memories of high school..

Paige

I was a little disappointed but then again he was still thinking.

He sat down at a table and we all looked at each other. Only one of us could sit there, and unfortuneately none of us could sit all together.

"Well?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

I quickly sat next to him out of impulse, turning a little pink at how bold I'd been. Haley and Alice sat down at the table next to ours. The bell rang and a stout little teacher came in, looking more confused than any of us.

"Hello, class," she said blinking too many times. "I'm Ms. Tkac. Let's get started then."


*Sorry for the lame name. That's my biology teacher's name and personality;). KInda tired after Homecoming last night.*

Alice

Alice was bored throughout Bio, and she just wanted to go home. Mrs. Tkac looked like she had something in her eyes, and was blinking insanely.

Hayley turned to her. "Doesn't it look like she's amphibious or something?"

Alice giggled quietly. "That's what I was thinking."

"Girls! This is not the way to begin the school year," the Blinker scolded. Hayley rolled her eyes, and Alice doodled on a spare sheet of paper.

"Class, I want you to have a four subject notebook and a binder by tomorrow's class. Write it down now!"

Alice looked around for her assignment book. "Hayley, have you seen a notebook covered in watermelons?" Hayley shook her head.

"I'll look," she mouthed.

Alice was totally about to freak.

[Nidge Masterson]

I flipped carelessly through the scribbled on pages, smiling as I did. Paige leaned over my shoulder and watch the pictures go by with me. We chuckled at some, covering our mouths so not to attract attention.

The class only had about ten minutes left, Mrs. Tkac left us, shuffling to her desk, grabbing a tissue and dabbing her eyes? Was she crying? I didn't stay too long on the thought, the sound of chattering students filling the classroom.

"That's a nice flower," Paige whispered, pointing to a sunflower in the middle of a page.

I nodded in agreement and flipped through more, stopping abruptly when I got to one specific sheet of paper. Half a boy, sort of, (well, basically his head and part shoulders) was doodled onto the front. Hair messy and kind of going off to one side, even the clothes were familiar... I tilted my head to a side, brows coming together, then, I grinned. Such a huge grin that I could help but tap Alice on the shoulder.

"Your a really good drawer," I turned the front cover over to the back, glancing at the watermelons on the front, then turning it to where the boy was drawn. "But if you're going to doodle me, at least finish it."

Paige leaned a little forward and her eyes widened a little as well as Haley's. "You know, Nidge? That does look a little like you..." Haley's mouth opened a little in a tiny O while Alice's face grew as bright as cherry.

"It's actually pretty nice," I chuckled, pressing my lips together quickly again to try to keep myself serious, but it was impossible.

Paige

I couldn't help but to giggle, until a warning glare form Alice stopped me abruptly.

"You really are a great artist though," I grinned. "I write music mostly and I can't draw for crap. You're lucky at how well you can draw."

Alice nodded, still embarassed, but finally said, "Well, I'd like to be good at writing lyrics. That must be fun."

"Why don't we see how great her lyrics are then?" Nidge smirked, grabbing my blue folder labeled 'Songs'.

I gasped and reached high. "No! Nidge, don't you dare!"

[Nidge Masterson]

I reached up high, the folder firmly in my grasp. "Oh, come on, Paige!" I laughed, leaning backwards when she lunged for the folder. "I betcha they're as good as Alice's drawing."

She glared at me, blushing wildly. I looked back over to Paige who was still trying to reach the folder. "Don't be a party pooper! Let us see!"

"Yeah, come on, Paige." Haley whined.

I flipped open the folder, holding Paige back with one hand and leaning towards the desk so Alice and Haley could see, too. For a moment I let my guard down and started flipping through the pages with both hands, then, when she had the chance, Paige jumped and grabbed the folder.

"That's so unfair," I pouted, puppy-dog like, and blinked a few times. "P'ease? Can we see 'em?" I the corners of my lips twitched up slightly.

Paige

I glared at him for a second, but gave in and handed over the folder with a sigh.

"Sure, I don't care."

Nidge grinned and grabbed the folder, leafing through the pages.

"Let us see!" Haley begged.

Alice

Alice was totally furious. Okay, she had drawn Nidge, but only because that's where her mind wandered to. There was also a little secret she didn't want to acknowledge even inside her mind. It was that Nidge looked just like an older version of her deceased brother.

