Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2001 19:28:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Jennifer Douglas Subject: A Brand New World Chapter 1 "Here we go again..." I thought to myself as I took a deep breath and stepped on school grounds. It was the beginning of my 10th grade year at Parkland High. I had attended the school for 5 years. This year would be completely different than the others though, for various reasons. First, I had gone through a metamorphosis over the summer. After a month and a half around my extremely girly cousin, all the femininity had rubbed off on me. I had gone from being a tomboy to a woman, in less than 2 months, which of course was a surprise to all, especially my friends. Today I was equipped with a blue knee-long flowery skirt, matching top, high heels, and of course my purse of make-up. I had let my brown hair down reaching to my shoulders. All of which brought gasps, looks, and talk from my peers. I looked great, and best of all I felt great, ready to take on the world. Secondly, along with my feminine manifestation in the summer had come another realization, my lesbianity. After much heart searching I had realized that the reason why I had never had a relationship with a guy for over a month is because they bored me. It was a game. If I wanted one, I hunted him out, and when I got him, the game was over and I moved on to my new prey. It all made sense after I finally took notice of a crush I had on a friend. Over the summer I had come out to my closest friends, about 10 of them, and was ready to widen the spectrum. I wasn't about to go out screaming, "hey I'm gay!!", but it wouldn't be a secret. Lastly, I was looking to make this the best year of my existence. At last I reached our meeting spot, where I had agreed to meet my friends. "Oh my gosh sweety, you look gorgeous!" I heard a shout from Jason, my best friend. This rather loud remark caused all the chatter from near by to subside and turn to me. Some of the males were ready to drool, or so I read form the look on their faces, causing their girlfriends to give them a disapproving slap or comment. As self-confident as ever, I smiled at him and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek with a hug. Jason and I had been best friends since 8th grade in Mrs. Shooler's Science class. He was sweet, intelligent, funny, and very handsome. We hit it off from the start, even went out, to later find out we had no business as a couple. Although this brought disappointment from many of our friends, for they said we looked great together, we knew we were meant to be just the best of friends. Even more reassuring of this was when at the end of the year Jason came out to me as gay. It brought him great relive to see that his statement was greeted with a scream of joy and a huge hug from me. I had always wanted a gay best friend, and now I had one. Since then he has been my most intimate confidant, and it was he who helped me figure out my lesbianism. I went around hugging everyone for about 5 minutes. I was incredibly happy to see all of my friends reunited again. At last, in sight came she....Haily. The girl I had lusted about for months. She came rushing to our spot in the hallway, apparently she had missed her bus and had had to get a ride. The sight of her made my heart skip. She fell into my arms giving me a tight hug, and a kiss on the cheek, making my legs go weak and the rest of me melt. Besides being one of my closest friends, it was my love for her that made me realize that I loved women. I had come out to her just a week ago, and although she was very supportive, decided it was best to keep my feelings to myself. I didn't want to loose her friendship over a silly crush. I don't know what it was about her, whether her curly blonde hair that flowed to just bellow her shoulders, or her green cat eyes, or the air she carried around her, but I knew she had me around her finger, even if she wasn't aware of it. The sound of the bell startled my thoughts. I had 5 min. to get to class. I slipped my arm into Jason's and we walked together towards our first period, Math. As we walked in , our friends turned to greet us. After about 3 min of chatting we took our seats, for the bell had rung, and awaited the teacher's instructions. The 1.5 hour long class seemed to go by quickly, as we were given directions for the new coarse. Math was one of my favorite subjects, although Jason despised it, thus I looked forward to it al in enthusiasm. We were dismissed at 10 o'clock, and Jason and I parted for our schedules differed. He proceeded to Marine Biology, and I to English. As I stepped through the door, I took a look around, and my eyes were soon met by Haily's enthusiastic greeting as she summoned me to her side, where she had saved me a seat. I gave her a smile and slipped into my seat. The seats were separated into 5 rows, 5 seats in each. We sat in the 3rd row from the front, my favorite spot, and she knew it. A flow of people began coming in, incorporating