Chapter 6
Tala’s Point of View
*Please?”
“No.”
“Please?”
For the last time, no.”
“Please?”
‘Please?”
“No.” Jason grans, lightly pounding his head on the car window.
For the last five minutes, I’ve been constantly asking him to get me some new shoes since he destroyed my favorite pair during out paint ball adventure. At first, he looked happy to do it, thinking I agreed to his stipulation, but when I told him I wasn’t going to, he immediately denied my request. I was shot down like a plane in the sky. So, I’ve been bugging him constantly and he’s hated every second of it
He tried not answering, but I know how to be annoying and get what I want. I do have an older brother. He caved after Ike twenty seconds, but that’s what years of practice accomplishes.
I turn into the school’s parking lot without another word and notice a few people turn to look at the approaching car. Pulling into an available space, I shut the car off and quickly step outside. The chilly fall greets me and a slight wind blows my hair into my face. I brush it aside and lean on the hood of the car to look around.
If people weren’t looking before, they are now. Must be hard not to notice a new girl. These kids have probably been with the same people since like first grade. An outsider like me will be noticed right away, kinda like now.
The building itself is three stories and made of red brick. Over the front entrance is the name of the school, Greensbury High, in black lettering so it stands out against the fading colors of the school. To my left there are a few picnic tables to sit at before classes start in the direct shade of a few trees. On my opposite side, a line of trees start about thirty yards from the actual building.
I hear Jason finally get out of the car and he throws an arm across my shoulders.
“Welcome to Greensbury High, home of the wolves.” He smiles and looks around the place like he’s the one here for the first time. I know that isn’t the case because he’s already graduated and has lived here his whole life. Those questions came up during our first day of twenty questions.
“Yea.” I went to a private school back in California with a school twice this size and with a lot more money, Uniforms were required, but I found
a way around the dress code that never got me in trouble. This place is by far smaller then what I’m used to, and I won’t admit it out loud, but this
might be a nice change from the big city school.
“Come on, I’ll show you to the office where you’ll get your stuff. Since you’re starting late, the year has already begun so try your best to catch up.” I roll my eyes and shrug his arm off of my shoulders.
“Lead the way sir! I order in a posh British accent and he smirks.
“You’re so weird.” I laugh a little and give him a small shove. People lingering outside look shocked, but I have no idea what about so I push it to the back of my mind.
1 know now take me to the office before I just go home.”
“You wouldn’t walk that far” He states, pulling open one of the front doors. I walk in ahead of him and briefly look around the office.
“You’re right, but you’re forgetting something very important.” I tum around one hundred eighty degrees and smirk at his confused expression “What do you mean?” I pull his car keys out of my pocket and dangle them in front of his face. He smacks his forehead
“I still have your keys.”
“Damn, I forgot you had thosel Give them back.” He makes a grab for them, but I toss them well “You did not.” He narrows his eyes and I shrug my shoulders.
quickly into the fish tank located along the far
“They slipped, but I would get them back before the fish decide they wanna keep them.” I shrug as if it’s no big deal and keep my face as Innocent as possible while on the inside I’m laughing like a complete idiot. He stalks over to the water and stares at it for a few seconds, as if contemplating what to do. “The force you don’t have. Reach in and get them stupid.” He grunts in response.
“Can I help you miss?” I turn my attention to the woman sitting behind the counter, who by the way, is looking pretty amused by my actions. has dark brown hair pulled back into a low ponytall and looks to be in her mid thirties. The ring on her finger means she’s married and I
Kate
the husband. She’s
very pretty and her grey eyes hold a spark, of match efan them thaO212
“I’m new.” I stop in front of the waist–high desk as she starts shuffling through some papers and looking up a few things on her computer.
“What’s your name?” She waits with her hands hovering over the keyboard,
“Tala Taylors.” She clicks a few buttons and I hear the printer under the desk comes to life. She grabs the newly printed pages and hands
them to me with a smile.
*Here you go. Your schedule is on top with your homeroom number, locker number and combination on it. There’s also a map of the school
and a few forms that you need to have one of your parents sign and bring them back tomorrow.” I nod and offer her a polite smile. Leaning
towards me, she lowers her voice and says, “You know, there is a net if your friend would like to use it. It’s the left drawer.” I turn around and burst
out laughing at Jason. He has his shirt sleeve pushed over his shoulder and his arm is submerged in the water as he tries to get the keys I threw
In there. He gets close, but no dice.
“He’ll get them out eventually.” I walk to the office door and pull it open, I call out a thank you to the secretary and say goodbye to Jason, who still has his arm in the fish water.
