Wrists

chapter 3

Today I have to show the new kid around the school and introduce him to all the teachers. Before that I take a little ride on my longboard to the skatepark. Which might I mention was very uneventful compared to what I went through yesterday. After spending the morning in the skatepark I zoom back home on my longboard and shower. At around noon I hear my step-dad pull up and I walk down the stairs in my second favorite pair of red running shorts and my white Taylor Swift t-shirt. I finished my outfit with a pair of worn down black Converse. My shoulder length hair was pulled back into two dark french braids and I wore a Nike headband. "Hey honey, are you ready to go?" my dad asks.
"Yup, are we meeting this kid at the school?" I inquire.
"Yeah, you can drive if you want to." my dad says. I make a weird face because that was way out of character for him. We hop into his mom van and I take the driver's seat and start it up. It's foreign the feeling of driving. I haven't driven in a long time.
    I pull out onto the road and drive about three miles to Reagan High School. My hands shaking as I pull into my dad's parking spot. Trying not to screw this up like I always do, according to my dad. We get out and walk in the back door and head towards the front office, navigating the halls like it were second nature. We enter the front office and I give the receptionist, Mrs. Gene a polite nod and "hello", and I turn and see him.
Noah. My Noah. He was just sitting there all cute and stuff with his mom sitting next to him. Huh, maybe he's a momma's boy. He keeps his gorgeous brown eyes on me and I blush and try to hide my glowing wrist.
"Hope, you'll be showing around Noah Whitton today," My dad says in Vice Principal mode.
"Hi, Noah! I'm Hope Schnap, I'll be showing you around this morning, and Mrs. Whitton, nice to meet you but if I am to get this tour done on time I'll have to steal your son away while you discuss whatever you need to discuss with my dad, the Vice Principal." I say putting on my best 'perfect daughter and student voice.'
"Well nice to see that my son is going to be in good hands this school year," Mrs. Whitton said with a smile.
"Definitely Mrs. Whitton, hope to see you around the school sometime," I tell her, "Noah, if you could please follow me?"
"Sure Ms. Schnap," he teases. I roll my eyes and we go into the cafeteria right outside the office. "So your dad doesn't know about your finding of your soulmate yet?" he continues, patronizing me.
"Yes, and I would like it to stay that way," I say with a stern voice.
"Oh really so if I were to hypothetically, you know, introduce myself to your father as your soul mate he wouldn't mind?" he jokes.
"He would most certainly mind," I tell him as we take a right and walk through giant the Senior hallway, that contained the library and doorways to several classes. "This is the Senior hallway and according to your schedule this is where you'll be taking, English 9; Period 2, Geometry Honors; Period 6, and Speech Period 7. I figure you'll most likely be able to find them down here in this tiny school. Literally there's only like 25 classrooms, it's not too hard to find them."
"Interesting. Can you tell me about all my teachers?" he asks and we sit on a bench, our wrists aglow as our legs touch.
I scoot over and the glow diminishes and start my spill, "Well you have Engineering first and that's with Mr. Hansenn, he's pretty cool and pretty much acts just like Ms. Toby which i see that you have for 5th hour. Then there's ol' Mrs. Whitaker, from what I've heard she's kinda insane and assigns homework literally all the time. Mr. Kallen. Mr. Kallen. Mr. Kallen, oh my is he one special teacher, literally. Gym you have Mrs. Johnson, she really doesn't care what we do as long as we don't break anything, but I heard the school reprimanded her over the summer and she's actually gonna try this year. Then there's Mr. Cane and Mrs. Williams, I'll let you find out about those two on your own how about that?" Then as I finish I notice that he was staring at me the entire time I was rambling and suddenly I feel flushed and even though we were far away from the office I could feel my dad's eyes on me and I stand up conscious of every move as if I were being watched, which I was.
    "Let's continue our tour my hot Ms. Schnap," Noah jokes.
    I roll my eyes once again and we start walking down the remainder of the Senior hall. "If we take a right we'll be heading into the Junior hall and the left is the Sophomore and Freshman hall. Which way do you wanna go first?" I say.
    "Are you left-handed or right-handed?" he asks.
    "Left,"
    "Then left we shall go my fair maiden," Noah jokes. I roll my eyes and we meander in the Junior hall. I continue my speech about the teachers he'll have in the Junior hall way and he cracks a few corny jokes. "Time to go down our hallway for the next two years," I say.
    "Ughhh can we just sit and talk my leg hurrrtttss," Noah whines in an attempt to try and end the tour early.
    "Oh really, in this small of a school you've walked so much that your legs hurt to the point where we have to sit down?" I retort.
    "Yes," he replies with almost the same innocence as a poor puppy dog.
    "Fine," I say not even trying to fight with him.
    We sit on a metal bench and I describe the rest of the school to Noah. "So that's my fabulous tour of Reagan High," I finish.
    "You know you're pretty cute when you give tours," Noah says.
    "You think everything I do is cute," I respond with an eye roll.
