FicWad

3. LIFE IN THE FACILITY

I was quite surprised when I finally showed up at Barrington High and the whole little group diffused to their own corners of the school.
Alex, Gabe, Sharlot, Cass, Hayley, and Shaant were all pretty much categorized along with the entire school. Alex and Gabe rolled over to their place with the Jocks. Shaant and Hayley were hailed at the skater table under the oak tree. Cass and Sharlot went and sat next to a strawberry blonde haired guy by the library. I know it was strawberry blond, NOT ginger. There are a very obvious differences people.
It was hard for me being the new kid and all to talk to anyone but them, but I couldn’t talk to any of them once the bell rang and they all started being different to what I saw them as when I first showed up in town.
Maybe it was just me or was I totally wearing the wrong thing. It seemed that short skirts and tights underneath was the style of the girls at Barrington; I did distance myself quite well with my flower power skirt and headband.
There were your four main cliques at Barrington High School. These are all in order of ranking as well.
1. Jocks: all muscled up on steroids, wearing their varsity football jackets and sporting a cheerleader on their elbow in the cafeteria. Not one of them seemed to be particularly interesting or interested in school. They were like the jocks you see in movies, the same breed that was at every other high school across the state. Except the jocks at this school was the basketball kind.
A very close second place to the jocks was…. Drum roll please…
2. All-State Cheerleaders: every school has their token blond cheer captain bitch. Queen of the sideline and the pom-poms, allegedly daddy’s little girl that he didn’t know got shit faced at the last six of her school basketball captain boyfriend’s house parties.
I wanted to puke at how cliché the whole makeup of this school. Third place was no surprise.
3. The Skaters and the surfers: actually one in the same. All very well aware of where to find their center of balance and what the dictionary meaning of ‘Ollie Three-sixty Barrel roll double spin off a ramp landing’ was. Also. Probably knew the best place to party in the whole district, and the best guys to party with too.
Only in fourth place because of their population, only after seeing Sharlot and Cass head over there would I be caught dead partying with his type, forgive me for being judgmental…
4. The Nerds: probably the most kind hearted people on the planet BUT cannot hold a conversation face to face without completely bumming you out or not mentioning the latest discovery or Bill Gate’s exclusive interview in ‘Technology Today.’
I didn’t know where I stood at all and I made my own way to the office to collect my time table and the other stuff that you get on your first day of school.
My locker was number 305 and lucky for me, it was right outside my home room. The only compulsory subject at this entire school was English, which suited me fine. I had it first with a teacher called Mr. Collins. He seemed pretty cool and he was from Canada.
I had Sharlot in my English class and I made sure I sat next to her. I was amazed at her writing skills! She had this mini novel on the go, about kids with super powers and they all wore skinny jeans in the story, which I thought was pretty cool considering what she was wearing. The envy, it burns!!!!!
My second subject of the day was trigonometry; it was pretty much the only math topic that I understood. It was strange because I sat next to the strawberry blond boy, who introduced himself as Patrick, and when Gabe walked in the door, he looked kind of torn between sitting next to a guy with super long legs, or me. I won the battle thankfully and Patrick almost fainted when Gabe sat down and started talking to me about their gig that night.
I saw Patrick listening, and at break I invited him to show up, using the excuse that I was new and I’d love to get to know the people in town and that he seemed pretty cool.
He flushed the cutest tinge of pink and nodded, and then he walked off to his haunt outside of the library.
I was alone.
I stared around me. The school was one huge grey building with trees and a field. Pretty standard issue for a school I thought, wandering around looking for the cafeteria. All I needed was an apple and I’d be sweet for the rest of the day.
I saw Shaant not far off and I called his name.
“Hey Shaant, where can I find some food around here?” I asked rubbing my growling tummy.
He laughed, “That was my first question at this place too. Follow me.” He led me to a concrete ramp that declined down under the main building, underground cafeteria, sweet!
There were huge round tables straight out of HSM and the line wasn’t even that long at the food counter.
I jumped in line and Shaant grabbed two trays.
“Whats with all the groups?” I asked him, accepting my tray and letting him in front of me.
He shrugged, “I don’t know, its just school life.”
I blinked, “dude, I’ve been to a shit load of schools, but this is just OTT man.”
He nodded, “tell me about it. If I didn’t live on the same street as Gabe and Alex, I wouldn’t even know that they are human.” He said stacking his tray with chicken salad sandwiches. I grabbed my apple; it was only morning break after all.
He scorned at my tray, “if you want lunch, get it now, there will be nothing left at lunch time when the basketball crew own up in here.”
I grabbed a chicken salad too.
“I still don’t get it, you guys are like… mates, why all the stereotypes?”
