(Song, Friend, by Gelantis)
"You drive like a maniac!" I say as we pull into the parking lot of our school.
"Why thank you," Cara replies, "I've been just dying to hear you compliment me all day." I don't question her sarcasm; I always say something about her atrocious driving skills, and she always says something sarcastic in return. It's our morning shtick. I've been asked repeatedly by people at school why I don't just drive myself to school, but in all honesty my old Volkswagen Rabbit is on its last legs and I'm trying to prolong its life. Cara's got a shiny new Mercedes convertible, so it's not a far stretch to see why I don't drive myself once you take a look at both our cars.
We make our way to the main entrance of our school and part ways when we get inside because our lockers are at opposite ends of the school. We begged to share a locker but the school doesn't allow it. I honestly don't see why, it's not like I'm going to steal any of her things, and vice versa.
As I walk to my locker I get the familiar feeling of being watched. I've had this feeling for as long as I can remember, but lately it's been exceptionally strong. When I reach my locker, my thoughts are interrupted though as I notice that it's slightly ajar. Not again! I think to myself.
I open it and find that though it's been opened, it appears that nothing's been taken, just like every other time it's been broken into. My locker has been broken into about seven times so far since the beginning of the school year. I don't understand why somebody would open a locker and not plan to steal anything. It's just plain strange. Which is just like my life: strange. I'm a magnet for the weird, though I have no idea why. I guess that's why I have that feeling of being watched all of the time- because it's not at all normal, and I fall into that category.
I take out the books that I need for first period and smile politely as I pass Damien in the hall. He looks at me with those deep, prodding, dark brown eyes and my heart speeds up a little, and my palms begin to sweat. I don't really know what to think of him, but he's Cara's friend, so I generally have to deal with him since he hangs around us a lot. He's a nice guy, and seems eager to be my friend, but he gives me this strange feeling in my gut. At first, I thought it was some type of crush or something, because he is very good looking- and okay, at first, it could have been a small crush. But when he talks to me, he's got this...look in his eyes that I can't quite pin. Almost as if I were a puzzle he can't quite figure out. Damien moved to Pipton this year, and on his first day, he already fit in with the popular crowd.
Victoria, his girlfriend of no intelligence (in my opinion) yet high status, runs up to him when she notices him looking at me and scowls at me in a rather unflattering way that makes her face look all wrinkly and awkward. Maybe I'm being a little too dramatic, but her face just looks wrong to me for some reason. She's kind of the queen bee around school, and she's been here for the same amount of time as Damien. They both fit in so fast, though it didn't help that they were already dating when they both started here, and here I am with only one real friend, having been here all of my life.
"Did you hear me?" Cara waves her hand in front of my face, "Hello, earth to Khiara!"
"What?" I say, completely embarrassed that I didn't notice her presence sooner.
Cara shakes her head at me and smiles, "I said, don't forget the party tonight! Everybody's gonna be there and you have to bring the chips and drinks. You're my best friend and we always help each other out right? Plus you promised and volunteered to bring refreshments so there is no backing out or forgetting now."
I just nod my head. When it comes to Cara, nodding your head and saying "Mmhmm" to everything she says doesn't offend her, it just makes her think you're listening.
Cara's into parties and I'm just not. It's way too loud for me honestly. Whenever we go out, I'm the designated driver because she just ends up getting so smashed that she doesn't remember where she lives. It sounds like a sad existence, but it's mine and I'm okay with it. Somebody has to keep this girl together and it's not the many idiot boyfriends and false friendships she's had over the years, it's me. We're best friends; we take care of each other no matter what. It's just how it is. It's what friends do, even if you want to punch them in the face at times. Most of the time, your fist will end up turning into open arms, and the punch a hug.
We reach the door of our English class and exchange glances. Mine is filled with contentment and hers distaste. I roll my eyes at her and we walk to our seats, which happen to be right next to each other and the reason why we both hardly get any work done. She's always yammering on about something while I'm trying to do my work and I'm always trying to tell her to kindly shut the hell up. For some reason though, I always get peace when I read. When I'm reading, it's like the whole world disappears around me, even Cara. I pray we get to read in today's class.
As the rest of the class files in I notice that the feeling of being watched is at an all-new level of high. I'm really uncomfortable or maybe it's just that I'm a little bit hungry because I guess I didn't eat enough this morning. My stomach is beginning to twist and my head feels strange. That's when I notice Damien watching me from the back row of the class. Definitely not hunger.
For some reason, his usual cool composure is replaced with a hard look on his face. I catch his eyes just for a second and he turns away like he's seen something that's disgusted him. What was that all about? I mean, he usually gives me the creeps, but the feeling I got when he was looking at me was...well...not good.
When everybody is seated, our teacher Miss Jane walks in holding her usual clipboard used to take attendance, and starts.
"Lesley O'Connor"
"Here"
Cara passes me a note. I unfold it and roll my eyes at its contents.
Take a look at Damien! He's so in to you! I bet he's going 2 dump that witch Vicky and go 4 you my girlie!
"Amanda Jones"
"Here"
I write back, Yeah that's never going to happen. He was giving me mad dirty looks before; you should've seen him! Plus, you know he makes me feel kind of gross, I can't explain it, but the feeling he just gave me made me feel more than icky. No matter how hot he is, I just don't like him like that.
"Khiara Banning"
I pass the note to Cara who's giving me a really funny look that I don't know how to interpret. She's gesturing wildly and I'm sure that she'll get in trouble when Miss Jane walks right up to my desk, grabs the note and throws it out.