    "That's cause it's true," he says in a dopey voice. He scoots closer to me and leans in as my heart starts to beat faster. We're now just sitting next to each other our wrists emanating a dim light because we were close but not touching yet. I decide to make a move and scoot closer so that our legs were touching and our wrists were gleaming with golden light almost outshining the lights in the ceiling. We sit there staring at each other for what feels like hours but was only minutes until Noah leaned in. Then when he was just inches from my lips I interrupt him, "Wait so you're not even gonna ask if it's okay for you to kiss me?"
    "Is it okay if we do one quick kiss?" he asked.
    "Not right now,"
    "What? Why? It's not like this is your first kiss is it?"
    "Yeah, it is my first kiss just so you know."
    "I know what?"
    "I want it to be perfect," I tell him.
    "Ugh you girls and your perfect expectations, I'm kinda tired of hearing these girls and their perfect..." Noah couldn't finish because I had started to kiss him. It was magical, almost astronomical as we kissed. It took my breath away and I felt like a thousand butterflies were fluttering around in my stomach. I pulled away and leaned my forehead against his giggling and smiling like crazy. "I thought you said you wanted a perfect first kiss?" Noah said.
    "Yeahhh..." I said, "you were just so cute trying to talk about girls."
    "Hey! That's my thing,"
    "Not anymoree...," I say smiling like an idiot.
    "Hmm, I think it's just gonna be our thing then," he finishes.
    "Yeahh..." I say feeling as dopey as ever. I realize that it's been thirty minutes since we've left the office and that the Sophomore English teacher was looking at us through the window next to her door. I blush and grab Noah's hand and pull him back towards the office. Once we get close to the office I let go of his hand and we walk in together, making sure not to touch so that the glow from our wrists weren't as bright. I stand by the counter in front of the front desk and Noah sits on one of the cushy chairs as we wait for my dad to come out from his office. "Hey Mrs. Gene can you call my dad and tell him I'm done with my tour please," I ask.
    "Yes, dear," Mrs. Gene responds. Mrs. Gene called him and about 5 minutes after he came out with Mrs. Whitton.
"Thank you Ms. Schnap for showing my son around today," Mrs. Whitton said.
    "No problem Mrs. Whitton, I wasn't doing anything today anyways. Sundays are my relaxing days," I tell her.
    "Well with such a pretty face as yours I can't believe you haven't picked up a boyfriend yet, or even met your soulmate," Mrs. Whitton says. Immediately Noah grabs my hand and my wrist shone brightly along with Noah's wrist. I felt almost betrayed somehow and this terrible feeling erupted in my stomach. I don't know if it was the feeling of being caught, abandonment, or the feeling of my soulmate exposing me in front of his mom and my dad. "Hope Annabeth Schnap, why couldn't you tell me you've met your soulmate!," my dad exclaimed, which was very atypical of him. Noah was still holding my hand and I pulled my hand away from him, angry that he revealed my, our, secret.    
    "Oh my, Noah can we talk, alone please?" the pale Mrs. Whitton asked her son.
    "Yeah," Noah replied reluctantly as he grabbed my wrist and kissed it, right here his name was. "Till next time my love" he said, and I rolled my eyes and smiled. Then suddenly my dad grabbed the same wrist Noah kissed and pulled me away. The once gentle feeling that was there only seconds ago was replaced with the rough grip of my father. He dragged me through the Sophomore and Freshman hall through one of the back doors and picked me up and threw me against the van. I whimpered and slid down the side of the van and landed on the hot gravel parking spot.
    "Get up," my father said in a dark voice. I stood ready to deal with any of the punishments that he threw at me. He walked closer and stood towering over me staring into my eyes. He pulled his left hand back and slapped me across the face leaving a sting and most likely a mark that I'll have to take care of with makeup in the morning. Then he sacked me in the stomach with his right hand and all the air is taken out of my lungs, I collapse to the ground and he kicks me over and over again. After kicking me he makes me get back up again and we start the cycle all over again except this time he punches me in the boob and kicks me in the crotch before I go down. I would fight back, but the last time I did that I ended up in the hospital.
After what felt like hours of this nightmare, Noah comes out and finds my dad abusing me, and out of nowhere tackles him. As I lie there on the ground I just watch as Noah overtakes my Dad and starts to try and restrain him; however, my father was too strong and Noah was easily put on his back. Then out of nowhere Noah throws out a left hook that knocked my dad out.
    I see Mrs. Whitton in the doorway, and I see her come to me. She was checking me out making sure nothing was broken. She took out her phone and called someone, probably the police or an ambulance.
    I could really go for one of those right now.
    I hear sirens in the distance and everything starts to fade into black. Noah comes over and kneels next to his mom looking over me too.
"Hey doc, looks like I've gotta take care of you now," he says. I try to smile back but I feel tired and I just wanna sleep
    "Hey," I whisper to Noah, "that's my thing."
    Then everything goes black.