Soft, classical music enveloped me. I was watching a dance take place in the middle of a large hall. I looked down and saw two young kids. They could be no more than four. They held each other as they swayed from side to side. They spoke.
“Let’s make a promise.” the little girl said. She came up to my thigh and had short blonde hair.
The little boy spoke next. “What kind of promise?” He had familiar olive skin, and light brown hair. His face still had its babyish look.
“When we grow up, we should marry each other.” Suddenly, I realized the little girl was me. I had seen a lot of pictures of me when I was younger. Back then, I had the straightest blonde hair. This little girl was me. That’s why the little boy looked familiar.
“Okay,” the little boy said.
“Brookey, wakey, wakey,” Let me just say, that I am not a morning person. My step dad on the other hand, is. Tony is usually the one to wake me up in the morning, either with calls like this, or other noises. He doesn’t like to be alone, so we often find him talking to himself. That, on my frequent nights on the couch, also wakes me up quite often.
“Eh,” I said loudly enough for him to hear.
“Brook, just to let you know, its 6:15.” My mom was also a morning person. She was always calling out the time in her sweetest, gentlest voice. I found it extremely annoying and if she was in shooting range, I’d throw a pillow at her… or whatever else I could grab quickly.
“Got it mom,” I yelled irritably. I threw my blankets away from me. If I didn’t start moving now, they’d go on and on.
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and reached for my crutches. Then, I vaulted myself towards my closet. I wasn’t in the mood to dress up for the first day so I threw a blue and grey striped, long sleeve shirt on my bed, along with a pair of ripped and faded blue jeans. When that was on, I slid my sunglasses on, and put my schedule in my back pocket.
“Brook, come on we got to go.” my mom called up.
“I’m coming.” I slung my bag over my shoulder. Finally, I slipped on my tennis shoes and made my way downstairs.
The ride to my school was pretty short. If my ankle weren’t broken I would have walked. I almost begged my mom to walk but she insisted I didn’t because I wasn’t walking with anyone.
Emily didn’t go to my school. When she moved here, her snooty mother didn’t like our district so Emily went to Lanse’ Creuse. At school I had my other best friends, Trena and Lilyon. I had known Trena since fourth grade and Lilyon had come in sixth grade. Either way, we bonded fast. We were like, as our seventh grade English teacher had liked to call us, ‘the three musketeers’. That’s who I couldn’t wait to see today.
I got a lot of stares from my classmates as my mom pulled up in the visitor parking lot. And even more as I got out of the car with crutches. For a change, I was the only person who had crutches. Every year, about five people came to school on the first day with some kind of broken, fractured or sprained body part.
The freshman class was being directed to the gym by the time I was able to shake my mom. I followed behind the crowd, knowing that if I went into the heart of the beast, I’d be tenderized.
By the time my crutches clicked along the gym floor, my entire grade was already seated in the bleachers. Of course, when I walked in, everyone stared. I tried to ignore them, but have you ever tried to ignore over one hundred pairs of eyes? No, well it’s not easy I’ll tell you that. Oh yeah, and the teachers were beginning to crowd around me, asking what happened. Yeah right, like I was going to tell them I jumped out of a window in a house that I’d broken into. So I ignored them and steered myself towards the first row of bleachers.
On my way, I caught Trena and Lilyon’s eyes. I jerked my head towards the open spots next to me. Trena, always the good and pure one shook her head and gave me a scolding look. Lilyon, my favorite partner in crime nodded and rose from her seat, completely ignoring the angry principle on the stage. She dodged students and teachers and finally plopped down next to me.
“What’d you do to your ankle?” she asked. That was always Lilyon, loud and to the point. She didn’t spare someone’s feelings if she had something to say.
“I’ll tell you later.” I said out of the corner of my mouth. I eyeballed the social worker type teacher standing near us. She smiled sweetly.
The principle cleared his throat. “Well, it’s a new year. Welcome freshmen. As you all know, I’m Principle Rupp. I’ll be your dictator for the next four years.” He gave an evil laugh and waited for the laughter that never came. He cleared his throat again. “Anyway… I’d just like to introduce our new students for this year. I like to do that for all of my freshmen.” A heavyset woman, who I had assumed was a secretary, gave Principle Rupp a slip of paper. He began to read in a monotonous voice. “Dominique Johnson, Darcy Keller…” Principal Rupp went on and on and I zoned out until I heard, “…and Derek Pontary,”
I jumped. It was the doctor’s son, the boy I had seen. The reason I had a broken ankle. Okay, I admit, that was a little harsh since I’m the one who jumped out the window. Still, it surprised me to hear his name being called.
Lilyon must have felt me jump because she said, “What’s wrong?”
“Later.” I whispered.
That was it though. Soon after he announced Derek, he dismissed us. I turned to Lilyon and showed her my schedule. She showed me hers. We had every class together.
We waited for Trena to wade through the crowd to us. She showed us her schedule. She had all of our classes except for two. Last year Lilyon and I had purposely tested out of AP Math and Science whereas Trena didn’t.
This was where we went our separate ways. Trena went to AP Science, and Lilyon and I to regular math. Actually, Lilyon and I went to the office first to get passes for the day so when my crutches made me late, we had an excuse.
Mr. Terra was the freshman math teacher. From the rumors we heard, he could care less if you did your work or not. He gave you an A anyway. This was just the way Lilyon and I liked it. We weren’t lazy; we just would rather do other things. Luckily for us, this was exactly how it was. Mr. Terra just gave us pages to study and went off to play games on his computer.
Lilyon had chosen the seat in front of me so she turned around to talk. “So what happened to your ankle?”
“I’ve told you about the Grunge right.” I made sure.
Lilyon thought for a moment before responding. “Yeah,”
“Well somebody bought it. And I had left my notebook in there. So I climbed in the window and went to get it. Well you know that Pontary kid?”
“Yeah,”
“Well his dad – the one who fixed my ankle – was the one who bought it. Anyway, I was in the attic getting my notebook, and the kid walks in. Well, I turned and jumped out the window.
Lilyon smacked my arm violently. “You dumbass,” she exclaimed. “Why the hell would you jump out the window?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wait, so he saw you?”
“I was wearing my sunglasses and my hat.”
“Did you put your hair in your cap?”
“No,”
“Well maybe that explains why he’s staring at you.”
“What,” I slid my sunglasses down my nose and looked across the classroom. Sure enough, what little I had seen of Derek Pontary, was staring right at me. Something inside me gave a little tug. Something about Derek seemed familiar. I guessed it was from my spontaneous visit to his new house, but somewhere deep down, I knew that wasn’t it. Then I got it!
It was Derek in my dream! Derek was the little boy! I knew Derek??????
