Help On the Line (ON HOLD UNTIL SEPTEMBER)

CHAPTER TWO- New Kid (Liam)

Liam.

   For some reason, that day- Shae's tenth birthday- was the best day of my entire life. She was the first best friend I ever had.

   I had moved from Toronto the year before with Mom and Dad. Didn't have a single sibling, so I was, y'know, sort of socially awkward. More super-shy than awkward, but yeah. I just didn't know how to act around people. Things weren't great living in school back in Canada, but at least I had a couple fellow losers I could huddle with at the wall during recess. I didn't have that in America at first. Mix my personality with being a new kid and bam! "Automatic loner" was branded on my forehead. 

   Being known as "the Canadian" wasn't exactly helpful, either. The kids' first impressions of me were quickly voiced when I first moved in the summer before fourth grade, and went something along the lines of this-

   "Did you ride a moose to your old school?"

   "Where's your parka and Indian boots?"

   "Say, 'about'!"

   "Is it true that you guys live in igloos? And tribes?"

   "Do you chug maple syrup and skate to school?"

   "Why do you have coin dollars? And coloured bills?"

   I shit you not. It was pretty bad. 

   Okay, so they weren't trying to be mean (well, most of them), but I had no idea some Americans thought of Canadians in that way. I was amazed at the sheer absurdity of their questions. I wasn't, like, offended or anything. Just overwhelmed. If you were ever a shy kid, you understand how hard it can be to answer simple questions, or just talking loudly enough, right? And realizing for the first time how weird Canada must be to other people was a totally new thing for me. At least they didn't mention the bagged milk. 

   Anyway, that's also how my first day went. Sat in the corner. Stuttered my way through get-to-know-each-other games. Embarrassed myself in front of a pretty, mean girl who went by the name of Cecilia.

   Yeah. That Cecilia.

   At first I thought she was pretty, but I soon found out her ugly sneers just ruined everything about her. It was worse because they were directed at me. There I was, sitting on a smooth desk with my name stickered onto the corner in some funky, cool font the teacher picked out for me- (The desks even had little cubbies, which was a plus.)- when I looked around myself and took in my table group members. A pretty, dark haired Asian girl was sitting to my left, and I leaned over to her side to catch her name sticker. It was glossy, and typed bubblegum pink in curly script. It read Ceci-

   "Um. What are you looking at?" I looked up at the clear yet drawling voice of a girl. It was Ceci-'s, and her eyes were glaring at me. 

   I didn't know whether or not her voice was just mean all the time or if I had actually done something to set her off. I played it safe, and didn't say anything. I lowered my eyes and leaned away from her, trying not to fidget.

   "I said, what are you looking at?" Ceci- demanded. Something about her made me look at her when she was yelling at me. It was scary. And intimidating.

   "N-nothing. I-I was just-"

   "Nothing? You're really telling me 'nothing'? Tell me your little 'nothing', if it really is just 'nothing'." Man, that sentence took me a while to get. I was like, whaaa? So I couldn't answer. I was just wondering what crime I committed.

   "Leave him alone, Cecilia. Don't spread your germs to a new kid," said an unfamiliar voice. It was from a girl with a dirty blonde mop of hair and bright round eyes. Don't ask me how my ten year old self noticed that about somebody, that bright eyes bit. It was just so her. This girl had her twig arms in front of her in a firm stance, with feet apart in beat up sneakers. The laces were tied up in nice, big, fat bows, like someone had attempted to make her just a little bit presentable for school. I was pretty surprised by her appearance and her words.

   Cecilia tossed her hair. "No one asked you, Shrimplynn. Go away." She gave a satisfied smirk to me, like she wasn't interrogating me two seconds ago, coaxing me to smirk with her. I didn't, because Cecilia was mean, and because Shrimplynn is the least inventive insult I'd ever heard. 

   Shrimplynn, or whatever her name was, laughed. "Too bad I sit here, Cecilia," she said, tapping her sticker to indicate her place. Her seat was across from my table, so I couldn't read her name. Shrimplynn scraped her red chair out and plopped into it. She immediately became immersed into her sticker, and then suddenly slammed her tiny fist onto the desk, announcing, "My name is spelt wrong. Again." She tore off the sticker cleanly, which is an impressive feat to this day. No rips, and for that I admired her deeply. Shrimplynn showed me her mispelled name. Cecilia lost interest and walked off.

   "S-h-a-e C-l-e-a-r. Not Shaelynn Clear," she groaned to me. "So girly!" 

   I cleared my throat. "But, uh, d-don't you have a lynn at the end of y-your name?"

   Shae's eyes flashed. "Who told you that?" 

   "Well, since she," I gestured to Cecilia, who was hugging all her friends at the other side of the room, "called you, um, Shrimplynn-"

   "Don't listen to her. I'm not a shrimp." She laughed. "Okay. So my mom thinks it's Shaelynn, but it's not. Trust me." She smiled, buck teeth and all.

   I smiled back after a second's hesitation. 

   "So. You're new here, right?" I nodded. "What do I call ya?" 

   "Liam Crown," I said quietly.

   "Say what?"

   "LIAM CROWN," I nearly shouted. God, I was nervous. Heat rose to my face and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. But Shae smiled, amused.

   "Knew you had a voice!" she teased, and she got me to smile a little bashfully. "Are you the guy who moved into Timmy Roberts's house this summer?"

   "Yeah." The Roberts were nice; I met Timmy when he gave us the house. He was shy, too, so we didn't talk.

   Shae nodded wisely. "Ah. Thought so. You live two streets down from me, you know. You play any sports?"

   She talked fast, and changed subjects a lot, it seemed. "Yup. I play soccer, mostly."

   "You on a team, Liam? Wait, never mind, you can't, you just moved here," she answered herself, smacking her forehead. "Agh. Well, I'm still learning volleyball. My sister's making me. She says that any girl who wants to be cute and sporty at the same time should play, but I don't pay attention to the cute part."

   I made a face, which made Shaelynn laugh, which made me grin a little.

   The rest of the first day went on like that; Shaelynn firing off questions, Shaelynn rambling freely about her life, and Shaelynn helping out a shy person like me. Later on, when we became close friends that month, she admitted she didn't hang out with the other kids before I came along. She had a couple friends, but they were in a group she was never fully part of. For my shyness, and her outstanding ways, we became dependent only on each other- that year, and the next, and the next... The best and truest of friends. We planned our adventures, shared our little struggles of music teachers, Cecilia, parents, everything.

   Up until eighth grade. That's when things changed for the worse.

   

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HOW'D YOU LIKE IT GUYS. HAHA THINGS SEEM A LITTLE SLOW BUT IT'LL QUICKEN UP TO THE GOOD STUFF (highschool stuff). Cecilia's a little biotch, eh? ;)

I'd really appreaciate genuine feedback, and if you would follow this story if you like it. thanks!

xox, erica :)