Mackenzie's Outfit for Day 1
"Get up Jackie!" I yell, I was not wanting to be late to our first day of school, especially if this means having to walk.
Jackie gets up and quickly gets dressed, "I'll meet you down stairs, please hurry!" I run downstairs, just quickly enough to be able to eat breakfast, but I wasn't hungry, at all.
"Goodmorning Kenzi," Katherine says handing me a plate of food, "I'm actually-" she stops me, "eat it, and hurry cause Cole will be driving everyone to school." I nod, taking a bite of my food. "Thank you Katherine," she nods and smiles at me, "Morning Jackie, I'll see you tonight!" Then she rushes out the door.
"Come on guys, we gotta get there soon," Cole says and walks out the door, "here," I hand Jackie an apple. "Thanks Kenz," I smile, rushing her out the door. "Is it like this every morning?" I laugh, "unfortunately."
The car door opens and Alex jumps out, inviting us in, we jump into the car and he climbs in after us, closing the door as Cole quickly takes off. Cole has definitely changed, he acts much differently, we used to be so close, and I think that it's still there, just not as strong as it used to be,
***
"We have a full car today, no inviting random ass cheerleaders Isaac got it?" He rolls his eyes but agrees, "we leave at 3:30 sharp, no later." Everyone quickly leaves, "3:30!" He yells again, everyone yells, "yes we get it!!"
Everyone was out of the car, leaving just Jackie and I, "hey are you okay..?" I ask worryingly. She closes her eyes tightly, taking in a deep breath, "if you're not up for this we can just go back to the house, I can call George." She shakes her head, "no. We have to, for mom."
I smile, mom always wanted us to be with Katherine, it was very very known.
"Okay let's go," I lift my hand, sticking out my pinky, she does the same and we intertwine them, kissing next to our thumbs. It was our hand shake, our way to tell each other it'll be okay.
We quickly get out of the car, and our first look at the new school, Jackie shivers. "Hey it'll be alright," I hear Nathan say. God bless him he's the sweetest.
"I can show you where your classes are," Nathan says to Jackie, "really?" He nods, leading her to the entrance. I look at the floor, annoyed, I hated that I couldn't be with Jackie. She was only a freshman while I was a junior.
"Hey I've got you," I hear Danny say from beside me, I sigh, "thank you." He smiles, propping his shoulder out and gesturing it towards me. I giggle, wrapping my arm into his.
"So.. you're gonna be my tour?" He laughs, "I'll show you where first period is and then obviously second and third. And then we'll meet up at lunch and see what happens from there."
I nod, "sounds great."
We walk down a long hallway, he leads me to class 2b. "God I didn't realize how terrifying this was." He laughs. "You'll do great. Have fun, I will see you in an hour and a half."
I nod shakily, walking in and looking around, his I didn't know anyone here. Thats terrifying..
"Welcome, Mackenzie correct?" The teacher asks, "yeah, hi." I wave and look around confused. "You can sit next to.. Erin. Erin please make yourself known," the teacher says and turns to his desk, rummaging for some papers.
A girl turns, looking at me with a smirk, "I'm Erin, Mackenzie right?" I nod, taking a seat next to her, "oh my god.. wait!" She pauses, thinking. "You're THE Mackenzie, Mackenzie Howard."
I look at her, confused. "Uhm what does that mean?" She shrugs, "Coles told me about you, and Jackie."
Jackie.
"Oh, okay," I smile shyly, the teacher then brings my attention back, "would you please stand and tell us one interesting thing about you?" I take a deep breath, standing. "Yeah okay.. hi, I'm Mackenzie but you can just call me Kenzi.. I moved here from New York yesterday."
"Why did you come from the big city to just a small town? I imagine it's a big change."
I freeze, "yeah.. it's a huge change.. I came here due to.. a very difficult time." The teacher sees right through me.
"Okay, that's enough, turn to page 347." I sit back down as quickly as possible.
"So how do you know Cole?" Erin asks, "uh, childhood friends I guess, our moms were friends." She nods, "well, just know that he is completely off limits." She says. I look at her in disbelief, "excuse me?"
"He has a girlfriend," she says blowing a bubble with her gum, a girlfriend. Thats fantastic.
"Oh, okay, who?" She grins happily, "I see, you guys happy?" She nods eagerly, "so so happy." Lie.
I roll my eyes, paying attention to the teacher before we get caught.
****
Stepping into the cafeteria, I look around for Danny. But my eyes land on Cole and his gal pal Erin. So fucking stupid. She was obviously obsessed with him, but him I'm not so sure.
"Hey Kenz!" Danny moves over to me, "Danny I was looking for you," he apologizes, "sorry about that, I got busy."
Confused, I ask "busy?" He laughs, "come on." I take a quick glance at the lunch room, Cole was leading, who was that? My eyes widened, Jackie, to their table.
Well that's new...
"Okay where are we going?" I ask, "the auditorium," he replies. My face scrunches together, "what for?"
"You asked what I was so busy with, this is it. I'm auditioning for a play." I gasp, "oh my god you're into play?!" We walk into the auditorium and down the stairs, "yeah, like a lot."
I smile, "that's amazing, Im sure you'd get the part!" He smiles, "thanks Kenzi. I'm really glad you're here, it's been so different."
