|
Butterflies and Hurricanes
Chapter nine . . . Memories pt. 2
~o~o~o~
When I got to my English class, I took a deep breath. I opened the door. They were all obviously in the middle of a lesson. Everyone turned around in their seats, eager to have a small diversion from work. I walked up towards the teacher who stood in front of her desk, a copy of Romeo and Juliet in her hands. She was thin and had an odd quality about her that I took as a deep sophistication; maturity to a strict degree was etched into her dark eyes. She was dressed casually, and had long blond hair tied back into a ponytail. She seemed out of place as a teacher - beautiful, obviously meant for modeling. She eyed me. Immediately I fell into a pit of despair as her dark eyes scoured me.
"You're late." She said bitterly.
"I know I-I'm sorry I'm Jenna Mortemour . . . I'm new . . ." She took a good look at me once and then turned around to her desk to hand me some papers. She handed them to me.
"Well Jenna Mortemour, I expect that this won't happen again, right?" I nodded. Suddenly the remnant of a soft smile appeared on her face.
She motioned to a seat in the very front. "I'm Mrs. Mère, take a seat Jenna, and join us won't you?"
"Yes ma'am." I murmured head down as everyone turned back to their work.
"Now Shakespeare always did have a way with people and their words the phrase "I'll Look to like, if looking, liking . . .”
English turned out to be one of the slower classes for me. As it always had. But it was different. Mrs. Mère seemed to have it out for me more than other English teachers I've had.
But all hateful teachers aside, the day seemed to go smoothly. That is until lunch.
The cafeteria was a relatively small room as far as cafeterias went. So packing in all the high school grades into one room . . . Was not pleasant. Besides that, as I walked in with my tray, I noticed that all the tables had been taken up . . . That is, except for one.
I recognized a laugh. I looked to the most far away table and noticed it was half full of jocks. I could deal, I thought in my naivety. But lo' and behold, as I neared the table, there was Mr. Assface in his natural habitat.
He looked up before anyone else.
"Hey guys look it's her! Told you she couldn't resist my good looks." They all laughed like idiots.
And against my better half, I sat down.
"Yeah right DiMaggio, she came over 'cause she saw me and couldn't resist my natural charm!" The boy next to me laughed and put his arm around me. I pushed his arm off and scooted father down the bench. This made him laugh harder. Then they all turned to stare at me, their grins wide. I blushed. 'DiMaggio' frowned and looked down at his tray. He got up.
"Hey DiMaggio, where are you going?” Asked his buddies. He said nothing as he passed behind me. Then he came from behind me, and sat down on my right. He looked at me and grinned. I huffed and turned to my food. Suddenly his buddies got loud along with the rest of the cafeteria. I looked back at him. He was still there along with his stupid grin.
"Look I-"
"I'm sorry." He said quietly so that only I could hear. I couldn't believe what I'd heard. I stared at him in amazement. His grin was gone.
"E-excuse me?" He sighed and looked back at his food.
"I said I'm sorry for being an a*****e earlier. Look this is hard already so-"
"It's hard for you to apologize?" I asked slightly angry. He looked back at me.
"Yeah . . . It's hard for me to be really serious around chicks believe it or not" I laughed. I could believe it.
"I'm Alex DiMaggio." He said quietly, as he held out his hand. I looked at it curiously, and then slowly took it. A smile crept across his face as he shook it.
I looked up from his hand, bemused. "I'm Jenna Mortemour."
"Mortemour . . ." he lulled the strange new word on his tongue. "Is that-?"
"It's Portuguese." I interjected quickly not wanting to linger on the subject of the odd surname Mother had chosen for me.
"Oh . . ." He smiled. "Well, DiMaggio is obviously Italian." I laughed and he smiled.
We talked the entire lunch period. He seemed to smile at almost everything I said. When the bell rang, and I said goodbye, I could have sworn I saw him frown. . . I was nearly sad to find out that he was in only one of my classes.
I sat in the back of our biology class. He looked back at me and laughed as he shook his head. I felt a small smile creep across my face, but I stopped. What was I doing? I knew deep down inside I couldn't, just couldn't get close to him . . . But I couldn't help it. I realized that he'd be in trouble if this continued, our little friendship . . .
I felt my stomach do a back flip as I realized what mother would do to him if she knew . . . But it was a blow to my heart as I realized that I didn't know how now. How would I stop it now?
