Junior Year, 93-94. Megan B. March
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You been waiting long?”
“Well, sort of. I just wanted to let you know where we got our locker. Aria called me yesterday and said she was sharing with Nate while you and I would be sharing. She also said he got a locker in the English wing along with Alicia. I figured we’d all want to be close to each other so …” she trailed off, looking up to detract from the fact we would be in the English wing. She didn’t know that I was already resigned to that fact.
“Shit, sorry, I forgot to call you and tell you about the change in the locker situation."
"Jensen?" Krissa asked with a smirk.
"Who else?" I grinned. "About the English wing … look, Krissa, it’s OK. I figured that’s where we’d be yesterday when I was here with Alicia and Nate showed me his locker.”
“Oh, you were here yesterday?” She seemed surprised.
“Yeah, I came with Alicia and then we had senior pictures in the afternoon.”
“Oh, Aria didn't mention that."
"She didn't? We were all at Heritage together after Alicia and Nate registered." How odd of her not to mention to Krissa that she'd seen me yesterday.
"Do you want me to wait so we can check out our locker together?”
“You don’t have to. I mean, if you have somewhere to be.”
“Hell, I waited this long,” Krissa figured, “It’s probably just another fifteen-to-twenty minutes tops.”
“Alright, let me get in there and get this over with.”
After leaving Krissa and making my way to the first table, I then followed the rest of the pack through the gym saying hello to those I recognized and listening to the mumbles and groans of the typical end-of-summer complaints. Like many others students who were there, I shuffled my way through and forced a smile for my junior picture. I hadn’t done my hair like I did for my senior picture. Instead, I had just pulled it up into a ponytail. My clothes were also the normal everyday teenage outfit: jeans and the same B.U.M. Equipment sweatshirt I had worn to Jensen’s house the previous day. There was also a different photographer and I didn’t have to sit there for long—it was a ‘snap’ and get up and move out of the way for the next person. From there I went to the next station where locker assignments were given out and told the lady who greeted me I was sharing with Krissa VanKamp. I crossed my fingers that it was a good one.
Krissa was eagerly anticipating my return to the commons area and jumped up when she saw me emerge from the gym. I briskly walked over and soon we were off to check out our new digs that turned out to be in the carpeted area on the opposite side of where Nate and Aria would be sharing. I dialed the combination, and after a second of peering in I slammed the door.
“Alright, seen one locker, seen ‘em all.”
“I guess,” Krissa agreed.
“You probably want to get back to the few days you have left with Ryan. Jensen leaves in two days and it’s starting to really hit me,” I confessed, feeling sad.
“Yeah, Ryan leaves next week. I can’t imagine being at the tail end of my time with him, but I know it will come more quickly than I think. Aria is so lucky to have her boyfriend close by and she doesn’t have to deal with this goodbye shit.” I nodded in agreement as we started walking back to the commons area.
“Are you driving Kylie’s Talon this year or is she taking it to school with her?”
“Well, I have it today only because she was feeling extra-sisterly. But, she decided to take it with her. She leaves next week, too, a few days before Ryan.”
“Do you need a ride to school in the mornings? I’ll have zero-hour again if you can handle getting there early.”
“No, I’m actually doing some car shopping. I’m supposed to test drive this cute little Honda Accord later today. I’ll let you know if I end up getting it.”
“That’s cool. I’ll let you know once Jensen leaves and I go to pieces.”
Krissa put her arm around me and gave me a half-hug. “Oh, Mia, don’t be so dramatic. Besides, you’re going to be a senior! Aren’t you super excited?”
“That’s not going to be until after Christmas,” I reminded her.
“What are we going to do with you? Glass half-empty,” Krissa smiled and teased. Her face then softened. “You really should call Aria.”
What? Where did that come from? “That was out of left field. Did she say something? I mean, she wasn’t super friendly when Alicia and I hung out with her and Nate yesterday.”
“You know how Aria is, but I think it would mean a lot if you called her. Or, you could go to her house today. She registered first with me, so she should be home now.”
“Yeah, I guess I could do that. We haven’t spent much time together this summer. But, I won’t take responsibility completely for that. She was with Nate most of the time. And you know how much Jensen likes Nate.”
“Still? Damn. Isn’t he going to understand that Nate doesn’t have a thing for you these days?”
I shook my head and bit my lip, not feeling like going over little details that told both me and Jensen that Nate hadn’t moved on. The first time we met he made it clear that it wasn’t his style to remain interested once he was turned down by a girl, so I wasn’t sure why he was still interested in me. I guessed it didn’t help that we had made out on my couch on our Anti-Valentine’s Day when Jensen and I were on hiatus, but that was just one of those things. At least for me it was. Besides, wasn’t it Nate who helped me get Jensen back from Alyna in the first place? I couldn’t figure it out.
“Alright, I’m going to Aria’s,” I said, taking my friend’s advice. “I’ll call you later and tell you if we get along famously like old times.”
Krissa lightly punched my arm and we hugged before parting ways outside the building not far from where her car was parked. When I reached my truck and climbed in, I was feeling like it was the right thing to do by visiting Aria. I turned on the stereo, which began blaring 4 Non Blondes. As Linda Perry was belting out the chorus to What’s Up, I smiled to myself remembering just how much Jensen hated the song, but I was addicted to it for some reason and couldn't keep myself from singing along at the top of my lungs. He would have cringed had he been there.
Putting my truck in gear I headed to Aria's, and twenty minutes later, which included ten minutes of driving around before I finally found street parking close to her house, I arrived. For it being mid-day on a Wednesday there were no spots in front of her house and I was slightly irritated.
“Don’t people work?” I asked myself under my breath.
Walking up to her house I noticed that one of the spaces was taken by a familiar red Toyota truck. It was Nate’s. The thought of turning around crossed my mind, but then I figured that since I drove all the way there and then had to circle the block so many times to find a place to park I might as well walk up to the door and say hello. I knocked on the door and waited a minute for Aria to open it. Her hair was slightly mussed and she was in a nightshirt. Being in the middle of the day and the fact that she had just been at registration with Krissa, I was confused by her appearance and wondered if maybe this wasn’t a good time.
“Oh … hi Mia. I didn’t know you were coming over.”
Was that a look of relief? “Sorry, I should have called. I was down at school registering and thought I’d stop by and see what you were up to.”
“Come in. I thought you were one of my mom’s friends.” She opened the door wider and stepped aside.
Puzzled, I walked into the house and followed Aria through the living room to her bedroom. Remembering that the truck outside looked like Nate’s, I was about to ask where he was when I saw him bare chested and casually lying against the wall with