I shut the door behind me and pull out my schedule. I have homercom with whoever a Mr. Shirk is in room 114.
I look at the closest room and see it’s room 33. Pulling out my map, I start walking down the hall in search of a stairwell. The bell hasn’t rung yet so a lot of students are hanging around their rooms.
“Hey, you must have fallen from heaven because you’re an angel I halt in my tracks and grip my papers tighter. I have to remind myself not to rip them and slowly they relax again.
“Are you talking to me?” I ask, turning for face whoever spoke.
The six something foot tall jock is leaning against the lockers with a smirk. He must think every girl will fall at his feet when he flashes it, but newsflash, I lived in California where guys were tan and hot. I know how things work.
“Who else would I be talking to?” He asks, straightening up to his full height. I tilt my head back to be able to look him straight in the eyes. “Well, I don’t know! you so it wouldn’t be my first g
guess I mo
I move to walk away, but the dude places a restraining hand on my shoulder.
“How ‘bout you and me get to know each other a little better?” He wags his eyebrows and I yank away from him in disgust.
“That’s disgusting. I don’t know what kind of girls there are here, but I’m not about to get it on in a janitors closet. You must either be a) a player, b) desperate or c)stupid. I’d choose ‘d‘ for all of the above.” His face turns a shade of red and I smile proudly at my comeback.
“You think you’re so smart.” He crosses his arms over his chest, almost in a threatening manor.
“I’m smart enough not to wear my shirt backward in public.” I hold back a laugh as he quickly looks down to see if what I’m saying is true. It’s not really backwards, but people fall for it all the time. By the way, touch me again and I will kick your ass. I took martial arts for years so don’t test me.” Kay, so that one is a lie tried doing martial arts, but it only lasted for a few weeks.
“Funny. He replies dryly and I smile innocently.
“Red, is this giving you problems?” A life size bleach blond barble struts over to the guy, whose name is Red, and attaches herself to his arm. Wait, did she call me this? I’m a person, not an object.
2/6
Feeling my temper rising, I glare at the girl and clench my fists. I hear my papers crinkle and give up trying not to ruin them.
“Excuse me, I am a person so don’t address me like a random object.” She turns her brown eyes to look at me and I notice all the makeup caked onto her face. She could actually be pretty if she didn’t try to cover it up with all that makeup.
“I can’t be bothered with people like you.” She flips he hair and places that hand on her hip.
“What kind of person am 17” I challenge, taking a step closer. With the heels she’s wearing, her head is slightly above mine.
“A nobody with a messed up fami- My hand cracks across her face before she can blink, making her stumble back a few steps. She steadles herself and stomps back to me. Before she can retallate, a teacher cuts in.
‘Girls! There will be no fighting in this school. The blond suddenly bursts into tears and I look at her like she’s lost her mind.
“I was minding my own business wh–when this girl just came up and s slapped me!” She walls and I have the urge to cover my ears. It’s loud enough that lots more people gather around to get a look at what’s happening. The teacher then turns his glare to me.
“To the principle’s office right now!”
And that’s how I ended up sitting in one of the office chairs on my first day of school waiting to be called by the principle. I take that time to uncrumple my papers so they’re at least readable for later and set them in my lap
“Miss Taylors?” An elderly man sticks his head out from behind the once closed door. I stand and follow him into his office. “Please take a seat.” He motions to a chair in front of his desk and I sit quickly.
His office is decently sized. It has a bookcase along the wall to my left filled completely with books, looking both old and new. The desk itself
is a dark wood with papers scattered all over top of it and a new computer on the corner.
“I’m Principle Garrison.” He brings me back to reality and I focus back on him. “Can you tell me why you were sent here?” He folds his hands in
front of him on the desk. He’s an older man with his hair starting to thin out and laugh lines around his eyes. Right now, though, his eyes are
serious and focused on me.
“Didn’t the teacher already tell you what that was about?” I raise my eyebrow in question.
“I want to hear your side of the story.” He replies, not once looking away.
“I slapped a girl.” I mutter.
“Because…” He urges me to continue. I don’t want to tell him exactly why I slapped that girl. It’s a sore spot and before I even realized I did it, I
ht her.
“She insulted me.” I settle on that as my answer and lean back into the chair. It’s actually pretty comfortable. The principle sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose.
“That is not reason enough to hurt another student, but since it’s your first day, I let you off with a warning. Try not to get into anymore fights.”
“I can’t promise anything.” He frowns at my words.