When Lunya and I arrived home Mother was sitting on the sofa in the living room looking out one of the windows. She looked in our direction once and turned her back to us.
"Well Annejalis?" Came Mother's cold voice, the name she said was given to me the night she had found me. The night I had been abandoned I suppose . . .
"I felt no soul, Mother." She sighed and turned to face Lunya.
"Has anyone smart enough to fear you thought anything out of the ordinary?" Came a cold tone.
"Nothing out of the ordinary." Mother turned back to the window. Lunya looked over at me as Mother rose.
"I'm going . . . Out." We laid our bags down as we watched her leave. Lunya went and sat down in the same spot as Mother had been in. She peered out the window as I took my homework from my bag.
"Mother will find out about the boy Jenna. And when she does, she will want his soul as she always does. Your gift is important to her, you know. She's harvesting souls. Good ones." I shivered and pretended her truths didn’t faze me.
"She's planning something. . ." She turned around to look at me, her eyes tired. "Jenna, do you like that boy?" I nodded slowly.
"Then, let him go as the saying goes." We didn't talk for the rest of the night.
Then next day went as smooth as usual. When I got to lunch, there was Alex and all his jock buddies. Laughing like retards, like I remembered them. When Alex looked up and saw me, he stopped laughing and smiled. I sat down next to him reluctantly. They were the only table partially full again.
"Alex-" I started.
"Do you like football?" He asked. I looked at him confounded.
"Not really, but Alex I have to-"
"Oh," He said looking back at his food, his smile never leaving his face. "Well that's OK." I was frustrated. So I laughed. He looked up at me and frowned.
"Are you laughing at me?"
"Uh . . . No I just-"
"You know it's just odd. You were so easy to talk to yesterday. It was like you being a girl didn't matter." Several of his buddies got quiet. I frowned. He spoke up before I did.
"Now it's like I've ran out of things to say . . ." Well I've got something to say Alex! If I keep on talking to you, eventually my deranged "Mother" will find out and take your soul! I wanted to stop myself from getting close but I found it to be hard. I had never been so close to a human. I smiled like a fool. I know I had so much to say, but for once since I met Alex I found myself speechless. So we talked about him.
Everyday seemed to lag on even though Alex was there at lunch and in my bio class. The week passed by extraordinarily slow, but was helped along by the fact that on certain days I didn't have Alex or his jock buddies in my lunch. Instead I sat alone. Once with a girl named Naomi and her friends. But they didn't talk to me much.
When me and Alex sat together at lunch and on the odd occasion we were lab partners, we would only talk and laugh, ignoring all else. Inside my heart I could feel my fear growing. Growing like a fire or a storm. Consuming my mind with worry. But I only laughed and smiled. I only got closer and closer . . . to the eye of the storm. To the center of the fire where it grew the hottest . . .
I was in Love with him.
The thought occurred to me one night as I lay on the living room couch. It had only been two weeks since I had met him. He already had me like goop in his hand. I giggled and smiled at everything he said. He was perfect. I rolled over on the couch and attempted to drift asleep. But I couldn't. It was quiet, if not for the soft moaning of the winds . . . The moaning of Mother in the room above me. I shivered disgusted and rolled the other way. I nearly jumped. Lunya was staring straight at my face, a solemn grimace across her young pale face.
"Thinking about him?" I saw her lips move in the moon light. She sat up from lying down on her sofa. I nodded.
"Do you dream about him?" She asked.
"Yes." I whispered hoarsely. I cleared my throat and shifted myself to face her. She seemed to contemplate this and concentrated for a minute.
"Then you love him." It wasn't a question.
After a long pause I decided to answer.
"Yes." She just stared at me. Then looked off towards the window. She lay down.
"Then you have no choice now." It wasn't a question either.
Lunya had known me long enough to know how lonely I was at times. Still it was no excuse. Alex didn't deserve to die. Lunya made no effort to show that she understood this. To her Alex must have just been some human that was just a mishap, that he was nothing. Of course it's not like she would've cared, but still I thought that maybe she would have understood. But I was wrong. I lay down again. It wasn't like she ever cared for much or anyone. Lunya turned away from me silently and I turned too.
The next day, just as all the days before it, went by smoothly. I was doing well in English, although Mrs. Mère was still not my friend or anything, there was no more tension. My other classes went by nicely as well. The only problem it seemed was Alex.
