Chapter 1 (Brian's Point of View)

My first day at Shady Heights High, I was far from excited and the day had only just begun. The halls were completely desolate as I stepped out of the Office, schedule in hand. The hall split in two directions, to my left the blue locker path led out to a set of matching metal double doors and to my right the tiled floor, which was colored in a mesh of blue, murky yellow, and white designs, led to a number of turn offs. I assumed since the way to the left led out to the parking lot that I was meant to go right. As I began walking, I noticed that little black plastic signs were posted high up on the walls of every turn off. White numbers were depicted with a dash in between each set, beginning at the first turn off as 100-110.  I glanced down at my schedule.

1st Period                    English 11                    Mr. Bayer - Rm. 202

I walked to the second hall and turned left. The doors to the classrooms were gaping spaces between the lines of blue lockers. I could hear the drone of various teachers beginning class.  Mr. Bayer’s room was the first on my right. I double checked the small plaque next to the door to make sure I was in the right place. Easily enough, the little sign matched the ones labeling each hall, white letters engraved in black plastic. The name Demetri Bayer was written in large block letters underneath this was Room 202 in slightly smaller type. I sighed, simple enough. Finding my way around this school didn’t seem like it was going to be too big a challenge.

I carefully opened the solid wooden door. It creaked on its aged hinges as I pushed it in. A fat man dressed in tan slacks with a plaid shirt and darker brown blazer stood at a podium at the front of the room. Just by his voice you could tell he was an English Major. A deep bass sound, that could be full of emotion with just the slightest tweak of its owner, portrayed the plump man well. I stood there wondering if he also taught the school’s drama program, when he ceased calling out the names of his students and looked over to me. He had cold blue eyes with wire framed glasses that matched his graying hair well, along with a bulb nose and double chin protruding from his face.

“Mr. Lancaster, I presume?” he bellowed.

With that, I could feel all of the eyes in the room shift to me like curious hawks wondering if I’d be their next meal. I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat. No way could I let a bunch of normal students and a too big teacher in bright green suspenders intimidate me.

“Right,” I responded with a slight nod of my head.

“There’s a seat in the back by Miss DeLauney,” he said, motioning to a seat in the far back of the room as he scribbled my name down in his clipboard attendance record.

Some eyes stayed on me while I walked towards the back row to my desk, but I could feel most of them move away, back to their conversations. The girl to my left, who I guessed to be DeLauney, was hunched over her desk, reading. As I dropped my bag by my desk and took my seat I caught a faint whiff of some sweet smelling aroma. It took me a moment to realize it was her perfume, faint and teasing. It was like spring flowers drawing you into summer. It grabbed my attention. I looked at her more closely. Her hair was a deep shade of auburn, thick waves of it fell below her shoulders. Her facial features were soft, delicate. Her skin was a pale ivory with just a hint of rose coloring her cheeks.

I watched as she absently smoothed a stray curl of hair behind her ear, a single diamond stud in her lobe. Her elegantly long fingers turned a page in the novel she was absorbed in. Her nails were painted a harsh black and several silver rings laced her fingers, perfect for playing piano.  She looked like the quiet type who didn’t speak unless someone else initiated conversation. So, here’s to being bold, or stupid.

“Hi,” I said.

She turned in my direction, assaulting me with the full intensity of her eyes. They were a startling silver gray, very bright and luminescent. But something else also caught me off guard; the skin around her eyes was red and puffy. As if she’d been crying. I wonder why? After a few moments she replied quietly, a bit skeptical. She was probably surprised to find me sitting next to her in a seat that used to be peacefully empty, I guessed since she’d seemed to be buried in her book.

“Hello.”

I gave her my best encouraging smile. The beautiful bell sound of her voice caught me a little off guard. It was a mild, pleasing tone. It was a becoming trait. I watched as her confused expression morphed slowly into a crooked half smile; it appeared a little forced.

“Are you new here?” she asked in casual conversation.

I blinked a few times to clear my head before trusting my voice.

“Yeah, my family and I just moved here from Houston. And man is it cold here!”

I feigned a shiver, trying to lighten the mood. As I rubbed my arms, she nodded, smiling a little more naturally now. A small giggle escaped through her soft pink lips. I couldn’t help but smile back at her. She was pretty when she smiled, judging by the redness under her eyes it seemed that wasn’t something she did a lot recently.

“So, um… do you have a first name?” I asked, not feeling comfortable addressing her by
‘Miss DeLauney’ as Mr. Bayer had.

“Ana.”

Ana DeLauney. Short, simple but it suited her.

“Miss DeLauney, Mr. Lancaster, would the two of you like to explain the difference between effect with an ‘e’ and affect with an ‘a’?” Mr. Bayer’s voice boomed from the front of the room.

I’d been so caught up in talking to Ana that neither of us had realized that class had begun. We both turned to face forward in our seats.  I saw Ana’s face flush with embarrassment from being called out in the middle of class. Not to mention that grammar wasn’t my strong suit and I wasn’t sure I knew the answer to bail us out.

“Well…” I began but was cut short as Ana began to speak at the exact same moment. Just as I’d stopped so had she, turning to look at me to see who should answer. I motioned gratefully with my hand for her to continue. Hopefully, she’d have a better idea of what she was saying instead of winging it like I’d planned to. She nodded once in acknowledgement then began again.

“Affect with an ‘a’ is generally used as a verb, meaning to act on or cause an effect (with an ‘e’),” she stated, placing solid pronunciations on the e’s and a’s so the difference could be told, “While effect is more commonly used in the noun form as something brought about by a cause.”

Whoa! She was cute and smart. That was a billion times better than anything I could’ve come up with.

“Correct,” Mr. Bayer boasted in approval, smiling at her as a master would his faithful hound.

She was obviously the teacher’s pet, for lack of a better term.

I heard one of the boys in the back retort an annoyed, “Show off!”

I felt my brow wrinkle and my teeth bare when I glared at him. His annoyed brown eyes almost instantly went soft with surprise, or something close to shock, along with his black eyebrows that arched skyward. Ana had just saved my butt. The least I could do was defend her from the jealous moron sitting two seats out of reach. He turned precariously back towards the front of the room, the extra red fabric of his sweatshirt following. It was good to know I could intimidate him. But considering it was only my first day in this new place, I should at least try to control my temper. That way maybe we wouldn’t have to move anytime soon.

Taking out a binder to take notes in once I turned back around, I glanced over at Ana. She had a green spiral, that matched Mr. Bayer’s suspenders, opened on her desk. In a fine cursive, she was taking down the notes on the board in a bright hot pink ink. A half chuckle rumbled its way up my throat and out of my mouth before I could completely stop it. Ana glanced nervously over at me as I brought my hand up to my mouth to suppress my laughter. The colored ink was cute. The last time I’d seen anyone write in rainbow colors was in elementary school when they didn’t let us use pencils in fear of us hurting ourselves with the sharp lead.

Mr. Bayer’s voice droned in the background. I removed my hand once I trusted myself not to laugh, but continued to grin as I began quickly copying my own notes in a messy print no where nearly as impressive as her cursive hand. Her eyes flicked back towards the board as she continued taking down the word differences. In what seemed like no time at all, a shrill bell chimed. Everyone around me gathered their things, hurriedly stuffing their binders and notebooks into their bags, and rushed out of the room to their next class. When I looked over, Ana had already gone. With a sigh of disappointment, I slung my bag over my shoulder. I looked down at my schedule to see what I had next. It was Trigonometry with a Mrs. Foley in room 310. I only hoped I’d have another class with Ana.