Always There

A loud call from the hall signaled it was “The Big Day”, as Remy’s mom liked it call it, or for the rest of humanity-the first day of school. It was the epitome of bitter-sweet for Remy. First of all, she knew it didn’t matter what she wore because she knew every single person knew all her shit anyway. They knew what her parents did, what she did on the weekends, what her brother did to get expelled, they knew everything. Remy looked over at her alarm clock-or “the enemy”-as she called it and sighed, allowing all her preconceived negative thoughts of school to flood her consciousness. She stretched her arms and looked over at her sister’s already empty bed and rolled her eyes, “Over-achiever”. Remy’s sister Cameron would’ve been up since 5:30 showering, pampering, straight ironing, et cetera until 7:30 when they would roll into Penn Crest High School. Luckily Remy was a senior this year so that meant privileges. For instance, Remy could leave at two thirty if she so chose instead of 3:15. Cameron being a freshman meant she would have to live through those extra minutes of pure hell-a fact that made Remy happy, only inwardly of course.

“Honey are you up yet?” Phyllis Garner was not a woman to mess with-as Remy and Cameron were both fully aware. She is a real estate broker, and brings in,” enough money to get by” as she says to the girls on a daily basis. But in reality she is the main breadwinner as their father is an ex-businessmen turned freelance sports journalist.

“Yea mom, I’m up.” Remy thrust the comforter to the end of the bed and sat up, allowing her eyes to adjust to the light her mother so lovingly flicked on as she passed. Remy reluctantly edged out of bed and ambled down the long hallway to the bathroom, which was of course occupied by her over-indulgent sister.

“Come on Cam, you’ve probably been in here for two hours now, let me in.” Remy knocked impatiently on the door and waited a couple seconds before trying the handle.

“I’m not done yet Remy hold on.” Remy proceeded to bang on the door non-stop until Cameron opened it and yelled, “What do you want Remy!” Remy coughed as the smell of perfume invaded her space and she had to step back. She looked upon what may have been her sister, but more evidence would be needed for a conclusion. Her eyes were black, not her pupils, but they may as well have been black as well. The mascara looked okay, but the eyeliner was borderline hooker-ish.

“Oh my god Cam, you look like you’re going to work a corner,” Remy said, allowing a smirk to cross her tired face.

Cam’s eyes went slitted, “You’re just jealous that I have a boyfriend and you don’t Remy.” Remy’s eyebrows shot up and a little chuckle escaped her lips. “Wa-Wait…you mean Dean Porter, the guy who bangs any girl that walks, oh yeah Cam, real jealous.” Remy grabbed her sister’s arm and pulled her from the bathroom, still laughing at her sister’s makeup disaster.

Remy stood in front of her closet frowning at the lack of choices, I feel like Cameron right now thank God Dean picked her up so she didn’t witness this. She finally settled on a purple camisole with a grey zip-up hoodie and jeans, low-key, yet fashionable she thought satisfied. Her dark brown hair fell below her shoulders in soft waves, highlighting her ivory skin and dark blue eyes. Remy is used to being compared to her “All American” sister with blond hair and green eyes and tanned skin, but just tan enough. She was 5’7, with legs up to heaven, and a senior boyfriend at 14. Remy loved Cameron unconditionally, but was worried her beauty got her things she wasn’t really supposed to get for a couple more years.

Remy checked her cell phone clock and saw she basically had fifteen minutes to make the ten minute drive to school. She grabbed her keys and rushed out to the garage that held her sixteenth birthday present-a 2007 BMW convertible-compliments of an extraordinarily good year in the real estate market. The engine revved to life and Remy pushed the garage door opener and sped out backwards out onto the street. Thankfully we’re the only ones on this mile of the street, Remy thought as she pushed the gas pedal. The trees were already starting to change into their fall valor even in late August. Northeastern Pennsylvania in late August was hot, usually around 75-80 degrees by one to two in the afternoon, but Remy insisted still on wearing jeans, saying they are more comfortable and modest than a short skirt like her sister always sports.

“One effing red light on this street, and I hit it, of course.” Remy rolled her eyes and banged the steering wheel, looking left to see a car full of boys yelling and making obscene gestures at her. She recognized them to be seniors like herself. She quickly turned away and her face flushed red with embarrassment. The guys at school always gawked at her car, asking her if they could take it for a ride and maybe her too if she was lucky. They revved their engine, hinting they wanted to race Remy the half mile stretch to the school parking lot. Remy revved hers, making their Ford Focus look like a Power Wheels. The light turned green and Remy pushed the gas as hard as she could, watching the RPMs jump to six like it was nothing, her car reached sixty in an instant and she glanced in her left mirror to see the Focus lagging at least ten feet behind her. She laughed as she made a right into the school five minutes before the first bell. She parked the car and walked past the Focus smiling at herself as the boys yelled they wanted a re-match after school. She opened the door to her last, first day of high school.