At lunch I scoured the room for him. I felt as though now, maybe, just maybe I'd be able to tell him off. To "break up". Although it was never really like we were going out. I felt a pang of remorse and hurt as I thought this. I wasn't used to this. The whole thing with him was abnormal. I wasn't normal myself. I hoped that he would understand somehow . . . Although I had no Idea how . . .
I decided on sitting with Naomi and company that day, seeing as it was another one of those quiet days where I didn't see him too often. I ate quietly as they laughed and the room buzzed around me. I nearly didn't notice the bell as it rang and found myself alone in a partly empty cafeteria for a moment. I was too engrossed with worry. I had biology today.
When I arrived however, I was astonished to find Alex was missing here too. Where had he gone? I continued on with our lab from the previous day alone. I pushed all thought aside and tried to engross myself with my work. It almost worked. When the bell finally rang and it was time to leave I immediately thought of him again.
I had packed all my things and began to walk out of the door when I looked out a window. I saw a group of familiar jocks congregated just outside the school. I hadn't seen them in the lunchroom that day. They must've been skipping. With a tinge of hope I scanned the group for him. No Alex. I walked outside. They all stopped talking when they saw me. They looked as though they had been arguing. When I noticed all eyes were on me I brought myself to speak.
"Where's Alex?" I managed to croak out. They were silent and then one spoke up.
"He's inside looking for you." He replied sourly. I recognized this one as the one who put his arm around me that day. He was Alex's best friend Eric.
"What? Why?" I asked aghast. Why’d he skip and then have his group of jocks come to school with him just to talk to me? They didn't seem to know why he would either.
"I don't know why. He just said he had to talk to you." Eric answered gruffly. Some of them muttered something inaudible. I ignored them.
"Where was -"
"There you are Jenna!" I whirled around. Alex had come out of the building. And walked toward me. Suddenly he took hold of me and wrapped himself around me. My cheeks grew hot. A murmur broke out among the group behind us and it began to snow. When he let go of me he looked at me and smiled. All I could do was stand there and stare back at him, still in shock.
"Ok so now that you've found her, can we leave? If a teacher sees us and they call my mom, I’ll be in trouble.” Said Eric. A murmur of agreement broke out in the group.
"You didn't have to wait for me." Came Alex's cold response. Eric huffed.
"Man, we've been friends for a long time, since sixth grade. I just couldn't walk -"
"You were the ones who had forced me to go. So you didn't have to wait for me. I told you all that I wanted to talk to Jenna." Eric was angry now.
"After we forced you?! We didn't force you to come have fun with us. If we did maybe we'd have had more fun, what with you whining and moping about her-" He pointed at me, "If we forced you we'd have taped your mouth shut! And that just - we just - s**t!" He gave up and fumed away. Alex stood there, his expression as stony as ever. The rest of the boys who remained stared for a moment and walked away obviously disappointed. Alex looked down at the dirt and sighed.
"Alex I’m sorry."
"You don't have to be sorry. They were the ones being assholes. I don't really know what their problem is. Eric's just . . . Just jealous. Jealous that I'm happy. He just can't accept that I'm so close to you. Closer than I really have ever been to a girl." Alex's eyes softened and he laughed. I didn't. Eric wasn't jealous. He was afraid. Afraid that his best friend had gotten too close to a strange new girl so quickly.
For the first time in two weeks it seemed like the Neanderthals had at least some sense in them. After that episode, we stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. I know it seems corny to say, but it seemed like we were just lost.
Alex was the one who broke the silence.
"Let me walk you home." Alex looked at me and smiled expectantly. It seemed that for the first time since I had accidentally bought a ticket to Alex's gun show, he was an imbecile. He was grinning stupidly, his green eyes twinkling brightly. I felt a pang of fear and remorse as I looked into his hopeful eyes. I knew that after tonight, after he had told of his friends like he did, I wouldn't be able to just refuse him. I couldn't. It seemed like we were too close now. . . It seemed like we were just caught up and that the winds of destiny were just spinning faster and faster around us. We were already to close to the eye of the storm. Although Alex wasn't aware of it yet. Defeated, I looked up into his shinning eyes.
"Sure." I replied softly. "Why not." His grin became larger as we turned to walk down the empty road before us. The snow had started to fall in little clumps as we made our way towards my house.
There was no denying it. Alex was absolutely beautiful in the snow. . .
 Madame Joli Rouge · Tue Dec 15, 2009 @ 11:27pm · 0 Comments |