“I also will be calling your parents to let them know” My eyes snap up to meet his. He can call that house I’m staying in, but they’re not my parents. They won’t care about what happens to me at school just they dont care that I’m here against my
own will
“Can I go to class now?” I force out, trying to seem normal. He watches for a few moments before nodding.
I flee the room and punch the closest locker with as much strength as I posses. I feel the searing pain shoot through my knuckles and my hand, but I don’t stop to examine the damage. Soon enough my anger is replaced with pain and I cradle my hand against my body. I made sure to use my left hand so I can still write if I need to
I missed homeroom while waiting in the office so I head towards my first period science classroom. At least there are paper towels I can use to stop the bleeding on my knuckles. I guess I punched that locker harder then I thought. My hand is throbbing slightly, but I shake it off and walk
Into the correct room,
All of the students are back in the lab area where there are black countertops and sinks available to work. The teacher is sitting at his desk grading papers and doesn’t notice me come in. I clear my throat and he looks up.
“You must be Tala.” He smiles, and grabs a few things from a folder. “This is what you’ll need for the lab we’re doing and there’s also a syllabus for the year.” Inod. “You’re going to be lab partners with Shane. Shane!” He calls and a boy with short black hair and bright green eyes makes his way over. “This is your new partner. Please show her what we’m doing.”
“No problem.” He looks at me for the first time and offers me a friendly smile. “Come on.”
I follow him into the back of the room to where he was working where he hands me a pair of safety goggles. I scrunch up my nose at the thought of having marks around my eyes once I take them off. I finally see a roll of paper towels and rip off a good portion. Carefully wiping away the drying blood, I forget there are people around until someone grabs my hand.
“Hey.” I try to pull it back to me, but Shane keeps a light, but firm grip on my hand.
away. I shrug in answer and give a final yank. He lets me go and I finish cleaning up.
“What happened?” He asks, ignoring my attempts to get aw
“What are we working on? I hastily change the subject. He notices, but doesn’t call me out on it.
Different types of reactions. I was just about to light up a piece of magnesium over a bunsen burner.” He picks up a strip of what I guess is magnesium with some tongs.
“Doesn’t it light up like a sparkler?” He laughs and shakes his head.
“It does, but it’s more fun to actually do the experiment” He places the sample into the open flame and in seconds, a blinding light has me looking away. It’s over after a few seconds, but black spots dot my vision. “As long as you don’t look directly at it.” I blink, still trying to see straight
again.
“Thanks for the warning “I retort samastically
“I thought it would have been obvious.”
“Right.” I mutter and grab the things needed for the next experiment.
“Okay Shane, what have you leamed today?” Mr. West asks.
“Don’t put anything explosive into the bunsen bumer. I hide my smile behind my hand and Shane shoots me a glare. I kinda deserve it because I may have called him a wimp when he wouldn’t do my dare. Insulting his pride and manliness made him want to prove himself and he ended up blowing up three lab stations. A few people’s hair is singed on the ends, not including mine because I walked across the room to ask our teacher a question.
“Good. Do this again and you won’t be allowed back in lab. The nice teacher from earlier has all but disappeared.
“I am never listening to you ever again.” He grumbles, sitting down next to me.
1 never told you to do anything. You did it all on your own.“I don’t even look at him as I finish my calculations from the lab.
“But you- I didn’t–ugh never mind.” I laugh and the bell rings for us to go to our next class.
“How was school?” Jase asks as I hop into his car. He told me this morning that he’d drive me home. I hold up my hand to count off the things that happened.
“Well, I slapped a girl, went to the principles office, blew up a science lab and accidentally started a food fight in the cafeteria.” He blinks in surprise and starts the car.
“How did you start a food fight accidentally?”
“Well, I was eating peacefully and a kid thought ind be funny to throw a cookie at me so… I threw my pizza back at him.” He chuckles and turns out of the schools parking lot
“You have real anger management problems don’t you” I shrug and turn to stare out the window. I begin to drift asleep to the soft purr of the engine when something catches my eye. I sit up straight and try to look back down the road.
“Did you see that?” I ask almost a little too loudly.
“What?”
“It looked like a wolf It was by the edge of the road and it looked huge!” I face Jason who looks a little surprised.
“Really?” I nod my head vigorously. “They don’t usually come out during the day!”
“So it’s a normal thing to see them around?” I begin to calm down and then a little guilty. I yelled at Barron for lecturing me about how dangerous it is here. I didn’t believe it until now.
“You should probably apologize to Barron‘
“How do you know about that?” I narrow my eyes suspiciously.
