Dark Side of the Moon (2 page)

Chapter 2

My other classes were the same.  Introduce myself to the teacher, get my text book, briefly introduce myself to the class, and go about trying to take notes.  The guy that had stared at me until I said something in English was also in my American Government class.  Thankfully, he didn’t stare at me or try to talk to me after I confronted him.

I tried taking notes in both of my morning classes, but I eventually ended up doodling in the margins.  I knew I needed to try to keep my grades up because failing wasn’t a very good way of protesting the move, but I just couldn’t help being bored.

My next class was a study hall.  It was weird for me to return to my first period class and do nothing but homework and study.  At my old school, I worked in the library for my free period.  But I was assuming that the only reason why I wasn’t in the library here was because the positions were already filled.

And because we had to return to our first period class, I was able to see everyone in there again.  I guess I should at least try to learn their names since I was going to see them all at least twice a day.  But then Mrs. Riley didn’t really call out roll, just looking around the room, and marking who was here and who was absent on her own.  And I had absolutely no intention of going up to random people and trying to make friends with them.  I had friends back home that I wasn’t intending to lose.

After study hall was lunch.  Once I made my way to the cafeteria, I got in line with everyone else to get something to eat.  The room was full to capacity when I purchased my lunch, and I had no idea where to sit.  But after a little searching, I found an empty table, and occupied it.

While I ate, I pulled my sketchbook out from my backpack, and doodled a little.  They were nothing at first, but they slowly morphed into eyes.  I didn’t know whose they were, hadn’t really looked at anyone to get a good glimpse of their eyes.  I was startled out of my thoughts when I heard someone sit on the opposite side of the table from me.  Thankfully, it was just Dan.

“Hey, Selina.”

I nodded at him and continued my drawing.

“I see you’ve still got that pole up your ass.”

I gave him a glare.  “Watch it, weirdo.  You don’t want to mess with me right now.”

“Chill out, Selina.  You’re going to have to get used to this school sooner or later.  Besides, we only have a week before Christmas break starts.”

“Yeah, where I’ll be stuck in a house all day without my friends and with parents that don’t understand why I didn’t want to move in the first place.”

“Everything can’t be about you, Selina.  Do you think I wanted to leave my friends, too?  My spot on the football team had been secured until I graduated at our old school, and now I have to try out again to even get a spot on this team.  Dad has to learn the ropes of the company he bought as well as working n this huge case he’s been on about, and mom has to work her way up in her job, too.  We’ve all got it hard, and don’t want to listen to your problems all the time.”

I tried to control my anger.  Taking a deep breath, I said, “Why do you have to talk like you’re in your thirties or forties, Dan?  It’s not normal.”

“For you, maybe.  Look at things from my perspective sometime.  It’s a lot better than that storm you’re sitting in.”

“Shut up,” I sighed.  “I don’ know why they couldn’t have waited until after Christmas to move.  I mean, out of school for a few days, go to this school for a week, then two weeks off?”

“I don’t know.  It’s weird to me, too.  I’ve already got a ton of homework to do over the break, so I’ll probably be camped in my room the whole time.”

“Yeah, ‘doing your homework,’” I said with the air quotes.  “Meaning, you’ll be playing the new games you know Mom and Dad got you for Christmas.”

“Shhh!  No one has to know that.”

I rolled my eyes, and finished up my lunch.  “The bell’s about to ring soon.  I’m going to head to class, get the stupid introductions over with already.”

“Yeah, same here.  I never understood why new kids hated doing that until now.”

I stuffed my sketchbook back into my backpack, and picked up my tray.  “See you later, Dan,” I said as I stood from the table.

“Bye, sis.”

As I headed toward a trash can to throw away my Styrofoam tray, I walked past a large group of people.  They were mostly guys, a few of the girls sitting on the guys’ laps.  In the middle of the group was the guy that had stared at me during English.  He was laughing and talking with everyone else, but his eyes were on me again.  I wanted to ask what his problem was, but there were about a dozen or so people around him that I didn’t want to confront.

