Another day of school, another chance for the others to make fun of me. Before you ask; no, school isn’t my favorite place to be. The other kids have practically given up on me, not that I blame them for it. I’m not really a people’s person, just in case you haven’t noticed.
Two years ago I came here from… Indiana, I think. I’m not sure though, it doesn’t really matter. Anyway, ever since I’m here, I haven’t exactly had a good time. It’s been hard to stay myself, without throwing myself off a cliff, a very tall building or something in that direction. I think you get the idea by now and if you don’t, this book might be too hard for you, or too depressing, your choice.
Anyway, like I was saying, I was getting ready for school. My clothes lay on my bed already, I picked them out yesterday. They were simple skinny jeans and a long, dark-brown shirt. The brown I picked because I liked how it looked with my hair. That was about the only thing I actually liked about myself, it was very light, golden-blond and wavy. As soon as I had put on my clothes, I started brushing my hair and putting on my make-up. This took a lot of time, mostly because my hair could reach my waist. Applying make-up didn’t take that long, just about five minutes, maybe less. Smearing mascara on my eyelashes wasn’t all that hard. I was ready to go to school, not that I wanted to go or anything. The best reason to go to school, and not pretend to be sick or something like that, was that I had no desire whatsoever to stay at home, mostly because of my foster-parents. They usually left me alone, but when they didn’t… well, let’s just say it never ended well.
So I put on my coat and I was on my way to Parker High, a small high-school in Georgia, it was a little over thirty minutes driving from the house. Driving there was something I really liked, it always calmed me down. I guess it had something to do with the fact that it was just me, and no one wanting anything from me.
I already told you everyone had given up on me, and that they left me alone, mostly. Well, that’s not entirely true. There were quite a few guys who liked to hit on me, and not in the “just-asking-out” kind of way, they tried to win me over by making sexist comments, and acting arrogant all the time. But that’s not even the thing I hated most. The most annoying was that they wouldn’t take no for an answer. Partially because of that, I just stopped replying, which was hard, seeing as they always blocked my way, literally. I had no clue on why they would hit on me, I didn’t even like the way I looked, but maybe that’s just my perspective…
After I’d gotten to the right classroom, I started to take out my books and wait for the lesson to start. So, there I sat, alone, like always. Untill a guy I’d never seen before walked over to the table –and chair- next to me and sat down.
“Whatever, just focus on the lesson” I told myself and forced myself to pay attention to what the teacher was doing. He was writing down some equations, probably because he wanted us to solve them. But other than me and the guy sitting next to me, no one was paying any attention to it at all. I decided to solve the equations anyway, and since it only took me five minutes, I stared out the window after that. You could just see a lake from where I sat, which was practically the reason why I’d chosen this particular seat. The lake was surrounded by trees, grass and beautiful red and yellow flowers. I didn’t know the exact type off flower, you couldn’t tell from this far, but they always seemed to lighten me up.
I got snapped back into reality by our teacher, Mr. Whitney, who was desperately trying to get the rest of the class working, without any luck off course.
“Hey, could you help me with this one? I didn’t get this at my last school.” The guy next to me apparently decided to talk to me. He obviously didn’t know who I was, because if he did, he would have asked someone else for help.
“Sure. Let me see… oh you just have to divide seven by eighteen and then subtract that from your answer here. That’s not the official way to solve it, but it’s a lot easier than the alternative.” I sort off figured this way to solve the problem out myself, thinking (knowing) it was easy, or at least easier than the alternative.
“That does sound easy, thanks. Oh, by the way, I’m Mitch.” He held his hand up.
“I’m Melaina, nice to meet you.” We shook hands and at exactly the same time
Mr. Whitney finally managed to get everyone quiet and working.
Mr. Whitney finally managed to get everyone quiet and working.
“So what do we do now? I mean we’ve finished those.” He pointed at the blackboard, to the place where Mr. Whitney had written the equations.
“Now we wait.” Normally I waited for the lesson to continue half the time. Boring, yes, but since I was a lot faster than the others, I really didn’t have much of a choice.
“Sounds boring, want to do something else?” I didn’t like where this conversation was going, but my curiosity got the hand over my suspicion.