“Dude, we’re best friends. He tells me everything.” I make a face which causes him to laugh.
“I’ve noticed.” Jase seems to relax back into his seat for the rest of the ride.
Pulling into the driveway, I’m greeted with the familiar sight of my mother standing with her hands on her hip on the front porch. She doesn’t look happy which can only mean that the principle called.
“Hey Jase, mind driving back so you can feed me to the wolf?” He chuckles, but I find nothing funny about the situation.
“She can’t be that bad Tala.” Oh you have no idea.
“You may know cars and sports, but I know my mother and this is only going to end badly.”
“Then I look forward to attending your funeral” I shoot a glare at him before throwing my door open. “Don’t break the car!” He yells and I
purposefully slam the door as hard as I can.
“Tala Marie Taylors! You are in so much trouble!”
“So your middle name is Maria. Jace toases and I punch him as he walks by,
“Shut up Jason!”
“I got a very interesting call today from the school. Two actually” She continues like Jason never spoke.
“What about?” I pretend not to know and walk by her to go into the house,
“You got into a FIGHT and started a food fight in the cafeterial All in the same day! The Tala I know wouldn’t do that!” I freeze with my foot on the first step to go upstairs, but she doesn’t seem to notice: “What happened to the girl who promised me when entering high school she’d never to get into trouble?”
“I’m not the same girl anymore. Even you should see that by now. I can’t and won’t go back to the way I used to be.” I can’t have my heart shattered again.
“Honey.” She tries to pull me into a hug, but I shove her away.
“Don’t touch me.” I storm upstairs and slam my bedroom door. I grab the closest thing and throw it against the wall. It hits with a thump and then the glass of the frame shatters. “Crap.” I hurry towards the mess, carfull to avoid cutting myself. I crouch down and pick up the now glassless frame. Inside is a picture of my mom, dad, Barron and me on my sixteenth birthday. This is when everything was normal.
I carefully clean up the mess I made and dump the broken glass into the trash. Slumping down onto my bed, I stare blankly at the white ceiling.
What I told my mom is true. I’ve changed. Since the divorce, I’ve had a shorter temper and gotten into trouble every so ofter where before! was the perfect child. Barron was the kid my parents were worried about.
Knowing what i need to do to let it all cut, I roll off the bed and into my closet where I still haven’t unpacked all my stuff. I find the right bag and pull out my sketchpad and pencils. I have hundreds of drawings in here. A lot of them done in the past few months. It helps me release any built up anger and it’s also strictly my eyes only. Tyler and Hailey have seen a few things, but even that took a lot of persuasion.
I open up my window and climb out onto the roof like the first time I used it except this time I have no intention of jumping off of it. I rest my back against the wall of the house and prop the book on my knees.
I don’t think. I just draw. All my anger that has built up over the past few days is transferred easily onto the paper. From one drawing to the
next, I don’t stop until my heartbeat stops racing.
My pencils are dull by the time I’m done and the sun is low in the sky. I hadn’t noticed until now, but it’s also gotten colder without the sun as my protector against it.
I slowly crawl back inside, but leave the window open behind me. Flipping through the pages, I look at the things I just drew. It’s a total of three
pictures.
The first is of me. Tears are running down my face and my arms are wrapped tightly around my knees. I’m looking up at someone sadly, but the only part of them I can see is their hand outstretched towards me as if they’re going to help me. The thing about my pictures is that they’re Just that. Drawings on paper. Nothing close to reality.
The second one is of Jason, surprisingly. The lines capture his kind eyes and goofy smirk. I touch it up a little by adding some laugh lines around his eyes. He’s such a funny and carefree person and I can definitely see that here.
The last is a landscape. It’s of the view from my old room of the backyard. From the perfectly clipped shrubs and bushes to the nicely cut lawn to the trees blooming for the first time right after winter. I even have Nadie running around after one of the gardeners. She always loved to play with them, but the people idn’t always find it funny.
y life sane and the last The first was for everything that has gone wrong, the second was for the little ray of sunshine that I’ve found to keep my is for everything I’m missing. It’s pretty much my life wrapped up into three little drawings. How I wish I never even had to do them because that
would mean this isn’t happening.
Sighing, I tuck my book under my pillow and change into a pair of sweats and a t–shirt. I heard someone knock a while ago, but I didn’t answer.
At least they didn’t just unlock the door and come in like the last time.
Deciding to face everyone downstairs after earlier, I prepare myself and leave the safety of my bedroom. Plus, Jason owes me fifty bucks and I can’t get it sitting in my room