"Miss Banning, if you want to talk to Cara so much, maybe you two should do it in detention after school. Would you like that?"
I shake my head and give her the best puppy dog face I could muster up.
"Then I guess you'd better think before you do such things." She scolds, but I can see her smiling under her rough exterior. I'm her favourite student and she just doesn't like me falling behind. She walks back to the front of the room to finish up attendance.
I look at Cara, who's giggling hysterically and doing a pretty bad job at hiding it, and I just smile at her. As always, we've made it through without so much as a scratch. We always do whenever a teacher catches us passing notes- or sleeping in Cara's case. It's just so funny that my face can have that effect on authority figures.
Miss Jane passes around the day's assignment. We have to read the first two chapters of "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes. I finish half the book by the end of the period while almost everybody is having trouble understanding it. I love this book and vow to finish it next period.
By the time lunch rolls around, I am starving. Cara and I go to our usual table with all of her other friends and I notice that from across the table Damien is giving me the same look as before in English class. I'm completely unnerved by this and try to avoid his gaze, but to my dismay he gets up and walks around the table and sits down right next to me.
"Hey. Sorry about Victoria this morning. She's just not in a good mood today." He says.
"I'm so sure that's the case. What's up with the looks you've been giving me lately? It's like I stabbed you with my pencil or something." The instant it's out, I regret saying it because he looks like I just slapped him in the face.
"What?" He asks me.
"It's nothing. Never mind. It's just that..." I pause and awkwardly bite my lower lip, unsure if I should just spit it out.
"You were staring at me in English class. You looked angry, I was getting worried that maybe I did something to upset you." I say.
He smiles at me and mock punches my arm. "The day you do something to piss me off is the day the world explodes. You know that don't you?" He's smiling at me like he really means it and I feel super bad that I could've hurt his feelings, but at the same time, a voice inside of my head is screaming, He's lying to you! Sometimes, I wish my gut would just shut up and be a normal gut, crave food and stuff, instead of complicating my life like this!
Pushing the voice out of the way, I smile back at him apologetically and say, "I'm sorry Damien, it's just that I've been feeling off lately. Maybe it's lack of sleep. I don't know. I usually feel off anyway, but it's been worse lately, you know?" I'm not sure why I just told him that, but he seems to get it.
He grabs my hand and squeezes it lightly making Victoria give me the look of death from across the table. I actually hardly even notice the look because my heart is beating wildly in my chest, and I notice that the light squeeze has turned into something much harder and he's looking at me with that strange look from earlier. I get chills on the back of my neck leading down to my spine in two seconds flat.
"You're very hard to figure out Khiara." He says, letting go of my hand, but something flashes behind his eyes and my heart gives this little flip-flop into my throat in a very not-so-good way. Victoria seems pleased her boy toy has let go of my hand, and she turns away from us, as if it never bothered her in the first place, but the look on her face says otherwise. She's pissed. So I look at him. Take a real good look at him. I'm not sure what I'm trying to see, but I'm not sure I like it. I nod my head at him to acknowledge the conversation as being over as he walks back to the other side of the table and sits down next to Victoria, who looks ready to burst into flames.
A piece of celery hits me in the head as I keep staring at Victoria, who begins yelling at Damien for having squeezed my hand. I don't know why it's affected her so much, it's not like we made out or anything. I turn to find that the celery has come from Cara and throw it back at her with a small smile, everything from before put behind me for now.
"What was that for?" I ask.
She laughs and swats at me with her hand in playfully like a kitten, "We were just talking about the party. Did you know about a hundred people are coming? Maybe more! That's amazing isn't it Ki-Ki?"
"Yeah. I guess. Don't call me that please you know I hate it... Caroline."
"The name is Cara, look at my birth certificate." She says to me. I laugh and she just goes back to talking with her other friends. She's really the only real friend I have. Her friends tolerate me because I've known her since Pre-School but I can tell most of them think I'm either weird or boring. I don't really need any other friends anyway. Am I in denial or what?
When the lunch bell rings it's back to class. I stop by my locker to get all of my things for music and accidentally bump into a girl from a lower grade as I turn to walk to my class, knocking all of her things to the floor. She's got long blonde hair down to her thighs and a cute spattering of freckles on her nose and cheeks.
"I am so sorry!" I say as I bend down to help her pick up her things.
"It's okay! Really. I'm used to it by now. I'm always in the way of other people. I'm not good at anything but falling down and bumping into people." She says.
I'm shocked at this statement; she shouldn't feel this way, hell she's gorgeous, and seems really nice. But I too know what that feels like. I sigh and hand her some pencil crayons that fell out of her pencil case as she gathers up her papers. "Don't feel like that. Believe me, I know how it feels to be called smart and weird and it is not fun. But don't worry, you'll get over it and people will get over making fun of you once they get to know you." I reach out my hand, "I'm Khiara Banning."
She stares at me for a second before extending her own hand. "I-I'm Lisa Foster. You're in grade eleven right? I'm only in grade seven; I just started here not long ago."
"Well Lisa, it's nice to meet you. And if you get into any trouble you can talk to me okay? Come and find me sometime." I say as I hand her the last of her things and pick up my own.
She nods her head and beams, "Thank you. Really, I appreciate this so much! You're the first person to be nice to me in the whole school!"
I smile at her and for the first time today, I'm not worried about feeling watched or creeped out by somebody. I'm just happy that I've managed to make somebody's day.