Chapter 2
David looked up at the old building. It was going to be torn down and replaced over the summer and the new middle school was separated from the entrance by a chain link fence with decorated with images of the new Stoney Creek Middle School. David was not going to attend there but he remembered that his brother would, as would their much younger cousins, once they moved back to the United States. That branch of the family had been in England for his uncle’s work. He didn’t recall the specifics, but it had something to do with computer networking.
Strange thing to remember out of nowhere. Ok, game time. School work isn’t going to be a problem, but the social stuff is going to weird as hell. What the hell was cool back in middle school? Pokemon? Xbox? This school was full of yuppies, so hunting and fishing are probably not the right topics… ah screw it. I like hunting, camping, and fishing. If they think I’m weird, who cares. Jeez, why am I anxious? I’m a grown man, damn it! Ah hell. Don’t tell me it’s just the memories that make me old, and everything else is still 13 year old boy. Fantastic. Because I always did enjoy impulse control problems. This is just great.
David joined the rest of the flow of students and then stopped shortly after entering the cafeteria which was the on the other side of the main doors.
I have no idea where to go from here… ok there is probably something in my book bag.
So he headed off to one side and dropped his bag on an open table away from the stream of kids wandering past. Unzipping his bag, he found a mess of loose papers half crumpled in it as though shoved through an opening barely big enough to fit his fist. David froze, there was no way he would find anything useful in that mess. But neither could he just throw it all away. Somewhere in there had to be his school paperwork. Spinning his bag around so he could see the entrance, he sat down and began sorting through random papers. Most turned out to be worksheets, partially complete with no grade on them. It took 5 minutes to find a green half sheet of paper that had class names and room numbers tucked in between pages of what appeared to be a history hand out. It was hard to be sure because at some point the packet had gotten wet and most of the ink had run and blurred. David set the green sheet on top of his bag and continued to go through the rest of the detritus, in case there was anything else important in the pile. There wasn’t. carefully, he put the class schedule in an outer pocket and to the pile of remaining paper to a trash can. Looking around David noticed that the students were all still sitting around chatting, throwing things and not heading to classes for some reason. He checked his watch, and it was already 7:26. He always remembered school starting ridiculously early, so how was it that no one was heading to class. Shouldn’t they be only 4 minutes away? David shook his head, pulled out his class sheet and headed for doors that lead away from the crowd. When he got to the door, he noticed a blonde girl with a clipboard standing by the side.
“Um, excuse me, but what time do classes start?” David asked in as mild a tone as he could. The girl paused and looked at him strangely.
“Classes start at 7:55. Who is your homeroom teacher?” she asked in a rather clipped manner.
“Uh,” David looked at his cheat sheet, “Lestroski, I guess? I’m not sure, this is my first day here.”
The blonde girl looked startled. “Oh, that’s my homeroom.” She said.
“Great! So what is the teacher like, is she ok?” David figured that it was probably a good idea to try and be nice to pretty girls, especially one that was in his first class and seemed to have a position of trust. “Maybe you could show me around. I’m David, by the way what’s your name?” He put on his best smile.
The girl had a strange look on her face, though. “I am Miss Lestroski.” She deadpanned.
“Oh.” David felt his face burning as he awkwardly looked away. Well damn, maybe he was a bit off on judging things right now. She was his height and was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt with the school name and mascot. “I, um, thought you were too young to be a teacher… I’m sorry. Can you maybe forget this moment, please?”
Miss Lestroski smiled gently “Sure thing David. So anyway, home room starts at 7:55, until then you should try and get to know some of your classmates. Or if you’d like to get situated before everyone goes up to their lockers, you could also talk to the guidance office and get yours assigned, unless you already took care of that last week? Oh, and you can just call me Miss L, everyone does.”
