The Blacker House

by Nicole Mulloy

  “These must be the freshman lockers,” Kate said to Lucy, her voice shaking slightly. Petite, shy Lucy stood behind her big sister. This was not only Lucy’s first day at the new school, this was her first day of high school, having just finished eighth grade last June. Kate turned to her and put a hand on Lucy’s shoulder. She would have liked to offer some comforting advice, but all she could manage was a tight-lipped nod. Lucy smiled back weakly. Glancing past Lucy’s head, Kate found the small dented sign that said “Office.”

  “Here’s the place,” Kate muttered as she turned into the small, crowded room. Telephones were ringing as Kate and Lucy pushed their way to the front desk. A harried-looking woman with thick glasses looked up at them.

  “Help you?”

  “We’re new,” Kate said loudly to be heard over the din. “We were here last week with our parents. We’re Katherine and Lucille Gilbert.”

  “Right,” the woman said, reaching for a file buried under piles of paper. “Lucille’s a freshman and Katherine is a junior, right?”

  “Right.”

  She handed them schedules. “Wait right here.”

  The woman disappeared behind a wall. A moment later, a plump girl with curly blond hair and turned-up nose came out.

  “Hi! I’m Angie and I’m going to show y'all to your lockers,” she said with a big, fake smile. Kate noticed that the girl sported big pink circles of blush on her cheeks and bright pink lipstick, the same pink that Kate wished she could wear.

  They followed Angie back out into the hall. As they walked, Kate could feel the eyes of the students turn to them. Too nervous to look up, she concentrated her stare ahead of her. She ended up watching Angie’s ample bottom as it swayed from side to side.

  “Here’s your locker, Katherine,” Angie said as she stopped at a locker marked 28. They were still on the first floor.

  “It’s Kate, and wait, aren’t these underclassmen lockers?” Kate asked, glancing around at the young-looking students.

  “No,” Angie said, “these are the junior and senior lockers.” She spoke if she were talking to a stupid child.

  “I just thought...never mind.” Kate could feel her face burning. These are upperclassmen? Where are all the football players? Where are all the hot seniors? She looked around at the short, unattractive bunch around her.

  “Here’s your locker combination.” Angie handed Kate a piece of paper. “Your homeroom is on the third floor, all the way at the end of the hall. Mrs. Baker’s room. I’m in there too!” Angie chirped. Before Kate could respond, she turned to Lucy. “Now Lucille, you come with me.”

  Lucy glanced up, her big blue eyes showing fear and excitement. “See you later,” she nearly whispered. They turned and slipped away into the crowds of students.

  After several attempts, Kate finally managed to open her locker. It was dusty and smelly, empty save a few wadded up tissues on the floor. She deposited her lunch inside and slammed the door. Putting her back against the locker, she looked up and down the hallway. Eyes looked at her with curiosity. Feeling self-conscious, she decided to look through her backpack. There was really nothing in it, just a few notebooks and pens, but looking in it would give her something to do to avoid all those eyes. Just as Kate was thinking of going to the bathroom to waste some more time, the bell rang.

  The small school seemed to consist of three hallways stacked on top of each other with stairs on either end, so finding her classroom was easy. Mrs. Baker stood by her classroom door, right next to a paper sign that said “Mrs. Baker.”

  “Hi, I’m Kate Gilbert. I’m new,” Kate said uncertainly, almost asking a question.

  “New?” Mrs. Baker’s eyebrows went up over the rims of her wire-framed glasses. Small and birdlike, she spun and walked briskly back to her desk. She pulled a list of names from her desk and her eyes raced through it. “First I’ve heard of it,” she said. She sighed and pushed a red button on the wall.

  “Office,” a voice cracked over the intercom.

  “I have a new student here,” Mrs. Baker announced. The classroom grew deadly quiet. The teacher turned to Kate. “What’s your name?”

  “Kate Gilbert,” Kate said, her voice too loud in the noiseless classroom.

  “Kate Gilbert?” Mrs. Baker said to the speaker on the wall. “I have no record of a new student. Who dropped the ball here?”

  There was quiet for a moment, and then the voice cracked on again.

  “Sorry, we’ll send up a new class list,” the voice said, avoiding the question about the identity of the ball-dropper.

  Mrs. Baker looked at Kate and smiled. “Well, welcome to St. Pete’s. You can sit over there.” She pointed to a stool by the window. Kate noticed that the room was actually a laboratory. Stools lined up around a black-topped counter. Beakers and burners and test tubes filled the shelves. Kate had been dreading chemistry class. This can’t be a good sign, she thought.

  Just as the bell rang, big-bottomed Angie came into the room. Without a glance at Kate, she sat down and began to whisper and giggle with a group of girls. Kate was sure that Angie was talking about her.

  She sat quiet and still as Mrs. Baker took roll. Six girls and eight guys sat in the room, all chatting or sorting things in their backpacks, some finishing up last minute assignments. Kate looked for a smile, a friendly face, anything, but nobody even looked at her now. She pulled her schedule out of her bag and read the first class. Chemistry. Oh no, not a good sign at all.

