Change.

Part Five

***

That night, I slept in my bed and it was so comfy. I guess that my parents and everyone else that saw my weird actions finally believed me because the next day everyone was helpful...except Adare.

The after noon of the third day conscious and aware of everything, I told mom I wanted to go to school the next day. She seemed very concerned, but I insisted on going in the morning. She finally agreed.

I have to admit that I was very nervous in going back, so I talked to Kristoff that morning on how I acted with my friends and who everyone was. I got the basics down and grabbed my bag to catch the bus. He wished me luck, but that's when all hell broke loose.

"Good morning." commented the bus driver. I smiled at her and she smiled back, "Heard you took quite a fall." she said, stopping me from walking down the isle.

"Yeah, I hit my head pretty hard." I told her. She smiled.

I just kept walking on, sitting in the back and pulling out an IPod that I didn't even like the music to. A guy hit me on the arm and I gave him a scornful look.

"Where've you been?" he asked in a very, very country accent.

"Um...I hit my head climbing trees." I said, looking at him.

"Salamander!" yelled another very country boy.

"What?!" he yelled back. Apparently this boys' name was Salamander, or his nick name was.

"Got any dip on you?" he asked, looking at him with a look of ugly and...tough. Rough. He was crunched up with his feet in the seat and a rugged look came from him to me.

"Nah, but I have chew." Salamander said, pulling white paper out of his bag and pulling off a plug for each of them. They pulled out a bottle.

I sat on the bus looking out the window and listening to their occasional spits in the bottles. A few people sat beside me, but I didn't care...except everyone else did. I saw Adare laugh at my awkwardness on the bus, but I didn't really care.

When I got to school, I tried to acknowledge everyone, but not everyone wanted something to do with me.

"Cea!" some girl called out from behind me. I suddenly got the urge for a cigarette...so I guess that followed me.

"Hey." I said, embracing her hug.

"You look...different." she said, looking at me.

"Yeah, I hit my head and I don't remember a lot..." I said, looking at them.

"Ugh, whatever. I always knew you were so weird." she said, looking me over one last time before walking away with her eyes rolled and lip curled in disgust.

So I spent the rest of the day with a group of guys. I didn't want to hang out with them...but...

"Hey, look at that girl over there, sitting by those lockers." I heard a guy from the group say, looking in my direction. He flashed me a smile but I only gave him a little grin, and looked away.

"Yeah man. I can't stand seeing someone alone over there like that." another guy said, looking me over too.

"She's...beautiful." one of them said. I heard footsteps but decided to ignore them. A guy sat down beside me. I looked over with my curls tucked behind my ears.

"Hey." he smiled, his minty fresh breath taking my breath away.

"Hi." I said, his cologne smelling great too. Plus, he was adorable.

He had straight helmet hair, maybe longer than a helmet would be...but anyways, he had blue eyes. He was taller than me and he was really lanky and skinny. His teeth were a little crooked, and had a small, adorable gap in the center. It made his smile look even cuter than I'd imagined it to be.