Still feeling his face burning, David decided to head up to the guidance office and get his locker sorted out. The big guy in the office seemed friendly enough and gave him a locker assignment and the combination for it. David headed there just to make sure everything worked properly then went to check out where his classrooms were. It looked like he had Miss L first thing, then for math during actual 1<sup>st</sup> period. He also ended the day in her room. His English was in the room right next to Miss L’s and Social Studies and Art were on the same floor but the opposite hall. The building was laid out strangely he decided. 8<sup>th</sup> grade classes were all on the 3<sup>rd</sup> floor which was made of two parallel halls with all the classrooms on the outside walls. The space between the two halls led into a library and study hall area that was set up like an atrium. All three stories had doors that opened in from the student halls and the 3<sup>rd</sup> floor could look all the way down to the ground floor where a grey-haired librarian sat.
Once David felt comfortable enough with where his landmarks were, he checked his watch and saw there was only a minute left before first bell. He headed to his homeroom and got there right as the hall was filled with the cacophonous tromping of young teens pouring into the building. He leaned against the wall waiting. Miss L entered the room and was soon followed by two dozen kids. David heaved himself off the wall, still amazed at the control he had over his own body again. He entered the room scanned it and put himself towards the back where he had a clear view of the door.
“All right everyone, settle down. Before announcements, we have an introduction. A new transfer student has joined us, so let’s welcome them, ok?” Miss L’s soft voice called out from the front of the room. “David, if you would, please come up to the front and give a brief introduction?”
David stood and headed to the front of the class, he tried to keep his focus and pressed down the unwelcome jitters caused by the internal rollercoaster of random feelings that were definitely more intense than they were yesterday.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
God, how did I survive this intensity last life? I would be a mess if I didn’t have decades of discipline and becoming comfortable with myself. No wonder we all used to act like idiots. Makes so much more sense now.
David placed himself in the middle of the front of the class and felt himself automatically fall into parade rest. “Good morning, I am David Niro. I have transferred here from a much smaller school, so please bear with me as I attempt to learn all of your names. I am looking forward to learning along side all of you.” David then dropped his hands and moved away from the center of everyone’s attention. Or so he thought. Once he was seated back at his desk, nearly every eye was fixed on him. A mix of expressions spread across the kids. Most of them had an almost confused look, a few seemed impressed maybe, and a few of the boys looked annoyed for some reason. David was pretty sure 8<sup>th</sup> graders shouldn’t be this quiet.
Luckily, the old tube TV in the corner of the room chose that moment to light up and the perky voice of a younger red headed girl started reading off a few announcements including what was being served in the cafeteria during lunch and that the baseball team had won their game the previous Friday.
David tried to keep his face “pleasantly neutral” through the rest of the morning classes and while he didn’t go out of his way to talk to other students, he tried to keep his responses polite and tried to make sure he was keeping eye contact. Frankly, it was exhausting. By the time lunch had rolled around, David was ready for the day to be over already. It wasn’t that he disliked having so many people around, in fact he greatly enjoyed it. For years, the only people outside his family he had been in contact with were travelers who traded or brought news between different hidden groups of free survivors of the Unification purges. No, what he found taxing was trying not to treat them all like excited little kids. He had wanted to pat them on the head or say “that’s so exciting” but he knew it wouldn’t sound right coming from a peer when they were babbling on about who was who, and the TV show they were watching. Once he had been able to break away from the crowd at lunch, he headed to the gym instead of getting in line for lunch. He definitely needed a break from everyone. Once he had gotten out of sight of the crowd, he tossed his bag full of his morning books on to the bleacher and stretched a bit. It was incredible how free his movements were. He could nearly reach his toes and if he remembered correctly, at this point in his life he had not even started any real physical training. This was just his natural flexibility.
Once he had ran through everything he remembered from daily PT warm ups, he decided to check on how many push ups he would be able to do without working up a sweat as he still had two more periods before he could head home and get cleaned up. Unfortunately, 30 was all he could do before he felt sweat starting to form, still it was a good starting point. David popped up to his feet and started an easy jog around the perimeter of the gym.
He had gotten into that good rhythm where he could just think and had been mulling things over again, when he heard an angry shout.
“Hey Kid! What do you think you’re doing? What’s your name, huh?”
