Rachael to the Rescue
It was a typical Thursday at Clearwater High School. The halls were packed with students arriving at school, heading to their lockers and taking their time getting to class. I slowly made my way through the crowds of people to my locker to switch out my Wednesday books for today's. I was a senior so all of this had become a zombie like routine for me; wake up, drive to school, fight the crowds in the hallway, go to class, talk to my couple of good friends at lunch, more classes and then go home.
I was placing my chemistry book into my locker when I heard a familiar voice behind me, "Hey Jake!". It was one of my best friends Rachael. She looked at me with her sparkling blue eyes and gave me a smile while pulling back her bleach blonde hair. She really was beautiful, not the kind of beautiful you see everyone posting about on Facebook or in music videos but the kind of beautiful that everyone respected and looked up too.
"Hey Rache" I responded in a sarcastic voice. She always shortened my name to Jake so I always made fun of her by responding with Rache. We had been doing this since 9th grade when we met in geometry class.
"What class do you have first?" she asked.
"Chem. blahh. I hope Mrs. Wattney doesn't notice that I still haven't complete my lab." I responded in a disgusted voice.
"Hey at least she likes you! Shes the one teacher in this school who has it out for me. Did you see the grade she gave me on the ionic bonds work sheet? She marked me down 15% for not showing my work on 1 problem which was easy and I got right! I will be lucky if I get a B+ in that class.". Racheal was really smart and a B+ for her is the equivalent of a D- for most people. She was proud that she always got straight As and planned on going to a prestigious college.
The hall went quite when a junior began shouting "Watch it kid!" as the sound of books crashing to the floor echoed through the hallway. A young looking underclassman whom I had never seen before stood in the center of everyone looking scared and startled.
"I-I'm sorry" the kid said in a shaky scared voice. He began trying to quickly pick up the spilled books but before he could finish the junior kicked the books further away and raised his fist about to strike the now shaking boy.
"Hey put that boy down!" Rachael yelled from behind me. Chris, the junior, who was also her x boyfriend looked up with a shocked face at Rachael. She glared back at him knowing he would do as she said since she was a somewhat popular senior that everyone respected.
"Do you have a crush on this new kid or something Rache?" he retorted while slightly laughing.
"You know what they say Chris, right? People who bully usually are compensating for something." said Rachael as she deliberately glanced down at his crotch.
His face turned beat red as everyone began to laugh since they were all aware that they used to date. He fumbled for a comeback but instead just stormed off while punching lockers in his path. Everyone went back to talking as usual as Rachael and I helped the boy pick up his books. He looked up at me with watery hazel eyes and quietly said "Thank you guys".
"No problem. If you didn't know already me and that guy used to date. He's a real ass so I take every opportunity I get to knock him down a notch." replied Rachael with a smile. The boy glanced up at us again with a small smile and walked away with his stack of books. "Well I'll see you at lunch" she said to me and walked off to her class.
I attended my usual morning classes; Chemistry, English and then Geometry and then headed to the lunch room following the big mob into the cafeteria. I grabbed my school lunch of mac n' cheese with chicken and a chocolate milk and scanned the caff for familiar faces to sit with. I quickly noticed Rachael and my other best friend Matt sitting at a round table in the far right corner. I rushes over and grabbed the second to last remaining seat. Our schools lunch tables were round and only sat 6 people each. Their was my 2 best friends, Rachael's best friend Steph, Matt's friend Chris and me. We didn't really fit any stereotypical group. Rachael was somewhat popular but didn't act it, Chris was average and played baseball and I was well me. I wasn't very popular but was not one of the nerds or geeks. I was quite around certain people but friendly around others and wasn't really into anything like sports or drama. "Hey Jacob!" said Matt in his young but deep sounding voice.
"Hi Matthew" I responded. I always liked calling him by his full name even though most people just called him Matt. Matt and I had been friends since middle school and were really close. He was really quite handsome with brown eyes, messy dark brown hair that always seemed to be sticking up perfectly and a skinny but athletic build. A lot of girls thought he was cute but he is very picky when it comes to girls. He had dated girls in the past but only ever really had 1 long relationship which was actually with Rachael's best friend Steph. At first it was awkward when they broke up but now everything is back to normal 6 months later. I on the other hand had never dated a girl for more then a month and not many girls noticed me.
"I heard you guys bailed out the new kid today." said Matt giving Rachael and me a smile.
"More like Rachael did. I just was there for moral support!" I responded happily.
Rachael shot me a quick smile and said "Well you wern't the girl who dated that asshole all summer!"
We all laughed and continued to talk about the disaster of a relationship that was Rachael Heartwick and Chris Stevenson. Our lunches were only about 25 minutes long but we were seniors so after lunch we all had a free period, one class and then got to go home. With only 5 minutes left, I spotted the new kid from earlier awkwardly sitting alone at a table finishing his lunch. Before I could say anything Racheal was shouting "Hey new kid come here!".
Chris and I looked up at her as she waved with a excited look on her face. The boy slowly walked over us recognizing who we were. "Guys this is the new kid I was talking about, his name is... uh well actually what is your name?" she asked.
"Domenick." he replied nervously with a scared puppy dog look in his eyes.
"Well I'm Rachael and these are my friends Jake, Matt, Steph and Chris." She said while gesturing to each of us. "We are seniors, i'm assuming your either a freshman or a sophomore right?" she asked.
"I'm a sophomore." he said sheepishly.
"Well Domenick the sophmore would you like to join us for the last few minutes of lunch?" she asked nicely.
"Sure as long as you guys don't mind." he said as he sat down directly across from me. He once again started eating quickly in fear of the bell ringing. He looked nervous and you could tell this school was new to him by this lost look in his deep brown eyes. He had medium length straight brown hair that extended to just a little past his jaw line which he kept having to push back slightly each time he leaned down to take a bit of food. He was wearing skinny jeans with a black t-shirt that had a red design across it.
I glanced up at him and we briefly made eye contact and he quickly looked back down at his food once again causing his hair to go near his eyes. "So were are you from?" I asked.
"I'm from New York. My family moved here last week when my dad decided to take another new Job." He said.
"What part of town do you live in now? I live by the old library if you know were that is." I said.
"I live by the corner store. Uhm I think its called GoMart?" He replied.
"Awesome, I know exactly were that is! Your about a 5 minute walk to my house actually." I said. His face briefly lit up right as the bell rang. He quickly threw out his food and ran out the door to his next class while I enjoyed my free period with my friends.
