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1
High School
Faith
One at a time, every hair on my body unbent from my skin as the coolness of the chain-link fence brought them to a stand.
Since I started Kindergarten eleven years earlier, the old gray tree at the elementary school that never seemed to have leaves always gave me the heebie-jeebies.
I can’t explain why, but it’s like just being near it sucked all the happiness out of my soul.
The entire world got colder and sadder as I passed through its shadow, weighing my shoulders down until I couldn’t take another breath. So, as we approached the opening on the other side of the fence that led to the giant oak, I ducked around Carolyn to be next to the street instead.
Bus exhaust mixed with fresh-cut grass, its stinking sweetness making the butterflies in my belly flutter harder the closer we got to the high school.
Shady trees lined the road to the parking lot, blocking out the bright morning sun and reminding me of what an idiot I was sometimes.
The falling apart second-hand bookbag I’d be using for another year wasn’t much of a shield from the morning chill, no matter how I pulled it across me. “You think I have enough time to run back to the house for my jacket? They always have the air conditioning jacked up the first of the year.”
Carolyn stopped scrunching her curly blonde hair long enough to wrinkle her nose at me when she checked the time. “Un-un. No way. The bell rings in like ten minutes.”
After the bus passed through the crosswalk, we shuffled across the street to the flagpole before the next one barreled through.
Ready to vomit over how nervous I was, I fake cried when we cut through the crowd of kids hanging out in the yard. “I can’t believe we only have a few classes together this year. It’s going to suck so bad.”
Swinging her purse around like a jump rope without a care in the world, she twitched her shoulder at me. “We start and end the day with the same classes and have the same lunch.” To avoid all the rich kids who hung out in the lobby, we veered off to the cafeteria entrance on the other side of the building. “So at least we can hit all the important stuff together. Right?”
The barely out-of-college band teacher that every girl fantasized about held the door open for us when he noticed us coming toward him. “Happy first day of school, girls. How was your summer?”
As she did when trying to hook a boy with her adorableness, Carolyn put on her sweetest girly voice. “Oh, it was fantastic. How was yours?”
Breaking off from us to turn down the arts hallway, he wiggled his eyebrows back at her. “I’ll tell you all about it in class.”
Pushing me into the pool of anxiety I was already drowning in most of the time, the herd of jersey-wearing football players sitting at the table turned to look at me when the red-haired giant yelled, “Bennett!”
My greatest nightmare came to life as a chorus of hands slapped the tabletop when they all started barking at me at the same time. “Faith! Faith-y! Beno! All-Star!”
“Oh, God.” Twisting my fingers around Carolyn’s, I tugged her to me as I wiggled my fingers back at them. “Don’t you dare make me go over there by myself.”
Pumping his fist into his imaginary glove as he came off the cafeteria bench, Jason wound up his best fast pitch and skipped a step toward me to release it with a breathy ‘whomp.’ “We got the softball pitcher of the year right here, fellas.”
Taking turns pointing at me, his arms punched through the air. “She allows no hits. She allows no runs. All you get is pure shutout magic and state tournament dominance.”
He held his palm by his forehead. “Up top, Ace.” I slapped his hand, and he shook it for a second as he lifted his chin at Carolyn. “What’s going on, shorty?”
Scanning the room for something more interesting to pay attention to, Carolyn shrugged back at him. “You know, just counting down the days until Christmas.”
He bent his fingers at me and peeked over my shoulder at my bookbag. “Where’s your schedule?” I pulled the slip of paper from my back pocket, and he snatched it from me. “Alright. Let’s find out what we’re working with this year.”
Leaning across his folded arms to peek around Jason, a boy I’d never seen before moved his eyes down my body and up again.
Like two marbles, layers of icy dark and light blue sucked me into them when our eyes met, making me stare a bit too long as I tried to peel through each one.
I’d never so much as been interested in a boy before. But whoever lived behind all those shades of blue lit a fire inside my chest that flooded the rest of my body in the next heartbeat.
Nothing ever happened in this rinky-dink town we lived in, so every girl was on the lookout for the cute kid from Texas who moved here earlier that summer.
I’d already heard a dozen times about his sexy accent, curly blond hair, and perfect teeth and skin, but he was so beautiful I almost died. My heart stopped for a beat or two when he smiled that way, telling me he understood exactly what he was doing to me.