“Like what? We’re still in class.” I mean seriously, I wasn’t going to ditch, if that was where he was going with this.
He started drawing dots in his notebook. “How about dots and boxes?” Wow, it had been a long time since I’d done that. Oh, why not, it’s not like I had anything better to do, making homework being one of the options. And with being four weeks ahead of schedule, there really was no need for that.
“As long as you know that I’m going to win.” I said taunting and drew the first line.
“We’ll see. I’m pretty good at it myself.” He wore an arrogant, but playful expression, which made me think he was just as competitive as I was.
By the time the lesson continued we’d played three games, of which I’d won three.
Mr. Whitney was explaining the working of a triangle once more. Believe me; the man was obsessed with them. Now no one was listening, not even me or Mitch.
Mr. Whitney was explaining the working of a triangle once more. Believe me; the man was obsessed with them. Now no one was listening, not even me or Mitch.
“Does he do this a lot, explaining how a triangle works?” Mitch was done being quiet and had also had enough of math.
“Unfortunately, yes. We hear this story at least once a week. Sometimes even once every lesson.” Once a lesson meant we heard the same, boring story three times a week!
“The guy needs a girlfriend, maybe then he’ll stop talking about triangles. I mean, seriously? Triangles? Who gives a damn?!” I giggled at this, and I tell you, I didn’t do that very often –I didn’t do that, like, ever. Unfortunately, Mitch wasn’t the only one who heard it… The entire class looked at me like I’d gone crazy.
“Miss Rose, what is so funny about a triangle?” Damn it, even the teach heard.
“Well,” I started, while desperately trying to think of a good answer, “I…” No, the good excuses wouldn’t work for this one, although… I was screwed now anyway, I could at least make it memorable. “Let me think. The dog ate my homework? The printer was broken? My mom needed help with my baby brother? I overslept? Lost track of time then? No, I think none of those will work. So… do I go to the principal or do I have detention under your supervision?” The class was totally quiet, and everyone was waiting for Mr. Whitney to respond. Well, everyone except Mitch, he just started laughing.
“Since it’s the first time you’ve done something like this, Miss Rose, I’ll let you off the hook. Mister Ridgeway, do I have to remind you of your staying conditions?” Huh? Staying conditions? Okay, this was something I needed to find out about.
“No, sir, no need to do so.” Mitch replied, and his face went all business-like.
Thank God, the bell rang only two minutes after that. I couldn’t stand to hear another sentence starting with: “A triangle is…” I’d had my fair share of annoyance for today, and I had no intentions of getting any more.
It was break-time now and we all had fifteen minutes of nothingness. So, this was the time to confront Mitch with what happened at math’s class. The only problem was that he wasn’t going unnoticed. There were quite a few girls around him, popular girls, also known as the worst kind. I only knew them by name, but for me that was enough to know I didn’t like any of them.
Mitch had already seen me coming his way and told the popular girls to go away as soon as I reached the table.
“No, you don’t have to. I’ll just go sit somewhere else, no problem.” Really, if he wanted to become friends with them, it was fine by me. I wasn’t about to stand in the way of him and happiness.
“Well, you see? She doesn’t mind and we would all like to get to know you.” Amber, the head off the head- and brainless. I hated her the most by far, and by the look she gave me, it was obvious the feeling was mutual.
“Even though that sounds great, I have something to discuss with Melaina.” He was actually trying to get rid of her. He didn’t like her at all! I looked into his eyes and actually thought he was saying: “Back me up here! I want to go away from them!” Off course I immediately dismissed that idea, it was impossible! A pretty, popular girl, what guy wouldn’t want that? But still, he looked at me like he needed my help.
“Well,” I started carefully, “if you’re referring to that thing at math, it would be very useful to talk right now.” It was the vaguest thing to say I could come up with, but Mitch seemed glad I said it. And not to forget, the look Amber shot me was absolutely priceless. She could have killed me for what I’d just said, I loved to see her that upset.
“So…” Mitch started, “I guess this is goodbye for now. I’ll see you all later.” And with a gallant bow, he backed away slowly, grabbing my arm to pull me away with him.
