Damien tried to calm himself down as he came up the walkway to Jay’s house. He stood at the door afraid to knock. He was ready to run. Scratching his head, he decided that if he had gotten this far, he had better proceed. He knocked twice. No answer. What was he fooling himself? Jay didn’t want to see him anyway, he convinced himself.
As he turned around to walk away, the door opened behind him. It was Jay’s father.
“Damien?” Jay’s father asked bewildered. “What are you doing here?”
“I-” Damien’s mouth dried up. He was so taken aback by the reaction he’d received that he couldn’t even think of a single thing to say.
“When do you leave for school, son?”
“Um, sometime early next week,” he began. He continued saying he had gotten sick during the first week he had planned to attend and circumstantially missed all of the other freshmen orientation days.
“I see…” Jay’s father said looking at the ground. “This isn’t a good time Damien.”
“Well, couldn’t you-” Damien began but stopped as Jay’s father glared at him.
“Jay’s not talking to anybody right now, not even me.”
“Would you just let him know that I came over to say goodbye?”
“No, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll let him be. He’s had enough people walk away from him. I fear that if you do too, he’ll break,” Jay’s father said, his voice raspy. He almost sounded like he had cried so much that he had no tears left and had difficulty even talking.
“Wait, who’s walked away from him?”
Jay’s father avoided eye contact with Damien. Damien knew that this tension had nothing to do with him, or at least not in full.
“Does this have anything to do with Jay’s mother?”
“How do you know about that?”
Damien stated that over the summer as he thought things over he did a little bit of research and realized that Jay’s birthmother had been a guidance counselor at Oak Stream. Damien’s eyes widened as everything started clicking in his mind. “She doesn’t want to see him, does she?”
Jay’s father shook his head.
“Thank you,” Damien said starting to walk away. He turned around and said, “If Jay ever asks about me, tell him that I just didn’t have the time to say goodbye, but I wanted to.”
“I will.”
Damien smiled content. He had done what he could and while it hadn’t happened quite the way he was hoping it would, he still thought it had ended well. A plan was already forming in his mind.
The doors were already open welcoming new students into their respective homerooms. Cadence was always one to be early to everything, especially classes. She prided herself as always being the first student to step into each classroom. Gus had been the only person to beat her during Pre-IB English her sophomore year, but he hadn’t shown up until the second week. She was always the first to homeroom during the first day. To her utmost surprise, she discovered that this year she wasn’t the first person in homeroom, which happened to be Trigonometry. There was another girl, dressed in a navy blue skirt and a white button down shirt. She had purple hair and had died her eyelashes and eyebrows green. Cadence could already tell that she was forming judgments about her, whoever she was. She was already singing ‘Barney is a dinosaur from our imagination’ in her mind. She hated that she did that, but it was so easy.
The girl looked up smiling at Cadence. “I guess we’re kindred spirits, huh?”
“What are you talking about?” Cadence asked completely baffled by her comment.
The girl laughed. “Oh, it’s nothing bad, you can rest assured about that.”
Cadence cocked one eyebrow.
“All it means is that we both show up to class early. We’re similar, at least in that regard.”
Cadence was speechless. She didn’t know what to say. She loved having peace and quiet in the morning alone in homeroom. Meeting someone new wasn’t a part of her morning agenda. She closed her eyes hating herself. She always wanted to help people and here was an opportunity to get to know someone new, someone who may need help. With all those thoughts floating in her head, she hadn’t even moved or responded to what the new girl had said.
“Would you like to sit down next to me? I’m Lyra by the way.”
“Cadence,” she replied and decided that she might as well sit down and join Lyra who happened to be sitting at the front of the classroom.
“So what’s your story, Cadence?”
“Excuse me?”
Lyra smiled at her. “Don’t over think things. I’m just trying to get to know you.”
“Well, then, why didn’t you just ask how I was?”
“I hate the chit-chat, the small talk. I don’t have time for being fake and neither should you.”
Cadence smiled back. She liked Lyra. Lyra was a pistol, a deeply opinionated individual, who like herself simply wanted to engage with people on a deeper level. Lyra seemed like she just wanted to know all about her. It had only been two minutes since she first met Lyra, but she could tell already that Lyra was never fake and probably never lied either.
“I’d be more comfortable if you told me about yourself first, honestly,” Cadence finally responded.
“I’ve made some mistakes, more mistakes than I’d like to admit.”
Lyra maintained eye contact with Cadence the whole time. It was a bit uncomfortable. You really couldn’t hide anything from her because you just knew that she would know if you were lying and she wouldn’t let go of a subject until she knew the truth. Granted, all of these were assumptions, but Cadence was hardly ever wrong about people, at least she tried to convince herself that that was true.
Lyra continued saying that she had definitely made more mistakes than good choices.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. It’s all a part of-” Cadence began.