But why was Mr. Popularity staring at me?  It couldn’t just be because I was the new girl.  He had better keep his eyes to himself.

After I threw my trash away, I exited the cafeteria, and went in search of my locker.  I’ll pick my books up later so I could do what was left of my homework.  Then, I went to find my math class.

Once there, I introduced myself to the teacher, received my book, and took a seat.  Like this town, I detested math.  My right side of my brain was dominant, as the tale goes, and I liked drawing and painting instead of trying to find answers to mathematical equations.  The class was packed with other people that were probably like me; hated math.  Thankfully, the teacher didn’t have me introduce myself to everyone.

When math was over, I had to go a few doors down for Chemistry.  After I retrieved my book from the teacher, I saw the same guy from English walk in.  Great, four classes with this dude?

“Ah, perfect timing,” Mr. Smed said.  “We had an odd number here and there was a group of three.  London, come meet your new lab partner.”

The guy, London, approached us.  His face was expressionless.  “Yeah?”

“Show Selina here to the last table.  We’ve got a lab today.”

London turned without a word, and headed toward the back of the room.  I followed him, and took the empty seat beside him.  He was slumped over, arms on the table, head on his arms, as if he were bored.

“There are more important things than mixing chemicals together,” he muttered.

I chose not to respond, mostly because I didn’t know what to say to him.

After Mr. Smed called class together, he had us turn to a specific page in our workbooks.  I had already done this exercise about a week before we left Charleston, so this was going to be easy.

But then I noticed there weren’t any supplies on our table.  “Where are our supplies?” I asked London.

“Hell if I know,” he said, not moving.

Was he serious?  “Well, I would like to get a good grade.”

“Why?  There’s no point.”

“For college purposes.”

“You really think getting an
A
here will help you get into college?  Grades don’t matter, and the job market is shit, so college is pointless.”

Well wasn’t he a barrel of fun?
  Why had Mr. Smed paired me with him?  Looking around the room, I saw the other students pulling their supplies out from under their tables.  I opened the cabinet in front of me, and found almost everything we needed.  There was another cabinet in front of London, but he still hadn’t moved.  So I practically pushed him out of the way so I could gain access to his cabinet, and found the rest of the supplies.

He seemed shocked at my behavior.  “You’re spunkier than most.”

If that was an attempt at flirting, he was going to be in for a big surprise.  I wasn’t interested in dating anyone here.  “Bite me,” I responded, getting what I needed from the cabinet.

“I’m going to take that as sarcasm.  But next time I’ll take it as an invitation.”

I rolled my eyes as I took my seat again.  Why did I get paired with the lazy weirdo?

While London brooded in his corner, I attempted to do the lab by myself.  It was difficult, but I managed.  I was almost finished when Mr. Smed approached our table.

“London, have you made Selina do all of the work?”

“Nope.  She insisted on doing everything despite the fact it won’t help her in the long run.”

“You’re going to end up failing if you don’t do your work, London.”

“And?  I’m not planning on using chemistry in any aspect of my life in the next fifty plus years, so I don’t see the point.”

Mr. Smed sighed.  “Am I going to have to call your parents again?”

“I don’t know.  You and I both know it won’t do you much good.”

Mr. Smed looked to me apologetically.  “I’m sorry, Selina.  I was hoping that you could actually get him to do his work before the school year is over so he wouldn’t have to repeat his senior year.”

I glanced at London.  “It may take longer than that, Mr. Smed.  And I actually intend on graduating on time.”

“Yeah, I figured.  But don’t worry about your grade, Selina.  As long as someone participates in the lab, they’ll receive a grade.”

I nodded, and continued with the lab.

By the end of class, London hadn’t budged, and I successfully completed the lab by myself.  And to save time and effort for later, I just put all of the supplies back in my cabinet.  When the bell rang, London was the first to spring up from his seat and leave the room.  I don’t know how I was going to survive being his lab partner for the rest of the year.  At least I didn’t have to talk to him.

