The Beginning

"You're not wearing that to school."

My mother said to me, pouring the steaming hot water into her coffee cup.

I looked down, analyzing my outfit.

"Why? I don't see a problem with what I have on"  My outfit seemed pretty casual I thought. I wore a white button up shirt, red tie, along with a gray vest and white jeans.

"It's just too much. It's the first day of school not your prom"

"I think you look sharp son" my dad added

"Don't encourage him Lee!"

"If our son wants to wear a shirt and tie to school, then let him, why you gotta' be so naggy?"

"Naggy? I'm not letting my son go into his first day of high school, looking ridiculous! Lee, you know how brutal kids our now-a-days"

"Babs, Emerson is a big boy he can take care of himself"

"Emerson dear, I laid an outfit out for you, on your dresser, go put it on"

I paused, to think what the outfit looked like. It was one of those loose, nearly baggy pants with a blue and green Aeropostale' t-shirt, with a hoodie that was literally three sizes too big. 

I shuddered in horror.

"Mom, I'm not wearing that!"

"Emerson go put it on now!"

"I can't even fit those! No way!"

"Babs! Leave him alone. Emerson, go to school before your late"

" I will not have my son looking one of those homose-"

Although she stopped herself, my dad and I both knew what she was going to say. My sexuality wasn't my mother's favorite topic, and the fact that I was "showcasing it to the world" with my "homosexual" outfit didn't sit well with her.

"Babs!" My dad yelled

She didn't respond, she continued to sip her coffee while she read through a magazine.

"I'm gunna be late" I said solemnly, walking to the door.

When I got outside, I could hear my parents arguing back and forth as usual.

I loved how my dad would always stick up for me, whenever my mother would say something out of line. I felt a whole lot better knowing that someone was on my side in that house.

When I got to school, I saw Ari and Jackson walking over to me. 

"Ari!" I yelled, wrapping my hands around her back.

Ari and I met when we were five and for some reason our different personalities clicked. She was the goody two shoes and I was the potty mouthed trouble maker. She's the brains of the bunch. Literally anything she put her mind to, she could do it. She’s practically good at everything, expect lying; she sucked at that. 

I caressed  her long, brown hair that dangled down her back, nearly reaching her plaid skirt. I always told her to get blonde highlights, it would totally bring out her green eyes, but she never listens to my advice, clearly.

“Emmy! it's been so long!" Ari yelled back,

"It's been two days"  Jackson added, giving me a big bear hug. His hair was still shoulder length long, and his eyes were still a bright green, that could light the midnight sky. Jackson and I have been best friends longer than Ari and I have; His mother was my mother's best friend since college, and they both ended up getting pregnant around the same time, so we basically grew up together. We kind of drifted apart about three summers ago, when I first told him I was gay. He didn't take it very well at first, considering the fact that I got a little too touchy feely during a sleepover. He didn’t talk to me for months, but after a while, he got over it, now were cool and he's totally fine with me being gay. I loved having him as a friend, mostly because he makes it his duty to protect me, as if I were his brother. Whenever kids would make fun of me, he always beat them up for me. He even got suspended for me a couple times. 

"I can't believe were in high school already" Jackson said.

"I know, seems like only yesterday we were in diapers! Its surreal" Ari said

I can admit I was a bit nervous. I couldn't stand here and pretend like high school was going to be some fun walk in the park and that I wouldn't encounter at least one idiotic a*****e every step of the way, but I stayed as positive as I could and hoped for the best.

We walked in expecting to see a school, but instead we entered a world unlike any other. It was like a zoo, all different, diverse types of creatures inhabiting in the same area. As we walked down the halls, the all American high school stereotypes started to kick in.

You had your typical half dressed w****s walking around like they owned the place then

there was the usual steroid using jocks being completely obnoxious for no reason.

Then there was us; three puny little tenth graders, lost and confused. By the way people stared at us, it was like they knew we were underclassmen, which clearly wasn't a good thing.

My first hour was Geometry, second was World History, third was German, and fourth hour was stupid Gym. Although none of them consisted of Ari or Jackson, my classes were somewhat descent, except gym of course, but once I stepped foot in my 5th hour language arts class, I started to believe gym wasn't so bad.

To make matters worse, I was late, giving all of the class ample opportunity to stare and analyze me from top to bottom. There was no teacher in class yet, so I didn't have to worry about ruining my perfect attendance, but that was the least of my troubles. There was a guy, who when I saw him, it was like a big slap in the face. His brown, messy hair that was lined up perfectly, matched his hazel-grey eyes and although he wasn't smiling I could see his perfect teeth, that were as pure as clouds. He was gorgeous. 

