The inevitable end had come to the summer, though still in season, break from school was finally over. This was much to the disappointment of most students that attended the small, but very well regarded Belle Tech High School, as it would be at any school. Belle Tech was known for both it's award winning Magnet art program, and also it's strange remoteness. It was located in a rather open countryside, surrounded by farms mostly, and quite a drive for most students that attended the school. And even so, most of the students in the famous magnet program weren't even from the area, as a large portion of the town's population was very wealthy. Such a split in the population cause rather large rifts in social standings. Despite these gaping differences however, most of the students still had the same dread for school to start, no matter what their social standing. And united for even the briefest time, a large portion of the schools population was seated, or standing in the large front yard in front of the school, chatting carelessly one last time before they would be weighed down by school once again. Still a select few found, amongst the minor annoyance, some good things that would come of it. An expensive looking red convertible, pulled up to the school then, parking at the very front between two other rather large SUVs. A few people waved at the three passengers as they stepped out, tossing their hair in the small breeze that blew across the hills and through the trees.
"Well, there's one thing that's great about starting a new school year!" Jen said as the group walked as slowly as possible, down the sidewalk and up to the rather sunny high school. Whether they were late or not was to be seen, but of course, why make themselves look rushed and possibly break a perfectly good heel just to be early on the first day? When no one inquired to Jen's obvious reel, she continued unperterbed, "And that is to see the new hotty exchange students!"
"That's all you care about." Britney said rolling her eyes in her usual fashion. Britney was known school wide as 'the snob', and maybe for good reason. She looked like a model, pretty of course, but tall and lean, with pale blue eyes, smooth dark skin, and a great fashion sense. This set her at the highest level of the social proverbial food chain of course, and whether or not she truly cared about injuring her friends' feelings wasn't important as long as she kept up this all important facade. After all, there were many girls in school she could own as her new 'friends'.
"What really matters," She said brushing back a strand of her raven black hair, "Is who-if anyone- dated Tyler Beckett over the summer!"
Jen seemed totally oblivious to Britney's obviously snyde remark and immediately chirped, "Oh yea! Hey Marie," she said turning to the third, shortest girl in their party, "He called you this summer didn't he?"
Marie however, being her usual misty self was staring off at something the other girls would likely not have noticed, as was her usual fashion. She had a bad habit of drifting off and observing things when the conversation wasn't of interest. This was usually something she would be sensitive to and to avoid her friends' comments would likely have pretended nothing had caught her attention. This time though, there was something much too important to be ignored, and thus she immediately inquired, knowing well her friends had all knowledge of the school population. She being relatively new was fairly naive, and figured such a sensitive topic would not be thought much upon because of this, otherwise, inquiring about random unpopular looking people she saw in front of school might have been suspicious.
"Who...are they?" she asked absent mindedly, brushing back a flyaway strand of her red wavy hair. There was a large population of students hanging out on the front lawn of the school, but there was one particular group that caught her eye, one she hadn't seen convening before. She had met at least half of the school's population in her short time there, thanks to Britney immediately taking her under her wing. Whether it was for pity, which was highly unlikely, or because Marie had started to catch the attention of a certain boy Britney was interested in was a mystery, but nevertheless ancient history by high school standards. Like every other time Marie had inquired her friends of something she had put this question through a filter to preserve her reputation as a high and mighty popular girl. Truth be told, what she was truly thinking was...
Who is he? In her wandering moments she tended to catch glimpses of people, sometimes she stopped to study them for a few moments, some of them had something intriguing about them that she could never quite seem to place. People had always told her that she had a strange gift for understanding people. She never denied it. It was really by random chance that she caught glimpse of this one particular boy. She hadn't seen him last year, which came as quite a surprise seeing as how interesting he was. For what reason she dared inquire her friends she wasn't sure, but she had a stange gut feeling that if she were to really attempt to have a genuine conversation with anyone, it would be him. Marie sometimes had those feelings about people, as if she knew them before she even spoke a word in their direction. Most of the time, she sacrificed what she immediately knew would be a good friendship just to maintain what she had already established.
