Chapter Two: Revelation

By the time Georgia finally reached the parking lot of Beldon High, she was drenched and shivering. The familiar gray and red entrance came into view as it arched over double-length sliding doors. The clouds ahead cast a morose tone over the day that echoed her mood. 

The parking lot was full but seemed to lack color today. Even the trees around the lot were dull and lifeless, the sky casting everything  below it in a pallid tinge. As she neared the entrance, the usual throng of students was down to a small trickle as most kids were already inside. Joining the line, the chattering group in front of Georgia did nothing to ease her mixed emotions. Their inane conversations were so typical, a bunch of tripe with no substance beyond obsessing over how many likes their latest social media post received, or whatever bandwagon cause they were championing today. 

They were the reason older people thought of her generation as being nothing but a bunch of whiny weaklings. Georgia sighed inwardly as she kept her head down and tried to drown out the chatter around her. There were times she felt like she truly had nothing in common with people her own age. As she reached the doors, they parted open with a soft whooshing sound. 

Most of the bubble tea goop had washed off but her hoodie still had patches of pink stains all over it. Georgia could see some kids pointing and sniggering at her. On another day it might have made her cheeks burn with embarrassment.

 Today, she had other things on her mind. It had been quite a morning. Between the rain, the howling wind, Tyler and Joey’s idiocy, and the mysterious boy she encountered that morning, Georgia’s nerves were rattled and she hadn’t attended a single class yet. The small line finally made it through the doors and Georgia welcomed the rush of warmth that hit her once she stepped inside. Her ears began to tingle as blood rushed back to them.

 After the last two kids in front of her entered, she swung her backpack over her shoulder, placing it with a light thud inside the plastic container that Mr Weaver held out. The portly security guard looked as sullen as ever, his dark blue uniform failing to hide the paunch that hung out over his waist. His bushy mustache had droplets of rain in it and his shirt clung to him from being wet. Georgia wondered how his balding head never froze in weather like this.  

Red faced and leering at her as usual, he said,

 “Part of the stragglers again, huh Pearce?” 

“I missed the bus,” Georgia mumbled, barely glancing at him.   

“What happened, did you ride a stick of bubblegum all the way over here?” he asked, motioning to the pink stains.  

“Tyler and Joey,” Georgia replied curtly. 

Weaver’s face scrunched up and looked even angrier than he always did. He pretty much loathed all students but Tyler Norton and Joey Swinton were by far his most hated students.  

“If you’d got here earlier, I could have straightened those idiots out.” 

Georgia rolled her eyes. Weaver’s tough guy act was so sad sometimes. It couldn’t be easy being a security guard at forty five years old. Less so when you had to spend your days surrounded by a bunch of entitled teenagers that all looked down on you.  On another day Georgia might have felt pity for him like she sometimes did. 

Today her mind was far too agitated to care about him. As he passed her bag through the scanner she saw the green light turn on as she passed the gauntlet and grabbed her bag, entering the school without another glance in Weaver’s direction. The ritual always irked her. She hated living in a world where you had to pass a metal detector just to enter a school. 

Once she passed the entrance area, she went straight and turned right down the first hallway. The relative silence at the entrance was instantly broken. The lights were on, which made it brighter than outside. A slew of colors and noise greeted her as she rounded the corner. 

The school was like a cliché. Georgia made her way through the usual melee. As she walked, she spotted familiar scenes out of the corner of her eye. Taylor James was kissing Eddie Watts near his locker, the jocks were standing off in a corner with their infernal football jackets on, other people were chatting, some gossiping. All in all, it was a scene that had long since grown into one big blur. 

As she reached her own locker, she had to nudge people out of the way to get to it. Just as she opened it, she heard a cackling laugh from across the hall. The annoying voice carried over all the heads when Tyler Norton yelled out, 

“Hey dot face, you made it.”  

Georgia saw some heads turn in her direction as they followed Tyler’s voice and then the direction he looked in. 

“I love that color on you. Pink actually makes you look like a girl now,” Joey Swinton chimed in. 

The buzz of voices grew into an infuriating din. Georgia refused to look up again and kept her head focused on the inside 0f her locker, feeling her cheeks burn with shame now. Her tiny hands balled into fists at her side as she shoved her backpack in.   

Just six more months. Just six more months. Just six more months.

Georgia’s mood was at an all time low. The combined pressure of the morning’s events, plus being soaked and miserable pushed down on her. The noise around her wasn’t helping. Just when it seemed like it might all be too much, Georgia heard a thump next to her. Moving her locker door, she saw Benny Núñez leaning on the locker next to hers. His mouth was curled into a wide smile, perfect white teeth gleaming at her. Benny had skin the color of copper and hair as dark as the night. 

