205It was an average day really. Just like any other. The sky was gray and unresponsive. It forgot it's feelings on the kitchen table right next to my permission slip for the history field trip. I spent the ten minutes before the bell wondering if I forgot it on purpose. There are quite a few things I'd rather do than sit on a crowded, noisy school bus for an hour to go to a stuffy museum to look at old shit.
So I was sent to study hall for period five. The last period of the day. Maybe I should have gone home but I didn't. I sat at a table by myself. Not a small table that is only meant for a few people but a long, infinite table that could fit the entire eleventh grade and their mothers. The empty chairs mocked me with their black hardened gum stains and hazardous springs jutting out from the seats.
I stared down at my calculus homework and sighed. It may as well have been written in German. I doodled in the margins and waited for the bell to ring.
I had become immune to the sounds of friendships at the other tables. My two friends were on the history field trip. It's much more average to have a few friends than it is to have none.
Halfway through the period, one of those kids that no one wants to sit near sat across from me. He smelled bad. Like cat piss or maybe it was oranges. His greasy black hair hung over his eyes like a curtain. I waited for them to open so the drama could begin. But he just wrote in a notebook the whole time, never looking up. I drew a cartoon version of him in my margin and gave him a razor blade and a bottle of vodka. It looked more like my pen exploded on my paper than an actual person. Hey, I'm no artist.
Maybe you're all waiting for the plot to pick up, for something big to happen. Well I've got news for you. I'm waiting too.
I believe something extraordinary happens every day, just never to me. I'm caught in the eye of the storm just waiting for the weather to change.
"What are you writing?" I asked suddenly. My calculus wasn't going anywhere and besides I didn't know what the hell a derivative was let alone how to find one.
He jerked his head to the side causing his stiff hair to move off his eyes. They were brown, nothing special, just brown.
"It's private," he grumbled. Just as I suspected.
"Ugh, how cliché," I said. Maybe I was just bored. That happens a lot when you're like me. He glared at me. I could see steam coming out of his ears. Clichés always got artistic types going. It was like getting the death sentence to them to be called cliché. Maybe I was looking for a fight or perhaps just a little excitement. Can you blame me?
"How is it cliché to want a little privacy?" he asked, glaring at me.
"You just look like you're trying to hide," I tried to explain. To tell the truth. I didn't know what I was talking about. There's your first insight into my personality. I talk too much and most of the time I don't know what the hell I'm saying.
The guy just frowned at me and went back to writing whatever he was writing.
But I wasn't going to give up that easily. I was sick of my life being so average. If I couldn't be so unique I was cliché, then I could at least have friends who were.
"C'mon what are you writing?" I asked again. By now I had put away all my books and was leaning across the table trying to peek at his notebook. His writing looked like he'd just been on a train, it was so messy.
"Hey, get lost, bitch," he growled. He yanked his notebook onto his lap so I couldn't see.
"Oh, so that's how it's going to be? What did I ever do to you?" I asked, feigning anger. There's another insight, I have an exterior made of concrete. There isn't much that can crack it. Certainly not a wayward greasehead with a potty mouth.
The guy didn't say anything. He was trying to ignore me. How cute.
"Hey!" I threw my eraser at him and it bounced off his forehead and landed on the table. He looked up at me slowly and this is the first mindless cliché in my extensive list: if looks could kill, I'd be six feet under.
I smiled at him. "I'm trying to be friendly," I said.,
"Well you're not very good at it," he said and shook his head slightly. He was started to soften. Damn, I'm good.
"I'm Elise," I told him.
"Congratulations," he said.
"What's your name?" I asked. If I could describe myself in one sentence it would be: kindergartner that doesn't know when to shut up but is surprisingly endearing.
"Spencer," he said finally.
"Oh, you don't look like a Spencer," I said frowning.
"Why?" he asked,
"It just sounds like a dorky name, that's all," I explained.
"Maybe I am a dork," he said, sneering. He could look really mean if he wanted to. His eyes were kind of small and beady like a rat's and he had a twitchy little nose. Actually he reminded me a lot of a rodent. Attractive.
The bell rang and everyone else in the library gathered up their things and filed towards the door. Like cattle. I could hear the clop, clop, clop of their hooves on the floor in the hallway.