"Oh look!" Britney said with exaggerated sarcasm, glancing in the direction Marie had indicated, "The goth squad is back together again! The amazing return of anorexic kid has miraculously brought them back from hiding!"
Jen cracked a smile, but Marie only frowned. She'd never been fond of Britney's tendancies towards teasing, and though she hated to admit, she still had yet to stop her. It took quite a lot of guts to stand up to a girl like Britney, but Marie was about to see a very admirable example of this.
"Oh! It's our favorite person, SAM! Hi Sam how was your summer?" Britney called, waving mockingly.
A girl stepped forward then from behind the boy she'd been studying, one Marie assumed to be Sam. She was a rather short girl, with bright blond pixie cut hair, and sporting a rather strange dress, which Marie had been told was some sort of japanese goth style, though this high school was her first encounter with such a fashion. The girl, upon spotting the person who had called so mockingly, scowled at Britney with such loathing Marie physically shrunk back.
"What's your problem! Did you wanna come a little closer and say that to me?!" Sam shouted ferociously, taking a threatening step forward, hands balled into fists.
She may have been wearing a dress, and was a good two feet shorter than the girl she was threatening, but Marie had a feeling the toughest guy in school would be even a little afraid of her. She scowled in response, feeling a little pepped by this girl's extraordinary show of tenacity, and turned to Britney, "What's wrong with you?" she hissed hotly. She wasn't sure why she was defending this girl, but Marie had to admire the girl for her efforts. It was inspiring enough to stir up her own feelings on the matter and set her to gain just enough courage to stand up to Britney's immature name callings.
"Why do you have to be such a-"
"Cool it!" Britney said immediately dismissing her, hands on her hips, "What is with you Marie. You're always defending the weird kids! I thought you got over that but I guess not...Why don't you just go hang out with them!"
With that Britney turned on her heel and walked away, Jen shrugging apologetically in tow. Marie sighed frustratedly and looked back at the mysterious group, cheeks flushed. She hoped at least someone would appreciate her efforts, though she wasn't sure she expected it from such a fearsome looking group.
She was surprised then to catch the gaze of the mysterious green eyed boy she had wondered so curiously about. His lips were upturned in a small smile, little dimples appearing on each side, almost as if in thanks. She couldn't help but think fearsome was a strong word for them, who could be fearsome with a smile like that? Her heart fluttered a little as she stood for a moment, unable to react to his penetrating stare.
She finally recovered from her previous dabilitation and smiled, hair falling into her face. She felt a little breathless in the wake of her bravery, as she turned and hurried off to class, which only served to cause more curiosity to rise within her. What kind of boy was he to rise such a reaction from her? Most every other boy she came across was rather boring. She only dated them because it seemed like she should by all means be dating. She had secretly begun to wonder what was wrong with her to be so detatched in all of her relationships. It wasn't as if the boys were unattractive, she was sure she had never dated one she hadn't found remotely attractive. And certainly not every one of them was without some sort of redeeming personality trait. She knew because of this, and in all hope to meet someone she finally might genuinely care about, that she had to make it a mission to get to know him. As safely as possible...
"Those stupid-"
"Sam," Jamie said calmly, blowing back a stray strand of his auburn hair and crossing his arms defensively. He was well aware of what Sam was like in one of her rages. He had gotten fairly good at cooling her hot temper in the time he had known her, "Just calm down..."
"I swear," she snarled, arms crossed, "One day I'm just gonna-"
She never finished her sentance, which was an inevitable sign that what she would do was too horrible to put into words. The scariest part was that there was no exaggeration in it, Sam could be quite violent if she truly wanted to be. Lucky for her she was surrounded by people who would never let her be too insane about it.
"Hey, don't worry. They'll forget about us, just like they did every time before..."
"You weren't here last year!" She exclaimed hotly, obviously willing to pick an argument with anyone as long as she could blow off steam.
"Last year they left us alone more maybe. but this year it's already..."
"Hey," Josh interjected, using his tall frame to halt the conversation, "I hate to interrupt this lovely chat but we're gonna be late! So shut up you two and let's get going!"
