-1-
Left, right, left, right! In trough your nose. Out through your mouth. Shoulders out. Head up. Breath. Be your self! Stay calm, you can do it. Kaelyn Todd coached herself as she walked down the strange brightly lit hallways of Bolivar High School.
She turned off the main hall and checked her watch, six forty nine. She had eleven minutes to find her classroom before she would be considered tardy. She looked at the annoyingly bright yellow piece of paper in her hand for her room number and her teachers name.
“You must be Kaelyn Todd am I correct?” the voice came from a young, attractive looking man, who was standing in the hall, with a white button up and a loose red tie, he dark brown hair was messy is an appealing way.
“Yes and you must be Mr. Brook Gunter,” Kaelyn’s uneasiness was quickly erased with a quick smile from Mr. Brook.
“Well Miss Todd just find an empty seat and you can do whatever you want until the bell rings and beware,” Mr. Brook had a cute accent. What was it? French? Gunter wasn’t a French name, he must be German.
“Of what, sir?”
“The kids,” Mr. Brook smiled and Kaelyn stepped into the huge classroom.
There were at least forty desks arranged in five rows of eight. In the back left corner was a huge window and luckily an empty seat. Kaelyn sat in the last seat in the last row, right in front or the window and right beside a group of four people, two boys and two girls. One of the boys looked up as she sat down, he gave her a pleasant nod then turned his attention back to the girl who was speaking. He had dark brown, almost black spiky hair and his eyes were such an amazing shade of brown, the had a red tint as well making them look like dried blood.
Kaelyn tuned out the sound of her classmates and pulled out her sketch pad and charcoal pencil. Halfway through her sketch of the purple mountain in the distance and the lake that mirrored the mountains she stopped and began to think about stuff. She didn’t miss her old home. Collierville, Tennessee was the worst place to live, boring, dreary, weather less. She didn’t miss her friends. How could she? Her best friend stabbed her in the back with a knife and her other friends claimed it was ‘true love’. How could she even dare try to stand in the way of true love? Because absolutely nothing is wrong with Kaelyn’s boyfriend to step out on her for her best friend. Of course Kaelyn was at fault when she did nothing wrong.
Kaelyn huffed silently and thought of something different. She focused on the mountains in the distance, they were beautiful. They had a slight purple tint and even though they were really jagged and rough they looked soft against the brilliant blue cloudy sky.
“Beautiful isn’t it?” a congenial voice hummed in her ear.
“Ye-” she was cut off by the loud screech of the bell. Instead of continuing she looked to the boy who whispered in her ear, the same boy who nodded, and smiled.
The announcements were the same as always. A moment of silence, pledge, club activities, lunch and then the thought of the day, which happened to be really stupid. Mr. Brook Gunter mocked the announcer the whole time earning chuckles from everyone.
After the announcements were over Mr. Brook began talking.
“Okay you don’t have to bring anything to class because we are dropping everything and playing. Oh I almost forgot we have a new student, Kaelyn please come on up here so everyone can point and laugh,” Mr. Brook joked and motioned her forward. Kaelyn stood up with an amazing amount of confidence and walked, strutted actually with every eye locked on her . Once to the front of the room she stood right beside Mr. Brook and waved to the class. Boys from the back of the room catcalled and girls stared.
“I guess you want me to introduce myself, huh?” Kaelyn looked to Mr. Brook would was staring at his memorized class.
“Of course Miss Todd.”
“Well I’m Kaelyn and I’m from Tennessee-”
“Yeah, very strong accent,” a girl said from the front row.
“Oh I just thought you guys had the accent,” Kaelyn joked “well Tennessee has been my home for all my life and it’s great to get away from there. It never snows and the weather is quite boring. I love sports I play soccer and tennis and sometimes softball. Math is my best subject but I’m strange and I love English. I read a lot and I love anime and manga. I’m generally a vegetarian but not because I care about little piggies and cows but because I think its nasty. Cheesecake is my favorite food and I’m a really good cook. Let’s see I can’t think of anything else.”
“Any questions?” Mr. Brook suggested to the class. Hands shot up and Kaelyn smiled as questions began to come at her.
“What’s your favorite song?”
“Lips like Morphine by Kill Hannah.”
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“A writer.”
“What’s you math grade from Tennessee?” a nerd asked from the very front of the class.
“Ninety eight point five,” and that shut him up.
The question kept on coming at her, it seemed everyone had a question or two or fifteen. Finally Mr. Brook Gunter stopped them and whispered in her ear “I warned you.”
“Okay I need someone to volunteer to show Miss Todd to her classes…” hands went up but Mr. Brook picked someone with their hand down.
“Ah Mr. Adrian would you mind showing Kaelyn to her classes?” Kaelyn looked around for a ‘Mr. Adrian’.
“I wouldn’t mind at all. Where’s her first class?” apparently Mr. Adrian was the boy in the back of the class who nodded to her and whispered in her ear.
“She has the same schedule as you Paul so she’ll just unknowingly follow you around all day,” Mr. Brook smile and told everyone to get lost.
Kaelyn made her way back to her desk and gathered her stuff and looked to Paul to lead her, but he stayed seated.
“We stay here first period, no one normally sits there, stay,” Paul smiled at her.
“Do you guys have math first period too?” Kaelyn looked at both girls and the other boy who stared at her.
“Huh? Oh yeah. By the way I’m Risa-Renee. You can call me Renee,” a beautiful blond girl said, her eyes were the color of a green apple.
“I’m Art,” a cunning black haired boy said from behind her, his eyes were saxe blue.
“And I’m Lacee. But you can call me Lace,” her hair was completely white and her eyes were heliotrope colored.
Kaelyn gaped, these people were beautiful. Mr. Brook Gunter ushered the student who were waiting outside in the hall to come in.
“Okay to start off we have a new student. Kaelyn come on up,” Mr. Brook motioned her forward once again. Kaelyn sighed and once again stood in front of the class. They stared at her, jaws dropped as she walked by.
“I’m Kaelyn Todd from Tennessee. And don’t be fooled I’m not just a dumb blonde,” she fluffed her natural bleach blonde hair “I like reading, anime, cooking, soccer, tennis, and softball. I love music, Lips like Morphine by Kill Hannah is my favorite song. I don’t like Tennessee, meat, or well I think that’s it. I‘m really good at math and I love English. Science and Social Studies confuse the crap out of me though.”
“ Anyone have questions?” Mr. Brook asked with a smug smile, Kaelyn shot him a tortured look and mouthed ‘not again’.
“ What’s the square root of eighty one?” a cocky looking boy asked from that back. Kaelyn stared blankly at him. A smug look crossed his face.
“Nine. Now can you tell be the first ten digits of pi? Or do you even know what pi is?” it was Kaelyn’s turn to look smug and Mr. Brook let her.
“Three point one four one nine two eight five six one.” The kids clapped.
“Not even close. Three point one four one five nine two six five three five,” the clapping stopped.
“I told you I wasn’t a dumb blond,” Kaelyn smiled and the clapping started again, the once cocky boy was blushing so hard and his friends were giving it to him “Dude you got dissed by a preppy girl!” or “Brah you just got told!”
