7days7authors

Thursday: "Pretty is as Pretty Does" by Mandatory Volunteer

(Part Five)

We stopped in front of his locker and I watched at he turned the lock and opened his locker. A strange smell billowed out, but it wasn’t really a bad smell, it was nice actually. Like… the smell of old books. Which incidentally, happens to be my favorite smell. Yeah, I know I’m weird.

“Here. Bathroom’s right around the corner. We can put your other things in my locker for now.” He handed me a small black t-shirt and a light jacket. I didn’t really know what to do. My clothes were getting stickier and I didn’t know where the nurse was, and he was really going out of his way to help me so what else can I do?

I changed in the bathroom and wiped away most of the soda out of my hair. I had a comb in my bag and managed to tie my hair back into a ponytail to keep it from tangling worse than it already was.

I emerged from the bathroom and walked slowly back to his locker, where he was leaning comfortably, humming a song and playing air chords.

“You didn’t have to do this you know,” I said as I approached him.

He pushed himself up from her locker and stopped strumming air chords, but he still kept humming the same song. It was very enchanting. I can’t even to begin to imagine what he’d sound like if he were singing for real.

“Well sure, I didn’t have to, but hey, it’s hard enough to be a new kid in a completely strange town in an even stranger school. You’re not even from this part of the country are you?” My eyes narrowed and a paranoid feeling came over me. He knows something. And it’s kinda creeping me out.

He must have seen the look on my face because he quickly added, “I could tell from the way you talk you know. You have a southern drawl, and not many people here have that kind of accent.” He laughed nervously and scratched his head as the bell sounded.

“There’s the bell… Where’re you headed?”

—

His name was Nathaniel. And he’d turn out to be one of my best friends later. He was in my English class, and debriefed me on what the summer reading was and what was due. But I already knew what those things were, they were in the stack of papers that Charlotte and Drake left for me when I was getting acquainted with my new surroundings.

The teacher for this class was rather nice. I wasn’t sure about all the students though. They all seemed to glare at me, except for Nathaniel, who was beaming at me from the front of the class.

“Nathaniel! Pay attention!”

“Yes ma’am,” he said, never turning his kind eyes from me. Then he grinned when he heard the exasperated sigh from the teacher and turned around. He was the only one in the class who listened to her.