"That's someone's seat"  he told me in irritated tone, as I walked towards the only open seat in the class.

"Oh, sorry" I said. I looked around hoping an extra seat would magically appear. Luckily a teacher came in before I resorted to coping a squat on the floor.

"Good morning class"  he said, setting his suitcase and jacket on the table.

"Have a seat sir" he told me

"There are no more seats," I said, looking around at the class. The teacher scanned his eyes around the room and stopped at the open seat, where I planned to sit originally. 

"Are you blind?" He asked 

"Apparently, that's someone's seat"

"Sir, it’s the first day of school, there are no assigned seats, now would you sit down please”

I went to sit in the seat, much to the brown-haired guy’s dismay.  He shot me a distasteful look.

“Good morning class, I'm Mr.Elzik your English teacher for this year. I'm gunna tell you straight up, this class isn’t going to be easy. We’ll be writing every day, along with grammar practices and- Ay you! Sit your a*s down”

From what I've inferred, Mr. Elzik was your average kind of teacher. He wasn't one to discriminate, he pretty much hated everybody. He was never afraid to say what’s on his mind, whether it's about his disoriented co-workers or nagging, neurotic wife. Mr.Elzik went on to talk about other things, but I couldn’t pay him any attention, because I kept wondering why the guy behind me was so mean to me. I couldn't even see him, yet I could feel his eyes burning a hole through my neck. He was only a seat away from me, but it felt like he was right next to me. I knew that if I turned around our eyes would have awkwardly met, causing me to mutter something stupid and irrelevant like "gee, how about dem tigers?" I continued to look forward,  with an sufficient amount of temptation to turn around and confront him. I didn't understand why he was so repulsive towards me. I didn't smell nor was I dirty, so what could it have been? I decided to ask him and get this straighten out now because the last thing I need is an enemy on the first day.

“Oh before I forget, tomorrow we’ll talk more about The Crucible project that’s due next week.” Mr. Elzik said

The whole room started moaning in agony.

“Yeah yeah, shut up, quit your damn whining. Also it’s required you have a partner, but don’t get happy, cuz I'm picking them”

Before he could say anymore, the bell rang.

“Class dismissed”

Once the bell rang, I ran after the brown-haired boy, eager to hear his reasoning for being such an a*s. I followed him, hoping he'd stop somewhere so I could tap him. Eventually he did, coming face to face with a blonde, well mouth to mouth I should say. I didn't want to interrupt their moment, so I waited. The brown haired guy gripped his hands on the blonde's a*s while they sucked each other's face. I couldn't lie I envied that blonde more than anything in the world right now. Soon enough the blonde noticed me standing there, and gave me that can I help you? look, but she kept her lips on his.

"Ummm is there something you want m'am?" She laughed,

I brushed off her "M'am" comment. The brown haired guy looked at me in disgust, much like he did earlier. 

"Uhh I just wanted to ask you something" I said looking directly at him

He looked at me once with those beautiful hazel-grey eyes, then looked away sharply.

"Lets go" he said to the blonde, grabbing her.

I stood there for a moment, trying to understand what just happened. All I wanted to do was ask him a simple question, there was no reason for him to be such a dick. What the hell was this guy's deal? I don't understand what I could have done to make him hate me so much. Did I do something to him? Did I say something? I stopped thinking too much about it and went on about the rest of my day.

Lunch was chaotic. All the cliques gathered around tables, hugging each other, reminiscing about their summers, complimenting each other’s outfits, and taking those close up, cheek to cheek pictures. Ari, Jackson, and I sat at the only free table in the back of cafeteria which was surrounded by a group of obnoxious foreign kids who smelt like they bathed in axe body spray.

"Ok we seriously need to find a new table, this s**t is ridiculous" Jackson whispered, itching his nose.

“Agreed, this is completely revolting” Ari chimed in

"It's not that bad guys"  I added, nearly coughing out my lungs “How are you guys’ classes?” 

“I met this girl in my English lit class, she was hot!” Jackson shouted

Ari and I rolled our eyes, not wanting to hear about girls.

“What about you Ari?”

“ Well, I enjoyed my AP lit, AP Psychics, AP World history, and AP calc class”

Jackson and I shook our heads.

“Any cute boys?” I asked Ari

“No”

“Oh come on! There has to be at least one!”

Ari shook her head in embarrassment. Whenever I talked to her about boys, sex or anything like that, she'd shy away, trying to change the subject like she is now.

"So how are your classes without us?" Ari asked.

"Thye're fine I guess" I muttered, with irritation in my voice.

"Bullies already?”Ari assumed

"no...it's just this guy, for some reason, he hates me, and I don’t even know him"

“Do I need to beat his a*s?” Jackson asked, in a serious tone

“No, no. I can handle it on my own. I just don’t get why he..”

