Together

This is a short story that switches between two perspectives. The first from a new boy who will soon get situated in a new school. The other from a girl who is curious to know who he is.

Together

Charlie 7:45 A.M.

I bounced my leg up and down leaving my toes on the floor to get all the nervous energy out. It wasn’t working. I still felt the pit in my stomach deepen with every thought that came to mind. I sat in the chair, on the edge of my seat hoping the door to his office wouldn’t open anytime soon, for when it did I would have to face another school...more bullying. I waited another five minutes with memories of kids slamming me into my locker because I couldn’t spell the word “cat” when I was eight. Why were kids so cruel? As this memory wracked my brain I realized I was shaking. I really do hope the kids aren’t the same at this school. When the squeaky door to his office opened I cringed. I was lost in thought only a few moments ago, and I already wanted back into the maze of my mind. I always hoped I would get lost for ever in that maze. Sometimes, I was safe from the outside world while I turned the sharp corners of the unpredictable labyrinth.

I stifley got up and fought the words in the back of my head that told me to run the other way. Run so far that they couldn’t find me, couldn’t get to me anymore. I didn’t though because I knew I had to do this. I had to face my fears.

“Welcome to Mount View!” the man said in a mumbled, but enthusiastic voice. His four chins became a distraction as he talked. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get you situated earlier, I had to deal with some boys first.” Uh oh. That didn’t sound good.

“Thats ok sir,” I said, trying to to hide my fear.

“I’m Principal Higgins. So Charlie, what brought you down to California?”

“Well my parents decided they wanted to move somewhere warmer, and my dad was offered a job here. So this seemed like the obvious choice I guess.” And thank gosh for that. I really needed to get out of that school. The rumors about me were endless and my parents knew that, so they decided to start fresh.

“Aha,” he nodded his head and the chins all shook, almost in agreement. “Yes, yes it says here you lived in Colorado. It must have been very cold there.”

“Yah the winters were.” At this point I was glad for the small talk. Anything that would delay my time in a class room.

Almost on cue he said, “Aha well we best be getting you situated so you don’t miss any class.” There it was. Apparently my luck wasn’t going to be any better here.

_____ _____ _____

Emma 8:00 A.M.

It was the most boring class of the day, Mr. Taylor’s. It was also the hardest class of the day for me. Mr. Taylor thought I was some genius, yet I was always the kid with the most errors on my papers. He didn’t care though. He knew I had dyslexia. I was lost in my own thoughts when all of a sudden I heard my name.

“Emma?”

Uh oh...I had no idea what his question was. “Yah...Uh the answer is…….” At that moment the door opened slowly and the head of a boy peaked in. Slowly he stuck his foot in the classroom, and then along with the rest of his body. His shoulders were slumped and his fingertips twitched. I could tell he was nervous by the movement of his hand. He looked around and studied each of our faces and then when he got to mine he stopped dead. His hand stopped moving. He only stared at me for a second longer, because he must have realized that I knew he was staring at me and that he probably looked pretty freaky. He shyly retreated his eyes to the teacher and stood there awkwardly.

“Can I help you?” Mr. Taylor said, obviously irritated that this boy interrupted his lesson.

“Uh yeah, sorry. Um I’m new here and Principal Higgins gave me this schedule, and this is my first class so..I came here. And, well, sorry I interrupted.” Man, this kid was awkward.

“Well it’s not your fault, you didn’t know. What’s your name son?”

“Charlie Jenkins sir.”

“Yes well, sit there, In that empty seat.” He pointed in front of me at the desk with the every so squeaky chair.

The boy sat down and turned his head to look at me. He quickly looked forward again and his leg started to bounce. He would be taller if he didn’t slouch. Thankfully he did, so I could see the board. He had light brown hair and his skin was not very tan for living in California. Almost everyone here had a nice bronze color. He must have just moved here.

_____ _____ _____

Charlie 8:00 A.M.

