Chapter 2

//.2

 

 

   I was frozen. Still. Couldn't move or think. It was just... such a shock! The second this Koji guy said it, 'Blue Generation is transfering to this school.', I wanted to faint right then and there. Just listening to their songs makes me want to barf, and now they're going to attend my school??

"Ah, well from your reaction I can tell you really aren't a B.Gen after all." He said to my still blank face. "Hm, have I made you ill, dear?" He waved his hand in front of my face.

"Huh, wha?" I came back to reality.

"Heh, well," He checked the time again, "I'll be on my way now." He smirked, turned around, and walked down the hall.

   I soon heard light footsteps shuffling towards me from behind, and I knew they belonged to Lisa. So I turned around and saw her eager face, and I knew what she wanted to hear: The new scoop on her fave pop group.

"Soooo?" She said, fluttering her eyes.

"No." I said and bent over to pick up my books and binder that fell on the ground.

"No? You didn't even know what I was going to ask!"

"You wanted me to tell you what Mr. Koji said, right?"

She puckered her lower lip. "Yeah..."
"Exactly. And I'm not going to tell you."

"Wha-? But why not!" I started walking towards the door but then she jumped in front of me.

"H-hey, Lisa get out of the way!" She kept blocking me.

"No! Tell me what he said, Sam, PLEASE!!"
"Lisa, NO!!" I asserted myself.

And then there was silence.

   I don't usually yell at my friends, especially Lisa. She's like a little kid, you can't upset her or she'll cry.

"Boo.. This is no fun." She sighed.

"Now can we get to class?" I asked and Lisa nodded.

   Finally I felt like my somewhat normal day could continue, but RIGHT before we could even put our hands on the classroom door, a loud "WAIT!!" called from down the hall and stopped us in our tracks.

   A familiar voice. Lisa and I turned around and saw none other than Mr. Ray Koji running back down the hall towards us.

I narrowed my eyes a little. "What do you want now? I thought you where late to a meeting."

"Well, yes, but.." He looked at both of us. "You girls are late to class right?"

Lisa and I exchanged looks. "Y-Yeah." We responded.

"Ah. Then I might as well..." And he walked right into the classroom.

   Puzzled and confused, the two of us followed behind him. Once we entered the classroom, we saw that he was already talking with our teacher, Mrs. Budd. I examined the classroom, and most of the students (mostly girls) seemed to form a little huddle and whispers filled the room. They constantly kept looking back at Mr. Koji, so they probably knew who he was.

"I'm gonna go to my seat." Lisa whispered to me then headed towards the second row of desks from the front.

   I would have gone to my seat too, but then I saw Mr. Koji walking back towards me. Well, not exactly towards me, he was walking towards the door, but he kept looking at me. When he crossed my path, he stopped right next to me and whispered,

"That was a thank you for not telling your friend." He turned to Mrs. Budd and winked, and she winked back.

Ah, I get it now.. I smiled. "Well it's not like I was going to tell her anyways," I whispered back, "then she would never shut up!"

He kind of chuckled. "Right, well now I'm off, for sure this time."

"Oh wait," I stopped him.

"Yes?" He turned his head slightly.

"Uh, why? Why did you cover for us?"
He closed his eyes for a bit, then opened them again. "Well it's not everyday I meet a hard-core hater like you."
" 'Hardcore'? My, Mr. Koji, you make me sound like a bad person." I smiled cheaply.

"Ha, sure." And with that he walked behind me and out the door. I didn't turn around to see it, though, but I knew he did, and I knew he didn't turn back at me either.

   Instead of just standing there like an idiot, I decided to head over to my seat too. In the back of the classroom.

  You know, I'm not that big a fan of art, but it is a fun class... I hate that I have to sit all the way in the back, and the worst part is that I sit right in front of Jessica Bradley.. A.K.A my worst enemy.

  It all started back in my freshman year. I was seriously excited and hoped that nothing would ruin my day, but Jessica Bradely did at lunch time. I commented on how I liked her jacket. I asked where she got it from and she told me, and I quote, "At a place too expensive for you and your poor family. You couldn't even afford a shoe lace." And ever since that day she had always been pickin on me. Anyways, sorry for getting off-track..

