High Tide

Chapter Two

“Morning, sleepyhead.”  I slowly opened my eyes as I heard the rustling of curtains.  I raised a hand too late, and sunlight slapped me in the face.  I almost hissed.  Liz was busying herself with opening my curtains, her ponytail swinging, her spotless red Toms making small scuffing noises on my carpet. 

“Too early,” I grumbled, throwing my head beneath my covers to hide from the light.  I heard approaching Tom squeaks and my covers were thrown back off, cold morning air rushing up to meet me.  I shivered in my sheer pajamas.  “I don’t want to get up,” I moaned to Liz, who was already headed for the door.  I curled into a ball, dramatically shivering.  “I’m dying.”

“You’re also going to be late if you keep suffering like that,” Liz shot back, but a smile glittered on her face.  “Breakfast’s in ten.”  I groaned and stuffed my head between my knees, and then finally decided to get up.

After sleepily washing my face and brushing my teeth, I stumbled to my closet.  A regular old blue blouse and skinny jeans was my go-to outfit, and I pulled both articles out.  I finished dressing myself, tied my Converse up, and then bounded down the stairs.

I entered the kitchen as the smell of bacon and eggs hit me full-on.  Liz could be annoying sometimes in the morning, but, God, was she a hella good cook.

“There she is!”  Liz didn’t turn around from the stove where she was busily shaking a pan of sizzling bacon, but I saw her smile.  “Bacon’s almost done.”  I slid into a counter seat and stared down at my cooked egg whites, which stared back up at me in pristine silence.  “So, how do you think your first day’s going to go?”  Suddenly a few strips of bacon joined my eggs in staring up at me in a delicious silence.  I stabbed the eggs with a fork halfheartedly, shoveling a few into my mouth. 

“Alright, I guess,” I mumbled with my mouth full, my eyes flitting towards a window on the far side of the kitchen.  Truthfully, I was nervous, and a sort of jittery wave kept going through me whenever I thought of the piles of homework that would greet me when I got home, the clang of lockers, the bang when my textbooks hit my desk…

“I heard there are some new kids in town,” Liz said around a strip of bacon, which she tore in half with her perfectly straight white teeth.  Her red bandanna looked bright against her pale, peachy face.  “Maybe they’re going to Central High.”

My mind immediately zoomed back on the memory of Micky’s, and then a pair of blue eyes.  I smiled around my mouthful of eggs.  A few fell back down on the plate, and I swiped at my mouth.

“Gross,” Liz laughed, grabbing her keys and her purse.  “We should go, honey.  I’ll be in the car.  Just grab your stuff.”

When our car pulled up to my high school, it was like I was going to prison.  I was half tempted to beg Liz to drive me home, but I got out of the car quickly before my pride could be diminished even further.

“Bye, honey!” Liz called, and as I shut the door, I muttered back,

“Bye, Liz.”

“Mom!” she shot back before the door closed all the way, and I sighed.  Right.  Mom.  I stepped away from the curb and began to walk up to the school.  I had barely gone a few steps when I was stopped by a high, feminine voice shrieking my name.

“Anais!”  A head of blond hair was ripping her way through a parting crowd towards me, and as it grew nearer, I could see it was Marina.  I walked towards her. 

“Hey, Mar,” I greeted her, and she smiled wildly up at me.

“Hey yourself!” she giggled, and I raised an eyebrow.  Her blue eyes were alight with mystery as she danced in a little circle, raising her little fingers for emphasis.  “Guess what?”