Portal (5 page)

“What’s so ridiculous about it, Ella?” I demanded angrily.

She shrugged. “What did you do with your hair? You always wear it down!”

“Well, I feel like a change,” I said defiantly.

“Are you ready for breakfast, Ella? What time do you want to leave the house and head to school?” I asked changing the subject.

“Dad said that he would drive me on his bike this morning so I’m going with him. But I’m ready for breakfast now, let’s go.”

I was slightly concerned at Ella’s obvious distaste in my attire. What if the school kids here dressed a certain way and I’d got it totally wrong. I would stand out and that’s the last thing I wanted–
attention
. I looked over to see what Ella was wearing. She was wearing a pair of blue skinny jeans with a Juicy t-shirt and Uggs, so I couldn’t be that far off the mark. She was just being a pain, as usual. I was not about to start worrying about the way I dressed!

Mom and Rupert were already sitting at the table sipping coffee and pouring over newspapers as we got to the kitchen. I spied an Ames Research canvas carrier by the door, stuffed full of papers.

“Good morning, girls,” they both said in unison and looked at me with puzzled expressions. They thankfully managed to keep their thoughts to themselves. I had obviously dressed unlike Barbie Arizona normally did. Well they’d just have to deal with it for now.

“I have an early meeting, so I’ve got to rush off. Dad’s taking you to school, Ella. So, Arizona, you’re off the hook. You can head right to school this morning. Give Simla a call though, she may want you to pick her up. She got her car taken away from her last night by her mom. I don’t know the details. Rup, meet me for lunch?”

He nodded, stood up, gave her a hug and kiss. She was dressed in a pair of black slacks, a cream Chanel jacket and carried her cream Kelly bag (or old lady bag, as I like to call it) – her usual uniform. She grabbed her keys and the Ames canvas bag from the floor, blew us kisses and left.

“Arizona, can you walk Gertrude before you head off? I filled your Jeep with gas last night, so you are ready to go. Drive carefully, and I’ll see you back at the house at five. I’ll pick Ella up from school and she can hang out at the studio for a while.”

I nodded at Rupert as I went to get Gertrude’s leash, and headed off for a walk with her. A Jeep – I just couldn’t wait. I went back to the house to gather my stuff once I spied Ella and Rupert leave on his bike. I put some more food and water down for Gertrude and then went over to the garage. To the Jeep! I was beyond thrilled. I had been driving with my learners permit in Princeton for a while, but I’d never driven on my own.

The Jeep was parked in the garage, a bright yellow Wrangler. So much for keeping a low profile! There was a huge Spartans sticker on the back window. Well, at least it was clear that I was heading off to Mountain View High school this morning.

I programmed the directions into the GPS system, drive time 35 minutes. School started at 7:30 AM, I had plenty of time, but it would be good to be early. This was a first, driving by myself with no one in the passenger seat constantly nagging at me. It felt wonderfully freeing. Just me in this awesome Jeep! I could drive anywhere I wanted to, no one could stop me.

I turned the knob to the radio, but couldn’t get it to work. I decided to figure it out later. Perhaps I should head to New Jersey instead of this school. It was very tempting; I even had my own credit cards. I guessed it was about three thousand miles away? It would take me three or four days….

I drove on, without noticing my surroundings, concentrating on the GPS directions. I arrived at Mountain View High in no time, found the parking lot, parked and sat in my car watching the other students arrive. It dawned on me that I had completely forgotten to call Simla. What would she be doing here anyway? She should be back in Princeton wondering what happened to me. I’d try calling her later.

The kids arriving at school looked normal, no odd-looking vampires or werewolves. A bit disappointing really, a lone hockey playing Edward Cullen would’ve been nice. I was in the twilight zone after all. I wondered if I could take a vampire out on the ice. Of course I could!

The buses arrived, standard issue yellow school buses. As I watched the kids leave and head into the building, I decided to follow the crowds in. After quickly locking the car door, I hid under my hoodie and ran to mingle with the crowd. Keeping my head low, I stumbled my way through the throng wondering how I was ever going to find my locker, that’s if I even had one. My hood was suddenly yanked back by someone behind me, exposing me to the world! I turned around in fury, ready to floor who ever it was– Simla.

