We're Not Related Anymore...

Meet Cute

"And the principal is giving you the welcome speech now?" He says, his voice slightly disbelieving. I look up into his eyes and get lost for a moment. He has an old, romantic look about him. His eyelashes are long and shield his dark eyes.

"No. He gave me his spiel this morning. I'm here because I got in trouble." I almost say 'fight' but I don't want him to think I'm a psychopath.

"What'd you do?" He asks, curiosity and half a smile entering his expression.

"I was hoping you wouldn't ask me that," I trail off with a sigh.

Unfortunately, Miss Anderson, ever the feminist, comes to my aid with an explanation for the boys.

"I'm surprised you didn't hear about the fight already. Our new student was quite the force to be reckoned with. One of the boys from the football team put his unwanted hands on her and Maddie really showed him!" Miss Anderson says, pumping her fist into the air.

Lord, let this ground open and swallow me up, I pray as I feel both boys stare at me.

"Oh," is all the one says and goes back to drinking water. Where is he putting it all? If I drank that much, my bladder would explode.

The one sitting next to me just smirks. When I turn to look at him, he falls fully onto his chair and turns his head away so that I can't see his perfect teeth.

"What's so funny?" I hiss, picking up the bag of peas once again. He senses my movements and snatches the bag before I can hide my hand again. He picks up my hand in his and brings it to his face to examine it. I quickly pull it out of his loose grasp and tuck it under my butt so that it's out of everyone's sight. I wince at the extra pressure on my hand. I really hope I don't get blood on these jeans.

"If that's what your hand looks like, I'd hate to see the other guy," He says, amusement in his voice.

"It's not that bad... I just have sensitive knuckles," I explain.

"That's not true. Maddie knocked Mason Reeve out cold. He's in the nurse's office as we speak." Miss Anderson, again, unhelpfully explains.

"Wow. That's impressive. Mason has one of the hardest heads I've ever known." The boy tells me. He runs a hand over his dark hair and I can't help but follow the movement with my eyes. "So what did he do to deserve such a beating?" He asks, even though the secretary already explained what happened. I wonder if it's because he doesn't believe the story or if it's because he wants to hear what happened from me.

"I only hit him once!" I defend. "He grabbed my ass so I punched his face." Fair is fair, I think. If a boy can put his unwanted hands on me, I can put my unwanted hands on him.

"So that deserves being punched?" Asks the other boy, seemingly done with consuming the water in the cooler. He runs a hand over his ruddy face looking at me like I'm some kind of psycho-jock-puncher.

"Hey, the way I see it, if Mason touched her like that then he needed to learn the consequences of his actions," says the boy sitting next to me. I have to hide the smile I'm now wearing with my hand. I wish I could drag this guy into the meeting as my high school defense attorney. Lord knows I need the support.

The principal opens the door to his office and sticks his head out. "Maddie Culkin? You can come in so long." I have no doubt that's code for, let-me-lay-down-the-law-before-your-dad-arrives-and-has-an-aneurysm.

I stand up to follow the principal in but a hand snakes out and catches my wrist, stopping me in my tracks.

"You're not Josh's sister, are you? I know he also started school here today..." The boy asks, already looking like he knows the answer. After all, if he knows Josh, he's probably linked us with the surnames.

"Yeah," I say, freeing myself of his grip. His eyes shut and he sighs.

"That's too bad," He says standing up as well.

"How do you know Josh?" I ask, guessing he can't be too chummy with him if they'd just met today.

"He stayed at my house when he and your dad came here last summer," He answers. I nod as the realization hits. Last year, my dad and brother flew down here to look at potential colleges. I always thought they were looking at places for my brother to study at. It turns out, they were looking at places for my father to work as a professor.

I have a vague recollection of seeing a picture stuck up on our old fridge in our home in New York, before we moved here. In the picture, my brother and a boy, who looks a lot like the one I'm talking to, stand next together smiling. I guess this kid made an impression on my usually unfriendly brother.

"Yeah, my dad's friends with your dad, right?" I ask, my hand on the door to the principal's office.

"It's my mom, actually," he says but before I can ask him more about it, the principal shuts the door behind me.

-

I wake up after a boom of thunder rattles the window frames in the living room. I sit up in my temporary couch-bed and see I left one of the windows wide open. I run across the room to close it, hoping not too much rain got into the house. The curtain feels damp in my hands as I swivel it closed over the window once more. The room seems eerie now that the room is quiet again. I can still hear the pitter-patter of rain but it doesn't dominate the room like it did a second ago.

I decide to turn on one of the lamps in the room in order to get rid of the creep factor. Rooms like this are too big to sleep in. There's so much furniture in here and it makes me feel like a kid waiting for a monster to jump out from under the table or one of the numerous chairs. I slump back down on the couch, pulling a blanket over to cover my lap. I gently massage my forehead as if I could exorcise the dream I was having. If only it was a dream and not an almost-forgotten memory.

My eyes scan the room absently as I try and will myself back to sleep. It's only when I feel my lids get heavy that I realize something: Not one of the pictures in the room is of me.