Between Us

I

Airin Bauderdale:

High school, the best and worst days of any teenager's life. Anyone that tells you that high school was the best years of their life is a liar and they probably peaked in senior year.

Hm, I suppose I should introduce myself, right? I'm Airin Bauderdale, I'm 16, and I live in Silverton Colorado, USA. What is a kilometer, am I right? Yeah..well, like I said, I'm 16, so naturally, I'm in junior year; I attend Silverton High, the same school I've attended since pre-k.

Like any other school, we have our cliques; similar to a hierarchy, jocks and cheerleaders are your more well known students due to their exposure at school sports games, then, you've got your student faculty and mathletes, since for some reason if you're an SF member, you're good at math? Finally, we have my 'clique' if you could even call it that; the 'normies'. Basically, the general population of high school students who don't make extracurriculars their entire personalities or future career plans.

Don't get me wrong, it's admirable, really, but I hate sports. The most athletic thing you'll see me doing is walking the mile in gym or equally, eating a corndog at the bi-weekly football game Friday nights after school.

Now you probably couldn't care less, but in place of sports, I'm a bit of a book lover. I read almost everything, except for fantasy romance; trust me, I've tried, but it's like reading a written version of a 'hated daughter becomes hybrid fairy lost princess' gacha life mini movie. Whether a book in that genre is plagiarised or not, they're all really the same thing. You've always got the main girl who is stick thin, pale skinned, always skips meals in favor of studying or training and despite her malnourished condition can somehow bench a tree? It's just not my cup of tea really.

Sorry to ramble, I guess I'll get on with a boring narrative of my usual Monday mornings, much like today.

Because I set far too high expectations for myself, my alarm goes off at 6am; I turn it off like routine and fall back asleep until my second alarm interrupts my dream and I turn it off once more like a girl scorned. Then, I usually spend 5 minutes laid in bed contemplating my life and whether an education is really worth it; surely I could be a housewife? Eh, not in this economy. Nevermind, bio 101 here I come..yay.

So, I finally tear myself from my comfy bed into the horrendous chill of a house on an early winter morning and get dressed in my usual, desk-chair-laundry-pile couture before waking myself up with a trip to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. About 5 minutes later I'm back in my room, doing some minimal makeup so I don't look like I'm as close to falling asleep as I am and then I brush my hair back into a ponytail.

Breakfast is a half-asleep haze of toast and reminders from my mom that went in one ear and out the next before I got up and gave my parents my usual goodbye hugs and I slipped on my uggs and winter jacket before sluggishly pulling my backpack onto my shoulders. Obviously, Jonah isn't even awake yet, though I really don't question the antics of my harebrained older brother; he's braver than me, mom is scary when she yells.

Despite the weather, I walk to school and take a detour into the old coffee bar to get a latte to go. The sidewalks are covered in delectably crunchy snow that I shamelessly take baby-steps in to enjoy my dosage of nature ASMR.

Before I know it, and much to my disgruntlement, I'm soon at school, though my mood is boosted by the sight of my friends; Bonnie and Caitlyn. Since middle school, we've called ourselves the ABC squad because of our initials and though we don't say it out loud as much, our group chat is still called exactly that.

"Morning Dorks!" I grinned as we had a group hug. "How was your guys' weekend?"

I was replied to with the usual narratives, Bonnie had gone to her grandma's on Saturday and attended church on Sunday, and Caitlyn had spent most of it with Kian, her boyfriend. Sometimes, I'll admit, I get a little jealous about Caitlyn's relationship, though only because she was so happy; Kian was a less than desirable weirdo in my eyes (more like an honorary little brother), but I'd never tell Caitlyn that, since she liked him a lot.

Like I said, our school has the usual cliques; Caitlyn, Bonnie and I fall into the 'normie' category, whereas Kian plays on the football team, so he's a jock for all intents and purposes. The thing is, and however cliche it may be, cliques don't usually intermingle, so Bonnie and I were shocked when Caitlyn first told us about her new boyfriend last semester, but we were supportive.

We were then equally as shocked when Caitlyn said that Kian invited us all to hang out with his team at lunch today; admittedly, I was hesitant, but if being uncomfortable for an hour means that Caitlyn can spend time with us and Kian at once, I guess I can't complain. So that's what we did; after homeroom, first, second, and third period, the four of us sat together at Kian's usual table and waited for his team to join us.

I could hear them coming from a mile away, and honestly, I had thought a pack of rabid coyotes had broken into the cafeteria with the way these big, brawny, hormonal teenage boys bounded over to our table. They seemed nice enough, and Kian isn't the type of guy to bring his girlfriend around guys he doesn't fully trust and love like brothers.

I braced myself for a somewhat awkward and yet very boisterous next 52 minutes of my life, how much worse could it get?