Jess vs. World

    My heart rate is though the roof and I haven’t yet stepped foot inside the building. It is my first day of 9th grade, and I’m freaking out. Please don’t blame me for being nervous, but it’s a new school, with some new people, bunches of new teachers, and a new me, though it isn’t very different from the old me. The me that wants to be back in middle school, where I feel safe and everything is familiar. But my mom always says, no one got anywhere by sticking with what they know. If now isn’t a good time to use that expression, I don’t know what is.
    I finally go inside the building. Surprisingly, I make my way very quickly to the gym and see some friends and other people that I know. It’s cool and weird to think that I survived elementary and middle school with these people by my side. Soon, an aide is yelling at me to get a move on, and I start the long journey up the stairs. I guess some things just never change.
    After climbing what I think is the millionth step, I arrive at my destination, the 4th floor. This is my habitat for the next 9 months. I’m prudent in my steps, carefully noticing the numbers marked on the doors. The one thing I don’t want is to pass my classroom, and look stupid. I’ve never been a lucky person, so it suits me that my homeroom, and the majority of my classes, is on the far side of the hallway, the farthest classrooms from the stairs.
    I walk into room 413, my new homeroom, and fall into a chair near the front but closer to the middle of the left edge. With a slight turn of my torso, I can view the whole classroom. I might suck at science, but I can pinpoint the absolute best seat in class in a few seconds. That counts as a score for Jessica Galia. Jessica 1, World 0. As the class trails in, it is evident that the cliques have formed. There were the Preps, the Emos, the Geeks, the Hallowells (a big gang of friends all from Hallowell Elementary School), and of course, the JAs (the snobs from Johnson Academy, the K-8 private school close by).
    There are only three JAs in my homeroom, two girls and a guy. I have met JAs before, but these girls literally looked like they had just jumped out of a magazine. There are no visible flaws anywhere on them. The guy on the other hand, looks like kids from my elementary school. He could be different, though I don’t get my hopes up. After everyone sits down, I realize something. The way the seating is, I’m surrounded by JAs. Maybe I’m not as brilliant in seating as I thought. Jessica 1, World 1.
    I’m sort of clique-less since, other than science, I get straight A’s. My parents thought it would be better to challenge me, so I’m in ALL Honors classes. That means that I’ll have crazy hard projects, lots of homework, and never get to see my friends again.
    The bell finally rings, and the teacher starts the introductions. She hands out a lot of stuff, from homework books to our schedules. Then we start a name game. We are all either 14 or 15 years old, and our teacher expects us to play a name game we played when we were 6. After we are all acquainted, we have about 15 minutes of free time before we start our first day. A large line forms at the teacher’s desk for directions, and everyone starts talking to their friends.
    I just fiddle around with my new backpack until someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn around. The JA girls are staring at me and the boy is writing his name on his notebooks.
    “Why aren’t you talking to anyone?” asks the JA named Crystal. “Do you have no friends?” The other JA, Danielle, starts cracking up, like I’m some sort of joke.
    “Lay off!” the boy exclaims on my behalf. Now talking to me, “Hey, my name’s Nick. Sorry about them. They’re so insecure it’s a surprise they have ANY friends at all. What’s your name?”
    “Jess. Jess Galia.”
    “Jess, where’d you go to school before?”
    “Greenback Elementary, then Jones Middle. You went to JA, right?”
    “Is it obvious?”
    “Kind of, and especially obvious because who you sat with.”
    The bell rings.
    “I have to go,” I gather all of my things and shove them into my backpack. “See you around.”
    “Can’t wait,” he offered smiling.
    After that, we talked at least once every day. I was only in his homeroom, lunch, and math class, but we usually only talked in homeroom. It’s not like we’re friends, but sometimes he helps me out with science and I help him out in math. We balanced out pretty well. I felt as though the score was Jessica 2, World 1, but that was soon about to change.
    Not long after we met, I started crushing on him. I couldn’t help it. He was cute, like the kid-next-door-cute, not actor-cute. He was kind and pretty smart. But, he was a JA. His being a JA was as much a stop sign as anything, but I kept dreaming. From where I sat in math, I could just stare at him the whole period. I kept it a secret, even from my old friends from my neighborhood. The only person I told was Melinda. She and I have the same study hall, so we bonded pretty quickly.
Melinda is the kind of person that always looks cool and has a million friends, but is always the nicest person in the world. She’s also not shy at all. Once in lunch I pointed out Nick to her. I look down at my pasta, look up, and she’s gone. She reappears a minute later, glowing. I ask her what’s up, but she won’t answer me. Jess 2, World 2. I can’t stop thinking about Melinda and lunch all day, and I barely sleep at all.
    The next day I trudge along to homeroom as usual, and sink into my chair. I always come early, same as the first day, and watch everyone else come in. Today isn’t very different, though something seems off. Nick walks into the classroom, and takes the seat behind me as usual.
    “You’re lucky to have a friends like Melinda,” he whispers into my ear from his chair. “I need to talk to you at my locker during lunch.”
    During every class, I couldn’t sit still. I kept finding opportunities to leave the classroom, even during History, my favorite class in the whole world. At what felt the end of the world, lunch arrived. I waited until I saw Nick leave the cafeteria that I left, and followed him. After creeping behind his shadow, we were both at his locker.
    “I really like you, and I want to be your boyfriend,” Nick just kind of blurted out. “I had no idea you liked me until Melinda talked to me yesterday. Why didn’t you just come to me?”
    “Because you’re a JA, and I can’t just come up to you in the middle of all your friends and talk to you and expect everything to be ok.” I challenge back. “I really like you to, but I can’t have a boyfriend. I’m not ready... But we can be friends, and maybe it can lead to something.”
    After an eternity he answered, “Sounds perfect.” He smiled.
    We walked back to lunch, and everything was the same. It was weird actually. But it worked out. Nick and I have been inseparable since “the talk”.
    I guess I won this round, but the World would like a rematch.