Chapter 2: Recognition

Chapter 2: Recognition

Thunder Mountain High School has a total of 425 students (including me) and 27 teachers. It is slap bang in the middle of Juneau, although the place is so small that it isn’t very hard to be in the middle. The campus isn’t big, but the school is fairly new, so they still have plans to expand. It would be tolerable; not as big as my last school. Closer knit friendships could be formed in a place like this.

My first lesson was Calculus. The teacher sat me next to a bubbly, smiling girl with brown hair tied in a ponytail and green eyes framed by thick lashes. She sprang up as I went to take my seat, hand outstretched.

“Hi, I’m Hannah Berry!” she trilled, “I love your hair! Where do you have to go to get that colour? It’s gorgeous. Oh! I’m sorry, I’m so rude. What’s your name?”

Like she didn’t already know. I was probably gossip here.

“I’m Vanessa Wolfe, and the hair is natural.” I smiled shyly. People always commented on my hair. It made me stick out even more. I used to complain, but when Jacob suggested dying it, I was so horrified I never said another word on the subject. I wasn’t changing one thing about my physical appearance; my reflection in the mirror was all I had to remind me of my parents.

Hannah sat down, apparently forgetting that she was waiting for a handshake, and I sat too. She continued to babble on about this that and the other, asking the odd question in between. She was ‘convinced that we would be BFFs in no time’, and invited me to sit with her group at lunch. I accepted, grateful that I wouldn’t be sat alone. Despite all the excess energy, Hannah was a really nice girl, and the only one in the whole class who even tried to be friendly. We had identical schedules, which made her even more excited, and she walked with me to every lesson.

We had Music right before lunch, and I felt almost optimistic as I introduced myself to the teacher and took the seat beside Hannah. The other students gave me curious looks as they entered if they hadn’t seen me already, and a few of Hannah’s friends came over to say hi. One of the boys, a chirpy boy with glasses perched on his nose, nervously introduced himself as Freddie. The girls giggled as he retreated, but I ignored them. I was surprised to see a boy in this class; it was an elective block, and most of the other boys had headed for the wood shop rooms on the other side of campus.

Miss Lucas called the class to order then, and they ran to their seats.

“Now then, as I’m sure you’re all aware, we have a new student today.” She waved me forward, and I went to stand at the front of the class. I kept my eyes down and bit my lip, trying not to blush at this public exhibition.

“Vanessa has just moved here from Seattle, so I want you all to be welcoming and help her get settled.” She turned to me. “Now dear, I have a little tradition in my class. Each new student must either sing or play a song that has a special meaning for them and tells us something about them. So...” She gestured to the space in the middle of the loose semi-circle of desks. “Take it away.”

I stepped forward nervously. I liked singing; it was another escape. To be so utterly lost in melody and lyrics was heaven. I thought I was good, but I had never sung with an audience before. Even Jake hadn’t heard me before.

“Well, um...” I began, unsure of how to begin, “I’ve always liked ‘Butterfly Fly Away’ by Miley Cyrus. I could sing that, I guess.”

Miss Lucas smiled. “Of course dear. Is there any particular reason why you would choose that song?”

I thought for a moment. “It makes me think of... my brother. My parents... passed away when I was quite young, and he pretty much raised me.”

Hannah gave me a sympathetic look, and some of the other girls ‘awed’.

One of them didn’t seem to be paying attention at all. She was scribbling on a drawing pad, so all I could see of her was a mop of spiky black hair. There was something familiar about the girl, something I couldn’t place.

Everyone was waiting for me to start, so I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and started singing.

“Tucked me in, turned out the light,

Kept me safe and sound at night,

Little girls depend on things like that.

Brushed my teeth and combed my hair,

Had to drive me everywhere,

You were always there when I looked back.

You had to do it all alone,

Make a living make a home,

Must have been as hard as it could be.

And when I couldn’t sleep at night,

Scared things wouldn’t turn out right,

You would hold my hand and sing to me.

Caterpillar in the tree,

How you wonder who you’ll be,

Can’t go far but you can always dream.

Wish you may and wish you might,

Don’t you worry, hold on tight,

I promise you that there will come a day,

Butterfly fly away.

Butterfly fly away,

Got your wings now you can’t stay,

Take those dreams and make them all come true.

Butterfly fly away,

We’ve been waiting for this day,

All along you’ve known just what to do.

Butterfly,

Butterfly,

Butterfly,

Butterfly fly away.”

I opened my eyes as the class applauded and took my seat. I realised there were tears on my cheeks, and hastily brushed them away, embarrassed to be crying in public. Hannah squeezed my hand reassuringly, and I smiled at her. The black haired girl was still sketching furiously, and I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I knew her from somewhere.

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Hannah’s lunch table was crowded when we arrived. She introduced me to everyone I didn’t know, and they immediately started asking questions. It felt like Jake’s quizzing this morning. I was glad when they finally seemed satisfied and I could eat my lunch in peace.

Trying to distract myself from the dirt I was putting in my mouth, I scanned the lunch room, taking in the separate groups. They all seemed to polarize as they entered.

The smart kids sat together, pouring over textbooks and discussing homework.

The comic book geeks were next to them, swapping action figures and comparing story lines. They were currently locked in debating who would win a Spider-man vs. Batman showdown.

On the other side of the room were the popular kids. Three tables were pulled together to accommodate a gaggle of football jocks in black and white jackets, along with their giggling cheerleader girlfriends. The obligatory pink-clad dumb blonde clique sat next to them.

In the middle were three or four tables of kids who didn’t fit the two opposites, but branched into several different stereotypes. Thankfully, Hannah and her friends seemed to be fairly average, not belonging to any group in particular; except their own.

One table in the corner had no occupants. Although some tables were clearly getting crowded to the point where people were eating lunch off their laps, no one made any move to sit there.

The buzz of chatter suddenly picked up in force. People were craning their necks towards the lunch queue. Hannah grabbed my arm excitedly and started bouncing in her seat.

“Oh Nessie!” she gushed (she had discovered my preferred nickname earlier), “They’re coming, they’re coming!”

“Who’s coming?” I asked, mystified.

“The Cullens.” She replied, almost reverently, pointing to the six figures just settling themselves at the empty table in the corner.