Untitled New Story

Chapter One
The First Day Back

It’s the first day of my Senior Year at Jefferson High, and I am incredibly nervous. I clutch a small sheet of paper with my schedule on it and hurry to the front steps. I stop for a moment, relishing my last free moments without an ocean of homework. Several kids I don’t know rush past me to get inside, apparently eager to start the year. Typical Freshmen.
It’s not that I don’t like school, but I haven’t exactly loved Jefferson High since I’ve been here. The truth is, I transferred to Jefferson mid-way through last year. Even though I have been here for a while, I’m still an outsider. My dad’s a surgeon, and apparently he’s something of a big deal, because various hospitals are clamoring to have him. He gives lectures at conferences nearly every weekend, so I rarely see him, but it’s not like that’s really a problem for him.
Anyway, I had made a few friends last year. Ryan, who also happens to live right near me, was the first person to show me around Jefferson, and we quickly became good friends. Ryan’s completely devoted to soccer, and I can’t help but wish I was that passionate about something, but the truth is, I’m not.
My other best friend is Liz. She’s a little shy, but still loves to do theater, which is an oxymoron if I’ve ever seen one. She’s really excited about this year’s production of The Wizard of Oz, which I felt was rather lame because every school does the Wizard of Oz just about every year. I didn’t get to see Liz or Ryan over the summer at all, because we lived with my Aunt and Uncle in Maine, which, of course, has no cell service. It was a fun summer, but not talking to anyone my age for 7 weeks was a little overwhelming.
I took one last breath of freedom, when all of a sudden, I see Liz walking towards me. She’s smiling, and carrying a purse or something, but I don’t really notice because Liz is absolutely beautiful.
I can’t quite comprehend this. She looks incredible, and I can’t possibly believe that this girl is my best friend. She comes up to talk to me, and at that point, my brain decides to take a vacation.
“Hey, Jake!” Liz says.
I’m practically in shock. Say something. Say anything! I command myself, and finally, I manage to get some words out.
“Heyhowareyou?” I say, overcome by how stupid I must look. Why didn’t I have this problem before?
“I missed you!” She says happily, and hugs me. Suddenly, I am in love with today.
“I…missed you too!” I say. Stop sounding like an idiot.
“What classes do you have?” She asks.
Suddenly, the bell rings. School has begun.
I take out my schedule and compare it to hers.
“We have English and Calc together!” Liz says. I nod. What has happened?
We walk to class together. From that moment on, I know that nothing will be the same. Why is it now? Why do I find myself so utterly transfixed by this girl? She’s my best friend! I remind myself, but to no avail. Logic and Instinct often argue with each other in my mind. Logic usually loses.
“I have so much to tell you!” Liz says. I love that about her. She’s always really passionate about just about everything.
She looks at me seriously. “But first, I have to tell you: Ryan and I—”
Before she can say anything else, we arrive at the door of the classroom. The English teacher, Mr. Harrison, arrives. He nods to us and unlocks the door.
Mr. Harrison opened the classroom and a frenzied cascade of multicolored balloons piled onto the floor. He opens his mouth in shock, taking in the prank for a few solitary seconds before his face becomes a mask for something else. Mr. Harrison is like that. He’s only about thirty or so, and he’s essentially one of us. Mr. Harrison never yells at his students, and he’s all but a student himself.
We are standing in the hallway silently. As planned, everyone is carefully avoiding his gaze. Mr. Harrison looks at all of us, and furrows his brow.
“Okay, so who is responsible for this?”
A scrawny kid with a haircut reminiscent of a bird’s nest quietly mumbles a response.
“What?” asks Harrison.
“Mouse, speak up!” Jared Biggs bellows. Jared and Mouse have been working on this prank since the beginning of the summer. Everything they plan today has been carefully considered and reconsidered. Their friendship is ironic, because Mouse is a through and through geek, and Jared is the quarterback for the football team. They’ve been friends since second grade, though, so no one even questions their alliance.
Mouse speaks. “Mr. Harrison, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Harrison looks him up and down.
“Biggs, what’s the meaning of this?” Harrison asks.