“Hey, why didn’t you call me? I was forced to take the bus this morning!” Then she looked at me curiously, “Are you hiding from someone?”

I shrugged off her question. “ What’s up with your car, Simla?”

“Did your mom not give you my message?” she asked irritated.

I shook my head, “I guess she forgot.”

Simla proceeded to bring me up to date with her car woes. Something about a bad grade on the trig test (didn’t we do trig last year?) and then telling her mom that she was going to drop out. I stopped listening, she sounded so different, so whiney. It seemed like her car had been confiscated for a week and by the sound of things she expected me to drive her around. Well, she was going to have to re-think that. I had other things to do, I think….

I noticed a lot of “Hi, Arizona” coming from all directions. I guess everyone knew me. I put on my best sunshine smile and waved a hello in all directions, trying not to offend anyone. I had no idea who these people were.

“Arizona, could you do my trig homework tonight? I want to sneak out and hook up with
J
?” Simla asked as we walked along the corridor.

“I guess,” I said hesitantly wondering who
J
was. I had no idea what I had to do myself this evening.

“Simla, come walk with me to my locker, I want to show you something.”

She looked excited. I let Simla get in front of me and I followed her to my locker. I quickly took some books out of my backpack so both my hands were occupied.

“Can you open it? My hands are full.”

I watched her turn the combination lock, same numbers I always used, great!

“So, what do you have for me?” she asked as two girls I had never seen in my life before came over, hugged me and grabbed my arms.

“Come on, we’re late!” the taller one said as she pulled at me.

“Later, Simla,” I shouted as I was dragged along the corridor. Hopefully she’d lock up for me. I turned around and did a “lock my locker” impression with my hands at her. She looked annoyed.

“Are you ready for the game tonight, Arizona? It’s so exciting!”

Game, what game? Was I due to play in an ice hockey game? I had no idea where my kit was. Possibly at the back of Mom’s Hummer, there was a lot of hockey stuff there.

I nodded at the two girls wondering who they were. I tried to get a closer look at them as we hurried along the corridor. Platinum blondes, very pretty, designer jeans and tank tops. Lip gloss that put Ella’s to shame.
Fabulous
heels. I guessed that these were my two BFFs and guessed that I normally dressed like them. No wonder Ella had been horrified.

“Yes, very exciting. Remind me, where we’re meeting?” I asked.

“Oh, the usual place,” said the taller of the two.

I instinctively knew their names,
Maria
and
Ali
and I felt comfortable with them. There was no awkwardness when Ali, the taller blonde, pulled lip gloss out from her bag and dabbed it onto my lips. It was mango, very pleasant.

She kissed my forehead and said, “See you at lunch!”

I smiled and waved at her. I noticed heads turning as she walked up the corridor toward her classroom. Not surprising really, she was amazingly beautiful.

Maria looked at me and said, “You look a bit different. Is everything ok? Did you hurt your feet?” She pointed at my dirty black sneakers perplexed.

“I think I may be coming down with something so ignore me today.” I offered as a sad excuse for my obviously shabby look.

“I hope you’re going to be ok for the game?”

“Don’t count on me, I’m feeling a bit nauseous.”

“Oh, you poor thing, I’ll keep an eye on you during our classes, nudge me if you need to go to the nurse,” she said kindly as she took me by the elbow and led me toward another corridor.

“Thanks, Maria,” I said gratefully. I followed her along the corridor, acutely aware that we had the same effect as Ali when we walked along. Lots of head turning, staring and a lot of “hellos.”

“How’s the new dog?” Maria asked as we walked along.

New dog? Did she mean Gertrude? Gertrude wasn’t new.

“Gertrude?”

“You named her Gertrude? That’s so cute!”

“Gertrude’s fine,” I said as we passed a group of girls who all turned around to me.

“There you are, Arizona!”

Yes, indeed, I thought to myself,
here
I am apparently, though I should be in Princeton….

It was the debate team by the looks of their t-shirts. One grabbed my arm and murmured, “Meeting at 1 PM, Dinner Hall, don’t forget to wear your t-shirt.”

