"Being in love can be blissful, sweet even. At 11 most girls are thinking about their weddings days. What dress they'll wear, how their hair and makeup will look, what theme is going to be, and most of all who they'll marry. Well when i thought about mine I wanted to wear the suit and I knew who I wanted to marry, a woman by the name of Nymphodora Tonks! I had a huge crush on her when I first read "Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix". But come on who hasn't", a pen drops onto the page of a scratched up notebook. The sound of squeaky old wheels from a chair can be heard over the soft music in the background. Ari walks over to the mirror and tosses her hair back and forth, fluffing her loose curls up a bit before smiling. She starts singing along to the song as she grabs her diary and slips it into her backpack as well as her books for school. Her phone rings interrupting the song, she picks up, "Hello?" she asked. "Girl! We're gonna be late if you don't hurry your ass up!" screams the other person on the other line. Ari looks at the time and curses under her breathe, "yeah i'm coming down!" she says before hanging up and running out of her room.
She runs out the door locking it behind her, then over to the car waiting out front. She hops into the passenger side door closing the door, "I am so sorry" she apologized to her cousin.
The girl driving off was light skinned with freckles, her short fade and eyebrow piercing being her most distinguished features of her personality. She just looked at Ari with a face that was not convinced, but sighs, "you better be glad i love you by the way, I got your coffee," she said picking up the Dunkin Donuts cup form the holder and handing it over to her cousin.
Ari smiled, "You the best Crystal" she took a sip of heaven.
"So, you got today's pick for the day?" Crystal asked handing her phone over.
Ari takes it in hand and types in the song she was just playing this morning, "Yes! You are gonna love it! You probably already know, but hey that means," Ari rolls the windows down, "early morning jam fest!" she plays the song and the girls sing and dance as they make their way to school.
They pulled into the parking lot and jumped out the car. Ari looked upon the building already feeling the dread on her shoulders. TV had lied about what high school really was, the only thing that got it right was "Heathers", "Glee", and "Daria". She sighs and treads on as Crystal talking about the recent news in the family. They walk up to Ari's locker, "so Ari, you gonna to the dance?" Crystal asked with a smile.
Ari rolled her eyes and opens the locker door and placed the books she didn't need into it, "no" she answered simply. Crystal frowns, but Ari ignores it. She didn't really care for dances, well more the fact that other people didn't care for her and therefore dances were a big no.
See, at Windle High, there were only 900 students and everyone knew mostly everyone. Ari knew that everyone at the school knows that she was one of the few queer people in town, Mitchell Clems and Tremont Simmons were one of the first gay couples to come out to the school publicly back in freshman year. Which threw everyone for a loop because they were two basketball players instead of your average flamboyant beauty gurus that you see on Instagram and YouTube. Then there was Travis and Daphne, Travis was known as Christine of the cheerleading squad freshman year through the beginning of junior year before coming out as trans by the start of the spring semester of junior year. So being the odd one out wasn't the best, not only wasn't she a pop, but she was book geek.
Ari closed her locker door and began walking to class, Crystal following behind her "Oh come on, Ari! You can wear a button down this year if you wanted. Plus its gonna be fun! I heard the theme this year was "star crossed lovers" sounds cheesy, right?" Crystal chuckled and so did Ari.