We walked towards a totally abandoned hallway. My face must have given away my confusion, because Mitch laughed as soon as he looked at me.
“It’s not funny! What’s just happened?” I felt the urge to swear, but decided that that might not be a good idea if I wanted to get any answers out of him.
“First of all; it IS funny, and with it, I mean your face. Second; thanks for getting me away from those idiots, pretty idiots, but still.” So I was right, he DID want to get away from them! “Uhm, where was I? Right, third; I think you wanted to ask me some questions?” Yes, I’d almost forgotten about it.
“Yes, I did. What was Whitney talking about? With the “staying conditions”?” Naturally Mitch already saw this question coming, but I could still see he wasn’t happy I asked.
“Well…” it was now obvious he didn’t like to talk about it, but I was too curious to drop the subject. “I haven’t exactly been following the rules at my last school.”
“So? That’s not all that bad. What aren’t you telling me?” At this point I almost didn’t care anymore that he didn’t want to talk about this.
“Do you HAVE to see right through me?” I nodded, not wanting to interrupt what I thought he was about to say. “Okay, I got kicked of my last school because I broke someone’s leg.” Didn’t see that one coming, he seemed like a totally nice guy. “Not intentionally!” He added hastily. “It was not an accident either though…” I could see he felt guilty. “We got in a fight, because he “stole” my girlfriend and when I confronted him, he made fun of me and my entire family! So I hit him, he hit back and… ‘Crack’ I’d broken his leg.” He was trying to stay calm, which was very hard, I imagine. Instead of feeling afraid or something like that, I felt sympathy. Off course I was intimidated by the fact that he broke someone’s leg, but in that situation, I would have hit the guy too.
Silence… Apparently we both had a lot to think about, which meant it was entirely quiet in the abandoned hallway.
“Hey,” I started softly, trying to find the right thing to say, “I can see you regret doing it. Starting that fight, okay, that maybe wasn’t all that smart, but I would’ve done the same.” I didn’t know if it was the right thing to say, but it was the way I felt.
“You actually aren’t running away from me or anything?”
“No, why would I?” I knew the answer, but the question came naturally to me.
“Because you’re scared of me, of what I did.” Yes, that was exactly the answer I’d expected him to give.
“Well, I don’t get scared that easily. Also, I’m a girl, and I don’t think you’d beat up a girl, that’s bad for your reputation. And I think I can handle you and your so called “strength”.” I was joking, mostly, and he knew that, he wore a grin to prove it. “Hey, I’m not kidding, I could take you on anytime.”
“You know, you’re funnier than I thought.”
“Is that a compliment or an insult?” I did know the answer, I just wanted to hear him say it.
“A compliment.” He smiled, it was a genuine smile. I smiled too. Although I pretty much expected him to keep up the joking, and say it was an insult, this was a lot nicer to hear. Someone actually being nice to me.
“Oh, even though I loved talking to you, I have to get to the other side of the school in 30 seconds… So, bye!” I ran off as hard as I could, I wasn’t about to be late. I hated having to go, but I couldn’t be late at Spanish class, Señora Martinez would definitely make me get a note. And my foster-parents wouldn’t like it if I came home with a note.
Spanish went over in a blur, and it was break-time again. That means Spanish was two periods, and I couldn’t remember a thing. Not that that was a problem, for languages I never studied, I never really studied at all, to be honest. It just all came naturally to me. But I pretended to study a lot, just to be left alone.
“Hey!” I got shaken awake by Mitch, who took the empty seat next to me.
“Hey.” I simply replied.
“Wow, you don’t sound too happy.”
“Thanks for noticing, but I think I knew that myself already.”
“What did you have, you know the class for which you rudely abandoned me.”
“I did no…” wait, not serious. “Funny, real funny. Got any more of those up your sleeve?” If he wanted to joke then I would give him the same.
“I think that’s more, like, second date material.” Okay, it was 2-1. I was behind, but he wasn’t going to win.
“I don’t think I want to go on a second date, after this rude treatment.” Score! His face was absolutely priceless.
“All right, you win, but next time you won’t be so lucky.”
“I wasn’t lucky, I’m just that good.” I tried to look very arrogant while saying this, and apparently succeeded. We both laughed at my stupid joke, even though it wasn’t that funny.
