Last Train Home (3 page)

When the bell rang after fourth period chemistry
, I was ready for lunch.  No one in my classes had been overly friendly to me.  No one had jumped at the chance to hang with the new girl, so I was anxious to get to the cafeteria and find Holly, the one person who had actually been welcoming to me, and maybe David.  He had to be nice to me.  He had no choice.

I went to my locker and put my books away before grabbing my lunch and walking to the cafeteria.  When I stepped inside, I instantly noticed the terrible acoustics of the plain, rectangular room.  The noise seemed to bounce around like an out of control rubber ball, creating a garbled mess of voices.  The walls were white.  The floors were white.  Even the long tables were white.  It was as drab as everything else in this town.

I sighed as I stood in the doorway, accepting my fate.  I began searching the room for either of the two familiar faces I knew in this place, and I was relieved when I saw Holly sitting with her friends across the room, just as she said she would be.  We made eye contact and she waved me over.

“Hey,” I said when I rea
ched her.

“Sit down.”  Holly scooted
over so there was room for me at the end of the table.

I looked around and smiled at her friends.  They looked at me awkwardly and then I saw their gazes shifting to Holly, obviously waiting for her to explain
who this stranger was, and why she was sitting with them.

“This is R
iley,” she said, introducing me.

“The one from New York, right?” another blonde girl said and she smiled enthusiastically at me
, as if I was a museum exhibit. 

“Boston,
actually,” I corrected her.

“Boston…New York…same thing as far as I’m concerned,” she laughed and I was amused by her ignorance. 

“Were you in one of my classes?” I asked her and she shook her head. “Then how’d you know about me?”

“I think everyone knows about you.  No one
ever
transfers here, so it’s big news when someone does.  You’re kinda like an instant celebrity,” she said, taking a big bite out of her apple.

“That’s Mandy
, by the way,” Holly said, pointing at the talkative girl who smiled and waved.  I could tell just by the two minutes I’d known Mandy that she was the energetic one of the group.  Everyone else seemed very laid back.  “And this is Laura,” Holly said, gesturing to a fellow brunette, who’s curly hair was pulled up into a puffy ponytail.  Laura smiled at me too and then began picking at her bag of Fritos. “And this is Brandon,” Holly said, motioning to the boy across the table from me.  His hair was dark blonde, nearly brown, so I wasn’t sure I could count him in the blonde majority.  I decided to put him on the dark side since we were definitely out numbered.  Brandon nodded and half-waved at me.  I opened my lunch bag and unwrapped my sandwich.  I pieced at it as they all continued talking about stuff and people I had no idea about.  I suddenly realized what it felt like to be the outsider, to have no friends, to not get the inside jokes.  I wished I was back in the cafeteria of my old school in the company of my friends who knew everything about me.  I wanted to be back where I fit in.  I didn’t want to be in a place where I was just pretending and biding my time till I could get the hell out of Dodge. 

I
pulled out my cell phone and flipped it open.  I sent a text to my best friends, Natasha and Courtney, asking them what they were doing. I put the phone back in my pocket and waited for them to respond.  I looked around and saw the dark haired boy that sat near me in my first period class, walking towards us.

“Scoot over,” he said
, pushing Brandon until there was room for him at the table.  He sat down across from me and then looked up.  He cocked his head to the side as if he was trying to place where he knew me. “Boston, right?  First period Constitution?”  I nodded and he held his hand out to me across the table.  I reached out and shook it. “I’m Jesse Baylor.”

“Riley
Regas.”

“I know.  I got your bio in class,” he said
, releasing my hand and opening up his Coke.

“Ye
ah, that was kinda mortifying.”

“You did fine. But Barry se
emed pretty interested in you.”

“I sensed that.”

“He’s a history buff and as you probably figured out, Carver’s not the most interesting place.”

“He’d just better not ask me to d
o a presentation or something.”

“He probably will,” he said
, smiling at me as he ran a hand through his thick brown hair and then turning back to the group.

“We’re still coming to your place tomorrow
night, right?” Laura asked.  Jesse nodded and looked over to me.

“You should c
ome too, Boston.”

“What’s going on?”

“It’s Jesse’s birthday,” Laura told me.

“Really?”
I asked, looking over to Jesse and he nodded.

“We’re just hanging out at my place, riding four-w
heelers and stuff.”  I thought I felt my face curl up in uncertainty and then he laughed. “What?  You didn’t ride four-wheelers in the country back in Boston?”

“Uh…no.
Can’t say we ever did that.”

“Then you’ve been missing out.  The invitation’s open if you
wanna try.”

“Sure.  I’ll give it a try,” I said
, thinking I had nothing better to do, unless I wanted to spend the night doing a jig-saw puzzle with my grandmother, since I was still technically ignoring my mom.  I jumped as I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.  I pulled it out and read a text from Natasha.  Her school day was almost over and she gushed about how much it had sucked since I’d left, leaving her to deal with our overly clingy friend Courtney.  I started laughing and texted back how much I missed them too, but that some of the hicks were actually being fairly decent to me.

“What’s so funny?” Jesse asked and I l
ooked up to meet his gray eyes.

“Just a friend back home,” I answered and q
uickly shut the phone, shoving it back in my pocket.

“Complaini
ng about us already?” he asked.

“No,” I lied and then my eyes caught the image of Adrienne and then
Dana and Kristen, who seemed to make sure they stayed at least a foot behind their leader.  They reminded me eerily of The Plastics in
Mean Girls
.  Jesse turned to see what I was looking at and then shook his head.

“That’s Adrienne.  You don’t even nee
d to know about the other two.”

“She knows Adrienne,” Holly chimed in. “Riley had a run in with the queen this morning.”

