Page 3 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

“And we’re going to meet up for coffee after school?” Lucky said, hope hanging in his voice.

“I can’t right after school, because I’m going to check out the debate club, but we could grab dinner after that? I don’t really want to discuss it with my mom anyway.”

“Yeah, let’s do that. My treat.”

I smiled. “Ooh. Deal.”

After about twenty minutes of absently chatting with Lucky and finishing my sandwich in bites, I finally got to my new school. Unlike the single-level, cracked-brick building I used to attend, Northwest End High School was where all of the state’s tax dollars went. It was a three-level, four-leaf-clover-shaped school, with a wing dedicated to each grade, a pool, its own professional-grade sports arena, and an actual parking garage. It looked like a glistening, luxury resort sitting on the horizon in the distance, and there were almost exclusively brand new cars lined up to get into the parking garage.

Nothing like the bucket I was driving up in, was clattering like rocks in a tin can and almost more brown than blue from the rust.

As I pulled into the parking garage and headed up to the senior level marked by a glistening gold ‘12’ wrapped in a boa constrictor, the school’s mascot, the other students piling out of their cars stopped to look.

“Great,” I grunted to Lucky, “everyone’s already looking at me.”

“To be fair, you’re driving a literal explosion waiting to happen, so I don’t think you can blame that on anything else.”

“I suppose.” I knew all too well the way they whispered to one another and pointed as I pulled into the parking spot assigned to me. “This is going to be awful.”

“Probably. Just internalize it and we’ll get it all out tonight,” Lucky said. “Good luck.”

“Thanks. You too. Love ya, kid.”

“Love you too, Aria,” Lucky said, and then the line hung up.

I took a deep breath, then grabbed my backpack from the front seat. “Well. I guess here we go.”

2

Aria

Though I was trying my absolute hardest to keep Lucky’s words focused in my mind, I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable as everyone’s eyes stayed trained on me. Unlike a normal school, the walk to the front doors of Northwest End involved walking all the way across the senior level of the parking garage, waiting in the elevator room to go down to the main floor, then walking through the school’s massive, expensive courtyard towards the front doors.

Long after I was around people who hadn’t heard my car go rattling into the parking garage, they were still staring at me, and my skin tingled with embarrassment. Sure, they were probably staring at me mostly because I was new to the school, but I couldn’t be the only one, right?

Instead of making eye contact, which I knew would add fuel to any fires, I kept my eyes straight and made my way for the huge front doors of the school. The building itself was modern in design, made of white stone and capped with a flat, steel gray roof. Outdoor pods dubbed ‘Study Buddy’ by the painted-on signs had five or six seats surrounding a cement table with a pop up podium with charging ports in it. Several pods were scattered near the doors, and students in these pods watched me walk in. I picked a group to smile at as I passed, but they quickly averted their gazes, so I went back to staring forward.

Outlook, my ass, mom.

Passing through the big glass doors, the ‘stem’ of the school’s cloverleaf shape was where a majority of the lockers were situated. Unlike being ceiling-to-floor and lined along the walls like my old school, past a round reception desk just past the front doors, groups of lockers that stopped at around the seven-foot mark were bunched together in groups of eight, and there were several groups polka-dotted about five feet from the next group over. I could stare straight to the top of the building from the first floor and could see banisters surrounding the second and third floors. My locker was up on top, so I passed the groups on the first floor and made my way up the stairs to the top floor.

“I don’t know,” I heard one of the freshman hiss as I walked past. “Maybe from South?”

I rolled my eyes. What right did a freshman have to treatmelike I was walking new territory. I was, but so were they. And yes, Ihadtransferred from South End High School, the lesser-funded school in the poorer part of town, but it wasn’t like I was wearing that on me.

At least I didn’t think so.

Students got older the further up I traveled, and eventually I was on the top floor where lockers were lined in similar groupings on the left and right side of the banister. I hesitated here, because I couldn’t entirely remember if my locker was to the left or to the right. The principal had been kind enough to invite me and my mom to see the school a couple of weeks ago when the doors opened officially for pre-season sports practices. It was totally empty then, and allowed me to find my locker and classes with ease, but now that the place was full of students, I may as well have not seen it at all.

“Um, you okay?” I turned to the right and to see a girl standing with a group of about six others. “Do you need help?”

She looked nice enough, so I decided to take a risk and nod. “Yeah. Is it obvious I’m new? I’m looking for my locker.”

“What’s your locker number?” she asked.

“Great question,” I said, one I did not have the answer to.

She giggled at me and stepped a little closer. “Here. Did you download the app?”

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