sat in an empty seat near the back and watched the winter wonderland pass me by, contemplating my tedious existence in this tedious town.
Despite my stellar grades, school bored me. So did most of the kids, all as eager as I was to escape the monotony of our educational system. And it wasn’t just school, but everything in this town. I felt stuck in a cycle of exceeding expectations, trapped and sinking deeper. What I would have given just to earn a B and take all the pressure off my shoulders. But I couldn’t let my guard down. I saw the life my parents lived and realized that I couldn’t ever let myself get that way. I wasn’t immune to their struggles, struggles that I swore not to repeat. My mother had dropped out of college and had never explained why. And I wanted to know why. Why had she quit college and moved back to this? Why had she married my father if they fought constantly? She was always warning me not to make the same mistakes she made. To stay in school and be a strong and independent woman and earn my degree. No way I wanted to end up being a hairdresser like her.
Honestly, I yearned for something more exciting than life in Shepherd’s Bay. I couldn’t wait to get away from here and start my college career. It would be a new experience meeting interesting and intelligent people. Although I was a good softball player, I knew softball wouldn’t earn me scholarship money. Same with my involvement in the school’s theater group. If I was to have any hope of escaping from Shepherd’s Bay, it would have to be using my brains. And because of that, I studied constantly, deathly afraid of lowering my standards and settling for anything less than an A.
The bus ride calmed me. The movement and the powerful engine shook the skittishness out of my nerves. The school bus passed through town and picked up all the bleary-eyed students returning from Christmas break. The fresh snow put this town in a better light, although the virgin whiteness would soon be crusted over with dirt.
The bus pulled up in front of our dilapidated brick high school. I waited my turn before filing down the aisle and making my way out the front door of the bus.
The bus lurched a few times before pulling away. Grasping my book bag, I made my way up the steps leading to the front doors of the school. But before I entered, I noticed a shiny black Mercedes pull up to the curb. No one ever drove a car like that to our high school. Most kids took the bus, and those that did get rides usually jumped out of a tattered old pickup truck.
For some reason, I stopped and stared at this exotic car. The two people in the front seat appeared to be arguing, with the driver gesticulating wildly. I didn’t exactly crane my neck to see, but I might have tilted my head some to catch a glimpse of what they were going on about. The driver, a middle-aged man wearing black designer eyeglasses, leaned over and kissed the girl on the cheek. She didn’t budge, unmoved by his affection, her long arms crossed over her body. Kids passed me on either side, and I could hear their footsteps on the crystals of rock salt spread out over the sidewalk. Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
The girl who emerged from that car was a creature the likes of which I’d never before seen. She was tall, with blond hair and striking blue eyes. I was so caught up in their drama that I didn’t even realize I’d been staring at her. She wore black leather boots with three-inch heels, designer jeans, a gray cashmere sweater, and a belted wool coat, with two different-colored knitted scarves wrapped around her neck.
“What the hell are you staring at?” she snapped when she caught up with me at the doors.
I was so stunned by her words that I didn’t know how to respond. People rarely, if ever, spoke to me in such a forceful and rude manner. The folks in Shepherd’s Bay were, for the most part, polite people. Everyone in this town was so used to seeing the same people day after day that no one could afford to be pissed off with anyone for too long.
“Yeah, you. Why are you standing there like a lost puppy?”