Wings From Ashes Trilogy

by Linda Nelson

  “Karla, there is no more riding the bus from now on,” he announced. “So, you have your choice this morning; you can either walk to school, or I can drop you off on my way to work,” he said while he straightened his tie.

  Karla thought he looked too funny wearing a suit and tie. She snickered to herself while she watched him try to button up his suit coat. The buttons over his stomach were so tight, they were ready to pop. She had no idea what his job was, but he appeared to be dressed as a salesman.

  “'Kay, Dad. I'll ride with you this time,” answered Karla. She was happy to escape her mom's pestering. The first-day jitters formed in her stomach. She nibbled another bite of toast.

  “Well, you need to get your things, then because I'm leaving now,” he said while he picked up his briefcase. He didn’t wait for Karla. Instead, he headed toward the door and paused long enough to pick up his lunch bag and coffee cup on his way out the door.

  “Ah… I just made the toast,” Karla stammered.

  “Drink your juice up, and you can take your toast with you. Eat it in the car,” he said on his way out the front door to start the car.

  On his way out, he stopped to kiss her mom goodbye.

  Karla was not used to seeing her parents kiss, even just a little peck. Most times, they were glaring at each other instead.

  “Okay, I’m coming,” she called after him.

  Karla grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. Quickly, she drained her glass of juice and placed the empty glass in the sink. She then gathered up her toast in a paper towel and followed her dad out the door.

  She was not used to living so close to school. It only took about five minutes to make the trip. This was only because they had to wait for the streetlight at the end of their street. Other than that, they would have been there sooner.

  “Do you know where to go,” her dad asked as they pulled up in front of the school entrance. He put the car in park and waited for Karla to gather her things.

  “Dad you don't need to hold my hand, I’m not a little kid anymore.”

  Karla could feel her frustration coming back. Parents could be so annoying. She glanced out the car window and saw a group of students gathered outside the entrance. The butterflies flopped around in her stomach. The last thing she needed was her dad to escort her into school in front of all these kids.

  Her dad smiled at her. “Just checking to make sure you are set to do this by yourself.”

  “I can do it, Dad,” she reassured him.

  Karla scooped up her backpack and stuffed the leftover toast into the pocket of her hoodie. She couldn’t finish her toast right now, the butterflies made her stomach to queasy.

  “All right…I'll see you tonight at supper. Good luck on your first day,” her dad said to her as she opened the car door.

  “Thanks, Dad. See yah later.”

  Karla could feel the eyes of other students watching her as she shut the car door. She stood on the sidewalk for a brief moment and watched her dad drive off. She then turned around, walked up the school steps, and passed the onlookers gathered by the entrance. A catcall sounded off to her right, and she ignored this as she entered into the school lobby.

  Once inside, Karla's eyes passed over the array of bulletin boards on two of the walls.

  There was a trophy case with a school banner strung above it. The lobby connected to three corridors. There was one off to the left, one straight ahead, and the other off to the right. She spotted the office straight ahead on the right. It sat between two of the corridors.

  Karla entered the office, walked right up to the counter, and waited for the secretary. She stood at the counter while other students entered and dropped off papers. The morning bell rang bringing a bustle of students who were hurrying past the office windows.

  Trays of various papers were stacked on top of the right side of the counter where it attached to the wall. The walls covered with several posters. One of the posters had to do with a college fair while the other two were advertising for the armed forces.

  “Hi. I'm new here. I was told to stop by here and get a copy of my schedule,” Karla piped up as soon as the secretary stepped into the room and noticed her standing there waiting.

  “What's the name?”

  “Karla Centon”

  “Just a sec… Oh, here it is… found it. Here is a map of the school, just in case you need it. And here is a pass for your first class, if you should get lost.” The secretary paused for a moment when a student entered the office and then spoke to her. “Oh, Carol. Are you on your way to Miss Brangton's history class?”

  “Yeah”

  “Would you be kind enough to show Karla here to class,” the secretary asked Carol. “She is new here, and she happens to be in your history class.” She handed the schedule and a map to Karla.

  “Yeah, I guess,” answered Carol. She sounded like she had better things to do than to show Karla around.

  Carol picked up some papers off the counter and led Karla out into the hall. Most of the students were now in their classes emptying out the hallway.

  Karla followed Carol silently along the hallway. Her eyes took in the art murals on the corridor walls, amazed by the skill of the artist. She thought to herself how this wasn’t ever allowed in Medham High. What fabulous artwork.

  Carol broke the silence. “I have to stop at my locker and pick up my book.

  Where is your locker?”

  “Oh…I don't know.”

  Karla was jolted back to the here and now by the sound of Carol's voice. She looked down at the paper she held in her hand.

  “Let me see.”

  Carol took the paper from Karla.

  “Oh, I know where that one is. Over here, just a couple down from mine.”

  She handed the paper back to Karla and opened her own locker.

  “Thanks.”

  Karla looked for her locker number on her paper.

  “4551... Right. Found it. Great combo lockers, I hate those types. I always forget the combo.”

  She began trying the combination to her locker.

  “Come on, you can mess with the combo later. We got to go, or we will be late for class.”