He had a pleasant enough face but looked a little goofy when he smiled from behind his oversized teeth. Being short and skinny, he was one of the only guys at the school that didn’t dwarf Georgia all that much; one of the chief reasons she liked hanging out with him.   

“So dot face, what happened?”  

“Don’t call me that!” snapped Georgia. 

“Relax, I’m your only friend here, remember? No need to be all snappy. I’m not the one that gave you a pink tattoo. Oh, look, this patch looks like a polar bear. That’s awesome. Maybe you can turn it into a brand, you know like the one with the crocodile. I heard—”  Georgia slammed her locker door with a thud. Benny stopped with a small jolt. 

“I’m sorry Ben, I’m just not in the mood right now.”

 When Benny Núñez got going, Georgia knew all too well that he was like an endless train that changed tracks every two seconds. Usually she enjoyed the way he was the only person that could divert her attention away from the pangs of student life at Beldon High. Today, she just needed some quiet, a moment to herself to just breathe and process her thoughts.  

“Geez, okay. I’m sorry. I was just trying to cheer you up. I could see you didn’t have the greatest morning,” Benny said, his tone striking a serious note now.  

Georgia sighed.

 “It’s okay Ben. I’m sorry too. Yeah, you’re right I had an awful morning and no, I do not wanna talk about it,” she added rapidly as she saw Benny’s mouth open again. He closed it again. Georgia gave Benny her books to hold for a moment. 

“Where’s Lisa?” she asked as she removed her hoodie, and stuffed it into her locker, before scrunching up her hair and pinning it at the back.  

“She texted me. She’s got a stomach bug or something, not coming in today.”  

 Georgia nodded at this piece of information, hoping that her other best friend would be okay. As she adjusted the strappy black top she had on under the hoodie, Georgia noticed Benny steal a glance at her chest. Not there was anything to see. Georgia was as flat chested as the rest of her was skinny, but the bare skin between her neck and breasts still seemed to catch Benny’s attention the moment the hoodie came off. There was no time to care about how she looked.  

Is there anything else teenage boys think of?

Thankfully Tyler and his minions had moved on to harassing someone else now. Most of the students were preparing for first period and this gave Georgia and Benny a chance to slink off toward their home room together. Georgia cradled her books while Benny’s bag hung off his right shoulder. For a while they chatted about a test from the day before. Finally, the day was beginning to feel normal again. Reaching the classroom, the pair took their usual seats next to each other and at the back of the class. The classroom was as bland as any other in a public school. 

The walls held posters of biology charts, famous sayings, historical figures, a white board, and a teachers table up front. There were oak colored desks and chairs for around thirty students. A few of them were empty today. This seemed to be the norm on rainy days. Georgia looked at the empty seats and shook her head.  

Apparently rain makes people melt. As the friends took their seats, the class was still buzzing with chatter. Most students still had on their jackets and parkas even though the heat was turned on. The din suddenly came to a grinding halt as the door opened again and Mrs. Jordan entered. The wiry woman seemed flushed today. Her hawkish eyes darted around the class as she placed her bag on her table and motioned for everyone to settle down. Her auburn hair hung down the sides of her face in shiny clumps today. The rain had clearly gotten it poofy in comparison to the neat,  pin-straight rows that usually cascaded down her neck. Georgia was still rummaging around in her bag for a pencil when Mrs Jordan started speaking.  

“Settle down. Class, we have a new student joining us from New Port today” she was saying. 

Georgia was barely listening. Where the hell is my pencil?

In the background Georgia heard the door open again and a few of the girls began shuffling excitedly around her. Georgia remained oblivious. The immature chattering of her classmates wasn’t something she ever paid attention to, even at the best of times. Mrs Jordan’s voice droned on at the front of the class. The register of a voice may as well have been an inaudible sound for all Georgia noticed or scared right then.  

“Aah there you are. It’s nice of you to join us. Let me be the first to welcome you, but also to remind you that in this class, we start promptly at seven thirty, so please try to be on time from tomorrow.” 

Georgia still had her head down and was barely listening, the voices fading into the background as she finally found her pencil wedged among some pages that had gotten stuck together.  

“So what do we call you?” Mrs Jordan was asking. The voice that answered snapped her out of her inattentiveness like an ice cube being run down her back. It was throaty and almost had a guttural note to it as he grunted out, “Hayden…Hayden Ryder”.  

It was unmistakable. Georgia's first instinct was incredulity. The voice might have been unfamiliar on any other day. Today it was instantly recognizable yet that made the sound of it more unbelievable somehow. 

It couldn’t be! She looked up and almost let out an audible gasp when she saw the new student for the first time. It was the boy from the street.