Orion's Spirit

Rion stepped out of the school bus and plunged her headphones into her ears to drown out the noise of Pacific Gulls High School. Looking up, she saw the large grey building looming over her. There was a sign, mostly dominated by a cartoonish Seagull, announcing her location. Rion walked forward, adjusting her large backpack on her shoulder. The All-American Rejects blasted into her eardrums as the glass doors opened up to long hallways clogged with small groups of students clustered underneath the florescent lighting. Her green eyes flickered to the nearest clique – one girl and two guys. She wandered over to them, trying not to look too purposeful. Tapping the girl on her shoulder, Rion took out one of her earbuds to slightly muffle Swing, Swing. “Excuse me, but do you know where I could find the band room?” 

The girl turned around, flipping her perfectly messed blonde curls. “Uh, yeah. Travis is going there next period. You can hang out with us until then.” The girl pushed Rion into their intimate circle. “I’m Jojo – stands for Johanna Jordyn. If I ever catch you calling me that, you’ll be dead meat.” Jojo pushed Rion playfully on the shoulder and winked. “This here is Caelum.” The girl waved her hand at the handsome brunette standing closest to her. He was of athletic build and had bright blue eyes. 

“Excuse me, but I think I can introduce myself.” Caelum stuck his arm out. “I’m Caelum O’Hansen, I hope we can be great buds.” He shook her hand forcefully and used that as leverage to pull her into his arms. 

“You better get used to that if you’re going to be hanging around us from now on.” The slightly shorter boy with light brown hair spoke. Rion turned out of Caelum’s muscular arms to see the other boy holding out his hand as Caelum had done just moments before. “I’m Travis. Guthrie, that is.” 

Rion eyed his hand with suspicion. “I don’t plan on being smothered twice in one day.” She slowly put her hand out to shake it. “Rion.” The song ended and the next one blasted onward. She hummed habitually with Dirty Little Secret and laughed when she realized that they were all looking at her. “You all better get used to that. I love my All-American Rejects and can’t sing. Humming is the lesser of two evils.” 

Travis jumped in with the song, keeping perfect time. “I go around a time or two, just to waste my time with you. Tell me all that you’ve thrown away, find out games you don’t wanna play.” He pulled out of song as quickly as he had come in. “I love that band. Jojo doesn’t care much for them. Prefers that crap-face Beebz.” 

“Excusez-moi, but I believe that I can have whatever kind of taste in music that I want to. This is, after all, the West Coast of our dear old U-S-of-A. Twilight was published, no?” Jojo began walking down the hall, arm-in-arm with Caelum. 

“Ugh, don’t get me started on that waste of trees.” Caelum and Jojo’s conversation dimmed as they distanced themselves from Travis and Rion. The bell sounded and Travis began walking toward the front desk. “Ready for band class? It’s two hours – brutal stuff.” 

Rion shut off her iPod and put it in her backpack. She locked the two zippers together for extra security and quickened her pace without actually running. “Heck yes! I wish we had longer rehearsals back in Utah.” She kept up with his long strides, but stumbled once or twice on the slick off-white linoleum. 

“Utah, eh? How many moms did you have back there?” He laughed and walked past the front desk. There were still a lot of kids straggling in the halls, but the overweight secretary didn’t seem to notice. 

“Just one. And the LDS don’t believe in polygamy. That’s the FLDS.” Rion tried not to take the statement personally. “One of my friends was a polygamist, though. She had four mothers. And thirty-one siblings.”