"How so?" He shrugs, "just.. Cole hasn't been the same. You know he sneaks a new girl into the house every night." My eyes widen, "wait but he has a girlfriend?" He nods, "oh my god he's an asshole!"
"Yeah then you have Alex who hardly talks to him." I look at him confused, "excuse me? The two were inseparable last time I was here."
He shrugs, "you can't tell anyone I've told you this, we've sworn an oath of no snitching. But.. Alex was head over heels for this one girl, they even started dating, but the one time Cole comes home.. Alex found them making out."
My heart sunk for Alex..
"Oh my god poor Alex," I sighed, "that sucks." I hop onto the stage, sitting and dangling my feet off of it. He sighs, "yeah believe me I know."
I lay back, "could I just.. go back home? I don't think I can survive today. It's been hell so far."
He laughs, "actually, I don't think mom would mind at all. Just give her a call," my jaw drops, "oh my god yes! You're amazing!!" I take out my phone, dialing Katherine's number and calling.
"Kenzi sweetie, are you okay?" She asks, "yeah I just don't think that I'm prepared which is stupid. But I was wondering if you could come and get me?"
"Oh of course I can, I figured one of you would call, go to the front office and let them know I'll be there soon."
"Thank you Katherine, see you then." I hang up and grin at Danny, "what did I say?" I laugh and push him away. "Oh hey, are you busy today?"
He laughs, "no, I already told my Mom I was coming home after lunch, what did you need?" I laugh and jump off the stage, he follows as we walk up the steps. "I really would love to ride today, could you help me set up a horse? I think I need it."
He nods, "yeah of course, you already know how to ride so did you plan on going alone or?" I shake my head yes, "I think I need to take a ride, just into the valley, alone."
"Sounds great, now come on, we need to get to the front office before my mom does!" I laugh and run through the halls, towards the office.
****
I take a deep breath in, "you ready?" Danny barges in, "nice outfit, it looks familiar," I giggle, "thanks Danny, this is my mom's old riding outfit, just with a bit of changes."
"Looks great, now come on!" I roll my eyes, running down the stairs with him and out the door.
Something a bit similar to this!
"Wait- do you still have gingersnap?!" I gasp as I hear loud neighs coming from the inside of the barn, "it was supposed to be a surprise but.." he opens the door, revealing gingersnap, a beautiful paint horse.
"Oh my god Danny!" Gingersnap was my horse when I was younger, well when I used to come here. "Hi Ginger! I've missed you so much." I wrap my arms around his neck, he nuzzles my hair with his nose.
"Hey don't eat my hair," I laugh, backing away and grabbing the reins, "I'm ready," I say with a grin. "I'm sure you are."
***
The ride was absolutely beautiful.
I nudged Gingers side a bit with my foot, gaining his attention to lead the other way. We made it to a beautiful field filled with lilies and tulips. I hop off of Ginger quickly, running into the field and settling in a spot, he ran up quickly behind me, running through the field and finding a spot to lay in, I giggle. "Ginger!" I let out a loud laugh, "you're such a dork!"
He neighs at me, I could've sworn he understood me, I rolled my eyes and ushered him up, grabbing a bunch of different flowers as fast as I can before Ginger decided to run off again. I place a foot in the stirrup, swinging my other leg over and doing the same with my other foot.
"Well, it's already been two hours. We should probably head back," it was getting dark and I did not want to be lost in the darkness. Again.
***
I yawned, finally arriving back to the house.
"Jackie?" I ask as she's walking up the steps to the house, a big bag in her hand. "Hey Kenzi, was the ride nice?" I nod, "very! Why are you getting back so late? Didn't you ride with Cole and the boys?"
She sighed, "you missed it?" She nods immediately and I laugh. "Yeah he's harsh."
"Tell me something I don't know, I'm gonna head inside, don't want the ice cream to melt." I nod and wave. Riding Ginger back into the barn, quickly dismounting and taking off her gear. I smiled, kissing his nose and putting him back in his stall.
"See you soon Ginger!" I run out of the barn, into the house and to the kitchen. "Mackenzie! I heard you went for a ride on Gingersnap, how was it?" Katherine asks. I smile, "it was great, like I never left."
"Those are beautiful," she says pointing at my flower bouquet of lilies and tulips, "actually I picked them out for you." She reaches her hand to her chest, "oh my god, you're so sweet!" She says rummaging through her cabinet, pulling out a vase.
She fills it with water, coming over to me and takes the bouquet. She placed them in gently, setting the vase at the center of the counter, "perfect!" I grin, "I'm glad you like them."
I scratch my head, realizing I needed to shower due to sweating so much from the 3 hour long ride. "I'm going to get in the shower and change. But then I'll be back down and I'd love to help you with dinner."
Katherine looks at me surprised, "you sure? I heard you helped George yesterday. Why not just lay down and take a break?" I shake my head. "I can't, if I am in silence for too long my mind will wander. I need a distraction okay?" She nods, smiling.
I really did need the distraction though. I felt like I was hyperventilating when I sat in silence. As in my whole entire world was slowly closing in and I was stuck with no way out.
That's how it feels when you lose someone you care about. Especially when you lose an entire group of people you love. It breaks you.