“But seriously,” Mitch began, after a while, “what class did you have that was so utterly boring?”
“Spanish, two periods. And it’s not utterly boring, I just… wasn’t in the mood for it.” Actually I just hated being taken away from my conversation with Mitch, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
“Uh-huh, right.” The tone of his voice indicated he didn’t believe me at all. “I just had Biology, from Mr. Maiden.” Mr. Maiden was the worst teacher you could find, in the world. He talked way too fast, was mean to all students and he smelled terrible, but then again, he was a Biology teacher.
“Poor you! I have Mrs. River, not that great, but a hell of a lot better than Maiden. If you want to borrow notes or something, all you have to do is ask.” It wasn’t entirely fair, but he was new, and he had Maiden. So I figured it would be even less fair to leave him hanging.
“If you don’t mind, that would be great! The only thing I caught from what he was saying, was that he was talking about photosynthesis. And with not being great at Biology, I didn’t know what else he said, other than his name.” He rolled his eyed and I was trying my hardest not to laugh.
“Even though that wouldn’t be fair to the others in your class, I’d make the exception.”
“Awhh, just for me?” He was batting his eyelashes and held a girly posture, now I couldn’t help but laugh.
“No, it’s an experiment: Can someone with half my intelligence still get a good grade, just by studying my amazing notes?” Joking, off course. This time I didn’t think Mitch knew I was. “Just kidding!” I added for that very reason.
“I knew that, I just started thinking; what kind of grades do you get?” So he did know, he wasn’t lying, that I knew for a fact, but why would he think of asking that question?
“A, A+, somewhere in that region.” I tried to make it sound like it wasn’t a big deal, something I didn’t succeed in or maybe it just didn’t matter how I sounded.
“Okay… So if I decide to cheat, I best look at your test.”
“Well no, I’d kick your ass if you would.”
“Got it, school is too important to you to let someone off with cheating.”
“Yeah, sure.” I said, not wanting to talk about this any longer. “So, what do you have next?”
“Mythology, from Ms. Miros. I sure hope she’s nicer than Maiden”
“Me too! I mean I have Mythology as well. And no one is meaner than Maiden, it’s impossible! But just so you know; Ms. Miros is really nice, if you just pay attention.” I really liked Ms. Miros, she was always very kind to me, and it probably also helped I loved the subject she taught.
“At least there’s something fun about it then.”
“What do you mean? That Ms. Miros is nice?”
“Uhm, yeah.” That wasn’t true, but I didn’t feel like pushing this. “And, school ends after that.” It was Friday, so we only had 6 hours of class, which meant everyone was done with school for this week when Mitch and I were.
“Who did you sit next to at Biology?” I suddenly realized he didn’t hang out with anyone, besides me.
“This guy from the football team, Ben, I think.” Didn’t like him, the guys from the football team were the most popular guys in school, and also the ones that stalked me.
“So, new friend then?”
“Are you kidding me? He has the intelligence of a toaster, no that’s not true; the toaster at least knows how to do something! Besides, he was too busy talking to cheerleaders to even notice me. No wait; he said something to me…”
“Come on, don’t leave me hanging here, tell me!” Now I was curious, he had to tell.
“He asked if I wanted to ask you to go out with him.”
“Tell him I will.” Mitch raised his eyebrow, waiting for an explanation, so I continued, “Right after he discovers a way to divide 2 by 0.”
“That’s going to give him a serious headache!”
“Oh, I know! Film it when you tell him that, okay?” I wanted to see his face, trying to actually solve that.
“That’s just cruel, should I do it?” I swear, I haven’t laughed this much since… I don’t think I ever laughed this much in my life!
“If you do, you’d be my absolute hero! Right behind Super-Grover then.”
“Sesame street, really?” I nodded and we both started laughing again.
“My stomach hurts from all the laughing! It’s your fault.” I said, trying to look serious, but Mitch saw right through it.
“Yeah, my stomach hurts too, but that’s because you’ve kept me from eating anything all day!” He might have been kidding, but I really was kind of hungry.