"Oh by the way," Mrs. Budd announced, "Lisa Xiao, Samantha Young.. You two are excused from your tardies today."

Thank you, Koji I thought as I sat my stuff on my desk.

   I clearly heard Jessica from behind me, chatting to her little android-follower friends,

"I wonder what Samantha Old was doing with Blue Generation's manager." She snarled.

"Begging him for an autograph maybe?" One of her followers asked.

"Maybe... But she could always ask my daddy who is a partner of Star Records to get one.. Too bad I hate her guts." She started laughing.

"Ok, even I thought that was a pretty lame comeback." I turned around and said.

"Psh, whatever." She flipped her hair.

   I really don't want to waste my time on her. She's not worth it. So I rolled my eyes, turned around, and started to begin the warmup assignment.

 

   The last 10 minutes of class is always free-art time, or talk-until-the-bell-rings time. But Lisa always takes it to her advantage. She's a real art dork; She draws with pencil and paper and with the computer... And she's really good at it! She just never puts it out there... I wish she could see how much people envy that kind of talent.

   So I walked over to her desk to escape the brain-dead, prep society of Jessica Bradley and see what Lisa was sketching out now. I snuck up on her, peered over her shoulder, and saw a cute anime (Japanese-style art) sketch of her and V.

"Aw, cute!"

"HUH?!" She freaked out.

"Haha, it's just me.." I tried to calm her down.

"Man, you scared me.! Don't ever do that again!" She adjusted her paper and continued working on the drawing.

   I absolutely love her drawings. The style, the time she spends working on it.. it's great!

"I like this one," I pointed at V's head. "I like how you drew his hair."

"I always draw hair like this..." She giggled. "And thanks."

   Since we were little, I always had been a little envious of her art talent. I can't draw people, I do mostly still life, like blocks or cars.

   I grabbed a chair from behind me and pulled it next to her. I watched her continue the fantasy drawing. Now that I think of it, Liz is always drawing pictures like this.. People holding hands, kissing, hugging.. I looked at her eyes, without her noticing. It was the kind of eyes that wanted something.

   See, Liz's parents don't let her date, but shes really pretty! I know of 3 great (and cute) guys that had a crush on her back in middle school, and one of them Liz actually liked back! But she just had to say no. Maybe that's why she draws like this. She uses her art as a key to escape reality.

   One of these days I need to convince her to make a manga, or whatever those Japanese comic books she reads are called. But for the remaining 6 minutes, I just continued to watch her draw out her desire.

 

♫ ♫ ♫

 

   After school I walked home with Lisa, since Jay had some Student Council stuff to do. He's the Vice President, and it's pretty cool actually. Some kids think that only nerds should be there, but I think they're an important part of the school

   Anyways, Lisa and I started out talking about English class and somehow ended up talking about England and British guys! It's so funny how our conversations twist and turn like this.

"Hey hey! You gotta hear what I heard at lunch today!" Lisa jumped.

I kind of hesitated. "Uh, what?"
"Ok, so I heard from some girls that they saw picture of V and Aaron from B.Gen holding hands!"

I almost choked. "Auh, what?!"

"Hahaha, I know, crazy right?!" She laughed so hard.

"Hell yeah. Sheesh, what's going through the paparazzi's heads nowadays?" We continued walking. "But, you said you heard these from some girls at lunch right?"

"Uh, yep!"

"Well, those could be rumors you know."

She cocked her head. "Uh, yeah, I know!" The way she said this made it obvious that she did not know.

"Right.... But then again, you never know." I chuckled.

"WHAT?!" She ran and jumped in front of me, blocking my way. "DON'T  SAY THAT!!"
"Heh, why? I'm just saying..."
"No no no no no!! If V, my V, turned out to be... you know... 'like that', I don't know if I could go on!"
"I can understand that, but if you really liked him wouldn't you be able to accept him?"
"Well, yeah, but..." She fidgeted with her hands for a bit. "Argh, my head hurts!"

   And suddenly my phone started ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and noticed I got a text from Jay.

 

Hey u!

R u still wlkin with Liz?

Tell her tht she left her science hw in the councelor's office.