Alice grabbed back her notebook now that the attention was focused on Paige. God, Nidge is so self-centered, she thought. Not everything's about him all the time.

Feeling discouraged, she paged through her notebook. At a second glance, all of her doodles and sketches looked stilted, awkward, and ugly. Alice stood silently and ripped the drawn-on pages of her notebook out, shredded them into pieces, and tossed the remains into the recycling bin.

"Alice! What did you do?" Paige's voice was stressed. "Your drawings were beautiful."

"Yeah, well it didn't matter to you. You were too busy laughing at them to care how I feel about people going through my things."

Paige's eyes widened as she remembered. "Oh, Alice, I completely forgot how much you hate people touching your stuff! Oh, honey, I'm so sorry. They were just so good!"

"Puh-lease, Paige. Save it. I'm a horrible artist," Alice remarked as she sat down.

Paige opened her mouth to speak, but Nidge spoke, "'Let's be the crazy kids we are/ just watching time go by/ tellin' it we'll catch up later.' Paige, these are good."

Paige

I blushed a little and smiled.

"Thanks. My friends and I write lyrics for this band we made up."

"Really?" Nidge turned and looked her in the eyes.

"Well, yeah. I can't play any instruments so I'm the lead vocalist and lyrics writer," I said sheepishly.

"These are awesome." Nidge grinned. "What's your band called?"

"Forever Young."

"Cool."

[Nidge Masterson]

Paige's face blushed and turned my attention back to the songs, flipping through the pages again. Alice had scooted a little farther away from our tiny group and gathered all of her things up, ready to leave.

"Do you have a drummer?" I asked, stopping on a page and skimming the lines.

"No, we've been looking for one and--"

"I wanna join,"

Paige stopped and grinned, it looked as if she was ready to jump out of her chair and do a little jig. "Really? That's so cool! I'll tell the other as soon as schools out."

With that matter cleared up the room was quiet all except for the murmur of other students in the background. Haley now had the folder labeled 'songs' and was taking her turn at skimming through. While Alice, on the other hand, was turned all the way around so that she wasn't facing us anymore.

"I feel horrible, Alice!" I flopped down on my desk melodramtically. "I'm going to the time out corner, aren't I?" she turned around and glared me, probably thinking How can he act like that!, as I chuckled lightly.

Paige

I gathered up my stuff as the bell rang, talking to Nidge and Haley as Alice stormed by down to her locker.

"Ugh, I'm hungry. So you guys have C lunch too?" Nidge asked.

We both nodded. "I'm buying today, so I'm just gonna out my books away," I said.

"Sure. We'll meet up at the front doors then?" Haley said. We nodded and ran to our lockers.

Alice

Alice almost turned around when she arrived at the doors of the cafeteria at the same time as Nidge, Hayley, and Paige.

"Hey Alice!" Paige called in her friendly way.

Alice sighed. "Hi, Paige." Alice had packed her lunch, so she headed to find a table with Hayley, whom she was liking more and more.

They ended up next to Tanya and her gang. Alice sat at the end of the line of people, straight across from Tanya.

"Hey, Al," Tanya said in her cool, fun way.

"Hello, Tanya," Alice said in her quiet, peaceful way. Alice had always liked Tanya. She was just so nice and fun to be around.

"It's a little loud for me today," Tanya confided.

Alice smiled. "I totally understand. First day is always so... I don't know how to describe it."

"Uh-huh."

The silence wasn't awkward. Tanya dug into her PB&J, and Alice started in on her chipotle veggie wrap.

"Who's the new dude?" Tanya asked.

"Nidge Masterson," Alice stated. She looked up to see Nidge heading to their table, at which the only free seats were the one next to Alice and the one by Tanya.

[Nidge Masterson]

I pushed my way out of the line for pizza and took a deep breath when I finally got some space. Haley and Paige were still in the lines, they got there at the same time I did, weird... I shook my head, erasing the thoughts and ruffling my hair.

Alice's headed bobbed up out of the crowd of students already seated, another girl sitting beside her. I sped up my pace and set the tray down inbetween them. "What's up, Alice?" I grinned and she gave my a quiet, "Hey," She was probably still mad.

"So... you're Nidge Msaterson?" the girl to my left asked.

"Yup,"

"Tanya," she stuck out her hand and gave me slight, flirtatious grin.