“But it’s true,” Lyra cut her off. “Which is ultimately why I’ve decided to swear off dating for the whole year.”
Cadence said nothing in reply.
“I know, it’s a little weird, huh?”
“No, actually,” Cadence began. Once she started she couldn’t stop. She spilled about Gus and Kerass and how she felt like she was rope in a tug of war game between them. “I respect your decision, I do. I think it’s very bold of you, but I just don’t know if I could do that myself.”
“Why wouldn’t you try it? Wouldn’t it solve the problem for this year alone?”
Before Cadence could respond, the bell rang and the rest of the class rushed into homeroom none of them wanting to be late for the first day.
Kerass punted the football warming up for the varsity tryouts. He was a shoe-in and he knew it. He hated the sport, but he was good at it and he had to start thinking about college and stuff now. Football might even give him a scholarship. Although playing college ball was a nightmare. If he was this good in high school, he’d be even better in college. He didn’t even want to dwell on the popularity he’d receive if he were as good in college as he was in high school.
Kerass looked over at the track around the field. The heat waves were visible over the blacktop. It was going to be another exhausting season, but it was whatever. He didn’t have to decide what to do about college right away.
Gus walked up next to him.
“What are you doing here, Gus?”
“I get extra credit just for trying out.”
“Really? From who?” Kerass asked.
“Mr. Baganz.”
Kerass smiled. Mr. Baganz was a history teacher, but he had been Kerass’ teacher sponsor since sophomore year. Every junior-varsity and varsity player had a sponsor and Mr. Baganz loved the game, but more importantly, he cared about the students who played the game Kerass had given him his freshmen jersey to wear in support every game during his freshmen year. It was a no-brainer to have Mr. Baganz become his sponser sophomore year. Kerass didn’t talk to him very often about things, but he knew the door was always available if he ever needed to.
Gus scratched his head squinting in the glare of the sun looking around at the football field.
“How serious are you about trying out?”
“Not at all. I mean I won’t say no if I get on the team, but I’d rather not,” Gus said half-heartedly.
“Do you want some pointers?” Kerass asked. He continued saying that he could help him get the edge to being a part of the team.
“Look, bud, I already get extra credit just for signing up. I don’t really care about any of these school activities.”
“Why would you even sign up if you weren’t going to take it seriously?” Kerass asked calmly. On the inside, he was completely offended, but he thought he hid it well.
“You’re pissed, aren’t you?” Gus asked.
Gus read right through him which only made him even angrier.
“Look, the only reason I’m even considering this is because I need some extra curricular activities on my transcript. Colleges want that sort of crap,” Gus said with a snort. “I know. It’s mind-boggling.”
“Do you want help or not?”
“You would legit help me with this?”
Kerass nodded. “Of course. I mean, we’re friends, aren’t we?”
Looking at Gus, he could tell that Gus was avoiding eye contact. It was like his eyes were skittering all over the place.
“Aren’t we?” Kerass asked, confidence leaking away from him.
Gus sniggered and made eye contact with him. “Yeah, you’re my buddy.”
“Totally.”
Kerass waved Gus further down the field. He picked up another football and threw the ball over to him.
Flags twirled in the air of the teacher’s parking lot. Color guard auditions were happening only a couple of yards away from the football tryouts. Jay inhaled the fresh air. It was great to be back in marching band season. Unlike last year where he only used color guard as an escape from talking with his dad, this year he was legitimately looking forward to the season. Plus, it would keep his mind off of her. He couldn’t even think about her name without…well, he didn’t even want to think about it.
He had just finished his audition. Mr. Martin thanked him and shuffled him away from the parking lot telling him if he ran he would catch the bus. Just as Jay was running out he glimpsed at the next person auditioning. It was Julia. Jay’s mouth dropped. He was going to have to walk home after all.
“Julia, you’re auditioning?”
“Isn’t that part obvious?”
Jay glared at her raising one eyebrow.
“I know, I know,” Julia began. She admitted that she knew it was awkward, but she hoped that if they were on the color guard together that they could be friends. “Please don’t hold a grudge against me just because Kerass and I broke up.”
Jay bit his tongue afraid of what might jump out of his mouth in defense. He simply nodded and walked away. Out of his periphery vision, he could see her audition. She was good, extremely good. He hoped Kerass would understand, but he feared that he would be asked to quit the marching band.
The door remained shut. Damien knocked on the door louder this time. He was ready to run again, but he wasn’t going to give up. Nothing would get in the way of achieving his goal.
The door opened. A woman with short blonde hair stood before him. “Yes?” she asked.
“Ms. Lesley?”
“Actually, it’s Mrs. Todd now.”
“My apologies,” Damien said staring at the ground. “I wanted to talk to you about your son.”
Mrs. Todd exhaled.
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