact even when she was giving me death glares. Maggie was also a little more shaped, while Dawn was straight and thin. But they were identical in that they both tended to look down on most people, despite aggressively denying it.

Stacy was approaching from the other end of the cafeteria, looking glamorous as always. She was one of the best dressed girls I knew, with dark brown hair cut in a fashionable, thick bob style. She had beautiful long and narrow eyes because her father was part Chinese or something, but she widened them with carefully applied liquid eye liner. She was tall and dancer thin, and usually had her hair parted so that it fell over her right eye and left the other to stare around intimidatingly, but she was actually incredibly friendly.

I had been calling those three girls my “best friends” since halfway through ninth grade. For all of us to have lunch together in senior year and still be so close was amazing to me. I was once in a group that wasn’t always so stable. For most of my student career, I was a prominent member of the popular crowd, so much so that my old reputation has survived for four years away from that scene, and most people still regard me as being quite popular. A lot of my old “friends” are still friendly with me, if we happen to pass each other in the halls or have a class together. But cliques like that rarely last very long, because people get voted in and out like styles, and you can’t really consider them to be your real friends. I was lucky to have Dawn, Maggie, and Stacy. The four of us had been through deaths, weddings, divorces, boyfriends, standardized tests, and the entire series of Boy Meets World. With them, I had everything.

“I don’t know if we’ll be able to get this table every day,” Dawn warned me without looking up. I never knew how she could tell it was me, but sometimes she seemed to have a sixth sense about her. “Maggie practically had to beat off some sophomores who wanted to play that stupid bean bag game over here.”

“What was it, hacky sack or something? I thought it went out of style in elementary school.” Maggie shook her head at me, curls flying crazily.

“It gets worse every year,” Dawn rolled her eyes at Maggie. “I swear, every time a new class gets here, they bring all this garbage with them. It’s crowding up the place.”

“Whole damn school going to the dogs.”

I laughed. “We might as well get ourselves flea collars, there’s no telling what’s crawling around in here now.”

“Alright, so nobody panic, but today is not Taco Day.” Stacy joined us, throwing her purse on the table and planting her hands on her hips.

“I thought you said it was a sure thing?” Maggie almost looked broken hearted; she loved tacos. I had actually introduced her to them about a year ago and she was immediately hooked.

“Well, I thought my source was a sure thing too.” Stacy muttered.

“He was the laziest member of the student government,” Dawn pointed out. “He never went to a meeting, and that’s for sure.”

“Stacy, I told you that guy was a joke. He was probably high when you asked him about the lunches for this year,” I had seen her ask him, and it was true. The student government guy got voted in on popularity while we were sophomores, and he had since developed a trend of not going to the meetings, at least while he was clean.

She sighed and hung her head. “I’m sorry, guys. I was so sure it was really going to be Taco Day, too…I mean, it’s the first day, why not open with a bang?”

“What is it instead?” Dawn asked.

“It’s a Pasta Bar. It’s not so bad, you can get different kinds of noodles and sauces and cheese…”

“But it’s not the same as Taco Day.”

“Exactly.”

The school cafeteria usually performed above the expectations of cafeteria food. They had several different lines to choose from; Pizza, Deli, Salad, and an assortment of displays with smaller foods and snacks. But everyone’s favorite line was the Specialty Line, which varied often. It offered tacos, pasta, fish, foreign cuisine, and other specially prepared foods that usually didn’t pop up in school cafeterias. The only problem was that tacos were by far the most popular, and seemed to appear most rarely.

“Neeeeed taco!” Maggie groaned, falling forward onto the table.

“You packed your lunch, you idiot,” I hit her with her own brown paper bag, and she grabbed it from me.

“Well, all I have is a soggy sandwich and some pretzels. I was really counting on those tacos.”

Dawn put a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes. “Today isn’t even over and this year is already off to a bad start.”

Oh no. None of that. I was all for complaining; I did it all the time. However, today was the start of a new year, and negativity wouldn’t help the situation. I looked out the window towards the stadium, where Dawn had parked her car that morning. The school had a closed campus policy about lunch; we couldn’t leave the school grounds even though the town was a block away. But on days when the weather was nice, and especially on days of special concern like the first day of school, we were allowed to sit outside as long as we didn’t leave the premises.

“Let’s go to the stadium,” I suggested, and was immediately met by confused and shocked stares.

“The stadium? The one that’s closed during the day?” Stacy asked.

“It’s not locked, the community owns it so they keep it open for anyone who wants to run on the track,” Dawn corrected her. She blinked and looked at me with a suspicious glare. “You want to eat in there?”

“Why not? We’re allowed outside. No one said we couldn’t go to the stadium, and it’s not like we’re going to do drugs in there or anything.” I said. “Besides, it can’t be any worse than being in here. Crowded and no tacos? Come on, let’s go.”

They followed me one at a time. Stacy came first, always up for something new, falling in to step behind me. Maggie came next, because her curiosity could always be expected to get the better of her. Dawn followed last, hesitant and questioning as always, but not about to be left behind by all three of us. We strolled past the rest of the student body, moving towards the sunlit doors at the end of the room. Once out them, we’d find ourselves on the lawn and ready to go.

The stadium was completely empty. I had never seen it that way. As a sophomore I had gone to most of the home football games with my friend Madison, just to walk around the track and check out the football players. But we hadn’t gone since then, and I was surprised to find out that the stadium was bigger without people in it.

The home side bleachers were the tallest, and we climbed to the top of them. From there you could see out past Juniper, to the town and hills far beyond. Although the day was hot, it was breezy on the bleachers, making it a comfortable place to eat our homemade sandwiches and cookies.

“Okay, good idea,” Maggie smiled at me, breaking off a piece of her sandwich to eat. “I can’t believe we’ve never done this before.”

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Dawn replied. “It’s probably against the rules.”

“Oh, calm down. Nobody cares.” I told her. “If anyone comes, we’ll just run for it.”

“Asia, the school is about two football fields away from here. I am not a fast runner,” she said. “And I don’t want a detention today.”

“Breathe, Dawn,” Stacy reminded her. “It’s going to be okay.”

“The whole year is going to be okay. Don’t worry so much!” I looked back out at the view; it was a perfect day to be up there, all clear and bright. “It’s going to be a good year.”

Author's Note

Again, I'm still working out what can stay and what needs to go, but help would be awesome. I know the story is moving slowly - I'm working on that too, I promise!