“Then eat, I’m not trying to stop you. In fact, I have to eat something as well.” I reached in my pocket to see how much money I had left, and came to the conclusion my jeans needed repairing. “Damn! Well, that means I’ll stay hungry.”
“Want to have some of my food?” I saw he had his own food with him.
“No, that’s okay, it’s your food, and you must be hungry too.” I really wanted to eat, but I could last without it for one day.
“Here,” he held up an orange, “I don’t like these anyway.” He was lying and my face must have shown I knew, because after a few seconds, he said: “Just take it already!” Certain I wasn’t going to win this argument, I took the orange.
“Thanks.” That was all I said and I started eating the orange Mitch had just given me. And then I noticed he was studying me, like I was a chemistry-experiment or something. “What are you looking at?” I asked, a bit on edge.
“Oh, nothing.” He stared out the window closest to where we sat.
“So now you’re calling me nothing? It just keeps getting better and better.” Mitch only shook his head, but he caught the meaning of what I said.
“Do you sit next to anyone at Mythology?” Did he ask this just because he didn’t like to sit alone or because he wanted to sit next to me specifically?
“No, I sit by myself at pretty much every subject. Why?”
“I don’t want sit there with one of those jocks again, or a dumb cheerleader, for that matter.”
“A dumb cheerleader is a pleonasm, a cheerleader’s always dumb, at least at this school they are.” Dumber than a bag of Cheetos, that stupid.
“Yeah.” He sounded close to depressed, I didn’t like it.
“Your ex-girlfriend was a cheerleader, wasn’t she?” He nodded, not looking at anything but the big oak-tree just outside. “Sorry, it’s none off my business, I shouldn’t have asked about her in the first place.”
“It’s okay, you couldn’t have known she was a cheerleader.” Mitch replied after a few seconds. He turned towards me again, still feeling down, I could tell, but better than a couple of seconds ago.
I was about to tell him I shouldn’t have begun about her anyway, but the bell rang before I even got the chance.
“I trust you know where we have to go?” Still being new here, Mitch tried to stay close to me, but everyone was getting pushed and pulled in different directions.
“Yes, just hold on to my backpack!” I had to shout for him to even hear me, through all of this noise.
Thank God, we managed to get there before the teacher did. Ms. Miros may be nice, but getting late was just “not done”.
“So, today we will talk about “lampads”…” It stayed quiet during Ms. Miros’ short lesson introduction. “Does anyone even have the slightest idea what I’m talking about?”
After she looked around the entirely quiet classroom, Ms. Miros finally gave in, “Mel, what are lampads?”
After she looked around the entirely quiet classroom, Ms. Miros finally gave in, “Mel, what are lampads?”
“They are nymphs of the Underworld. Companions of Hecate, the Greek titan Goddess of witchcraft and crossroads. They were a gift from Zeus for Hecate's loyalty in the Titanomachy. They bear torches and accompany Hecate on her night-time travels and hauntings. Some accounts tell of how the light of the lampads' torches has the power to drive one to madness. The lampads were probably the daughters of various Underworld Gods, Daimones, river gods, or Nyx. The Greek also believed they were responsible for visions of mortals. The lampads' Roman name is Nymphae Avernales. ” It was pretty normal for Ms. Miros to ask me if no one else knew the answer to a question. Greek mythology I really liked, so I knew a lot about it and loved to learn about it. That probably was a big part of the reason me and Ms. Miros could get along so well.
“Very good, as usual. What a lot of people don’t know about lampads, or nymphs in general, is that they were believed to be immortal. Not like vampires, they could die, they just didn’t age after their eighteenth birthday… Yes, Melaina?”
“Yes, I have a question,” Ms. Miros nodded to give me the “okay”, “if they could die, but not age, how could there still be enough to… “help” the Gods?”
“Well that’s a very good question, Melaina. The myth says that the nymphs were getting murdered more and more and the few of them left went to Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love, as I trust you all know. Anyway they went to her and asked for her help, so she helped. Because of her a nymph could have children, but then she’d have to be bonded and she’d have to give up her immortality. Off course, this raised a lot of suspicion among the nymphs, but they didn’t have a choice. So, they had to deal with these conditions to survive and they did for many years thereafter.” This part of the nymph-myths I had never heard before, so naturally, I got curious.