Marie spent the entirety of her first classes daydreaming and doodling, sketchbook tucked away under her textbook. It was not uncommon for her, except now she had something to daydream about. Normally she only thought to herself of various musings and stories she'd begun to think up. Sometimes she would even sit for long periods of time spacing on what she could do to make a recent drawing more intriguing or finished. Of course, In the bustling cafeteria eating with friends was not the best place to be daydreaming about...
"Marie! Are you listening to me? I asked you about Tyler..." Jen said, dark well groomed eyebrows raised.
"Oh right, sorry." Marie said absent mindedly, dropping the textbook so her sketchbook was invisible once again. Jen opened her mouth to start asking again when Britney interrupted, a foul expression on her face.
"I KNOW what you're looking at...you're totally crushing on Sam bitch's anorexic boyfriend over there..."
"I don't even know who you're talking about!" she denied flushing slightly, realizing then that she must have been watching him a little too religiously.
Britney merely rolled her eyes, "Whatev, I'm going to talk to Tyler..."
As soon as Britney was gone, Marie turned to Jen, knowing full well Jen wouldn't condemn her for innocent curiosity, and she certainly had a few extra strikes with her then with the ever skeptical Britney. Jen was the only person in their abnormally large group of aquaintances that Marie could consider something close to a friend.
"Why do you guys call him that?" she asked quickly, eyeing Britney cautiously as she hurried over to the boys' table to sit.
Jen shrugged, "Britney wanted to annoy Sam, of course, her favorite hobby. She and that guy were dating... I dunno, I mean, do you really need reasoning for Britney's name-calling..."
Marie frowned in annoyance. Jen was not quite so outspoken as Marie was about things like that. If outspoken was really the word. Marie would pipe up and say something once in a while, but nothing quite like her feat earlier that day. She certainly wasn't the greatest defender of right and wrong.
"That's no reason to call him names, to call anyone names..."
"Look," Jen said taking Britney's seat and leaning forward as if to tell her a secret, "If you're really interested, which I don't know why you would be but...he's one of those artsy kids, he always had stuff up around school before Principal Whitney took over. Maybe you could catch up with him in the art room..."
Marie watched her dumbfounded, was Jen actually encouraging this? She shook her head, wondering if she'd assumed Jen's personality without actually discovering it. Perhaps Jen was putting up as much of a face as she was. Or of course, Jen thought she would be ridding Marie of this curiosity quickly with a little information.
Marie smiled greatfully, "Thanks."
They were silent for a few moments, an unspoken agreement settling between them that what had transpired would be kept silent, at least for the time being. Jen nodded with a hesitant smile and quickly changed the subject to a more appropriate topic, "Now, tell me what happened with Tyler!"
Marie smiled, the question seemed suddenly very ironic for the situation as it stood, "Believe me, it's not as interesting as you think it is..."
At the end of the day Maire hurried downstairs to the art room, careful to avoid seeing people she knew, which happened to be quite a lot. It wasn't that she was embarrassed, it was more that she didn't want to be hassled for it later on. Which was the unavoidable outcome for a girl like her going to the section of their school deemed off limits for populars, most especially if it was to see a guy like him. She glanced around at the murals on the walls, it was the nesting ground for all the magnet students, and it seemed like an entirely seperate world, especially since all the remnants of art had been sectioned off to here, murals and all painted over. She only gave herself a moment of looking wistfully before refocusing on her mission. For one reason or another, he appealed to her. Maybe not necessarily attraction, but there was something interesting about him. Most people didn't spark this interest in her. Tyler, though he was the hottest boy at school, was one of those guys that she would date for dating's sake and nothing more. He had called her this summer. The truth was, she'd ignored his call. He wanted one thing and one thing only with her, and she certainly wasn't about to give it to him. If they were to date for any purpose it would have to be one for social standing, and that wouldn't happen outside of school in any case. It was a sort of cruel outlook, but she knew he would be thinking the same.