I smiled and whispered, “Ok” as I hurried to follow Maria around a sign that read
Science Quad
. I followed her into a classroom, careful to not look at anyone and sat down on the seat next to hers. I watched her get her books out of her backpack, physics, great! I had never been in a physics class. I looked at the calendar, October 6
th
2008. The last time I had been at school it had been June 5
th
, 2009. I guess the calendar was wrong. I quickly checked the date on my iPhone. It was October 2008. I felt a chill. How had I not noticed that before?

“Put that away, Arizona. You don’t want it taken away!” Maria hissed.

I quickly threw the phone back into my backpack, setting it on vibrate first. Not sure why, as it had been spookily quiet in the last few days.

“When did your mom give you the cell phone back? It’s great, we can text again,” she said.

The class went silent as a stubby, middle-aged woman entered the room.

“Dr. Lee is away at a conference today, so I will be substituting. My name is Mrs. Shire. Take your books out and read Chapter Three.”

I turned the pages until I got to Chapter Three and stared incomprehensively at the words. I had no idea what it all meant, it might as well have been in Spanish, which I totally suck at. I would read this later at home. I spent the time studying my fellow students instead. I looked around as much as I could.

There were fourteen students in this class. On the other side of Maria, was a girl with a
Debate Team
t-shirt. She winked at me as she caught me glancing over at her. She was Asian, very pretty with striking blue eyes. I instinctively knew that her name was Lily. She was sitting next to another Asian girl, also pretty; she smiled at me too… Amanda. There was one more girl in class, way at the back so it was difficult to turn around and get a good look at her. She was bent forward peering over her book, ear buds on. Her hoodie was so far down her face that I couldn’t make out her features. I had no idea who she was.

Maria nudged me. “She’s new,” she whispered. “Her name is Ariele and she is apparently from New Jersey.”

Ariele? From New Jersey? Could it be my BFF from Princeton? She
was
moving to California. How awesome! I felt both excited and scared, a shiver ran down my spine and I trembled. Maria looked at me with concern. I shook my head to indicate I was ok, and made sure not to look at Ariele again. I wasn’t sure how to handle this yet. I wondered if Ariele had seen me? She probably wouldn’t recognize me anyway with this ridiculous hair.

Of the nine boys in the class, four were Asian and three from India. None of them looked up from their books once, totally entranced by Chapter Three, whatever that was about. The other two boys were sitting right behind me. One yanked at my hair. I turned around – Justin!

“Can you drop Simla off at my house later?” he asked in a hushed voice.

“Simla? Why?” I asked bemused. They had never given each other the time of day before.

I couldn’t help but notice the boy sitting next to Justin. He was staring at me with a smirk that really riled me.

“What’s
your
problem?” I demanded challengingly as I scowled at him.

I could hear a sharp intake of breath from him as he shrugged his shoulders and whispered, “What’s up, Shrimp?”

Shrimp? I stared at him in disbelief and then turned back to Justin.

“Talk about it later, Justin,” I whispered.

I turned around again and pretended to read, but I could feel the boy next to Justin glowering at my back. I couldn’t help looking back again and caught his stare. He was breathtakingly attractive and so familiar, although I couldn’t place him.

“What’s up with you and Kellan?” Maria asked in a whisper.

I shrugged. In all honesty, I hadn’t a clue. At least I knew his name now. I’d have to figure out the history later.

The bell sounded and it was time to move classrooms. I quickly checked my schedule hoping it was something easy: computer lab, perfect.

“Come on,” said Maria.

Good, I thought to myself. She is in my next class as well; I’d just follow her. We walked past the swimming pool and gym, around the library to the computer labs. Someone shoved passed me roughly and I dropped my bag. I saw Ariele hurry along ahead, without looking back. Maria helped me retrieve my bag and then we rushed along to class.

Computer lab was a breeze. It was fun and passed quickly. Then it was time for lunch. The cafeteria was just across from the computer lab. Maria and I crossed the hallway, but I stayed half a step behind her so I could follow her lead. Justin got to the door first and held it open for us.

“Ladies,” he smiled.

We walked toward Ali, who was already sitting at a table with a bunch of girls. There were two empty chairs for us. I threw my bag on one of them and made my way to the fruit counter. I picked up a banana, an apple and a drink of water. I was more nervous than hungry, having to deal with the girls at lunch.