Chapter 6

That night I stayed in my room. The only time I came out was for dinner and when I was done, I hurried back up to my room. I kept myself occupied playing Golden Eye all night after I finished my homework. When I got to school the next day, I walked by Mr. Watts’ classroom and noticed a group of girls standing around a bulletin board hanging on the wall. I couldn’t see what they were looking at initially, but then one of the girls moved. When I saw it I froze. My backpack slid off my shoulders and crashed to the ground in a thump.

There, hung on the board for everyone to see, was my picture of Laura. Sure, the oak tree was there, but it was a picture of her. I heard faint sounds of voices, but my mind wasn’t registering it clearly. “Wow!” “She’s so beautiful.” There was even one mention of, “I wish I could have a picture of me like that.”

With me standing in the middle of the hallway, I was effectively acting like a car parked in the middle of a flooded street. Eventually the water was going to be too much, and I would be carried away. It was unavoidable—first I was bumped into gently, and then again more forcefully which sent me tumbling to the ground, nearly slamming my face into the polished industrial laminate floor.

“Jesus Christ! Get the fuck out of the way kid!” I heard a loud voice yell as a student with a five o’clock shadow at 7:45am in the morning nearly tripped over me.

“Watch where you are walking then, Jack!” a girl yelled back and knelt to see if I was okay. “Come on you gotta get up before you end up trampled.”

“Uhh, thanks...” I stammered.

“Don’t mention it,” she smiled once I was back on my feet.

“My bag, I had a backpack!”

I started to panic thinking someone might have taken it. I looked all over but couldn’t see anything through the mass of bodies going this way and that to their respective first period classes.

“Is this it?” The girl found it and was holding it up in front of me.

“Yes, thanks!”

“Sure, try not to lie down in the middle of the hallway next time you want to take a nap. Unless it’s during class, then you should be fine.”

“Thanks,” I chuckled at her joke. “I’ll try to remember that.”

“Cool, see ya ‘round,” she replied, waved, and headed down the hall, disappearing into the crowds.

I thought about looking at the picture on the wall, but decided that was going to be a bad idea and felt the sudden need to get far, far away from it as soon as possible.

When the lunch bell sounded, I headed outside. We were allowed to go outside for lunch, but we couldn’t leave campus until we were sophomores. I wasn’t hungry and I wanted to be as far from everyone as I could be, at least until I had to face Laura again in Mr. Watts’ class. I had avoided that hallway the whole morning after my little incident, thankfully. I climbed up the stairs that led towards the street but turned short of there and sat down on the grass. It was a warm day, but not so hot that you would start sweating, and the breeze was wonderful.

I felt good, relaxed sitting outside in the soft green grass. No one was bothering me; I had the hill to myself. Not really, this was technically Smoker’s Hill, not the place you wanted to be associated with as a freshman in all seriousness. The smokers (yuck!) were thankfully thirty yards further up the hill on the edge of the school’s property. A dozen or so students were milling about on the sidewalk. I guess the sidewalk was the defining spot and being there gave them permission to smoke since it was city property and not the school’s.

Regardless of how they were allowed to smoke up there, it was common knowledge and accepted that it was going to be used by the smokers, and the teachers and hall monitors left them alone. I just ignored them or tried my best to. That was until I saw a shadow coming towards me out of the corner of my eye. I turned and saw a girl with long, dark hair with a cigarette in her hand walking towards me. She was smiling and it wasn’t one of those happy, bubbly teenage smiles. No, this was one of those sultry ones. She knew what she was doing and how she looked. It was the kind of smile that scrambled boys’ brains until they were tripping over themselves to do her bidding.

She looked to be taller than me, and older too. If I had to guess, maybe a junior. She had on tight jeans that hugged her hips and thighs but loosened past her knees. They weren’t bell bottoms, but they weren’t too far away from them either. She had on a tight-fitting white tank top, and it was obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra to support her rather generous chest. The fabric of her top was thick enough that I could not see through it, but the points her nipples made were blatantly obvious.

Her face was smooth, feminine, and perfect. I knew she was wearing makeup, but the only reason I could tell was because of her eye shadow and eye liner. Her rich brown eyes seemed to sparkle of their own accord and her pouty lips looked as dangerous as any other part of her. Her long hair hung loose around her shoulders, and I could smell the sweet scent of her perfume. She was flat out gorgeous.

I quickly turned my head away and tried to focus on the grassy hill and not on the girl walking in my direction. Leave me alone, please!

“Taking any more naps in the hallways between classes?” I heard the girl ask as she stopped just behind and off to the side of me.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, my tone flat, annoyed.

“You don’t remember me, do you?”

“Should I?”

“Wow, this might be a first!” She laughed and sat down next to me, her legs stretched out straight in front of her, one ankle over the other and she leaned back on her hands. “I must be losing my touch with the boys.”

“Huh, do you mean?”

“Never mind, you wouldn’t understand,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You really don’t recognize me?”

I turned and really looked at her for a few seconds. Then it clicked. She was the one who helped me this morning in the hallway. Oh shit, I am such an asshole!

“Sorry, of course I remember you,” I said and offered a weak smile. “Thanks for helping me this morning.”

“You do remember!” She returned the smile with a genuinely happy one. “What happened?”

“I, um...” I stammered, not really wanting to talk about it. “Nothing really, I was just ... surprised.”

“Oh, come on,” she replied, not letting me off the hook. “You can tell me.”

“My picture...”

“Your picture—wait! You mean, that was your picture in the hallway everyone was looking at?” She suddenly sat up and grabbed my arm excitedly.

“Yeah,” I replied and risked a glance at the hand holding my arm but then quickly went back to looking at the grass in front of me.

“You have a talent kid.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“What’s your name?”

“Josh uh ... Davis, yours?”

“Dana Freidricks, nice to meet you Josh.” Dana smiled at me with her sultry grin again. “Do you think you could take my picture sometime? Like the one of the girl under the oak tree hanging in the hallway?”

“Maybe, I don’t know if I am allowed to do that,” I answered.

The idea of taking her picture was kind of appealing, but I had no clue if Mr. Watts would allow me to take pictures of other students from school, ones that aren’t in our class. I would have to ask when I got there next period.

“Well, find out!” She giggled. “I would love to get some pictures of me.”

“I’ll try, but no promises.”

“Cool.” Dana got up and walked back up the hill to where the rest of the smokers were hanging out.

I sat there in the grass for a bit longer, debating if I should go to Mr. Watts’ class early and risk running into Laura again. If she was mad at the picture before, she was going to be murderous now that the whole school had likely seen it. The thought of taking Dana’s picture spurred my decision and I got up, dusted off my pants and headed inside to find Mr. Watts, who was hopefully in his classroom already.

When I walked into the classroom, I saw Adam sitting in his seat, eating a sandwich he must have brought from home.

“Hey,” I greeted him as I sat down.

Adam smiled at me, waiting to finish chewing his bite before swallowing and replying, “Hi, did you see your picture in the hallway?”

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