A short, stocky man in maroon joggers and a baby blue polo shirt was stomping out of a small side door and into the main gym.
That guy is definitely a coach. Probably the gym teacher…
“Sorry sir, I am new here and I needed to get myself back together after a morning of new people. I didn’t realize it would cause a problem to run for a bit without supervision.”
The coach turned red and huffed. “Smart ass. What’s your name?” he demanded as he closed in on David.
“Niro! Sir! I apologize, I am not attempting to be smart with you coach!” David nearly sounded off, but kept himself barely from shouting at the coach. It was strange, but he could feel his temper starting to flare. It was suddenly hard for him to think calmly.
“Niro, huh. You’re the new kid? Well, get out of here, no one is allowed in the gym outside of classes. Go on get!” the coach order with a dismissive wave of his had like he was shooing a fly.
David nearly saw red, then went cold. With a sharp salute, he snapped to and spun to grab his bag. Everything felt hyper focused as he stalked away. He actually impressed himself by not slamming the door open as he returned to the hubbub of the cafeteria.
Oh yeah, I’m just a kid again. I can’t just do what I think makes sense anymore. Damn though, I am really going to have to watch out for this.
He found a table where no one was sitting and pulled out the few handouts he had already gotten. David figured he may as well get his classwork handled while he had nothing better to do.
“Hey. You’re the new guy?” a girl wearing a tight white t-shirt and stretchy black pants asked. She had dark brown hair, and a bit too much make-up on covering what appeared to be a light case of acne.
“Yes, I’m David, a pleasure to meet you …?” he allowed his voice to trail off leaving her a chance to supply her name.
“Jessica. So, like what’s your deal, you’ve been quiet like all day, and at the first chance to really get to know anyone, you’re sitting here all by yourself.”
“I’m sorry, I am just trying to deal with a new place and so many new people. Before, there were far fewer people that I had to deal with. I didn’t mean to be rude, and you’re welcome to join me, Jessica.” He calmly replied, making sure to maintain solid eye contact. Surprisingly, the girl, Jessica, I need to think with her name or I’ll forget, broke eye contact and he noticed a tint of red on her cheeks.
“Oh, well I just wanted to know more about you, you know? Like why you transferred so late in the year. And no one knows like anything about you?” She mumbled at him.
“Ha ha,” David chuckled a bit, “So you are here for everyone, huh? Well, I guess the easy answers are that I was at a Catholic school before, and my family wanted to put my brother and I into a better ranked school for high school. We found a good deal on the house and they closed before the end of the school year. This allowed us to start here earlier so that we didn’t have such a long commute to our old school.” David kept it simple and from what he remembered, it was true for the most part.
“Uh, that makes sense, I guess.” Jessica seemed a bit down, but David didn’t understand why exactly. “So, I’ll see you around, David?”
“Yeah, it was nice to meet you Jessica. Hopefully I didn’t shatter my mysterious origins to badly for you and your friends.” And with that, David turned back to his worksheets.
The rest of the day progressed with any real notable changes. He did enjoy his English class though. It was some what non traditional in that it was actually focused on reading a novel and then having discussions about what they could interpret from the story. The Sphere was the book the class was working on, which he was enjoying even though some of what it discussed reminded him of some of the news stories he remembered from just before the Unification Wars. Relatively quickly, the day had ended, and he was ready to head home. Outside the school, the students milled about on the sidewalk waiting for their parents to pick them up. David found Tom, already chatting happily away with a group of kids. David grinned his brother had always been far more socially adept than he had been.
“Tommy. Are you ready to head home?” he asked as he approached the group.
“Yeah, hang on, Dave.” Tom turned back to his conversation. “So anyway, we just moved in, but my mom said there’s a park by us. I haven’t explored it yet, but I am going to check it out today.”
David waited for his brother to finalize his plans to meet up with his new friends at the local park later that day as he scanned the parking lot for their mother’s car. He didn’t see it, so he assumed they should walk home. The walk wasn’t too bad as it was only about 6 blocks, so they made it home in less than 20 minutes.
One day down. Now to clear up my space David thought.