Chapter 1: School

School

“Wanna hang out tonight?” Kaley asked me as she shuffled through her notes to get them in order.

“Umm…yeah, sure.” I said. “I might as well get a small break from all the stuff I have to do when I get home this weekend.”

Kaley hoisted her backpack onto her shoulder. She looked at me and shook her head.

“You know its your own damn fault you have so many classes. You could cut down to honors classes.” Kaley shrugged.

“I know, but I can’t. I’d feel like I was quitting. You know me, anyway. I just complain a lot. Its not really that bad. This is the first year I’ve had more than an hour of homework in a week. How’re yours coming?”

“My what?”

“Classes.” I said. We walked out of the library together. Part of the thing that always amused me about the library was the “Security” features it had. It had the theft identification system, where you have to walk through the little arch, and if you have a stolen book, the alarm goes off.

“They’re fine. Chem is probably the hardest. I’m glad I didn’t take choir this year. I don’t think I could stand another year of the Hag.”

‘That’s a horrible nickname.” I commented. “I know we all use it, but if you think about it, its really mean. She can’t be more than sixty, and Mrs. Haggel is only bitchy forty…ok, eighty nine percent of the time. I don’t blame her.”

“I suppose I’d be bitchy too, if I had to deal with the same two hundred kids every day.” Kaley admitted. The door shut with a huge clang that made me jump.

“So where are we going tonight? Anywhere special? Or just the Grind.” I asked her.

“I don’t care. You’re the driver if we want to go outside of the town. I don’t have a car. The Grind is always fun at night, when all the weirdos come in and hang out. And there should be a band on tonight, it is Friday.” Kaley replied. “I love it when our English teacher decides to give us a free period to do whatever we want. With that, you wouldn’t think that we had a huge six hour test coming at the end of the year.”

“She seems like a good teacher though, you know?” I added in, shifting my backpack’s uneven weight higher on my shoulder,

“Yeah. Boring, but she seems to know what she’s talking about.” Kaley agreed.

“You need anything from the locker or you ready to go home now?” I asked her, coming to the fork in the hallway. The hallways were crowded now, everyone aiming to go home.

“No, I’m good. Let’s get out of here before anyone else so we don’t have to wait in the traffic. You need anything?”

“Nope.” I replied.

We waded through the hordes of people filing out of the school as fast as they could to get to their personal methods of transportation. We had to go almost to the back of the student parking lot, but it was a nice change from the dark, dank atmosphere of the school. Even on the rainiest of days, the school seemed more dismal than the outside weather. It was bright inside, but so stale. Even in the midst of the nastiest snow storms, the school seemed worse inside.

The crisp spring air was a welcome change from the normal weather, anyway. It was the middle of February, and it was the first decent day in the entire month. The snow was just beginning to melt, but it was warm enough to go outside in a T-shirt. Well, it was 45 degrees. Which was a warm reading in New York, in February. I inhaled deeply smelling the…snow, and car exhaust fumes.

“Lovely smell, isn’t it.” Kaley snickered.

“I can always hope.” I rebuked, walking slightly ahead of her.

Kaley…was my lifeline. Since I moved to this town when I was five or so, Kaley had been my first friend. If we didn’t have anything else to do, we always hung out together. Other friends would come and go as they pleased, but Kaley and I were basically, joined at the hip. We had the sacred best friend oaths and everything.

I pushed my little red button to unlock my truck so we could get into it. As nice as the weather was, I didn’t really want to spend more time outside than I absolutely had to. I was good this year with not getting sick, and I didn’t really want to start when the sun was finally showing through the clouds, if you know what I mean.

“Did we have to do anything for English today?” I asked Kaley as she stood on the other side of the truck. “Oh, shit.” I realized I hadn’t unlocked it all the way. I got in and pressed the little switch to unlock the other door.

“No one ever said I was intelligent.” I offered as an unsaid apology.

“We all know that. What’d you say before?”

“I asked if we had anything due for English the next class, or if it was a true fuck off period.”

“I think we’re good. I’m not really sure. You didn’t think I actually paid attention in that class, did you? The few minutes we were actually in the classroom, I spent reading the note that Alicia gave me during lunch. She was detailing all of the problems that she’s having with Jared right now.”

“She’s having problems with Jared?” I asked. I put the key in the ignition.

“In a way.” Kaley grinned. “You see, they’re not emotional problems. Jared seems to have a problem both getting it up and keeping it up. He’s afraid they’re going to get caught. Alicia was complaining because he always manages to keep it up just fine if she’s going to blow him…” Kaley paused.

“Okay, I get the point. I don’t really find the idea of one of my friends going down on her boyfriend appealing to me. Maybe that’s more up your avenue.”

“Eww, no. At least, not Jared. He’s not scrawny enough for me. You know that, I can’t date or even think about a guy that I don’t outweigh by at least twenty pounds.”

“You’re fucking crazy.” I put the truck into drive and pulled out of the parking spot. No bird shit on my window yet, and the windows hadn’t even fogged up. It was going to be a great day.

“Well, you don’t exactly find him appealing either.” Kaley shot back. “Oh wait, that’s right. You plan to fuck the eighty year old from Arkansas.”

“Ok, hold on a second.” I said, laughing. “First of all, he’s twenty-eight. Second of all, he lives in Missouri.”

“What’s the difference?” She shook her head. “I never will understand you, Storm. Maybe your parents gave you the weird name for a reason.”

“That’s right. I’d be careful though; I’m the one driving, and you’re the one telling me I’m weird. Do you really want to trust me in a vehicle?”