"Yo, really great to meet ya, Tay." I smiled in return and then flipped my head backwards and stared back up at Alice's upside down face, ignoring the sort of shocked look on Tanya's. "Are you still mad at me?" I pouted out my lip and batted my eyes. "You can't be angwy at me!" I took her cheeks and pressed them together like a fishy face, laughing out loudly when she slapped them away.

Paige

I grinned and waved at Tanya, Nidge and Alice.

Tanya waved, Nidge winked and Alice pouted a little. Nidge went back to teasing Alice as I sat down.

"Hey Tanya, I haven't seen you much today," I smiled, stabbing my 'pizza' with my fork.

"Yeah, you know how first days are always weird and confusing," she shrugged. She glanced around quickly, and seeing that Nidge and Alice were fighting still, she leaned close and said, "So that's the new guy Nidge Masterson?"

I nodded and grinned.

'Wow, he's really cute." Seeing my pink face, she raised her eyebrows and grinned slyly. 'You like him don't you?"

I blushed a little deeper and stammered out, "I-I dunno, he's cool." I tried a bite of pizza and made a face, then gave in and attacked my fries, knowing they'd be safe.

I felt my ears and cheeks heat up so I pretended to concentrate on my food. Tanya was about to prod my with another question when Nidge shouted, "Here comes Haley!"

Haley plopped down beside me and I felt my face cool down. "Hey Haley, this is my friend Tanya. Have you guys met?" I asked.

"No, I don't think we have!" Tanya said, extending her hand across me to Haley, who took it warmly.

Alice and Nidge were getting mad. "Alice, don't be mad at me! Gosh, you know they were good! I didn't make you rip up the drawings!"

Alice turned around and glared at him. "I can't stand people touching my things Nidge!" She turned back around and folded her arms.

Nidge pulled her around to face him. "Alice don't be a baby! You should've--"

Alice had punched him square in the jaw. We all gasped as he started bleeding.

"Ow! Alice, what the heck?"

Alice looked a little startled herself but remained indignant. "I don't care! Can't believe you!" she hissed, grabbing her lunch tray and storming off.

*Just to add a little drama;)*

[Nidge Masterson]

I stuck my tongue out and licked my lower lip. It felt like the jaw was thumping to rythm of my heart beat, pulsing with a sharp pain, but I ignored it. It's not like I hadn't been in a few fights before, she didn't hit that hard.

"Blood tastes weird," I commented, making a scrunched up face.

"Nidge! That looks gross, don't lick it!" Tanya shuddered and looked the other way.

I laughed, licking it again and watching Tanya pretend gag. Still, she didn't leave. Alice didn't walk very far, she had thrown away and then walked out of lunch, glancing back at us. Haley and Paige croweded around, Paige shoving me her napkin and practically shouting about how I'd bleed to death if I didn't stop it.

"Geez, calm down!" I kidded, dabbing my lip.

The bell rang and we all left towards our lockers. Alice wasn't at hers when I came, she was probably already at her class--or avoiding me. I quickly dug in my back and drew out a notebook with unlined paper. An abstract painting that I found in a art gallery before I moved here was copied onto the front cover. I swiped a sticky note and took out a pen, writing in a sort of gothic cursive, I wrote:

Alice, maybe this'll make you feel better. Go ahead and look, if you want it, keep it. There are still a few blank pages in the back for you. Go ahead, it's fine. Pretty good punch by the way.[i] I doodled a smiley beside it, then skipped to the bottom.

[i]See ya tomorrow,
Nidge

With what I learned from my old friends (that got me expelled from my previous school) I picked her lock on the locker and put the notebook in in the front so she'd see first thing when it opened. The warning bell rang and I gathered everything I needed for the rest of the day so I wouldn't have to go back to my locker and Alice could get her present alone. With that, I rushed down the hall and made my was to the last class of the day.

Paige

Unfortuneately, I had art alone. The teacher didn't have much to say to us, this being the first day and her being an art teacher, so she just had us draw ourselves in our perspective.

I finished quickly and was bored so I made myself staring at the night sky in a long dress with large, icy wings.

I glanced at most of the others and saw they drew themselves with super strength, or got rid of all flaws and stuff like that. Mine was focused more intently on my flaws. The bell rang, and none too soon.

I ran to my locker and saw Nidge, who was a few rows from my own locker.

"Hey, Nidge. How was last hour?" I grinned.

"Suckish," he laughed, grinning back.

"Yeah, same here."