“Yeah?  How’d that go?” Jesse asked.

“Um…she’s a bitch,” I laughed.

“Just stay out of her way and you’ll be fine,” Holly said and my eyes continued to follow Adrienne discreetly as she sat at a crowded table. “That’s the
popular
table,” Holly continued as she rolled her eyes.  It was obvious she was not a fan. “None of them really like each other, but they stay together because they know they can’t survive without one another.”

“They’re not all as bad as Adrienne,
” Laura told me.

“What
about her sidekicks?” I asked.

“One on one
Dana and Kristen aren’t bad, but they have zero confidence so they stick to Adrienne like glue,” Laura continued.

“We all went to school
together our whole lives and Adrienne was actually nice until our freshman year, but then she got those huge boobs and all the guys starting following her around with their tongues hanging out,” Mandy said, before Jesse interrupted her.

“Hey, I resent that.  I
never
followed her around.”

“C’mon
, Jesse.  You know you noticed!” Mandy exclaimed.

“Of course I noticed.  Who wouldn’t notice?  You’re
a chick and you even noticed.”

“Well, yeah we all noticed because you a
ll walked around like zombies.”

“She’s exaggerating,”
Jesse said, looking over to me.

“I am not!”

“She’s not,” Brandon said
, finally joining our conversation. “She’s hot.”

“You’re pathetic,”
Mandy said, rolling her eyes. 

“Ma
ybe I am, but she’s still hot.”

“And she’ll never e
ven look at you,” Holly teased.

“You girls are just jealous,” Brandon said wi
th a smirk.

“What?” Holly, Mandy, and Laura all shrieked
at once and I started laughing.

“Do you want to die or something
, dude?” Jesse asked him.

“We are so much hotter than
her,” Laura said defensively.

“
Yeah, and when was the last time any of you went out on a date?”

I felt my hand fly up to cover the smile on my mouth as I gasped at what Brandon had said.  I looked across the table at Jesse who had burst out laughing and was looking away as he tried to regain his composure.  He turned his eyes to meet mine again and they looked as wide as mine felt.

“You are such a jackass,” Laura said, glaring at him.  I looked at Mandy and Holly, whose eyes were shooting daggers at Brandon, but he didn’t seem fazed at all. 

“On that note, I’m outta here.  See you spinsters later,” Brandon snickered
, as he grabbed his stuff and walked away.

“We only let Brandon hang out with us because of him,”
Holly said, pointing to Jesse.

“C’mon.  He’s harmless.  He’s just desperate to get laid and he knows the only type of girl who’ll give him the time of day is someone like Adrienne.”

“Adrienne would
never
give Brandon a chance!” Laura said as she burst out laughing.

“I know
she
wouldn’t, but I meant her type…shallow.”

I looked over and the three girls were just shaking their hea
ds.

“I don’t know about anyone else, but I really don’t want to waste anymore of our time talking about Adrienne,” Holly said and everyone agreed. “All you need to know,” she said
, looking over in my direction, “Is that she’s a bitch and you’re best to ignore her.”

“Thanks for the warning, but I’m not worried about her,” I said
, glancing over to Adrienne’s table again. It was as if a permanent sneer was tattooed on her face.  How could anyone be that bitchy all the time and still have friends?  How had she developed such a superiority complex having grown up in a town like Carver?  She might think she was important here, but anywhere else, she would’ve been nothing.

****

As I walked to my last class I was grateful the day was almost over, but then I stopped myself and realized I really wasn’t glad the day was almost over because when school was over, what else did I have to do?  Go home and do homework or hang out with my nonexistent friends?  At least at school I had a purpose and as I thought about it, it hadn’t been as bad as I’d expected, even with Adrienne’s warm welcome.  Holly and her friends had been okay too.  I thought we might get along and I was kind of looking forward to going to Jesse’s.  Back in Boston my friends and I were always doing something and one of my biggest fears with moving to Carver was that I’d be stuck at home every night.  Whatever we’d do at Jesse’s was better than doing nothing.

Once in my English class
, I followed the same routine I had since first hour.  I approached the front of the room where my teacher, Mrs. Davenport, was writing something on the chalkboard.  She was young, maybe in her mid-thirties and she was surprisingly attractive and stylish for a teacher and a resident of Carver.  Her chestnut hair hung to her shoulders and layers framed her face.  She wore silver rimmed glasses, which made her look smart.  She turned to face me when she heard me approaching. 

“You must be Riley,” she said and I nodded. “You’r
e a long way from home.  I hear you’re joining us from Boston.”

“
I just moved here a few days ago.”

“Welcome to
Carver.  I’m sure you’ll find it much more exciting than Boston.”

She winked at me and
I smiled at her sarcasm as she handed me a worn copy of
The Scarlet Letter
. 

“We just started reading this a few days ago. It shouldn’t be to
o difficult for you to catch up.” I just nodded and didn’t bother telling her I’d read it the year before. “There’s an open seat behind Karen,” Mrs. Davenport said, pointing to a girl with dishwater blonde hair and a purple shirt. 

“Thanks,” I told her and then walked to my seat.  I smiled at Karen as I walked past her and she smiled back.  I sat down and began thumbing throu
gh the tattered book in my hand, trying to refresh my memory.

“We’re on chapter s
ix,” a voice said.  I turned around to see a boy I recognized from Adrienne’s lunch table sitting two seats behind me.  He was leaning forward and smiling and I immediately noticed his dark brown eyes.  Not surprisingly, he was blonde, but a dark blonde, and the color reminded me of the wheat stalks that dominated the landscape in Kansas. As I looked closer, I noticed natural copper highlights in his hair as it hung in his face.  He stood up and moved to the seat behind me.