I was in no hurry to go home and hang out with my Mom's lardass friend that had moved in with us. She had grown roots on the sofa and her hand was permanently attached to the remote. All she ever watched were soap operas and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. She always yelled out answers and slammed her foot down when she was wrong. Which was most of the time. It sounded like someone was remodeling the house or something.
"Aren't you leaving?" I asked.
"Aren't you leaving?" he asked back.
"I asked you first," I shot back.
"I'm waiting for my ride," he said shortly. He seemed eager to get rid of me. Story of my life.
"You won't see them from in here."
"Why are you so nosy?"
"I'm not nosy, I'm interested."
"Why?"
"Why not?"
"Do you ever give a straight answer?"
"Nope."
We sat there in the twilight zone like silence. I fiddled with the zipper on my backpack and he scribbled in his notebook. I was kind of afraid that if I got up and left now I would never speak to Spencer again. Things are like that sometimes I guess. People just pass through our lives like a hitchhiker on the side of the road. You could pick them up and your life would go in one direction or you could ignore them and head in the same direction you were before, It's a split second decision and you'll never know if it's the right one. Unless of course the hitchhiker was an insane murderer and the next time you contemplate your life you're dead.
Well, then you know that you probably made an error in judgment on that one.
So, I didn't get up. I had nowhere to be. That's the only predicament an average person has to deal with. My life is pretty stress free actually.
Twenty minutes of pure silence followed. The only sound was the occasional slammed locker in the hallway.
Then the librarian Ms. Montgomery came in. She was not your average librarian. She was tall and slim with wavy blond hair and blue eyes. She couldn't be older than twenty-five. She was beautiful if you want me to give it you straight. The type that would have to wear a fat suit and a fake mustache if she didn't want to be honked at, leered at and groped every day of her life. But she always wore nice tailored suits or casual skirts and sweaters. Very styling. Actually I have a confession to make. When I grow up I want to be Ms. Montgomery.
"Oh Spencer, sorry I'm a little late. The meeting was longer than intended. Mr. Greer was complaining about the pig fetuses again," she said. She stopped and looked at me. "Oh hi, Elise," she said. Okay, yes I spend a lot of time in the library. So sue me.
"Hey Ms. Montgomery, how are you today?" I asked. I glanced at Spencer. He had shrunk down so low in his chair that all I could see was his curtain of black hair.
"I'm doing well thank you," she said. I smiled at her. Then I looked from her to Spencer and back again. There was an awkward silence in the air but I was too curious to care.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked Spencer.
I raised my eyebrows. He was leaving with Ms. Montgomery?
"Yeah," Spencer grunted and threw his notebook into his old backpack.
"Wait," I said. I couldn't contain myself. I rarely can. "Are you guys related?" Even as I said it I knew it couldn't be true. Just to look at them you could tell them couldn't possibly be even distant half cousins. No way.
"No," Spencer said.
"Well, you could say that," Ms. Montgomery said at the same time. She frowned at Spencer. "I guess I'm Spencer's step mother."
Spencer walked away from the table and left the library. He was such a pouter.
"I should go Elise. I'll see you tomorrow okay?" she said and quickly followed Spencer out the door.
I shook my head. Well you learn something new every day I guess.
I sauntered through the upstairs hall, reluctant to go out into the raging blizzard outside and home to what I'm forced to call my family. The school was quiet, like it had been evacuated. Stray pieces of paper and garbage lay on the floor waiting for the janitor to come by.
I was about to leave finally when I heard voices in one of the classrooms. My curiosity pretty much always gets the best of me and this was no exception. I peeked in the window of the door and saw one of the younger math teachers Miss Prince talking to one of the popular guys in grade twelve. Miss Prince was a quiet teacher that had trouble controlling her classes. I felt bad for her when she couldn't stop guys from shooting spitballs at her and cracking jokes while she taught the lesson. Jared Ackley the guy with her now was one of the worst.
I was about to leave figuring this was Miss Prince's sad attempt at discipline or something. But suddenly Jared stepped up to her and brushed a strand of light red hair off her forehead. I kept watching.
They started to kiss just lightly at first and then with more passion. I stared in the window in total shock as Jared backed her against her desk and rubbed his hand up her thigh under her skirt. My mouth dropped open in absolute awe.
Suddenly a pen fell out of my bag and clattered to the ground. I ducked out of view and hurried down the hall without picking up the pen. I heard the door open behind me but I was already out of sight, heading down the back stairs towards the door.
Well, what do you know? This average girl's story just got a whole lot more interesting.