He patted me on the head, “in a week Zillah, you’ll find that it’s just easier. When we all go to the Palace tonight, it’ll be fun. It’s not who you are here, what you are and what you do is what matters to these people. If you take gym, or you play sport, you join them” he thumbed over his shoulder, “if you read, or do homework, join them,” he pointed to Sharlot’s spot, “if you don’t give a shit and like the beach, come sit with me. And if you like hair nails, and short skirts or you date someone from Alex’s crew, you join them.” He shuddered and looked at the cheerleaders with an evil stare.
“This is stupid though. I’m not either of those, I’m all of them. except for the bit where you look at me like that.” i joked.
He looked at me as though I was mad.
We took our food out of the cafeteria and stopped half way between the four corners of the school.
“You can come hang with us, although, it might be awkward. It doesn’t matter though.” He punched my arm softly, careful not to drop one of his twenty chicken salad sandwiches, “you’re still our home crew. Are you going to go to the Palace tonight?”
I nodded, “yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”
“Mean. See you there then.”
And so I was left standing there, alone again.
I made a half turn and I saw a seat, half shaded by a tree, and half in the sun. I went over and sat under it. It was pretty much completely isolated from any four of the corners. It was exactly where I wanted to be.
I didn’t want to put myself in any of those little groups. I was going to be an individual.
Starting now.
I shoved my sandwich in my bag and took a bite out of my apple. Then I pulled out my latest book and I started reading, by myself, at the table away from everyone else, in the sunny part.

My third class was gym. I liked to stay fit and I liked sport, so I took it. It didn’t mean that I was going to sit in any particular part of the school. It meant that I was going to sit back and observe.
Alex took gym too ‘surprise!’
He was in my class, which was cool because he offered to buddy me for badminton.
While we started out just hitting it back and forth over the net, I started talking to Alex about his band.
“What do you play?”
“Uhh, well I kind of do a bit of singing and guitar,” he said in hushed tones, going pink around the ears.
“Who else is in the band?” it was obvious he didn’t want to talk too loud so I kept my vice down.”
He smiled, “well, Sharlot is our kick ass drummer, Gabe does lead vocals, there’s a guy Pete who is our bassist and Shaant does a bit of guitar as well. It’s just like our whole street pretty much.”
I nodded, I couldn’t play an instrument to save my life, but I loved music, to listen to it all day everyday.
“What about Cass and Hayley?”
He shrugged, “Hayley does her own thing most of the time. Man she can sing. I’ve never heard much from Cass though. She’s just there for support I suppose.” He looked thoughtful.
I wish that everyone just merged together and hung out. There were so many lines boxing everyone in place, I felt like I was kicking up dust talking to Shaant and then Alex and sitting by Patrick and Sharlot.
“So, do you know any cheerleaders?” I spied the three in this class, chatting on the court over from us, with long legs from trig.
“A few, I do go to a couple of parties and places where they are, they’re all the same though. Love themselves…’cheerleading’s not a sport it’s a way of life’” he mocked in a high voice that made me laugh.
He smiled, then his face dropped, “you’re not a cheerleader are you?” then he smiled again, “that would mean I’d have to kill you, you know.”
I laughed again, “no don’t worry, I don’t do cheerleading. The uniforms kind of make me want to vomit.” I shuddered.
I kept looking over at the long legged guy. He didn’t look like he liked to stand in one spot, that’s all he was doing. His arms were long enough that he didn’t have to move to reach the shuttle with his racket, wherever it flew to on the court. I think I saw him step once, to save it from going out.
I laughed, “Hey Alex, who’s that guy?” I used my racket to point.
“That’s William, or Bill, he’s on the team. Good shooter.”
I nodded; Bill looked over and nodded to Alex who nodded back. They had this silent man wave thing going on.
After I showered quickly from gym, I had biology in a small stainless steel lab room. It felt like it was underground like the cafeteria. Cass was in my bio class so I sat next to her and she smiled at me friendly.
“Isn’t it weird, you know, knowing all of the people that live on our street, but ignoring them at school?”
She shrugged.
That was everyone’s answer and it bugged me.
“Not really, it helps having allies.” She smiled lightly.
“Allies?”
“You know, like, well, Gabriel keeps his friends from giving us too much stick, you know, and Hayley, she tells people to shut it when they pick on Sharlot. It’s better than copping shit just because you don’t sit by them. Its just life.”
I’d heard that one a lot today.
Its just the way things are or its just life, why was everyone so ready to accept it like that. I’d seen it everywhere I’ve lived. But here it was different because I lived on a street with a half a dozen really cool people that ignored each other at school because of a hobby or an interest. It was stupid!