I walked down the hall, studying my schedule. One hand held the small piece of paper, sweating, while the other hung by my side with my fingers twitching. I couldn’t help it. Sometimes I wasn’t aware that I did it. But today I did notice because I was trying not to do anything that would feed the fire of rude comments and name calling. I held the twitching hand steady. I tensed up my arm so I wouldn’t be able to move it. I looked at my schedule once more, even though I didn’t need to. I had stared at it so long I’d memorized it by now. Just having it their calmed my fear of walking into the wrong class, and then getting lost the first day. The schedule said it was first period now, and I had to go to N-16. With every step closer to the door that was now in sight, my stomach filled with butterflies.

When I got to the door I couldn’t control my hand. I was way to nervous. I didn’t know what to expect. I put one hand on the door knob and opened it. I stuck my head in and immediately everyone turned their eyes towards me. I managed to walk entirely in and I studied all of their faces. I looked at the teacher, who was still staring expectantly at one girl. I followed his gaze to that student. My hand stopped twitching and my jaw dropped. She was gorgeous. I couldn’t help but stare at her. She had golden hair that almost sparkled in the light. She also had a little, round, petite nose. It was perfect on her flawless face. I looked at her only for a second because she must have known I was staring and I didn’t want her thinking I was creepy. I looked away, towards the teacher, who was looking at me with wide eyes.

He asked me what I was doing, obviously annoyed that I interrupted his lesson, even though his students looked incredibly bored in his class. I could already tell that I would hate English with this man. He sat me right in front of the girl. I glanced behind me to see her again, but I was too nervous to actually look her straight in the eyes. While I turned back facing the front, I saw her name on her binder. My leg started to bounce again because it was about the prettiest name I’ve ever heard, Emma.

_____ _____ _____

Emma 11:00 A.M

By third period I was still thinking about the boy named Charlie. I wanted to know so much more about him. I didn’t know why though. He just looked so innocent and sweet. And the way he stared at me. For some reason, I needed to know why he was staring.

The class hadn’t quite started yet when Danny Rustler walked in. His blue eyes and surfer blond hair made girls melt at the sight of him. He could be saying the most disgusting thing but it would sound beautiful coming out of his mouth. He slowly walked towards where I was seated. He had this bounce in his step that just made him look like a jerk, like he was so much more important than you were, or ever would be. Sadly though, girls loved him, guys that he didn’t push around envied him, and he could do no wrong according to the teachers. He didn’t turn one paper into History last year and he still got an A in the class. Only the few brilliant ones saw right through his mask. Those few were the kids he picked on, and me. He was rude, self absorbed…a jerk.

He finally reached my desk and perched his stupid little behind on it. He didn’t even seem to notice the book that he sat on.

“Excuse me, do you mind?” I said, rather in a mean tone.

“No darlin, I don’t mind that pretty little face of your’s one bit.” he said, turning and grinning to his friends. Well, at least he made himself laugh.

“Your a pig” I said matter of factly.

At this he faked a frown and said, “I don’t know about that. Is that really what you think of me?” He didn’t care what I thought of him, but I decided I was going to humor him.

“Actually…” Mrs. Geller interrupted our delightful little conversation.

“Take your seats” she yelled so the kids talking could hear and settle down. “As you all know, we are performing our radio skits today and I expec…” A boy with light brown hair and pale skin walked into the room.

“Am I late?!” he asked.

“Oh, it depends. Are you Charlie?”

“Uh..yeah.” He looked at the crowd of kids and the theater, it must have been dawning on him that we were going to perform here, in front of people.

“Excellent! You are not late. Just sit right there next to Emma.” That was odd. How come all the empty seats were right next to me?

As he walked over, he shoved his hands in his pockets so they wouldn’t twitch. “Hi.” He said weakly. He obviously wasn’t as enthusiastic as I was that he was sitting next to me.

“Hey.” I said back, trying to sound nice, but not too nice. As Mrs. Geller explained what we were doing today I couldn’t help but watch him as he looked around nervously at the people and the room. He first looked at the props on the floor in the corner. Then he went on to the kids. His eyes stopped at Danny. Charlie’s leg began to bounce and he shrunk down in his chair, as if to not draw attention to himself, and certainly not to draw the attention of Danny. I could tell Charlie was afraid of him. Apart of me was relieved that he wasn't one of those kids that thought Danny was a god. Another part of me was afraid for Charlie. He was just the type of kid Danny picked on.