Before I could go on to tell Ari and Jackson more about the brown haired a*****e in my fifth hour, I was interrupted by a tall, masculine body, hidden behind a black and white varsity jacket. His name was Cody Norsetta, according to the patch his jacket. There were more guys behind him, wearing the same jacket, backing him up, like they're some kind of gang.

"Freshhhhmeeatttt" he yelled in a weird announcer voice to the entire lunch room. 

Everyone started making this loud noise, like they were animals. Soon people started crowding around our table. Cody kept his eyes on mine.

"What's ya name kid?" he asked.

"I'm Emerson, people call me Emmy, this is Ari and Ja-"

He cut me off, signally his friends.

"Cool, cool. Well my boys and I would like to welcome you to Whilimena” 

Cody didn't seem like the normal jock you'd see in normally high schools, the one who preys on the poor, helpless freshmen. He seemed fairly nice for kindly welcoming us. Then after about three seconds, I realized I thought way too soon. Cody's way of welcoming us wasn't exactly warm apple pie and a tall glass of milk. Instead, it consisted of him dumping the school’s signature spaghetti all over my all white outfit, and then his friends added a finishing touch by empting an entire ketchup bottle over me.

"Welcome To Whilimena F*G!"

My jaw wouldn’t come up from off the floor. Spaghetti sauce oozed down my shirt, all the way to my pants, clashing with ketchup going down my side. I wasn't even surprised, just annoyed that I have to go through this gay bullying thing again. I could tell Jackson was furious and wanted to beat the s**t out of those guys but they were bigger than him and we all knew he wouldn't be able to survive.

Ari and Jackson walked me to the boys bathroom and helped clean me up.

"I can't believe I actually thought people would be nicer here, than in middle school, what the hell was I thinking?"  I muttered, fishing sauce out of my eyes.

"Don't let it get to you, Em that Cody's an idiot the principal will handle it" Ari added

"Yeah, let's go"

As we walked towards the door, Jackson stood in front of it, preventing us from leaving.

"Jackson, what are y-"

"No, I'm not letting you go snitch," Jackson scolded. "What are you five? This isn't middle school Em, you can just go tell and expect it to stop. It will only get worse!" 

He had a point.

"So what? Were gunna just stand here and let him just do it again? No! Em, let's go!" Ari yelled, grabbing my hand.

I began to think of all the times I've been bullied, and then of all the times I've told, and all the times something was done about it.

"Wait." I said, "Jackson's right, if we tell nothing's gunna change, he's still gunna harass us. Telling would make it worse."

I could feel Jackson's large smile shining from behind me. Proving Ari wrong was one thing  no one could do, but in this case, Jackson, for the first time ever, was right and Ari was wrong, in a sense. This of coursed irked Ari.

"Fine." she said.

"But Ari does have a point too; We can't just sit here and do nothing.

There has to be some kind of way we can show Cody and everyone else in the school that we’re not losers or get our reputation up somehow"

Suddenly a loud beeping noise sounded through the hallways, and immediately after a voice went on to say: "Good Afternoon Wildcats! I’m Addy McGibbins, and this is your Daily News Report!"

The announcer guy went on to talk about upcoming sports, pep rallies, class fundraisers, and corny first day of school stuff, but then he mentioned something I knew would help Ari, Jackson, and I get total cool points.

"...Auditions for this year’s Whilimena Heights Talent Show will be next week Friday in the cafeteria..."

I looked at Ari, and then looked at Jackson.

"No." Jackson said immediately.

"I have umm tutoring classes" Ari added.

"Oh come on guys! wait school just started how the hell do you have tutoring classes? We haven't even learned anything yet?"

Ari didn't say anything and Jackson stood by his No.

"You guys! This is our chance to show this school what we can do, after they see us, we'll be popular, and no one will dump spaghetti and ketchup all over us."

"What would we do?"

"We could do a dance!"

"But Em we suck, that's your thing" Ari muttered

"I can totally come up with some simple moves for you guys! It will be killer!"

"No Em that's too much" Jackson said

"Please!" I pleaded 

"Fine. I guess, what song do you have in mind? Ari asked

"My favorite song of course!"

Both Jackson and Ari's rolled their eyes as if they were annoyed. They knew exactly what song I was talking about.

"Dont you think that songs a little old?"

"That song will never be old!" I snapped

Ari let out a tired sigh, "Alright when are we practicing?"

"Tomorrow my house right after school."

Jackson kept shaking his head over and over." Im not doing it, especially to that song."

"Oh come on Jackson please!" I begged

"No. There's no way in hell I'm doing it”