  After the bell rang, Kate stayed in her stool, as many of the other kids did. A few more kids shuffled into the class, one of whom walked up to Kate and said, “Uh, you’re in my seat.”

  “Sorry,” Kate mumbled, grabbing at her backpack. She walked to the front of the room. When the bell rang again, she found the only empty stool, front and center.

  Mrs. Baker was tough. That much was clear. The students sat attentively as the small woman spoke. Kate tried to follow along in her newly-issued textbook, but most of the information just swirled around in her head, nothing sticking. She’d have to read it all again tonight.

  When the bell rang, Kate glanced again at her schedule. English Literature. Okay, literature she could handle. She found the right classroom and eventually got a seat. A pretty Asian girl sat next to her and this girl actually smiled at her. Kate took a deep breath and calmed her nerves.

  “Hi, I’m Kate.”

  “Yeah, I remember you from homeroom. I’m Lisa. Did you just move here?” Lisa had large, hazel, almond-shaped eyes and long light brown hair. She was very thin with tiny, delicate wrists and fingers. Her fingernails were long and painted fire-engine red, as were her lips. Kate had never seen anyone like her before.

  “Yeah, I moved here from Nebraska,” Kate said.

  “Whoa, Nebraska. That’s crazy,” she said, flipping her hair behind her shoulder. “Why did you move to this cesspool?”

  Kate laughed. She could like this girl. “I didn’t have a choice. My mom got a job here.” Kate didn’t mention her father’s failed business.

  “Oh,” Lisa said. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but just nodded instead. Kate’s thoughts raced as she tried to think of an intelligent question to ask her. Thankfully, the bell rang, ending the awkward moment.

  A tall woman with short black hair strode into the room, not looking at the students. Lisa leaned over to Kate and whispered. “That’s Ms. Dobbs. She’s nuts.”

  Kate giggled, which drew Ms. Dobbs’ attention. Her eyes seemed to pop out of her head as she stared. Kate started to feel like a bug pinned to a science project.

  “And you are...” Ms. Dobbs started. Her voice resonated through the classroom, which suddenly got quiet.

  Here we go again.

  “Kate Gilbert. I’m new.” At that moment, the door opened and a student-aide walked in with a piece of paper. Ms. Dobbs looked at the paper. Then she laughed, a mirthless, creepy-sounding thing.

  “That’s the level of support I get around here.” She
shook the paper in her hand. “Here’s my new class list. Surprise, surprise! Am I the last person to find out that we have a new student today?”

  “Probably not,” Kate said. A split second later, she wished she hadn’t said that. Ms. Dobbs stared at her again with those popping eyes.

  “I expect you to keep up with all the work in this class. Just because you’re new doesn’t mean you can slack off. We are currently reading Jane Eyre. You may find a copy at any bookstore. You may look at Lisa’s book for today.” She finally broke her gaze. “Let’s get started,” she said, opening her book. Kate sighed with relief.

  “See what I mean?” Lisa whispered.

  The rest of the morning flew by quickly. Kate noticed that, for the most part, the same kids showed up in all of her classes, which finally gave her an intelligent question to ask Lisa. Since the school didn’t have a cafeteria, students were allowed to sit at picnic tables on the school grounds. Kate saw Lisa sitting at a table with some girls that Kate didn’t recognize.

  “Um, Lisa?” Kate’s voice cracked slightly and she cleared her throat. God, she sounded so stupid.

  Lisa turned around. “Hi, Kate. What’s up?” All the girls at the table looked up at her.

  Kate, who was hoping for an invitation to sit down, instead shuffled from foot to foot. “I just wanted to know. How many kids are in the junior class anyway?”

  Lisa looked thoughtful for a moment. “Now that you’re here, I guess that makes thirty.”

  “Thirty?” Kate couldn’t believe it. Her class in Nebraska numbered hundreds of students. She knew this school was small, but thirty kids in the whole class?

  “Yeah. There’s, let’s see, thirteen girls and seventeen guys.” Lisa crunched up a carrot, her teeth gleaming white behind her red lips. “Hey,” she said with a shrug, “at least the odds are in our favor. Lots of jerks to choose from.” The other girls at the table tinkered with laughter.

  One of the other girls spoke up. “Do you want to sit with us?”

  Finally! Kate sat and pulled out her lunch, which consisted of a diet soda and a granola bar. She mostly listened to the conversation for a while, until Lisa finally asked her a question.

  “So, who do you think is cute in our class?”

  The question caught Kate off guard. She hadn’t seen anyone cute, just short, dumb-looking guys. “Well, I haven’t really had a chance to look yet. I’ve just been trying to find the right classrooms and get caught up.”

  Lisa looked slightly disappointed, but then brightened. “I think Scott Hardy is so cute. He’s the one with the blue eyes and brown hair who sits behind us in history class,” Lisa said, with a sort of dreamy look.

