The Milkshake Project

School Days

I pushed into the crowd of people swarming the hallway. I ran a hand through my hair as I pushed to quell the headache that was slowly creeping up. I pulled off my backpack and slipped my schedule out of the pocket. The next class was arithmetic, which judging by the room number 6000, was a heck of a walk from where I was. I had about reached the end of the hall to meet Bonnie when a strident voice called out behind me.
"Hey!"
I turned to see the girl with the red lip stick come walking up to me, her short black curls bouncing on her shoulders.
"Hey." She said. "It's Ellie, right?"

"Yeah." I replied shyly.

The girl smiled a red, sickly sweet smile.

"Well," She said smoothing out her hair and snapping a piece of chewing gum between her teeth. "You're new here so I thought I'd help you out on your first day"

The girl gripped my wrist and pulled me to a doorway on the side of the hallway. She spun me around so my back was against the cement wall.

"Okay, Let me clue you on the gist of things around here." She said lowly. " I don't know where you came from but, here, girl's don't like bird dogs trying to steal their man."

Her icy blue eyes were locked with mine as she crossed her arms in front of her and pursed her lips.

"And I can tell you right now, you don't want to take my man."

I looked around for a group of kids snickering across the hall, because the lack of sense in the conversation I was having with this girl had to be a joke.

"What do you mean?" I asked cluelessly.

"Oh don't pull that Mickey Mouse bit." She exclaimed. "I saw that apple butter you were giving in the courtyard. I'm giving you a fair warning: Stay away from my boyfriend."

"Woah, back up." I said waving my hands and pushing up off the wall. "I wasn't flirting with anybody in the courtyard. I hardly know anybody here."

"I'm sure you do." The girl said with a roll of her eyes. "I've got to hand it to you though. I don't think I've ever seen a bird dog with the jets to get the guy as their class partner."

I stood their silently for a moment before giving a little laugh. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Wait. You think I've got a thing for Rider?" I taped. "Rider Hale?"

"Yesss." She drew out derisively, as if I was some kind of idiot.

"This is unreal." I mumbled to myself. "I'm not after anybody, especially Rider Hale."

"Yeah? What do you call that bit this morning in front of the school?"

"The worst possible way to start the first day at a new school." I deadpanned. "Believe me, I'm not exactly thrilled to have Rider as my class partner. If I could, I'd be as far away from him as possible."

The girl backed off a bit then feigned another friendly smile to me.

"Good." She said sweetly. "You're such a sweetheart for understanding."

The girl abruptly turned, sending her curls whipping around. She stopped at the edge of the doorway and turned back to me.

"Be sure to keep this little project strictly platonic. I'd hate for you to end up on my bad side." She said slyly as she adjust her top and fluffed her hair once more. "Later."

In a single step, the girl melted into the rush of the hallway and disappeared. I stood there for a moment, completely shocked at what I just encountered. I wasn't sure if I should feel offended at the way that girl talked to me or disgusted at that fact she thought I was flirting with Rider. I looked back to the schedule in my hand, then began making my way into the crowd.

I met Bonnie on the other side of the main hallway.

"Soooo?" She asked as I met her and we rejoined the crowd. "How was your first class?"

"Honestly, I got lost trying to get there and didn't end up actually getting to class until ten after."

"What? What happened-?" Bonnie froze then through her palm to her forehead. "Oh man! I forgot about the numbers! A couple years ago they added another hall at the edge of the school, and it through the whole numbering system off. Gee, I'm so sorry, Ellie."

I laughed. "Don't worry about it. It was actually nice to figure it out on my own, but that's not the half of it. The teacher gave the class a project and, at first, it was swell because I'd get to join another group since I didn't have a partner."

I gave a pitiful laugh. "But guess who strolled in halfway through the class and sat his greasy, leather-clad self next to me."

Bonnie's smile held for a moment before slowly dropping to a shocked gape.

"No way." She muttered.

"Rider Hale." I orated.

"Oh gosh, Ellie, I should've told you about the numbers." Bonnie cried. "I can't believe this."

"So apart from being his partner on a project, which by the way is about Love, his kookie girlfriend accused me of flirting with him this morning."

We turned down a hall and immediately entered a classroom that had the scariest looking math problem scrawled along the chalkboard.

"Girlfriend?" Bonnie asked as we walked down an isle to two desks along the window. "Rider hasn't had a girl since Irene. At least, I don't think he has."

"Well, she called me a bird dog and told me to keep my relationship with Rider "strictly platonic" unless I want to be on her bad side."

"Wait. Was this chick wearing a lot of makeup and tight slacks?"

"Yeah."

"Oh jeez, that's Chrissy Donaldson." Bonnie laughed. "She's a queen around here and a real round heels at it too. The funny thing is, she's been telling people she's Rider's girl for years. She's nuts over him. Not to defended Rider, but he wouldn't be jacketed to her unless he decided to go fishing in the sewers."

"Yeah, well she frosted about me being Rider's partner."

"Let her. She's just talk anyway." Bonnie said.

Suddenly, Bonnie snapped her fingers and sat up, sending her blue ribbon waving in the air.

"Hey, some of my friends are heading over to Freddie's for some music and sodas after school. You wanna come?"

"Sure." I said.

"Okay. Meet me outside by the courtyard fence this afternoon. Dusty's got an old flip-top parked just around the corner."

"Cool, I'll be there after I find a payphone and tell my mom."

I'd never been to a hop after school. I was too young before my father left, and after he died, I didn't really go anywhere but school. It was a nice way to end a crumby first day, and for the first time in a while I felt a little excited for something. It was too early to say I'd be happy in Amberhill, but at least I was making friends.