She clutched her sketchbook nervously as she stepped through the door, heart pounding, as if she expected students to be lined up inside ready to rip her meager artwork to shreds. She had never really shown anyone her sketchbook before. It was very personal to her, it was like letting someone read her diary. So, she kept it clutched in her hands whenever she could, in case a terrible mishap would toss it open faced on the ground. Maybe she was a little paranoid... but the face she put on everyday to please her peers would be shattered should any one of them peer into it's depths. The very idea of showing it to this mysterious boy may have been random and strange, but for some reason, it made perfect sense to her. Things seemed to happen that way as of late. She stopped for a moment when she finally looked up and saw him at the back of the room, surprised, and suddenly a little apprehensive to find him there. This dissipated rather quickly though, as she nearly dropped her sketchbook when she saw the piece he was working on.
"Wow..." she breathed, drawn to it like a magnet. Suddenly, the self-consiousness she felt was dabilitating. Her stomach lept into her throat when he turned to her, obviously having heard her exclamation. She'd never thought meeting someone could be as pivotol as it felt right then. It seemed like suddenly everything in her mind clicked and turned in a different direction, readying to change to a course so new and different Marie had the sudden urge to run back out the way she came.
He flushed slightly, smiling and the moment once so tense suddenly became perfect and comfortable again, and her feet were planted firmly where she stood.
"I-uh...I hope I'm not invading your workspace or anything..."
"Oh! Oh no...I just- I really like your painting and I...I just-I wanted to have a closer look." she said, fumbling over her words.
She'd never had this much trouble talking to someone before. perhaps she'd been smothered by the momentary sensation she'd had. She talked to people everyday all day, about much more intimate things than this, and yet she was fumbling over her words like she had a speech impediment. She flushed a bright scarlet, hoping he wouldn't think anything of her momentary lapse in vocabulary.
"Oh...well, uh- thanks!" he replied with a grin, "Do you draw?"
"What?" she said surprised. He nodded towards her sketchbook, raising his eyebrows.
"Oh! Right...I mean, yes, but they're just sketches...doodles...nothing like this..."
"Can I see?"
She hesitated a moment, looking back at his painting and wondering why she felt the need to be so perfect, but she knew there was nothing to worry about. If he were one of her group of friends then she would likely pass it off as a book full of notes and nothing more, to save herself quite a bit of pain. But if anyone understood, it would be him, or so she hoped. She handed it over and followed him over to the table, stomach doing sommersaults.
He sat and opened liesurely up to the first page.
"Wow." he said, studying it with contemplation, then began leafing through the other pages with increasing gusto, looking over each with interest, "These are great! So different...Are you in any art classes?"
She sighed a breath of relief, giddy with excitement and weak kneed at his surprising enthusiasm.
"No," she replied breathlessly, "I've never done anything outside my sketchbook."
"You should!" he said turning to her, "You could really do something with this. Maybe you should talk to Mr. Wells about taking a class..."
He stopped at a few of them, furrowing his brows in thought before turning to the next, sometimes flipping back to look again. She certainly hadn't expected any kind of interest. Then again, only her family had seen her sketches thusfar, what did she honestly expect? He closed the book with a gentle smile and handed it back to her. She couldn't wipe the grin from her face. The first time in a year she'd revealed herself to someone and hadn't been beaten down with laughter. Her sketching had taken on a different role in that moment, shifting from mere doodles to something she could expand and evolve to something worth while, some kind of freedom.
"By the way, my name is Jamie."
"I'm Marie," she said with a genuine smile, speech impediment losing its grip on her, "I haven't seen you around school before."
She tucked the sketchbook back in her bag as he formulated an answer.
"I was just about to say the same thing. But then, I wasn't here last year..."
She nodded, pretending she hadn't known this information before. After all, if she knew too much about him before they'd even met it would be quite an awkward situation.
"I just got here last year," she replied,"I guess we just missed eachother."
He half smiled at her coy reply.
When he didn't respond she took a bold step and decided to impose on his time. She was determined, whether it was dangerous to their reputations or not, to study him if only for a few minutes longer.
"Mind if I stay for a while?" she asked, walking around him and taking a seat at the table. She waited with baited breath in hopes of a positive response.