“So… were there guys who were nymphs as well, or did nymphs only get daughters, or were their sons normal humans?” That was left a hole before and I wanted to know all about this subject, now that it was clear I didn’t already know everything about it.
“Again, a very good question, Melaina. The nymphs could also get sons, but their sons stopped aging when they were 20, because that’s when they were in the strength of their lives. After that, the guys mostly helped the Gods with duties on earth, or they became lovers of a Goddess. They sometimes did the same things the girls did, but mostly they kept to working on the land and other intensive tasks. But the guy-nymphs couldn’t give up their immortality, so hooking up with humans was nearly impossible. Does that answer your question, Melaina?”
“Yes, it’s perfectly clear now, thank you.” It didn’t happen often that I didn’t know about such a big part of any myth, so I was happy to have all the information now.
“You’re welcome. Well, for next week’s homework, I’d like you all to look up everything you can find on lampads and do something creative with it. It doesn’t matter what: you could write a story, make a song, make a play, maybe even a short movie. Just do whatever you’d like, but be creative! This is for a mark, so really do the best you can! You have to hand it in by Friday the fourteenth. That is in March, for the ones of you who think of doing something funny. It is also this year, so there really is no way of getting out of your assignment.” That’s also one of the reasons I liked Ms. Miros; we both knew how to make a joke and be serious at the same time.
“So, you know everything when it comes to mythology? Seriously? Your head doesn’t explode from all the knowledge you’re keeping in there?” Apparently Mitch got the feeling I already knew everything.
“No, my head doesn’t explode seeing it is still intact and I don’t know EVERYTHING, I know a lot, but definitely not all there is to know. Not even with mythology.” We really had to keep it quiet, because else Ms. Miros would notice us talking, she’d already glanced at us twice. Like I said, Ms. Miros was really nice, but she was also strict. And this rule she would want to keep unbroken.
“It sure looks like you do!” Too loud. Ms. Miros already started walking in our direction and she didn’t look too pleased.
“Is there a problem?” This was the second time today Mitch had gotten me in trouble, I don’t think it was intentionally, but I didn’t like it at all!
“No, miss.” I replied as polite as I possibly could.
“Then why were the two of you talking?” Trouble, trouble I couldn’t use at all.
“Oh, there was something I didn’t understand, so I asked Melaina if she could help me, that’s all.” Mitch gave the answer in such a polite tone, that it didn’t even sound like him anymore. There was something about him that wasn’t quite right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“Are you sure that was all that was going on?” Mitch and I exchanged glances and it was obvious we both knew what Ms. Miros was implying. Melaina, was that all?” God, I hate it when people do that! You see, I don’t lie out of principal and, unfortunately for me, that fact was widely known around here.
“No, Mitch wanted to know why you asked me when no one else knew the answer and he thought I was all-knowing.” A little overreacted, but it sounded like a joke and Ms. Miros liked a little joke every now and then. I was just hoping she’d like this little joke as well and that she wouldn’t take it as a total joke and send me to the principal’s office.
“Hmm, well okay, but next time you will be send to the principal’s office, no matter how likeable you are to have in my class, understood?”
“Understood.”
She shifted her gaze to Mitch. “What about you?”
“I understood.” He said at a little less polite tone of voice, a little more like when he was talking to me for example.
Ms. Miros turned around and walked back to her desk. After scanning the classroom for any more rule breakers, she sat down and started reading what I thought was a student’s paper.
“Why did you tell her that? If you would have just backed me up, she wouldn’t hate me now and we would have gotten away with it!” Mitch whispered, or at least tried to whisper, to me.
“I don’t lie! Now stop talking, I for one DON’T want to get in trouble.” I had enough problems as it was and trouble at school wasn’t something I wanted to add to that list.
“What do you mean; you don’t lie?” He was getting very curious now, but still I didn’t want to get in trouble. So, I just didn’t answer him. I stayed quiet until the end of the lesson, much to Mitch’s dismay. Mitch kept trying to get an answer out of me, though. He wrote stuff on notes and passed them on to me and he whispered the same question over and over again. It was totally annoying, but I wasn’t about to give in.