  Kate tried to remember the boy, but couldn’t. She decided to tell them her wonderful secret. “Actually, I still have a boyfriend back in Nebraska.” Kate reached into her purse and pulled out a photo of Jacob. She gazed at it quickly, then handed it to Lisa. It was the one where Jacob was in his tuxedo, one foot up on a chair, leaning forward onto his thigh. It was exquisite, her absolute favorite picture of him. Kate had snapped the picture on prom night last May. It seemed so long ago now.

  “Girl, he’s hot!” Lisa shrieked. “Check him out,” she said as she passed the picture to the rest of the table. When the picture made its way back around to her, Lisa looked at it again. “Is he a senior?”

  “He’s a freshman in college,” Kate said with pride. She paused for the obligatory awed silence. Oh yes, she dated a college guy.

  “No wonder you don’t care about the losers around here,” Lisa said with a touch of admiration in her voice. “Are you going to date long-distance? How’s that going to work out?”

  Kate almost teared-up, but managed to swallow hard and dam up the waterworks. “Yeah, I love him. We’re going to stay together. He’s going to try to transfer to the college here.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Lisa said and handed the picture back. Kate put the photo away and took a slurp of diet soda. The girls began chatting again. Kate decided that the other girls at Lisa’s table must be underclassmen. Sophomores, she guessed. They talked about homework and teachers, mostly. It seemed to Kate that they didn’t get out much.

  When the bell rang, Lisa began reapplying her lipstick. She did that a lot. She asked Kate, “So, which class do you have next?”

  Kate fumbled through her bag, then said, “Pre-Calculus. Oh, no, I’m in trouble.”

  “Don’t worry. I have that class too. Miss Salinas is actually a really good teacher. Come on, I’ll show you where it is.”

  The afternoon went by without any further confusion. The teachers all knew there was a new student, so Kate was spared the humiliating introductions. By the end of the day, she felt pretty good. Lisa had been in two of her three afternoon classes. To pass the time before classes, Kate doodled “I Love Jacob!” and “Kate luvs Jacob” over and over again in her notebooks. It made her feel better, made her feel closer to him. At the end of the day, Kate waited by the door for her sister. Lucy appeared tired, but not entirely miserable.

  “How was it?” Kate asked.

  “Horrible, at first. None of my teachers even knew I was coming,” Lucy said, “but, I met a lot of nice girls.”

  “Yeah, same here,” Kate said. They started out the door when there was a poke in Kate’s shoulder.

  “Hey, Kate. I’ve heard about you.” Kate turned around and saw a strange-looking boy with curly red hair and a friendly grin.

  “Oh yeah, what did you hear?”

  “I heard that you have a college boyfriend, but let me tell you, that kind of stuff won’t fly at this school.” He put his arm around Kate’s shoulder and started walking with her out of the school, Lucy trailing behind. “I’m Bryan Cummings. I’m sure you’ve heard about me by now.” Kate looked at him blankly. He continued. “Okay, well, that’s alright. Listen, I know you’re new, so I’m going to help you out. If you want to impress people here, you’ve only got to do one thing.”

  Kate looked at him suspiciously. “And what’s that?”

  “You have to get into a fight. You have to earn respect at this school and that means you’ll have to beat up another girl.”

  “Uh-huh,” Kate said. This was a line she hadn’t heard before.

  “C’mere.” Bryan opened the heavy school door and led her out into the busy parking lot, where a couple of guys stood leaning against the building, stifling laughter.

  “We’d prefer it if you would pick a really hot girl, and if you wouldn’t mind, could you fight right here where we can watch?” The guys all laughed. They must be seniors, she thought. She didn’t recognize any of them. Kate, who had two older brothers, could deal with this.

  “Okay,” she said in a sweet voice. “You just wait here, Bryan. I’ll go get a hot girl.” Kate flipped her hair dramatically and walked away.

  “No, don’t go away. Come back!” Bryan said as the other guys laughed. “I think I’m in love,” he yelled as she and Lucy crossed the street.

  Kate had to smile. The first day wasn’t so bad. That was actually kind of fun.

  3.

  The refrigerator was still empty, so Kate’s mother had picked up a bucket of chicken on her way home from work. The whole family sat around the table, all five kids and parents. No one had any activities to go to. Nobody had any friends here. So, they ate together. Kate had to admit it was nice spending so much time with her family, in a warped sort of way. She picked up a squished, greasy biscuit and began picking at it.

  “The teachers didn’t even know you were coming?” Kate’s father asked as he picked up his corn on the cob and began gnawing on it.

  “Nope,” Kate said.

  “Mine either,” Lucy added.

  “They don’t sound very organized,” Mom said with a shake of her head. She looked tired. “Well, did you meet some interesting people?”

  “I met three girls, Mom, and there are all kinds of cute boys in my class!” Lucy said with glowing cheeks.

  “They must all
be in your class, Lucy, because the guys in my class are all nasty looking,” Kate said.

  “Well then, you’ll fit right in,” Kate’s brother Matt said. Kate kicked him under the table.

  “I’m sure that’s not true, Kate,” Mom said with a frown, ignoring Matt’s remark.

  “No, no, that’s good. If the boys are all ugly, that means she won’t be dating! We can stay home and watch TV together on Friday nights. Just you and me,” Dad joked. He winked at Kate.