At lunch time I sat by myself again in my same seat, the sun had moved around the tree and it was all in the sun then, so I sat on the far side and I watched them all.
I watched them all like a hawk.
One thing I decided that lunchtime, was that I wasn’t only going to be myself at Barrington, I was going to make everybody themselves. Well I was going to start with the people that lived on my street.
I was going to be so much of myself that whether it brought them to me or drove them away, it would open their eyes and they would stop being so damned blind!
No one in their right mind was as fickle and fake as these guys were. Sure, it might have been a good thing that Gabe and his crew kept the shit from being dumped on Cass and Sharlot and their crew, but wouldn’t it be better if they got to hang with Gabe himself. I mean, he was a cool enough guy but if I haven’t said it before, I’m sure I have, this is just too weird!
Someone waved at me.
I just saw the hand shoot up and wiggle in my direction, I guessed they were waving towards me, because a second later, I saw two people get up from their seat outside the library and make their way over to my remote little seat.
It was Cass and Sharlot.
“Hey Zillah, why are you over here on your lonesome?” Cass asked dumping her bag on the table and taking the seat opposite me. Sharlot did the same and sat down next to her.
I smiled.
My plan was starting to work even now, on day one, phase one of the ‘Plan Initiation’.
“Me alone? Na, I have my chicken salad sandwich and now you guys are here.”
Sharlot looked like she wanted to laugh; I don’t know why she didn’t though.
So I was funny now? Geez you learn something new about yourself everyday.
“So where about do you live on South Hagar?” Cass asked me.
“Next to Alex, across the street from Gabe, just up the street from Shaant, what about you guys?”
“I live right at the end by the park.” Sharlot said.
“I ran up there this morning.” I said.
“I know I saw you.”
That was weird but okay; sure I’ll go with it.
“I live at the house just by the bus stop, right on the corner.” Cass said.
“Too bad we can't point out what makes our houses stand out huh?” I joked.
“Yeah, I bet we probably all have the same shape lounge room.” Sharlot said smiling.
“I dunno, does yours have a window seat Zillah?”
I shrugged, “I wouldn’t know to be honest. I’ve only been in the attic, bathroom and kitchen basically so far. I moved in last night you know.”
“Whoa! And you went for a run in a strange neighborhood? Weirdo.” I smiled, I liked Sharlot. She was weird and quirky in her own little way and it made me want to just hug her and her awesomely stylish jeans.
“So is that how you met the boys?”
“Uhh… that’s how I met Shaant and Alex. I met Gabe when I and Jane went to The Palace for dinner last night.”
Sharlot went kind of pink under her cute little freckles when I mentioned Gabe.
Cass nodded. “Are you going to go to the gig tonight? I hear that those guys are from Las Vegas.”
“Yeah I am, Alex needed a ride and I needed directions.”
“Do you think you could bring me back? My dad can only drop me off on the way to work?” Sharlot asked shyly.
“Sure thing! I can't wait to see you bust your thing on the drums!”
She went pink again.
“Who told you….?”
“Alex is in my gym class.”
Cass butted in.
“You take gym?!” she pretended to be disappointed; “I suppose you were innocent before you came here. Not for long.” She patted my hand sadly, “not for long…”
We all had a laugh.
Those two girls were really funny. They had me smiling and laughing all the way until the bell rang.
My final class was the one I had been looking forward to all day; Media.
I was happy to see that Shaant and one of his friends were in my Media class. He had a black fringe that shadowed his face, but when he smiled he had incredibly white teeth that were straight as well.
“Zillah, come sit here.” he dropped his bag from the desk next to him and I took the seat.
“Zillah, Pete, Pete, Zillah,” was Shaant’s quick introduction.
“Pete?” I asked, “As in the Bassist?”
He smiled over the table.
“As a matter of fact I’ll answer yes to that one.”
“How’d you?” Shaant asked
“Alex.”
They both smiled.
Was it just the mention of Alex and Gabe that made people smile? Or was it because school society ranked them higher than everyone else?
Whatever it was I had my own reason why, Alex and Gabe were two funny guys.
Media was just like all the other places I had taken it as a subject. Today we will be studying fast food advertisements. It was like a favorite topic for most media teachers, who all seemed to enjoy fast food on one too many occasions.
Shaant and Pete were funny guys too. Pete was part of the skater club with Shaant; it wasn’t really that either of them skated, as it was so much what music they listened to. There just happened to be a fair number of skaters and surfers that listened to the same music.
So now I find out that the stereotypes are wrong!?
My mission was going to have to involve anyone and everyone that showed up at The Palace tonight. I was looking forward to being a hero.