After our quirky drama teacher was done explaining the day, she drew sticks to determine what group would read there skit first. In my opinion, the skits were stupid because we only had to read them up on the stage. We weren't allowed to move or anything. No point. Luckily, because of my dyslexia I didn’t have to read one of the skits that were really long. My group was picked first and I read slowly and steadily, making sure I was reading the really hard words correctly. A few times I tripped up as I stole a glance towards Charlie to see if I could read his thoughts. I found myself worrying about what he thought of the skit. Did he think it was stupid? I couldn’t tell. When it was done we were applauded. He grinned and clapped loudly, only to realize no one else was clapping as hard. He shrunk deeper into his chair.

When the third group was called up they told Mrs. Geller that they were missing someone. She asked anyone if we wanted to fill in for them and we all looked around awkwardly, hoping that someone’s hand would shoot up. No one’s did so we all looked away from her, trying not to make eye contact. She started to mumble to herself. She did that from time to time. “Oh!” she screamed, like a brilliant idea just came to her. “ Why doesn’t Charlie do it!”

_____ _____ _____

Charlie 11:25 A.M.

When I saw the boy named Danny in my Drama class the pit in my stomach became a canyon. I had been hearing stories about him all morning long. From a boy that was his “follower” I heard that Danny was the greatest guy that ever lived. The boy thought he was the funniest guy that ever lived too. From this girl I heard that he was the dreamiest guy that I would ever meet. He could apparently make fifty free throws in a row, without missing one! When she told me this I rolled my eyes and she shot me a glare. The same boy that told me jokes that Danny told earlier backed her up and said, “It’s true. I’ve seen it myself.” I just nodded and slowly walked away because this kid was obviously delusional.

When I was hearing all these great stories from kids I thought Danny didn’t sound too bad. But then, a scrawny boy in my Science Lab told me the scariest story I’d heard. Now you could tell this boy wouldn’t lie about this particular subject because he was genuinely scared. He acted like I did when I was terrified of a bully. He told me that one day Danny really wanted to impress this Sarah girl and so he was just walking by her locker and he picked up this small sixth grade boy, slammed him inside the locker and shut it. Since everyone thinks of Danny as a god, they all just laughed and no one, NO ONE helped this kid get out of the locker. The scrawny boy who told me this story had to tell me to stop shaking so he could pour water into the beaker.

Danny was in my Drama class and I didn’t want give him any reason to pick on me, so I kept quiet and tried to blend in. I was ecstatic when I realized I was going to sit next to Emma, but I had to hide my excitement so I wouldn’t stand out from the crowd. Although, coming in late and screaming “Am I late?” certainly didn't help me.

When Emma read her script she sounded like an angel. She read it slow too, probably so the audience could understand her. Man, was she great.

I was thinking about what I would say to her if I ever got the chance when Mrs. Geller said, “ Why doesn’t Charlie do it!”

“Im sorry ma’am, do what?”

“You only need to read the script for them.”

“Ra-Ra-Read?”

“Yes dear, read.” The classed laughed. My throat became suddenly very dry.

“Um...Do I have to?”

“Yes dear. They need you do to.”

“Yah, but do I HAVE to?” I wasn’t going down on my first day without a fight.

“Yes dear,” she now had an edge to her once so sweet and innocent voice. “you GET to.”

“Uh I don’t have a script.” I was hoping, no praying that they wouldn’t have an extra script.

“Here man, I’ve got an extra in my binder.” This boy handed me a ten page script. Suddenly I hated him.

“Uh ok. Here we go.”

The group stepped up to the stage and formed a line facing the audience. A boy walked forward and read the title “The Princess.” My lines were highlighted, and to my relief, I didn’t have any on the first two pages. They talked about the sky and the rolling hills as they set the scene. They talked about a princess and how she was bored in her castle. Then came the King...I was the King.

“He-hello my princess.” I knew the first letter was a P, so I guessed the word was Princess.

“Hello father!” the princess said.

“Why are you so…..” Uh oh...I couldn’t read the word. The letters suddenly started to jump around and look twisted. I had no idea what it said. I tried to sound it out anyways. “na...le…moh…cly.”