 

   Of course.. I thought to myself, She always forgets stuff. I responded with an 'OK' and told Lisa the news. She totally freaked out and then apologized for having to leave me while on my way home. I told her it was all good, and then she turned around and raced back towards the school.

   I haven't walked home by myself since 6th grade, so this walk made me think about a lot of stuff, like how B.Gen's transfer to my school would turn out. I mean, would they just show up to school like any other student? But then they would get pummled by fans, unless they had a boydguard! But then they wouldn't have much freedom as teens. Oh, maybe we'll have an assembly and the principal will introduce them! Uhh, I don't know..

  Why do they have to come here anyways? I thought.

  I then got to thinking, I take this route home everyday and there are so many things I had never noticed before that I do now.

   For example, neighborhood watch was cleaning up some graffiti around the area, a new mini mart was being built, and the same car has been on sale, sitting at an intersection, for about 2 weeks.

   You really do need to open your eyes sometimes, I guess. I smiled at the pretty sky above me. That's when I also noticed, the construction from the soon-to-be mini mart blocked the street I had to cross to get home... which meant it was detour time.

   I don't usually change routes, so I wasn't really familiar with the new road I was taking home. It seemed to cut right behind the old town's movie theater. It was kinda creepy. It gets dark fast in January here in Seattle, so I had to bustle. Big dogs barking, the smell of cigars, and loud latino music drowned the filthy street.

  I should have picked a different route. I clenched my backpack strap and cell phone in my pocket. Every time another dog barked I felt like walking faster and faster. When will this alley end?! I screamed in my head.

  After walking for about 10 minutes I saw the main boulevard just ahead of me. I felt civilization close at hand. I also heard the sound of poor-singing and heavy shouting coming from a close building.. It was a bar.

  Great. I rolled my eyes, took in a breath, and tried to walk past fast enough hoping that none of the drunken perverts inside could see me. But right before I walked past, the side door of the bar opened up and I saw 2 guys being pushed out.

"THERE!! I don't care WHO you are!! JUST STAY OUT OF HERE!!!" I heard the owner, I think, shout at the boys.

"See?! I told you they would notice us!!" One of the boys yelled.

"Ah man, shut up!" The other boy yelled, kind of stunned sounding. I think he's drunk.

   He wobbled, trying to get up, and the other guy caught him when he fell over.

"You are really out of it, aren't ya?" He said to the buzzed teen, who was also wearing a striped beanie.

"Man, you know I love ya." He teased him, acting like he was going to kiss him.

   It occurred to me that these two actually sounded quite  young. Not 18 or 19, but like my age, or maybe a year older.

"Hey, knock it off! You know, we gotta get out of here before someone sees. And before we get lost 'cause I don't know where the hell we are."

    I didn't want to eavesdrop, but also it seemed like they needed some help. Despite me not usually being this nice, I thought maybe I'd give them som directions.

"He-Hello." I slowly walked up to them.

"Whhaa!" One of the guys shouted and jumped back. He then grabbed the other guy's arm and pulled him back too.

"Heyy man--! What are ya... What the hell are, ya doin?" The drunk guy responded.

"Hey," the 'clean' guy said, with power in his voice, "You better not be one of the press!"

I was so confused. "Press? What are you talking about? I just thought you guys needed directions."

"Hell no." The buzzed beanie guy shouted. "We don't need no directions, miss. You know who we are?"

"Uh, NO I don't!"

"You dont?" I heard the other guy say quietly, under his breath, in shock, as if I should know who they are.

"Then," he hiccupped, "allow us to introduce myself.." He made the stable guy let go of him, and he started to wobble again. But once he got control of his balance, he continued. "This guy right here," he pointed to the slender guy behind him, about 5''7, with shaggy black hair, and a cute face, "his name's.. Aaron."

My heart skipped a beat

...Aaron? Wait a minute...

"And my name's.. My name's V."

... No way...!

Then he held his hand out. "Nice, to meet you." He smiled a devious smile.

   Who would have thought? The band I hated most, and we're actually meeting for the first time, outside some shady bar, and the lead singer, only 16 years old, all the girl's dream boyfriend, is drunk.

 

   This is Blue Generation? Heh, what a shame.