After the lesson ended, Mitch wanted answers, just like I expected.
“So, will you talk now?” He asked. He was definitely irritated, it was radiating off of him.
“Why wouldn’t I talk?” I asked in an almost equally irritated tone.
“Well, I don’t know, maybe because ten seconds ago, I couldn’t get you to make a single sound?!” He was becoming angry. I didn’t want him to be angry with me, but he did kind of deserve the way I treated him right now.
“Well, I don’t know, maybe I did that because I didn’t feel like going to the principal!” Mitch still showed anger on his face, but I could see he was calming down.
“Okay, okay, I get it. So, what was that “I don’t lie” stuff all about?”He still was far from calm, but he knew he wouldn’t get any answers by screaming at me. Good judgment, very good judgment, almost too good.
“It’s not that big, I just don’t lie out of principal.”
“Yes, I got that, but WHY don’t you?” Now he’d finally calmed down and seemed… concerned, which I didn’t get.
“Let’s just say I’ve been lied to enough to know I don’t want to do that to anyone else, no matter how small a lie may seem.” I didn’t want to go into details, mostly because I couldn’t even get the words I needed out of my mouth.
“Want to talk about it?” He was definitely concerned now, pretty sweet actually.
“No thanks.” And even if I did want to talk about it, I couldn’t.
“Okay, just know that you can talk to me.” He was about the only person who really cared and not just acted like he did. Knowing that gave me a good feeling, but I still didn’t know him well enough to tell him everything. Especially this matter was too painful and personal.
“I know that, thank you.” I didn’t look at Mitch anymore, instead I started studying the floor.
It stayed quiet for a while, until we reached the locker-hall. Parker High didn’t have a lot of students, so instead of having lockers in every hall, they only had one big hall filled with lockers. Mine was number 512, almost at the end of the hall, just my luck.
“Hey, Melodious Melaina!” Damn, it was Danny and his gang from the football team, the guys who liked blocking my way. Ben was one of them, but he wasn’t even close to being as annoying as Danny. Oh, and they had a cute nickname for me.
“If you can’t just say my name, don’t talk. Very original by the way, Melodious Melaina, wow, how did you ever think of that?” I don’t think I could have sounded more sarcastic than that. And Danny was a lot smarter than the others, so he knew for a fact how much I hated him.
“Why, thank you, I spend a lot of time thinking of that.” The smirk on his face grew bigger and bigger and the anger within me also started to grow.
“Bet you did. Now, could you move, so I can get to my locker?” While we were talking Danny’s minions had moved so that they’d block the entire hallway. This is what I meant when I said they sometimes literally blocked my way. It was very annoying, but I really needed to get through. Normally, they’d move after a couple of out-smarting arguments, but today I had the feeling it would be a little more complicated.
“Well, maybe after you give me a kiss, how about that?” No way in hell that was going to happen. Okay, stay nice, or they’ll never go.
“No thank you, I’d rather just get to my locker and go to work.” My tone of voice was as polite as I could possibly manage toward him.
“Oh no, I can’t let that happen. First that kiss, then we’ll talk about letting you through.” He meant that, unfortunately.
“And what do you think of getting some plastic surgery?” Mitch had stepped in and had his fist clenched.
“Mitch, stay out of this!” I tried to sound serious, and I think I did, but Mitch didn’t move.
“So Mel, you got yourself a little boyfriend?” Danny was making this worse for himself, but I didn’t think he knew that himself.
“You and your little friends move, or I will make you move.” Mitch’s voice was getting scary and really threatening. Danny noticed, but he figured he outnumbered me and Mitch.
“Well I think…” Danny didn’t even get the chance to finish that sentence. Mitch went for him and nearly tackled him, if it wasn’t for me. I’d started running as soon as I saw Mitch move and got between him and Danny when Mitch was only an inch away from Danny.
Danny’s face was pale-white and he was truly scared of Mitch. This wasn’t very surprising. Judging by the strength and force it took me to stop him, I had no doubt Mitch had the strength to break someone’s leg. Danny saw that now.