“I dunno. I guess some kids are continuing the pranking tradition this year.” Jared says, shrugging his shoulders in an attempt to be nonchalant.
It’s a tradition at Jefferson to pull the greatest prank ever on the first day. Every year, the Senior class has been pulling legendary pranks. Not that I’ve ever seen any, of course. But apparently, last year, the Senior class covered Principal Myers’s car with whipped cream. I mean, completely covered. But it rained halfway through the day, so it all washed away. They were devastated. This year, our class swore to avenge their loss.
Harrison says, “Okay this prank was totally uncalled for, complete out of line…”
We look at our feet nervously.
“…and completely AWESOME!” Harrison says excitedly. We smile.
“How did you do that?” asked Harrison.
Jared grins and begins to explain the plan to Harrison. After he concludes, Harrison looks at him puzzlingly.
“You spent all summer just stockpiling balloons? That’s a long amount of time for one prank, you guys…”
Jared and Mouse share a knowing smile and sit down.
“I’ll be on guard for the rest of the day.” Harrison says.
Jared laughs quietly.
We sit down and Harrison gives us a syllabus of the class and continues talking about Random Oral Testing (R.O.T. for short), and the lessons he’ll be teaching the rest of the year. Liz and I attempt to talk, but this is impossible because Harrison doesn’t stop talking and even if he did, I can apparently manage only grunts and nods when Liz talks to me.
An hour and a half later, the bell rings. I leave the class and walk to Physics. I enter and meet a man with glasses and a buzz-cut. He’s clearly fresh out of college, but it’s nice to see another younger teacher closer to our age.
I sit down and Ryan walks in.
“Dude!” He says as a way of greeting. “You’ll never believe what happened this summer!”
“What?” I ask excitedly.
“Okay, so I’d better start at the beginning. So Liz and I go to the beach one day, right? It’s a full day thing, and we spend the entire day just hanging out in the water and stuff, and we have a great time, and then that night, the most incredible thing happens!” Ryan says. I’m surprised. He’s never usually this excited.
“Okay, what?” I ask.
Suddenly, Dr. Sorenni speaks. “Welcome, everyone. I’ll be assigning you your seats momentarily.”
Ryan and I sigh. We won’t be sitting together. “I’ll finish the story later, okay?” He says, positively beaming. I can’t imagine why he’s this excited.
Dr. S rearranges our seats, and gives us a lecture about Physics. We take notes and finally, the bell rings. Ryan shoots out of the class really quickly. Something strange is definitely going on.
I get to my third class, World History. I am in class with many unfamiliar faces, and the teacher gets up from his desk.
“Hello, everyone. I am Mr. Kane.” He says, slowly. Already, I get the feeling that this will not be a fun class.
“Get out your notebooks. I want to see the notes you’ve taken on the reading over the summer.” He says.
All of us give the same blank stare, and then get out our notebooks.
“I imagine very few of you actually did take notes on Chapters 1-4?” He asks mockingly.
He goes around to see if anyone actually did the reading. No one has.
“Okay, I suppose it’s time for a quiz on the reading, then. Clearly, you’ve all memorized it.” Kane says, laughing evilly.
We sigh. Why us?
He passes out the quizzes and we begin work. After an hour, we finish and hand in the quizzes.
“In my class, there will be no room for misconduct. You will not be tardy, you will not hand in assignments late, and you will not expect an easy A.” Kane said.
We nodded and looked at the course syllabus. He continued to lecture and we took notes. Finally, the lunch bell rang.
We all exited, and I ran to grab lunch from my locker. Liz sent me a text that said, WE R AT THE OAK IN THE QUAD. C U THERE.
I ran down, eager to see them and tell them about the insanity of Mr. Kane. I hopped down the stairs, wondering if Liz and Ryan would have equally insane third block teachers.
Finally, I arrived on the quad and walked to the oak tree in the middle of the lush, green quad. It was rather small, but nice to have an area we could eat outside, one of the numerous Senior Privileges we had obtained this year.
I stopped dead in my tracks. I had a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach as I looked towards the tree. Ryan had pressed Liz against the oak, and was passionately kissing her.