themselves around us, trying to talk to us all at the same time. Our school was separated into many cliques, an unfortunate thing in my opinion. Yet we were, supposedly, in the "popular" one. I always thought the idea that people would try to suck up to us, just so their social status was more recognizable was preposterous, however I never turned down a new friend. Once again we were settled as the bell rang and the class commenced. As Mr. Peterson spoke I took a look around the room, glancing at the faces of my peers. My eyes were transfixed though when I reached the far right end corner of the room. There were many new arrivals at our school each year, but for some reason, this was different. She sat there in a pair of jeans, and an adorable baby blue shirt that read "Angel". Her silky dirty blonde hair fell a few inches bellow her shoulders. Her skin was milky white, the most beautiful I had seen. My thoughts wondered in all directions, I had no idea why. I finally realized I had been staring at her when she glanced at me with her sparkling blue eyes. She gave me a cute smile, and turned shyly back to the teacher. I too turned my attention back to Mr. Peterson, blushing slightly. No one however noticed. Towards the end of class, we were allowed free time to talk. I turned to Haily and whispered that I would be right back. I got my act together, as well as my courage, and decided to approach the girl, since she was sitting alone reading. As I approached I took a look at the cover "Crime and Punishment", one of my favorite books! She wasn't far along, great. "Raskolnikov really isn't as crazy as he may seem, how do you like it so far?" I asked. Oh great opening, I thought ready to beat myself on the head. She looked up, obviously surprised, yet pleased, I'm sure, that some one had approached her. "I'm sure he isn't. The book is phenomenal. I assume you've read it," she answered. Her voice was gentle and sweet, just like the rest of her features. I nodded. "Hi... (I squinted a bit looking at her shirt) Angel...I'm Amanda," and extended my hand to hers. Pretty corny, but she giggled and put her hand in mine. It was so soft, as was mine. I felt a little electric shock as I shook it. That's strange, thought to myself. "Hehe...My name is Amy, pleasure to meet you," she said removing her hand slowly. "So you're new at Parkland?" "Is it that obvious...?" "Oh no, not at all," I joked. "It was a wild guess" She smiled again. "How do you like it so far?" "Well it is pretty big, it's difficult to find my way around here" She was right, our school was known to be big, hosting about 5000 students. But wait, this was my opportunity. "I know what you mean, it took me quite some time to get aquainted to it, even with my friends helping." "Oh, well I'm new, so I don't know anyone around, just using a map provided to us at orientation..." Bingo I thought. "Well, I know my way around pretty well, and if you'd like to, I could show you around..." "Really? Oh that would be so great! Thank you! But, at the risk of loosing your offer, why are you being so nice to me? I mean, you seem to have a lot of friends to keep you busy, yet you're the first person who has spoken to me." She asked with curiosity. I wasn't sure how to answer. I could tell her that something clicked when I looked at her, but that would have sounded strange, and I didn't want to scare her away just yet. Plus, it's not as if I was looking for a relationship or anything of the sort with her, so it wasn't considered hiding away that I was a lesbian. I simply was looking for a friend...and so I answered. "I was once new myself, and I wanted you to feel welcome as someone made me feel my first day." She gave me another adorable smile, and turned to put her book away, for class was over. Next was lunch. I took Amy along and introduced her to my crew. As she took a seat at our table at my left, Jason sat to my right and whispered in my ear "Wow, great catch, first day of school, and you're already getting it on!" I gave him a light punch on the arm, as he squirmed pretending it hurt. "She's just a friend, and she's new, I wanted to be nice!" "Sure, sure," He dismissed in a sarcastic tone, but I paid no attention to him. The rest of the day went by quickly. Amy had 5 of 7 classes with me. I showed her around the school, introducing her to my friends. As I walked her to her bus at the end of the day, we exchanged numbers and addresses. Before stepping on it, she gave me a hug. It took me a bit by surprise, but nevertheless I quickly adjusted. Her body felt great against mine, and I felt myself getting warm inside. However I quickly told myself to drop it, she was just a friend. "Thank you for being so kind to me Mandy," My favorite pet peeve, I smiled to myself. "you're a great person." With that she stepped up the few stairs of the bus and waved bye to me. "Well, great start!" I thought out loud. But I had to keep on reminding myself that this was a friendship, and nothing more, I didn't want to scare her away.