She hung her head as she trudged
through the hall, attempting to block out the ceaseless chants
that followed her every step. They made faces, jeered her, and poked fun at her. Her hair
and her
clothes, her intelligence and her artistic nature—they were all abnormal. She wore
tight black jeans
ripped at the knees, a tight black shirt, and chunky black combat boots. She had a silver
ring through
her nose and eight other silver rings in each ear. Her eyes were dark with black makeup
and her hair
was dark purple and cut extremely short. She was an outcast, and everything about her
exhibited that
She finally approached her
locker—she was in safe territory now and was free to relax. She turned
the combination lock and her locker swung open. Her books came tumbling down in an
avalanche,
cascading from their usually neat position. She picked up her math notebook and saw that
raw egg
dripped slimily off it onto the floor. She stood speechless. These books had all her
notes, her entire
work for the year in them. These books, which she had so painstakingly organized and
written so
neatly, were ruined. Not to mention, the books that belonged to school were wrecked as
well. They
were going to take hours to dry.
Cindy, a nice girl whose locker was across from hers, witnessed the
entire thing. What a horrible
thing to do…what did she ever do to them? she thought. She was about to go over and
help her when
her boyfriend Kyle slipped his arm around her.
"Original, huh?" he whispered in her ear, chuckling.
Cindy didn’t know what to say; she had her reputation and
Kyle’s reputation to think bout. Well, not
her reputation, but her appearance in the public eye. She was a typical
cheerleader, a really popular
and well-liked girl, and had been for a long time. Kyle was the football captain and equal
in popularity.
They were the "perfect" couple, high school sweethearts if you will. If Cindy
did or said anything that
was against Kyle or any of his friends, she would be looked down upon; she had to
go with the flow.
She gave a half-hearted "yeah" while still watching Chloe,
the poor girl, struggle with her slimy books.
Kyle pulled her attention away and back to him. "So are you coming
to the game?"
"What? Oh…yeah," she said, pulling her eyes reluctantly
from the scene.
"What’s up with you Cindy? It’s just Chloe…nobody
likes her. You don’t feel bad, now do you?" he said.
"Oh! No, no of course, I mean, wait—" she sighed,
"let’s just go to lunch, shall we?" she said.
They walked down the corridor to lunch with Chloe still on Cindy’s
mind. Entering the bustling
cafeteria students were seen yelling across the room; the cool kids carrying trays and the
geeks with
their bagged lunches. The cool people were on the left side, the rest on the right side.
Cindy got into
the lunch line with Kyle and met up with her friend Alicia.
Alicia pulled her to the side. "So, are you going to the prom with
Kyle?" she asked.
"I’m not sure yet, he hasn’t asked me," she replied
quietly.
"Not sure? What do you mean! You and Kyle have been going out for,
like, ever!" she exclaimed.
"Well, y-you never know, he’s a senior an-and we're only
s-sophomores," she said, even more timidly.
"He’ll ask you."
The finality of this statement signified that the conversation was
over. Alicia, she thought, had a
tendency to be very controlling and authoritative like that. Come to think of it, all of
her friends had
traits that were, to say, slightly irksome: Alicia was pushy, Sarah was always
complaining, Jesse was
obsessive for materialistic things, and they were all really superficial. She wasn’t
pleased with any of
her friends’ behaviors, but it was a privilege to be a member of their group, so she
didn’t complain.
Chloe
took a handkerchief out of her pocket and wiped the slimy egg off of her book. It was
foul,
but she managed to get off a fair amount.
Sometimes she became so frustrated. She felt as if the entire world was
against her. She hadn’t a
single friend in the school. Sure, she had had friends in the past, but she had been
desultory and shallow,
and she didn’t like being that way. It made her think about what was important to
her, which she now
knew was her family and her art. She gathered her books in the crook of her arm and
slammed her
locker shut. The hallway was deserted now, and she was off to the library to study.
Everyone was either
in lunch or in classes.
The library was nearly deserted except for a few stragglers checking
out books or reading in corners.
She greeted the librarian who had come to know her from her daily visitations. She took a
seat at an
empty table and dropped her books. It made a tremendous crash in the silent library and it
startled her
and the rest of the population.
"Sorry!" she whispered.
She opened her book and began to read its tiny print. After awhile, she
became lost in it, as she always
did, even though she needed to do her schoolwork. Reading gave her a way out of her life
and into another
of her choice. She went to places away from snotty cheerleaders and selfish little
princesses that dominated
the population of high school. Oh how glorious it was to read!
Cindy sat down at her table in her
usual spot on the left side of the lunchroom at the third table from
the stage in-between Alicia and Sarah. Kyle sat down across from her and gave her a covert
wink. She
smiled and looked away.
Jesse and a couple other girls started talking about prom and hair and
bathing suit season and whatnot.
Kyle and all of his macho friends began talking about the big game on Saturday and
weightlifting and other
insipid male topics. For a moment, everything in the lunchroom looked different. She
realized that what she
was doing was inevitably trite and she had the sudden urge to get up and leave, but she
suppressed it. I’m
lucky, she thought forcefully, I’m popular and I have a cute boyfriend and I have
what every high school
girl wants!
Suddenly, all of those things weren’t important to her anymore.
These were trivial matters that didn’t
affect her future or her value and worth as a person. Her life was in shambles, and her
future was going
to be affected. These people weren’t going anywhere in life and she realized that.
She rose from her seat at the table. "Where are you going,
honey?" Kyle called to her back.
She didn’t reply. Walking out of the lunchroom she thought of
where to go. Unable to think, she
continued on to wherever her feet were taking her. She pulled off her cheerleading jacket
and folded it
in her arms. Suddenly, she looked up—she was exactly where she had wanted to be all
along.
She pushed open the door and greeted the librarian with a cheerful smile. She sat down at
a table, startling
the girl seated there.
The girl gave her a skeptical look. Her face began to soften when she
realized that she wasn’t to be harmed.
Cindy reached out her hand. "Hi, I’m Cindy."
email the author / back to top / back to Fiction