Ursa Minor (On hiatus)

Find the angels

"I'll walk to school," I said to no one in particular and left the now not so peaceful kitchen.

We lived on the edge of the West Valley area shadowed by the West Highland park, small, similar but not quite alike houses in neat rows, with neat little gardens in front shadowed by big trees. Well ours not so neat, since mom had her very own ideas of lawns and gardening and living things, but it was less obvious now in the fall. It was getting chillier, a fine fog like rain against my face as I got out on the street. Damp softly star-like leaves plastered to the asphalt in rust colored layers. It was called Oakland for a reason. I took my usual shortcut through the groves and the neighborhood, through the so called city center. It had once been a small town some miles outside a suburban area of the metropolis. Now the suburb Glenville had grown into a big city, and Oakland had fallen asleep, becoming the suburb. There was still a pharmacy, a supermarket, a bar and some stores, a couple of churches of various denominations and a community center where they had meetings discussing things like having a harvest market, the new bus route and other serious issues.

It was an ok place, nice and quiet or dead and boring depending on your personal tastes and preferences. When it became too dead and boring for our taste we went to Glenville, to hang out in the mall, to the cinema sometimes, or watching some band play at the youth café. There wasn't much to do if you didn't have a fake ID. Or if you had one, but was bored with what you could do with it too. There was a half-descent record store still alive close to the mall, and I'd go hang out there, while Trish and Kat tried on millions of outfits. The strangest thing that they seemed to have fun doing it. The last time I went shopping I'd had a nightmare trying to find what I wanted. Just a basic black zip-up hoodie, not too long, not too short, with pockets and without colored zippers or patterned lining or any of that wimpy emo shit. The two afternoons it had taken me had been like the most boring of my life.

The high school was on the other side of the center, a ten minute walk from home and when I got there the large clock in the hallway told me that I as usual was in time, and as usual, at least for the last two months, I went to find Lisa. She was standing by her locker, searching for something in her bag. If anyone would be asked to describe Lisa with one word, that word would be nice. Everything about her, from her long brown hair to her pastel pink skirt and the way she smiled and the tone of her voice was nice. She was very cute too, in a nice, not very edgy way, with her full lips and big brown eyes. I walked up to her and she smiled when she noticed me.

"Hi." I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. I'd never been into any kind of public display of affection and neither was she, but during the two months that we'd been going out this had already become a little routine of ours, to meet first thing in the morning before we headed off to our separate classes. Trish thought it was romantic, Adam called it dead cheesy. I actually agreed more with Adam on that one, but it seemed to make Lisa happy. She squeezed my hand eagerly, looked up at me expectantly. "Will I see you tonight?" I nodded and smiled and kissed her cheek again. I really wasn't very good at handling people's expectations.

First period of the day. Entering the class room I passed new kid Allen packing two of the books we'd already studied into his bag. Poor looser, having to catch up. There was still something unsettling about him, just seeing his red hair in the corner of my eye made me antsy. Whatever. We only shared three classes, Government, English, and a math class that probably had an official name like pre-pre calc, but was known as the math class for seniors that still sucked at math. I didn't suck that bad, but you can only retake so many tests during summer school. I pulled out a worn paperback out of my bag, placed it on my desk. Brave new world. English Literature was the only class I almost excelled at. The only class in which always sat on the first row. Because then people couldn't turn to look at you if you said something, and during that class I strangely enough often had things to say. It was also one of the few I didn't share with any of my friends. Maybe those two things were related.