Young Lust

1 - New School, New Start?

Now I knew what people meant when they talked about how hard it is to start at a new high school.

Walking through the halls I was hardly refused the gazes of every person I passed. I guess it was because of my turquoise hair. But I tried to make it a little discreet - my waist-long hair was tied up in a bun on top of my head, with a pin-up style red bandana.

I could have been stared at because of my clothes, too - a Ziggy Stardust t-shirt loosely tucked into ripped high-waisted red denim shorts. And don't forget the red lipstick.

Every corner I turned, I was faced with a new, gawking crowd. As I walked, I checked on the map in my school diary for the set of lockers where mine would be. I realised I'd already passed it - I did a 180 to go the other way, only to run into a pack of guys.

"Sorry," I said quietly and tried to move around them, but they kept stepping in front of me.

"Mind if I get past?" I asked and raised an eyebrow at the one who seemed to be the leader.

"Oh, not at all," he said with a course smile. "But first, do you wanna tell me your name?" He raised his eyebrow back at me.

"It's Jade, who wants to know?"

"Steven Tallarico wants to know. As does Joe Perry," he pointed to the guy next to him who had a thick, curly, black mess of hair, "Tom Hamilton," a guy with longish blonde hair stepped forward, "Joey Kramer," this was a shorter guy with really stocky arms, "and Brad Whitford." A guy with wavy brown hair nodded.

"Nice to meet you all, really, but I must be going. Adiós," I said with a mock salute and tried to walk through them.
But Steven held out his arm and blocked me again, and I heard a gasp from a group of onlookers. Maybe this group of annoying kids was the reason everyone was staring earlier - were they following me the whole time?

Steven blew his brown fringe out of his face as I stepped back.

"Problem?" I asked innocently.

"It's been a while since there was a new kid," he replied with a rough-sounding voice.

"And this new kid would like to get somewhere, so if you could kindly let her go-" I started.

"You're very confident, aren't you?" he said.

"Not usually," I said sarcastically.

"You don't sound like you're from around here. Is that an Australian accent I'm picking up?"

"Got it in one," I replied.

I gave up trying to get past and turned and went the other way instead. I didn't get harassed again, so I guess they gave up too.

I found my locker after going the long way round, hoping I wouldn't run into that pack of weirdos again.