  Carol slammed her locker shut. She beckoned Karla to follow her.

  “Hey, Carol. Talk to me later,” the red headed girl shouted to Carol as they passed each other in the hallway.

  They walked down the hall a bit more before taking a right into another wing of the school.

  Karla saw a blonde approach shouting as they made their way down the corridor.

  “Carol… call me.”

  A girl with dark complexion passed them next and shouted, “Carol. What time is practice till?”

  Carol turned around and walked backward, answering her, “I'll get back with yah.”

  Stopping short before a room on the left, Carol scooted into the class.

  “Here it is. You can sit wherever, we don't have assigned seats.”

  She set her book down on her own desk.

  Karla moved to take a seat near Carol. She was unsure of how this school was going to agree with her. Some of the things, like the wall art, she thought was decent. What she didn’t like was how the school was so big, and the classes were so spread out making her have to hurry to each class if she wanted to get to them on time.

  “Oh, you can't sit there.”

  Carol riveted Karla out of her deep thought.

  “That where Donna sits.”

  She looked around and pointed to another empty desk across the room. “Hey, that one has been empty; you can sit there.”

  “You must be Karla,” Miss Brangton said as she entered the room. She closed the door behind her.

  “Yes.” Karla answered softly. She turned around to see who was addressing her.

  “I'm Miss Brangton,” she replied, “Yes; it is safe to sit there,” Miss Brangton nodded her approval.

  She then turned to address the class, “Class, we have a new student with us
. Her name is Karla Centon. Why don't we all welcome her and help her find her way around the school?”

  A guy two desks over to the right turned around in his seat. His gray eyes met Karla's brown eyes. His blonde, shoulder-length hair had small wisps of ringlets on both sides of his head.

  “Oh God. He's cute,” Karla thought to herself.

  She could feel her cheeks grow warm as their eyes locked onto each other’s.

  As soon as he turned back, to face the front of the class she was able to sit back in her seat and relax.

  Karla fought the smile and ran her hand through her hair. She felt like her heart was going to jump right up into her throat. He was gorgeous, and he had noticed her. She never thought a guy would notice her on her first day at her new school.

  Nervously, she pushed her books to the left corner of her desk.

  Karla could not keep herself from looking in his direction all through class. She had a hard time focusing on her teacher. Occasionally she would catch him taking quick glances at her over his shoulder. This would make her smile even more.

  At the end of class, Carol caught Karla by her arm.

  “Karla? What's your next class?”

  “Math,” Karla answered, looking down at her schedule. She read to herself, “Math, lunch, Digital Imaging, English, and last, Biology. Hmm. I can’t wait to see what Digital Imaging will be like.”

  “Oh, I got science. It's in the opposite direction. If you want, you can sit with us during lunch. You do have first lunch, right,” Carol babbled quickly as she followed Karla out the door.

  “Yeah, I guess I do,” Karla answered, surprised by the lunch invitation.

  The only ones she had ever eaten lunch with had been Sarah and Jody. They always sat at a table by themselves away from the rest of the big cliques.

  “See yah at lunch then,” Carol called behind her. She followed the cute guy down the hall.

  “See yah,” Karla replied. She just could not take her eyes off the guy. She stood mesmerized. Carol kept chattering about something to him while they walked away down the hallway until they were out of Karla's sight.

  The day seemed to be off to a great start. A cute guy had taken notice to her, and now she had a lunch invitation. Maybe this was going to be a decent school after all.

  Chapter ~ 5

  Karla followed the room numbers on the doors. Passing another corridor, she felt sure she would get lost by the end of the day.

  “This school is big,” she muttered to herself, careful no one else heard her while she wandered about looking for her next class.

  She finally found the room for her next class, math, making it into the room just as the bell rang. Looking around, Karla found the teacher standing at the back of the room. She made her way past occupied desks to greet him.

  Making eye contact, Mr. Petradona smiled at Karla. “Hi, you must be Karla. We have been expecting you.”

  “Hi,” Karla replied. The eye contact bothered her. She had to look away.

  “Damn. Does he have to stare,” she wondered to herself. He certainly made her feel uneasy with the way he looked at her.

  She followed his gaze while he looked around the room. Mr. Petradona spotted an empty desk for Karla. “Oh, you can have this desk over here by the window.”

  She set her bag on the floor next to her desk and sat down in the chair. Karla waited while Mr. Petradona found her a textbook. After he wrote down the book number in his paperwork, he gave her the book.

  “Class, we will be moving to the next chapter; Geometry.”

  “Oh yeah, I'm just thrilled to death. Who needs geometry, anyway?” Again she muttered to herself.

  Karla obliged and opened her book to the chapter on geometry, this lead to watching the clock on the wall. The time just seemed to go by so slowly. Her mind began to wander back to that cute guy in history.

  Ten minutes to twelve, he finally wrote the homework assignment on the board. Karla quickly jotted it down, checking out the pages in her book. She slipped her book into her bag just as the bell rang.

  Before leaving the classroom, Karla pulled out the map of the school to see where the cafeteria was located. It was down the corridor she had passed on her way to her math class. She stuffed the map back into her bag and swung it over her shoulder, making her way to the cafeteria.