Jamie grinned, walking around and taking the seat beside her, "Not at all."
They spent the rest of the time chatting about various things, including getting Marie into the school's prestigious AP art class. Jamie told her he would help her ready her portfolio for the review in a few months. She readily accepted his offer, hoping to sate her intrigue and spend as much time as she possibly could with him. Though this setup was potentially problematic, seeing as their first session was going by so quickly with no work done whatsoever. She found it suprisingly easy to bring up conversation with him. Easier than most people she had talked to in her year and a half there, and she was good at talking to people. Why else would she have risen in the ranks so quickly? They were so wrapped up in chatting about various art topics, and gossiping about artists they thought no one else had known about, that neither had payed attention to time until someone walked into the room and interrupted their steady flow.
Marie was not very surprised to see this boy, as she had seen him earlier standing rather defensively behind the raging Sam. He was rather intimidatingly tall, but had a sort of air about him that depleted this feeling immediately. She stole herself to stare at his bright silver hair and piercings for a few moments, wondering vaguely if he was in the magnet program as well, her certainly looked the part.
"Oh hey Josh!" Jamie said standing up, "Done already?"
Josh eyed Marie curiously, something she hadn't dared encounter before. Though, compared to how Britney would have reacted to this situation, Josh's glance was extremely mild, almost nonchalant. She had a feeling he was even easier to get along with than Jamie.
"Already?" he said with a laugh, shifting his gaze back to Jamie seemingly undisturbed, "It's five o'clock! I was wondering what was taking YOU so long. Come on already."
Jamie nodded, turning back to her quickly.
"Will you be here tomorrow?" he asked quickly, packing up his things.
She couldn't help but allow the grin to creep back onto her face, "Yes, I'll be here, teacher."
He chuckled, "Okay, I'll see you then..."
He stood there for a moment longer, as if he was going to do just one more thing before leaving, but seemed to think better of it and turned. Marie felt a small rush of excitement from his hesitation to leave, it meant he was just as intrigued by her as she was of him, though she would probably be a little confused about a girl like her walking in on him too. She watched him leave as he followed Josh out of the classroom, turning back around to wave once more before they exited.
Josh and Jamie walked at a liesurely pace out to Josh's old beat up honda, in no rush to return home. Not that school was any more pleasant. Jamie yanked open his door and got in with a bit of effort, Josh following suit. The car was more compacted than it looked, and Josh being a teenager, had as much junk and trash as he could fit on the floor of the passenger's side. No one had much of a clue what the floor looked like anymore really. Jamie looked down at it a little apprehensively, wondering if there might be anything alive beneath the garbage. He pulled at the heavy door, slamming it twice before it stayed in place, and threw his bookbag in the back seat. Josh left the door open for a moment, airing out the stuffy warmth, then slammed it shut. They were silent for a few seconds, Josh seemingly readying to start the car but put his hand down and watched out the window.
"You gonna keep hanging out with her?" he asked nonchalantly, avoiding Jamie's stare with obvious effort.
Jamie frowned, wondering what he meant by that statement. Josh often said things that sounded a certain way, but were easily misconstrued, "Yea I am, so?"
Josh shrugged quickly, "You know I don't care, Sam will of course, but that's not the point...I mean, you're gonna have to tell her. If you're gonna keep hanging out with her, she's gonna wonder...she's gonna ask..."
He stopped his sentance abruptly, as if unwilling to actually put what he was thinking into words.
Jamie sighed inwardly, turning to peer out the window. Josh didn't need to put it plainly for him to understand.
"I know." he said, a tone of finality in his voice.
He felt his friends gaze on him for a few moments, then finally Josh started up the car, putting it in gear, and letting it sit for a moment.
"You know...you and Jenna could have dinner at my place tonight..." he started, breaking the strange silence.
"Nah, I better just go home..." Jamie replied quietly, "but thanks..."
Josh nodded with a mildly troubled look on his face, "All right."
Then he backed the car up and pulled out onto the road. They drove off in silence, racing the summer storm clouds that hurtled foreward in the sky.