Chapter 3

After Chemistry, it was time for my favorite class of the day, Art.  I always enjoyed drawing in my spare time, but I didn’t think what I created was that great.  Sure, it was good enough to get the easy
A
, but that was about it.  However, I did convince my old art teacher to let me bring all of my completed and current projects when I moved away.

After I introduced myself to the teacher, I took a seat, and anxiously waited for class to start.  He also didn’t make me get up in front of the class to introduce myself.  When he told the class to continue their projects, he came over to me to explain what they were doing.  I didn’t have a problem with mixing colors, but really wanted to finish my current project, a stamp I was carving.

I showed it to him, and told me to hold off on finishing it until after winter break, when the rest of the class would be doing the same thing.  It frustrated me that I was essentially behind where I had been at my former school in two classes, but there was nothing I could do about it.  Putting my stamp away, I ventured over to the paint cans, and retrieved some colors before finding some paper.

For the hour, I just zoned out as I painted.  My classmates chatted with each other, but no one approached me, which I liked.  I didn’t like talking to anyone when I was crafting in my own little world where nothing else mattered.

By the time I finished my little project, I was happy with what I had produced, and there was ten minutes left in class.  So I turned in my project, and cleaned the supplies I had used.  When the bell rang, I quickly made my way to my locker to get the books I’d need.  I already had homework and packets to do for winter break.

Locking myself in my room to do my homework was a perfect way to stay away from my family for a couple hours.

With my books in tow, I headed outside to find Dan.  Everyone had joined their cliques now that the school day was over, a few buses lined up beside the sidewalk.  As I searched for my brother, I heard someone call me.

It was Dan, and he was standing with a couple guys.  “Hey, Selina, this is Derrick.  Derrick, this is my older sister, Selina.”

I nodded to him, but didn’t say anything.  Dan probably had class with him, and I was assuming that Derrick was on the football team and Dan was going to use him to get onto the team.  Or he could genuinely want to be friends with him; it was hard to tell right now.

I didn’t pay attention to their conversation as we waited for our buses.  I wasn’t really interested in what they were talking about.  Right as I put my headphones in, our bus arrived.  I guess Dan bid farewell to his new friend; I couldn’t hear anything over the sound of my music.

Because I got onto the bus first, Dan forced me to scoot over to the window in our seat, revenge for me doing the same to him this morning.  And when the bus was moving a few minutes later, Dan tapped me on the shoulder.  I removed a headphone, and looked at him.

“Derrick likes you.”

I rolled my eyes.  “He just looked at me; he doesn’t know me.”

“Well he wants to get to know you.  I told him I’d at least give you his number.”  He held a small strip of paper out to me.

I took it, crumpled it, and tossed it on the floor.

“That’s harsh, Selina.”

“Tell him I’m not interested.”

“You don’t want to at least give him a try?”

“No.  I’m not interested, and probably won’t ever be interested in him, Dan.”  I put my headphone back into my ear.

A few minutes later, we arrived home.  Our parents’ cars weren’t in the driveway, so we were home alone.  While Dan retrieved the mail, I unlocked the front door.  And though we were alone, I headed to my room instead of camping out in the living room to do my homework, like I had done in Charleston.

After I set my bag down, I collapsed onto my bed.  Taking my phone out of my pocket, I texted Miranda and Jocelyn.  “I’ve got the weirdest lab partner; he wouldn’t do anything to help me, saying it wasn’t worth it.”

It took a couple minutes for them to respond.  Jocelyn said, “Lazy bum,” while Miranda asked, “Did you kick his ass?”

Though I could be quick to anger, I wasn’t the confrontation type, and she knew this.  “No, that wouldn’t be worth anything.”

Then she asked, “Is he at least cute?”

What the hell kind of question was that?
  “I didn’t really look at him.”  But now that I think about it, London had dark brown hair that fell to his ears and pale blue eyes, was about a foot taller than me and lean in stature, but that was all I remembered about him.

