1951~ The year I met Benny Rodriguez

"Juila" my mother's god awful morning voice cut through the air.  She had woken me up from a wonderful dream. I mean it wasn't really that wonderful but since the only good things in my life anymore were my dreams, it pretty good.  Since the move clear across country, these past weeks have been torture. No friends, no life. no outings.

I hate my parents for this. Brooklyn, New York, really. I would rather just stay in South Carolina, where everything was perfect. I had my boyfriend, my friends, and a social life.

I got up out of my elegant victorian bed and walked over to my closet. I pulled out a blue dress and threw it on with a white sash going around the waist of my newly bought blue dress. Now for tights, Thank heavens for whoever invented tights. It's very unladylike but tights mean that my legs don't have to be super smooth to go out in public. Today was actually my first day of public school here in New york.

I am sixteen years old and will be starting my 11th grade year here in Brooklyn and I'll tell ya, I'm so afraid of gangs. Being a rich girl from the country I'm not used to the city. There are some scary things here. New York is a walking crime factory. If there were three words to describe Brooklyn, they would have to be, drugs, violence, and crime.

For the past week or so I begged and pleated to be homeschool, I've already been through 11 years of it, why stop now? but mother wouldn't give in but we came to an agreement that if I went to public school for two weeks and then wanted to be homeschooled I could but for some reason she thinks I'll like public school.

but I just don't see how anyone could like public school. Either my mother has gone completely nuts, or there are some wacky people in Brooklyn.

Public school just sounds like a dream to me.

"Julia" Her shrill voice cut through my head, leaving an echo.

I finished off curling my hair and put my makeup on.

"Julia!" I jumped half of the chair I was on, putting in my earrings.

"Coming.." I grabbed my schoolbag and ran down the stairs as fast as I could without tripping over my own feet.

"The bus is here" my mother said while filing her nails, not even bothering to look up at me to talk to me, which I had a habit of doing.

I never have been one to be a morning person. I hurried and snapped up an english Muffin and chugged a glass of orange juice.

"Julia." she said very discussed by my attempt of breakfast.

"Pardon."

*Beep Beep* the old bus horn sounded out leaving me breathless and shocked, I was actually going to public school.

I ran out the kitchen door and slammed the screen shut making my mother slip a little bit of her morning coffee. revenge.

I ran even faster knowing how mad my mother would be if I missed the bus. I barely caught as it was pulling out of my driveway, and running in these shoes didn't help my situation.

The old, creepy looking bus driver opened the doors and I took a step onto a school bus, a new thing for me.  The driver shut the doors just close enough to almost hit me forcing me to jump forward a little, all the kids on the bus getting a giggle out of this.

When I had made it up all of the stairs I took a look at all the full seats scanning the bus for an empty spot. The bus was full of jocks, nerds, and lower class people who looked like they hadn't bathed in a year. The bus itself was a rusty color and smelled of rotten sandwiches and perfume, oh and body odor.

I started walking down the path in the middle of the bus trying to find an empty seat somewhere, anywhere, when I noticed a boy sitting all alone in the back of the bus.