  Karla noticed groups of students going in the same direction she was going in. She decided to follow them. They lead her to the cafeteria.

  Looking around the cafeteria, Karla found Carol sitting at a table by the windows. She hoped Carol would still let her eat lunch with her.

  Boldly, Karla walked over to Carol's table. Carol looked up as she approached.

  “Hi,” Karla called out, hopeful that the invitation still stood.

  “Karla, come sit with us,” Carol invited.

  “Sure,” Karla accepted.

  She saw the empty spots at the other end of the table and started to make her way to one of them, but Carol stopped her.

  “Darcy, let Karla have your seat today,” Carol demanded of one of her friends who happened to sit directly across the table from her.

  Karla stopped and watched as Darcy moved to the other end of the table. She was not expecting them to do that for her. She took Darcy's place at the table, hoping the girl would not be angry with her for taking her place.

  “So, Karla, what do you think of this school,” Carol asked. She picked up her bottle of Gatorade and swigged some down. “Hey, Maggie, are you gonna eat that?”

  Karla watched as a short, short brown haired girl handed Carol her sandwich. She saw several others also give a portion of their lunch to Carol.

  Karla did not know she was giving Carol a questioning, that is until Carol said defensively, “What? So I forgot my lunch money. Give me a break.”

  Karla shrugged the odd behavior off. She took out her own lunch and began to eat it. A bag of chips sat on the table before her. She pondered whether to offer the chips to her or not.

  “Want my chips?” Karla asked Carol.

  Carol shook her head. Karla picked up the bag intended to eat them.

  “I'll have them.”

  Karla looked toward the person who had spoken up to see who was asking for her chips. She saw whom it was the cute guy from history. She felt her face grow hot as she gave him the chips. A grin came across his face as her eyes locked on his once again. She forced herself to break the connection and looked away quickly.

  “I don't know if I’m gonna like this school? It’s humongous. It takes too long to get to your classes,” Karla answered Carol. She had a hard time not looking in the cute guy's direction.

  “What school did you go to?” Carol asked after chewing a bite of the sandwich Maggie had given her. She then washed it down with another gulp of the Gatorade.

  Karla washed her own mouthful down before responding.

  “Medham High.”

  “That is a small school. I've been there for the football games. My boyfriend, Heath, is on our football team,” Carol smiled, obviously she felt proud of her boyfriend.

  Karla said nothing. She went on eating her sandwich. Suddenly she realized that was where she had seen her before, at one of the football games.

  Carol broke the silence between them after taking another sip of her drink, she asked, “What classes did you take?”

  Karla glanced down the other end of the table before answering Carol. The boys were flipping chips back and forth at each other from the bag she had given to the cute guy. Karla snickered to herself, thinking of how childish they were behaving.

  “The usual; English, math, science, history, Digital Imaging, gym, you know, crap courses,” Karla answered, bringing her attention back to Carol.

  Carol tossed her trash on Maggie's lunch tray and turned back to Karla, she asked, “Any after-school activities?”

  “No...” Karla raised an eyebrow, surprised by the inquiry, and wondered to herself who stays after school these days.

&nb
sp; Carol capped her empty bottle and handed it off to Darcy to throw away for her.

  “Interested in volleyball?”

  “Never thought about it before,” Karla answered, taken aback by the question. Gym and exercise were not her favorite subjects.

  “We have tryouts next week,” Carol invited. She leaned toward Maggie to whisper something into her ear. Maggie smiled approvingly.

  “Well, that leaves meout. The only time I have ever played volleyball was during gym. And that wasn't terribly often.”

  The whispering and sly smiles made Karla feel extremely uncomfortable. She began to wonder if they were whispering about her.

  “That's okay, we can teach you,” Maggie offered. Her straight brown hair hung almost to her shoulders.

  “I don't know…I'm not that coordinated,” Karla answered. She was trying to back out of the conversation as best as she could. Her and sports just never mixed.

  “Well, we can teach you for next year. You’re a sophomore right?” Darcy pitched in. Karla had not noticed she had taken the empty seat next to her. The sudden appearance startled her.

  “Yeah,” Karla tried not to sound too leery. She began to think they were being kind of pushy, and she could not help wondering what all the whispering was all about.

  “We can get you ready for JV. You should give it a try,” Carol encouraged one last time. She looked up at the clock and began to gather her things.

  “I'll think about it,” Karla relented. She took Carol's clue and took her leftover lunch to the trash. Looking at the clock on the wall, she saw lunch was almost over.

  “Karla, what's your next class,” Carol asked as the bell rang. She flipped open a cell phone to check for messages. Finding none, she flipped it closed and pocketed the phone.

  Karla had to dig out her schedule again, “Digital Imaging.” She stuffed the schedule back into her bag after taking a peek at the map, which she quickly replaced in her bag since she did not want anyone to know she had no clue as to where to go next.

  “Well, I got to go. Maybe I'll see you later,” Carol bade goodbye and left with her friends.

  “'Kay, see yah.” Karla called out after her. She watched as Carol met up with Heath in the hallway. The two of them stopped on the side of the hall for a quick kiss.