The VLC - Adelaide

In the Beginning

No lockers!!!! My overloaded backpack was weighing me down and causing a slow drip of sweat to trickle down my back. My bare shoulders were raw underneath the straps. I was standing in line to get my registration card with all of the other freshmen. How they expected me to make it through four years of carrying my bag around I didn't know. One thing I did know was that I needed to get in the shade quick.

Growing up in the Northwest and then moving to inland Southern California proved to be a difficult adjustment. The 100 plus degree heat was more than my pasty gray skin could handle. I heard a faint squeal in the row next to me and watched as a group of kids formed a circle.

"What's going on?" I asked a thin redheaded girl standing next to me. She was wisely wearing a loose long sleeved shirt and billowy pants. She had probably wanted to wear a hat, but unfortunately they were not allowed on campus. No lockers, no hats...

"I think someone fainted." She said indifferently. "My brother says it happens every year, dehydration."

"Oh." I watched as the nurse came running with a bottle of water to where the kids were huddled. She pushed through them to aide the victim of the desert heat.

"Excuse me, you're next." An exotic looking girl behind me drew me out of my delirium. She was pointing to the table where the counselors sat happy and cool underneath a tent.

"Name please." The woman behind the table said with her fingers perched and ready to shuffle through the stack of cards. She was heavy set and very very top heavy. Her hair was cropped short and emphasized the roundness of her face. How can someone that heavy survive in this heat? I wondered.

"Adelaide Brown." I said.

She found my card and handed it to me along with a stack of pamphlets and booklets all meant to help me orient myself to the campus.

"I am Ms. Culpert. If you ever have questions about your classes or just need someone to talk to you can come see me." This offer did little to soothe my nerves.

I crammed the papers in my backpack next to my lunch, water bottles (yes plural) and four heavy textbooks and turned to leave.

"Wait for me and we can walk to find our classes together." I turned to see the speaker; it was the exotic girl I'd noticed in line. At first glance I didn't know if I wanted to stand next to her. She was tall, had olive skin and long wavy dark hair. It wasn't her fault she was beautiful though. I decided to give her a chance.

"Okay." I waited as she gave her name, Marley...Marley Rios, and slid the pamphlets into her shoulder bag that looked severely underweight.

"Don't you have any textbooks?" I asked.

"Of course, but I never carry them. I have a doctor's note so the teachers have to store them in the classroom for me. I have scoliosis. It is okay though because my mom put me in ballet to help straighten my back."

"Why don't they have any lockers here?" I asked.

"Because if they had lockers kids could hide guns and drugs in them. You did notice that the entire school is fenced in, right? Well, they built it that way so that they could keep us all in if something happened, or keep us all out."

I certainly wasn't in Kansas anymore. "Guns??? Drugs??? Do people really do that stuff?" I asked in naive horror.

"Oh yes! Didn't you hear about the riot last year? They arrested dozens of kids!" Marley changed the subject. "Let me see your schedule." She said, holding her hand out.

"Ah... You have Mr. Johnson with me for English fourth period. My friend tells me he is the best. And cute too!" She shook her head when she looked at my fifth period class. "I hear Mrs. Stevenson is a real crab. She fails everybody! It looks like we have P.E. together as well, sixth period."