“You’re crazy!” Danny screamed and he gave his followers the sign to go. They ran toward the nearest exit. By this time, I was just happy we’d been the only people still at school, or at least in this hall.
“What the hell were you thinking?!” I had focused my anger on Mitch and pushed him away, since I was still holding him back.
“I was thinking that they should be treating you better than that!” He’d done that for me… It was sweet, but also stupid and demeaning, like I couldn’t take care of myself.
“So, you went to tackle him?! Do you have any idea what could have happened after that?!” This was protecting him; he had to see how thoughtless he’d acted.
“But nothing happened!”
“No nothing happened, because I stopped you from doing anything!” I was boiling at this point and Mitch would know that.
“You’re right… But wait, HOW did you stop me? I mean any other person would have been either too slow or too weak to even get a chance of stopping me.” Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have said anything about stopping him.
“I’m tougher than I look. That’s exactly why there was no need for you to get yourself into our dispute.” I hoped pointing that out to Mitch would make him forget about my miraculous save.
“Okay, I get it. I should have minded my own business, but I was just trying to help.”
“I know, but next time just let me deal with it.” We’d both come to the realization that screaming to each other wasn’t going to help and it seemed like everything was fine again.
“Sure, but if you ever need my help; all you have to do is ask.”
“What, so you can be my hero? This isn’t a fairytale and even if it was, I’d be the hero!” I decided that getting back to our way of joking would be the easiest way to forget about all of this.
“Yeah, I bet you would be.” We both smiled and I went to my locker to get the things I needed for work. There were a few seconds of pleasant silence.
“Hey, uhm, do you want to go get something to drink or eat or something?” Was he asking me out? I wasn’t sure. No, he probably just wanted to go drink something as friends. How could I even think anything else?
“I’d love to…”
“Sounds like there’s a “but” coming.”
“But I have to work. Sorry.” I actually really wanted to skip and just go do something fun, but that was pretty much impossible.
“Too bad. What kind of work do you do?”
“I work at a café at Misery Road and believe me, the name is just right!” Misery Road was a road where almost only bikers, truckers and hitchhikers came. Very occasionally someone from the city could be found there, but he was most likely lost.
“So I’ve heard. But you still haven’t answered my question: What kind of work do you do?” Very perceptive, Mitch.
“I’m in a band. Ever heard of “The Cover-UPS”?”
“Yeah, I heard they were the best band in the entire state!”
“Well, I don’t know about that, but people do seem to like us.” I really did like the compliment, but it was a little too much.
“Maybe, but I’d still like to come to one of your performances. That is, if you don’t mind…”
“No, off course not. We want the crowd to be as big as possible!” Normally almost the entire village came to see us, which isn’t saying all that much. The village consisted off about 200 people, so getting the entire village in one room wasn’t that difficult. However, when you play in a café at Misery Road, you’re lucky to get an audience of 30. That was why even one more person would already make a difference.
“And maybe after, we could still get something to drink.” He said it very casually, so the assumption I made by thinking Mitch only saw me as a friend, got confirmed. I didn’t mind, though. You have more fun as friends than as a couple, normally. “So, how are we going to do this?” Mitch continued. “Should I come with you right away or should I just be there in time for the concert?” Concert? It was hardly even a performance, let alone a concert. But I chose to let that one slide; it wasn’t a big deal anyway.
“Well, that depends; do you want to meet the other band-members? Because if you do, it’s best you come with me now. Else, I’d just be there in time for our performance if I were you.”
“You’d introduce me to the other members of The Cover-UPS? Sweet!” I think he was being just a little sarcastic, but meant what he said.
“Okay, coming with me it is! Do you have your own ride?” I could take him on the motorcycle with me, but I’d rather have him just take his own car.
“Yeah, I do.” He said with the sort of smile that made you suspicious.
Mitch went off to get his car and when he came back, it was clear to me where the smile came from. The car he drove around the corner with, was a big, silver Lexus, one of the most expensive cars I’d ever seen in my life! And then I do count the ones I’ve only seen in magazines or on tv, that’s how expensive it was.
“You can close your mouth now.” Mitch said jokingly.
“I don’t think I can. How in the name of God did you get this car?!” I wasn’t sure, but I thought my mouth was still opened.
