One Normal Night: Lord of the Flies

Chapter 2

I can't seem to manage getting through the rest of the day without thinking about Jesse. I could've lived without his attitude, especially since his face was so promising.

But I couldn't think about that now. If I wanted to get into a good college like Harvard, I had other things to worry about. Going to Harvard Law like Elle Woods has been my dream since the second grade. Nobody in my family has ever amounted to anything before; not even my older siblings have done anything significant with their lives. But I was going to be different. I had gotten into the best private high school in Maryland on a scholarship and I had a 4.6 solid GPA. My extracurriculars were almost too much for me; Model U.N., French National Honors Society, Key Club, and Junior Future Leaders of  America. I know I might seem like a tight-ass nerd to some people, but I try not to get carried away.

"Dana?"

I turn around. My best friend, Presley, is sitting at our usual lunch table. I had almost walked right past it.

"What's wrong with you? You look like you just saw my French test score, which by the way was a seventy four percent," she sulks.

I sit down and throw my backpack on the floor. "Oh that sucks."

"No, really. What's up?" she says, twirling her fork in their Caesar salad.

"It's these new boys," I say.

Presley looks around, excited. "Where?"

I laugh. "Not here. But I had to show them around earlier, one of them is not the nicest."

Presley takes a bite of her salad. "Yeah, but is he hot?"

I blush, pulling out my homework.

"Oh my God, Dana! Go for it!" Presley squeals. "You're so uptight. He's probably not that bad."

"I'm not kidding, Presley. He was a complete douche-" I stop. Presley is looking straight behind me. As I slowly turn around, I realize who had been standing behind me.

"A complete douchebag?" Jesse smirks. "Is that what you were going to call me?"

Flustered, I sputter out an excuse. "No, I wasn't talking about you I was-"

Jesse shrugs. "Whatever. I'm used to it."

"Hey can we sit here? We haven't really had a chance to make friends yet," Ben says.

I hesitate, but Presley beats me to it. "Of course!" She says. I glare at her.

"Thanks, it kinda sucks being new," Ben says, sitting down.

"I bet," Presley says, putting her hand on his arm. "I'm Presley."

"Ben. And this is Jesse," Ben says.

"So do you only have like, one friend, Miss Student Ambassador?" Jesse says, also taking a seat.

"No," I lie. "My other friends just don't have lunch this period." That was such a bold lie. To be honest, I had no time for friends at this point in my life. If I wanted Harvard, I couldn't be wasting my time going to parties and football games.

Jesse laughs. "Right. Let me guess, you have no friends besides Elvis."

"Presley," she corrects.

"You've always been 'Little Miss Perfect' to all your teachers and parents. You're the type who wants nothing but to impress her daddy with all of her science fair medals and AP papers. And if you don't do all this, he'll cut you off."

Everyone is quiet for a moment. Only Presley and I know that my dad couldn't care less what I did. But I couldn't get into a fight now with Jesse, not on his first day of school. Instead, I held back tears and excused myself from the table.

"I'm sorry, I forgot I had to... take a test or something," I say, my voice shaking.

I get up and push past Presley, leaving everyone else at the table in confusion.

*********
Eating the rest of my lunch in the library, I try not to think about what Jesse had said before. I mean yeah, I tried to be "Little Miss Perfect", but that wasn't a bad thing, was it?

Someone sits at my table across from me.
"Hey, Dana," I hear. Looking up, I see Ben's brown eyes looking concerned.

"Hey," I reply, trying to be the preppy, happy girl they expected me to be.

Ben looks at the stack of books next to me, and picks up one.

"Five Steps to a Five, AP Physics?" He asks. "You take that?"

I nod. "Yeah, I doubled up on a science this year, AP Biology and AP Physics."

"Hey, I'm taking AP Physics too!" Ben says, excited. "Who's your teacher?"

"Mr. Brown," I say, laughing.

"Wait, same! Next period?"

I take the book back from him and flip through it. "Well it looks like we have a class together," I say. I'm excited, I really am; but my mind keeps going back to Jesse's comment.

Ben's smile drops. "You thinking about before?"

I look down, pretending to read my book while I blink back tears.

"You know he doesn't mean it," Ben says. "He's just- having a rough time."

I don't answer him, blinking back tears.

"But that's no excuse for what he said," Ben continues. "It was kind of a jerk move."

"You don't have to apologize for him," I finally say, angry that Jesse couldn't even say he was sorry. I lock eyes with Ben, unsure of his emotions.

The bell rings and we break eye contact, walking silently to our next class.

When we get to class, my usual seat in the front of the class is taken, so I find two seats in the back where Ben and I sit.

The bell rings and Mr. Brown slinks into the classroom a second later, coffee mug in one hand and a stack of papers in the other. His hair was disheveled and he looked lost like always.

"Good morning, class," Mr. Brown coughs. "Please take out your labs from yesterday..." Mr. Brown's gaze stopped short on Ben.

"Were you in this class the whole year?" Mr. Brown asks him, scratching his head.

"No," I speak up. "He's new."

The whole class turns their heads to catch a glimpse of the new kid.

"What's your name?" Mr. Brown questions.

"Benjamin Atwater, but he goes by Ben," I say, forgetting that Ben had a voice of his own.

"I think he can speak for himself, Ms. Summers. But thank you for the introduction," Mr. Brown says.

The whole class laughs and I burrow into my seat, my cheeks glowing red.

Mr. Brown awkwardly stands for a moment. "Is there anything interesting you'd like to say about yourself?"

Ben shakes his head. "Not really."

"Are you single?" A girl asks, laughing. It's Lydia Shay, one of the ditziest girls at school. She was one of those people who scored a perfect on her ACTs, but acted like she didn't have a second grade education.

"Shut up, Lydia," her friend Adrianne giggles, showing her pearly whites. Adrianne then winks at Ben, turning back to face the front.

"I was thinking a little more along the lines of a favorite color or something," Mr. Brown says.

"Um, blue?" Ben says, keeping his eyes on blonde haired, blue eyed Adrianne. I roll my eyes at his teenage ignorance. What he saw when he looked at Adrianne was the sweet, innocent girl next door. I knew from personal experience that Adrianne was a two faced bitch. I knew this because Adrianne used to be my best friend.