The homeroom bell rang and Remy walked out into the halls in eager search of her friends, her only solace from the bitter tedium of high school life. She spotted Emily chatting up a boy she talked to over summer break, Ian his name was, and he still was not cuter.

“Em!” Remy ran up to her friend and smacked her arm, Remy’s own form of affection.

Emily’s eyes lit up and she grabbed Remy in for a long, rib crushing hug, Remy pulled away after what seemed like an eternity. “REMYY!! Oh my God! How are you? You remember Ian right. She touched Ian’s chest, like Remy wouldn’t know she was referring to this particular boy to her left.

“Yep, Hey Ian.” He nodded his head, the typical male salutation when they don’t really have anything to say and figure they’ll let you decipher what they were trying to convey.

Remy sighed, and looked back to her cheery friend, “So are we still getting lunch today like old times?”

“Oh I can’t today, I promised Ian I would eat with him and some of his football buddies, but I think Lana can, I saw her earlier before homeroom.”

Remy smiled, If this is going to be a preview of my entire senior year, I’m done already. “Yea, sure, I’ll text her or something. See ya later Em.”

Remy walked down the hall convinced she would go home right now tell her mother she was joining the Peace Corps and be done with the bullshit of high school, but figured she would mind all the manual labor and fought against the notion. She opened the door to her World Literature class and found a seat towards the back, a safe bet not to get called on, she figured. She placed her bag on the desk and looked around at the people she would be forced to endure for an entire semester. Though Remy was not the most popular person, a lot of people liked her, some due entirely to the fact that she was undoubtedly, and exquisitely rich-a fact that Remy has since the age of twelve really resented. Her mother works extremely long days, coming home sometimes around eleven or twelve at night, having gone hours without a meal, and yet all these ignorant people see is her sixty thousand dollar car, when she would have much rather taken a used Jeep wrangler, or something of the sort.

A couple people crowded in the classroom at once, all of whom Remy recognized of course, but that is to be expected when they’ve all basically been together since Phonix. There were now about twenty kids in the classroom, a few of which said hello to Remy, and made small talk about their summer exploits. The seat in front of Remy remained open when their teacher, Mr. Dallow walked in and put his briefcase on the desk. Remy always loved Mr. Dallow, and was excited when she learned he would be teaching the class. She had him freshman year for Composition I, and loved his nonchalant manner and well-placed literary allusions.

“Hello class, glad to see you’re all tanned and hung over still, that’s lovely.” He looked around at the student’s now smiling faces, their first day jitters now seeming to evaporate into the white tiles above their heads.

“I’m going to pass out your books, now I’m not going to give you a seating chart, the only thing is, where you’re sitting now, is where you’ll be forever. So call that mandatory, or call it fate, whatever you call it, call it your chair”. He looked around, possibly hoping for a brief smile or giggle, and proceeded to pass out the books one by one down the rows. As he was right in front of Remy the door to the classroom opened and in walked the principle Mrs. Fernberry, an unfortunate name for a very nice lady. She gestured out into the hall, and Remy looked up to receive her book from Mr. Dallow. “Glad to see I’m having you again Ms. Garner.” Remy smiled and returned his kind remark, “Likewise Mr. Dallow, but there’s someone at the door for you.” He spun around and saw Mrs. Fernberry hands on her hips patiently waiting for his acknowledgement. He hurried to the front of the room and they talked in hushed tones, which always annoyed Remy, they think they have something over us when they do that, she thought disgusted.

Mrs. Fernberry again gestured to the hall and this time it was met with a response. A girl walked in behind Mrs. Fernberry who was talking Dallow’s ear off, most likely about the girl who was standing very nervously behind her. Fernberry lightly grabbed her arm and brought her front and center and signaled to Dallow with a quick eyebrow raise to the right.

He cleared his throat, “Oh right, ok everyone this is our new student Rebecca Laurent, she will be joining us in the study of wonderful World Literature.” The girl smiled, obviously absolutely horrified and mortified, and every other kind of “fied” you can be. Mrs. Fernberry squeezed her arm and left the room. Mr. Dallow pointed towards the only chair left unoccupied in front of Remy and she made her way to it. Remy smiled at her and she half smiled back still visibly embarrassed from the spectacle that was made of her. After fifty minutes of Mr. Dallow’s sarcasm and dry humor, the bell rang and Remy made her way out into the hall towards her locker. She was putting in her combination when she saw Rebecca, the new girl a couple lockers down struggling with her own locker. Remy sighed, thinking this could be her moment to be altruistic. She propped her locker open with her bag and headed towards Rebecca.

“Hey, need some help?” Remy smiled and waited for a response.

The girl looked up and seemed a little flushed, No doubt from that charade in World Lit, Remy thought.