I was sad that Jocelyn never responded to me, and when Miranda said that she had to go to practice.  I wanted to talk to them, but they still had to continue their lives.

With nothing to do, I blasted my music as I did my homework.  Even after I finished, I stayed cooped up in my room, drawing.  It was the only thing that made me happy right now.

After a while, my mom opened my door to let me know that dinner was ready; she couldn’t knock because I wouldn’t have been able to hear her over the music.  So I ventured to the dining room to appear to be civil.

When we were all seated at the table with our plates, our parents asked how our first day went.  Dan apparently had a lot to say about his first day of school.

“So, my first few classes were pretty uneventful this morning.  I mean, they were just social studies, math, and gym.  Well, there was this really hot girl in my math class, but that’s not the point right now.  After gym was lunch, and after I got my food, I saw that Selina was alone, drawing in her book.  She was brooding, like she is now.”

That little comment earned him a glare from me.

“We had a small chat about Charleston, then she left way too early in my opinion to go to class.  Then, there was this big group of kids a little ways away from where Selina and I had been sitting, and two of the guys out of nowhere just punch each other in the face.  Everyone in the room freaked out over it because it was a full out brawl in the cafeteria.  Then, the guy that had been sitting in the middle of the group jumped in before any teachers could arrive, and stopped them from pummeling each other.  Funny thing is, he didn’t throw any punches, he just barked orders at them, and they stopped fighting.  Of course, a few teachers saw what happened and they got in trouble, but it was the weirdest thing I have ever seen.”

Mom gave him a confused look.  “There was a fight in the cafeteria for no reason?”  She looked to Dad.  “What kind of school have we sent our children to?”

Before he could respond, Dan continued his tale.  But it didn’t really help their case.  “Well, we found out later that one of the guys was dating this girl, and that the guy that he punched slept with his girl not once, but several times.”

“I’ll say it again, what kind of school have we sent our children to?”

Dan rolled his eyes.  “It’s not that bad, Mom.  I mean, it’s almost the exact same thing that would have happened at our old school.  We just didn’t tell you about it because it happened all the time.”

“Well, what happened in your classes, Dan?”

“Oh, nothing really.  They were actually a little boring.”

Mom and Dad tried not to shake their heads in disbelief, and failed.

Had that been London that jumped up to stop the fight?  Dan had said it was the guy that had been sitting in the middle of the group, and the only large group in the cafeteria had surrounded London.  Was that why he had an attitude during Chemistry and not because it seemed like a pointless subject?  Was he angry that his friends were fighting?  In a way, I wanted to find out, but then again, I didn’t really want to ask because it was none of my business.

“What about you, Selina?” Dad asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

“My classes were boring, and I got paired with a lazy weirdo for chemistry.”  I didn’t mention that he could have been the guy that broke up the fight.  I didn’t think it was necessary.

“Even Art was boring?”

I rolled my eyes.

“Did you ask for a different lab partner?”

“Everyone’s already established with their groups, so no.  He only became my lab partner because there had been an odd numbered group before I arrived.”

“Well, did you at least have a good day?  Make new friends?”

“What do you think?”  I asked, standing from the table.  I took my empty plate to the kitchen sink, and then returned to my room.

For most of the night, I listened to my music as I drew.  They were mostly abstracts, but a few eyes snuck in.  I wasn’t sure if I should try to expand the eyes into a face, mostly because I didn’t know whose face would be staring back at me.

When it became late, I went across the hall to shower.  After I was dressed and dried, I returned to my room.  Instead of continuing my drawings, I went through my art supplies.  I only had a few charcoal pencils left, and plenty of oils.  There were only five canvases left, and five empty sketchbooks.  It was more than enough to last through winter break.

After I organized my supplies, I climbed back into bed.  Though art made me happy, I still wanted to return home to Charleston, be with my friends again.  But I knew that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.