The next two classes went about the same. Her math teacher gave her a packet, asking her to complete it by Friday, and she took notes over the day’s lesson. The creative writing class was sharing stories and her teacher told her she would jump in on the next assignment. Misti listened to some pretty horribly written stories about teenage girl troubles. By the end of the third hour, Misti was ready to go home. The lack of sleep the night before and the nerves had caught up to her. She was feeling overwhelmed and behind.
“Locker time!” Penny said in her mother’s sing-song voice. Misti held out her locker card and Penny paused, frowning.
“What?” Misti asked.
“Nothing, just…there are some weird stories about that locker. They don’t usually let kids have it.”
Great. Now she had the weird locker.
“What stories?”
“Uh, just weird ones. I guess a girl who had this locker, like, twenty years ago died or something and people say it’s haunted.”
A ghost locker. That seemed highly unlikely. And something Misti would be stuck with.
“I know, I know. But we’re a small town; people are silly!”
They found the locker. It was in between one locker that was covered in bumper stickers about saving the planet and another that looked as if it had been punched a couple too many times. Misti did the twirls of the code and the locker popped open. It was dusty inside. It was clear no one had used it in quite a while. Misti deposited her bag, taking with her only her lunch and the copy of her code. Penny assured her they would have time to come back before the fourth hour.
Lunch provided Misti with a little recovery. She half listened to Penny and Chloe discuss yearbook issues—everything from what to put on something they kept referring to as the ‘fun spread’ to how so and so was not doing her share again and that Mr. Miller was doing literally nothing about it and it was so freaking annoying. While she listened, Misti ate her sandwich and people-watched. She was still being looked at and whispered about. The school was a lot smaller than any she had attended before. She was able to recognize kids from her classes. There was a slender kid with baggy pants and a shirt for a heavy metal band who was in her English and her math class.There was the girl who was in her creative writing class with red curly hair, a baggy sweater, and a large book she had her nose buried in.
There were the typical tables that all schools held. There was the loud, needing-to-make-themselves-noticed-and-heard sports boys table. Close by was the cheerleading table, not really eating much and taking lots of selfies. There was a quiet table with kids eating their lunch in an attempt to be invisible. Book girl was there. There was a table with the band kids. Heavy metal was there.
Misti placed herself at the in-between table. They were not as socially outcast as the quiet table and not as in the center of it as the sports and cheerleaders. She was okay with her positioning. Normally, she had eaten lunch in the library or outside away from the noise. When she could afford lunch, that is. Most of the time, she just sat and did the homework she had gotten in her morning classes, away from the danger of the cafeteria.
“Hey, Penny.” A tall boy in an Under Armour hoodie and jeans stopped by their table. He held an apple and looked like a cliché jock wanna be. He wasn’t particularly attractive. He wasn’t out of shape but you could tell he wasn’t really in shape either. His hair had too much gel in it and his smile looked painted on. He did have nice, straight, white teeth that seemed to gleam at them.
“Hi, Tony!” Penny instantly perked up, tossing her hair.
“How’s it going?” His eyes traveled over the three girls, lingering on Misti for a moment. Misti took a bite of her sandwich, uninterested in his attention.
“Just talking yearbook shop!” Penny said, glancing at Misti. “This is my cousin, Misti. She just moved here. She’s staying with me, actually.” Penny had changed. She was no longer the take-charge, in-control girl who had firmly led Misti from class to class today. Instead she was this high-pitched voice, nervous creature. Misti stared at her, confused for a moment.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Tony. I’m on the football team and basketball team. Backup quarterback.” He puffed his chest in pride. All Misti heard was “not good enough to be the original quarterback.”
“Cool,” Misti said, deciding it would be better to be nice. She was, after all, trying to create a fresh new start.
“You guys coming to the game Friday night?”
Sports? Misti had never attended a sports event in her life. The closest was when she watched people play football or soccer in the park. And she didn’t really understand the point in those slow-motion versions.
“You know it!” Penny said before giggling. Chloe joined in but Misti did not.
“Cool. I’ll look for you guys.” He winked at Penny and walked away.
“Oh, my God!” Penny’s voice hit a new decibel and she and Chloe squealed at each other a little. “I can’t even believe I just acted like that! I mean, I must have sounded like an idiot!”
“At least he finally asked you to the game!” Chloe said. Did he, though? Misti wanted to know how him asking if they were going meant he was asking Penny.
“I know! I’ve only been dropping hints all year!”
Misti was lost now. She herself had never been interested in a boy, so maybe this was normal behavior. She turned her attention to the tables of the sports boys and the cheerleaders. Lunch had been eaten and the boys and girls were now mingling. She saw many girls giggling while most of the boys appeared to be acting foolishly, hitting each other and using trays as bats for empty milk cartons. Misti had never paid attention to high school behavior before. Maybe she was the weird one.
“We should go to our lockers.” Confident Penny returned, taking control and speaking at a pleasant level. Misti zipped her lunch bag up and the three girls walked to their lockers. Misti opened hers and placed her lunch inside, grabbing her bag. She would have to bring something to wipe it out with tomorrow. The dust was all over her bag now.
Misti’s last class of the day was Art. This was her favorite class. The teacher was a quiet, short man with glasses and no hair. He gave Misti a tour of the studio before giving her paper and charcoal.
“We are experimenting with this medium currently. You are required to draw something, anything, with the charcoal before you can move onto what you like.” Misti nodded and took a seat at an empty table. The class was not full. Music was playing in the background. Misti recognized most of the kids from her other classes. The stares of shock at the new student had passed and a few of the kids actually smiled at her.
Misti stared at the paper for a long time, wondering what she should draw. Soon, she just let her mind go and began to doodle.
“Not bad!” Mr. Wilson said. “You’re talented!”
The picture was a cluster of trees, all dead, in a bunched pattern She had added a moon and was considering a lake in the right bottom corner, possibly with a monster emerging from it.
At the end of the class Mr. Wilson said, “You can keep this with you, or we have cubbies over there. The artists here are all very respectful of each other’s pieces.”
Misti found an empty cubbie and put the paper in upside down.