“Yea, uh thanks.” She smiled widely, revealing a nice set of pearly whites, no doubt from years of orthodontia like me.

Remy returned the grin and took the slip of paper with her locker combination written on it. “25, 46, 12.” Click and it was opened. Rebecca’s eyes lit up ,”Oh my god thank you, um…?”

“Remy, Remy Garner. I sit behind you in World Lit.” Remy smiled and motioned towards the door behind her.

Rebecca smiled, and Remy noticed how insanely dark her brown eyes were for the first time. “Thanks, e

Remy thought for a second, and looked upward as she always did when posed with a difficult question. “Hmm I think its Gym, sadly.”

“Oh that is a drag”, she laughed quickly, and Remy was taken aback by the forcefulness of her laughter and she joined it, as if she was sucked in by a vacuum.

Remy looked at this girl, thinking about where she came from, and why she chose Penn Crest of all high schools. “Yea it is what’s yours?” Remy looked to her right for a second while Rebecca fished for her schedule in her bag, noting that every single person who walked by recognized Rebecca as a new girl, and therefore intensely interesting.

“No shit, I have Trigonometry next, ugh, I hate math.” She looked up at Remy and smiled again, and Remy smiled too, thinking about her own squalls with Math over the years.

Remy thought about how the first day of school is the worst for every new kid, not because of all the new people, but because they have absolutely no one to sit with at lunch. “Hey, do you want to sit with me and my friends at lunch today, all the seniors eat at noon.”

Rebecca smiled, “Yea that would be awesome thanks! But how am I going to know where you are?”

“Hmm you can meet me here right after your third class, we usually meet here cause a few of my friend’s lockers are in this general vicinity.”

“Yea, ah thank you so much, I was so worried about lunch. Thanks Remy!”

Remy smiled, applauding herself at being so unusually kind to a complete stranger. “No problem, see you around 11:50.” Remy waved as she turned around to head to the Gym for class.

She walked into the locker room, feeling the always freezing cold air brush over her and her teeth began chattering instantly. She put her bag down on the bench below all the lockers and began to change into Victoria’s Secret sweat pants and her t-shirt from Avalon, NJ. All the girls started to flood into the locker room, and the quintessential gossip ensued as expected.

“I heard she’s from Minneapolis, and they kicked her out for smoking pot in the bathroom”, Jenny DeVry said. Jenny DeVry is Penn Crest’s biggest gossip, and most notable prude, Remy still believes both of those things to be interconnected.

“Oh no Jen, I heard from Macy that she was sent here from some boarding school in Maine to help out our Tennis team.” Kayla Frecker, Remy knew that voice anywhere, squeaky and annoying as can be.

“Well I heard that she was a huge slut in her old school and had an affair with a teacher—“ At that Remy put all her stuff into her locker and walked right past the drama, that way her name would not be pulled into anything.

She recognized her friend Jake Crowley at the far end of the Gym and waved to him, excited her good friend would save her from the miseries of physical education. He made his way over, looking as good looking as ever, with his toned Soccer legs, and six pack abs protruding out of his tight fitting Under Armour t-shirt. “Hey Remy, what’s up, how was your summer break, I didn’t see you at any parties?”

Remy smirked and looked away, embarrassed at the recognition of her aptitude to avoid times when using alcohol to get laid is completely acceptable. “Yea, it’s not really my scene; I had a job at the Kennel in town, and saved up a lot of money.”

Jake laughed and nudged her shoulder, “A Garner, working? Why the hell would you need to work, Ms. BMW.”

Remy bit her lip, exhausted at the constant reminder of her mother’s windfall of an occupation. “Yea, well, my parents are sure as hell not going to send me on a spring break trip, so I came up with the money for it.”

He smiled, “Well, you’ll probably wanna take me along, you know for protection and all…he leaned back and flexed his defined biceps, causing Remy‘s heart to skip a few beats.

She laughed and pushed his stomach in, deflating his manliness. “Nah, I think this one’s going to be solo. I think I’m going to Australia, but I do not really love the idea of a 19 hour plane ride.” She grinned, thinking about how many bags of pretzels she would go through in that period of time.

He nodded in agreement, “Well you let me know sweetheart. My services are at your disposal…All of them.” He winked and ran towards the opposite end of the gym, stealing the basketball out of his friends hand and making a right handed layup. Damn he’s good looking; I wish he weren’t such a player though. Remy thought about all the stories she heard of Jake, how he hooked up with three girls in one night, all best friends too. But alcohol was involved so everything was forgiven of course.

The gym teacher came out of his office and announced they would be playing badminton, and to help put up the nets. Like every other year where they played any net-related sport, the guys all jumped up and volunteered, while the girls sat on the bleachers watching them show off-and more than usually fail at mounting the nets correctly the first time.