Before, the kids weren’t talking while we were performing, but now it was dead silent. A pencil dropped on the carpeted floor and it seemed like the loudest sound ever. I looked around and our eyes met. Emma had an awful expression on her face. I couldn’t tell if she was disappointed or if she felt bad that I was in eighth grade and couldn’t read this script. If only they all knew then they might not make fun of me.

Suddenly from across the room the boy that I dreaded shouted out, laughing “Melancholy you idiot.”

My palms began to sweat and I looked around nervously. All eyes on me, they, trying to decide whether to laugh, or feel bad. Their idol won out. They all started laughing along with Danny. I couldn’t take it. It was my first day and already I was the laughing stock. I ran out the door. The voice in my head again. Run, run as far as you can, it told me. I had to get away. I ducked into a supply closet and sat down. My eyes stung. I didn’t know what to do. I let the tears come, along with a sob that escaped my mouth. Why is it always me?

_____ _____ _____

Emma 11.40 A.M

I was stunned. I didn’t know what to do. He had dyslexia too. I wasn’t alone. I felt so awful for him and I knew I was about to feel worse when he came back into the classroom...IF he came back. Uh oh, Danny. Oh no. He is going to give him a hard time if he finds him, I just know it. Poor kid. It’s Charlie’s first day here and he’s already been discovered. Dyslexic!

“Emma.” Mrs. Geller seemed just as alarmed as I was. “Please come here for a moment.” What did she want? Did she think this was in some way my fault? She leaned over and motioned for me to come closer so she could whisper into my ear.

“Yes?”

“I believe he has dyslexia, and I was not aware of that.” She looked at me expecting me to tell her if her conclusion was correct.

“Yes I believe so.”

“Ok, then I need you to do something for me.”

“Yes?”

“Could you please be a dear and go talk to him. Tell him that it’s ok and I didn’t know. And since you have basically overcome your dyslexia could you please help him with that? And take your time. Just please, both be back by the time the bell rings for class to be dismissed?”

“Oh yah. Of course.” I hadn’t overcome my dyslexia, I just didn’t have it as bad as Charlie...but all the same, I would try to make him feel better. I walked out of the classroom, not without making sure that I gave Danny a strong, and hard glare. I went out into the hall and looked in the boy’s bathrooms, but he wasn’t there. I looked for him for awhile and was about to conclude that he had left school when I heard a quiet sob coming from the closet. I slowly walked towards the door and turned the knob.

“Hey.”

He looked up and then quickly stuck his head back in his arms, over his knees. I stepped in and turned on the switch. The light was dim, so I couldn’t see very well, but I didn’t need to. I sat next to him and he tensed up.

“Hey.” I said once more, bumping my elbow to his side a little. “You know, I found out I had dyslexia when I was 7. I, for some reason couldn’t spell the word “cat.” I got so frustrated. I would spell it c-t-a or a-c-t. When we found out, I cried and cried because I knew that I wasn’t like the other kids and I knew it was going to be much harder to read. My dad told me it wasn’t a problem because it was just an obstacle. He said, “Emma, you can beat this. I know you can.” And you know? He was right. I mean sure, I have to read slower sometimes. I misspell things sometimes too, but the more I work at it, the easier it gets to read. If we work on this together, we can beat it. Guess what?” He looked at me. “C-A-T.” I smiled at him. He nudged me back.

“Thanks.” He said.

“Hey, don’t worry about Danny. He’s a jerk, and always will be. It’s him, not you.”

“We have to go back now. don’t we?” He looked disappointed.

“Not yet. It’s ok.” Something about that closet made me feel safe.

“Well then…Hi, I’m Charlie Jenkins.”

I laughed, “Hi, I’m Emma Renolds.”

“THAT, Emma, is a beautiful name.”

I don’t know if he could see it but I blushed. “Thanks.” I laughed. I smiled at him, this time it was a more meaningful smile. The bell rang, making both of us jump. Charlie's eyes shot towards the door. We both didn’t want to have to face the world. After a minute Charlie stood up and extended his arm out to me.

“Here.” I took it and got up, but when I was about to let go he didn’t. He just held my hand and then I held back. We turned towards the door, and heard the howling of kids outside. I didn’t want to go, I felt so safe in the dark closet, but we both knew we needed to face our fears. Still holding hands, he turned to me and I turned towards him and we both said at the same time,

“Together.”