Somewhere in the middle of the day I had history class with Isaac, a sophomore member of the Gardan High Boys Basketball team. He jumped out of his desk once I walked in. He had a jacket bunched up in his hands. “Jade!” He called out stopping me in my path.
“Yeah?”
“After you left yesterday, coach told me to give this to you. She wasn’t able to last night.” He handed the jacket to me.
“What is it?” I asked slowly unfolding it.
“It’s the team jacket of course. The school’s colors are green, white, and black. But black and white aren’t technically colors, they’re shades.” He added a fun fact into his sentence for a reason I wasn’t aware of.
“The team jacket?!” I held it up, “Awesome!” I passionately. I shoved my arm through the sleeve as soon as I could. With the jacket fully around me, I couldn’t help but be cheerful. “Too cool.”
“Yeah, we gave you a medium, but it’s a boy’s medium. Does it fit okay?” He asked me.
I pushed the sleeve up, “It fits perfectly!”
“Actually…” He pointed at the bottom, “It’s a little short, but that’s okay. You’re just on the tall side and thinner like a girl, so it’s gonna be like that anyway.”
“It’s fine, I don’t care. I super stoked to have one! Makes me feel like I’m part of the team you know?” He nodded and we took our seat, which were farther away from each other. Isaac was a sweet guy. He noticed a lot. He was always looking around the classroom and at everyone. During attendance he would be the first to say that someone was missing, and if the teacher spelt or wrote something wrong, he was the one to point it out nicely.
On his desk he had a little black spiral notebook. He was jotting stuff down even when we weren’t taking notes. After class I asked him what it was. He kept the notebook in his back pocket when he walked. “Oh, this?” He pulled it out, “It’s just a notebook.”
“Yeah… what were you writing in it?” I rolled my eyes.
“Oh, uh, I was writing my observations. You see I’m an observer. I’ve always been this way. I watch and notice people even when they think their invisible. Now that I’m saying this out loud it seems pretty stalkerish.”
“Nah,” I comforted him, “It’s cool, so you just write down interesting things you notice about people?”
“Pretty much.”
I laughed as we exited the classroom, “Okay, what do you have for me?”
“Self-centered,” He paused, “No, I’m kidding.” He flipped through his notebook. It was organized, with an observation bulleted and the person it was about underlined. “Here’s one. She’s not just a fast runner, she also does everything fast. She was the first person to finish the worksheet today. Jade Green.”
“Hmm. Yeah, that’s accurate. I just have so much energy, it’s hard to take my time on things!” I pumped my arms up. “See ya later Isaac.”
“Yup,” We parted ways and I went to my next class. I kept my jacket unzip around me. Even if Isaac thought it was short, I thought it was perfect. I wasn’t too sure about the colors. The main part of the jacket was white with green and black lines throughout. I guess green had to be my color though, considering my last name is Green.
~~~~~
I had yet to have gym class at this point in the morning. When I got into class I was pleasantly surprised to see Hannah in my chemistry class. I didn’t even notice she was there the previous two days. She was so small and lifeless that it was difficult to acknowledge her. “Hey Hannah!” I waved to her and bent down in front of her desk. She didn’t respond back to me, “So we’re gonna be playing basketball in gym this afternoon. Are you gonna play? I want your team to win, because mine is going to. Playing you would be interesting to say the least.”
“Nah.”
“Yeah,” I laughed, “I guess that’s a lot to expect, huh? Well hey, check this out. It’s my team jacket!” I flipped the jacket forward from the pockets. “You know Hannah, the team is still looking for one more member. I know it’s a little odd to have a girl on the team, but once you have one girl, what’s one more?”
“Why?” She asked me without looking at my jacket.
“Because I think you’re actually good, even if you don’t care. I bet if you practiced you’d be a great basketball player.”
“Why?” She repeated.
“Why?!” I questioned, “I just explained.”
Hannah reached her little arm forward and covered my mouth, “Why?” She insisted. “Talking!” Her voice raised. I mumbled from under her hand. “People no- do it to me much.”
I attempted to talk, “Could you get off?” Was all that I managed to say in a jumbled of words. She backed off. “I’ll talk to you. I don’t mind. Could it be you that’s no so good at talking?”
She folded her legs, “No… perfect.”
I giggled, “Sure, well Hannah do you think you could come watch the team practice tonight? You can decide if you want to request to join.”
“Mer,” I took that as a yes, and went back to my seat at the very back of the classroom. I had almost no say in Hannah’s placement on the basketball team, but still I went and said it anyway. I bet to other people I appear smug, but in reality I have ambition and I don’t let dumb things like social barriers keep me back. Whether it was being a girl on a basketball team for boys, or talking to the weird girl in class. I didn’t mind stepping out of people's expectations.
When class ended I reminded Hannah of what she agreed too. Well, what I assumed agreed to, girl was challenging to understand. “The practice starts at two-thirty right after school.”
“Yes, yeah…” She sighed and shoved her multiple colored folders into her backpack. In an almost comical way, Hannah zipped up bag and wore it upside down. Suddenly, I understood why people haven’t been questioning her as much as I have. She has always been this weird and that wasn’t going to change. To question her was to waste your own energy. Luckily, I had tons of that.
“I have lunch now. It’s my first time in the cafeteria.”
“Hmm?”
“The last two days I’ve been stuck in guidance to work out my schedule and career at this school. It’s so annoying, not to mention boring eating lunch with an adult.” I walked in front of her in the hallway. She followed behind me. She was over half a foot shorter than me, which was only clearer when we stood next to each other.
“Lunch,” She pointed to the cafeteria.
“You have lunch now too?!” I asked excitedly.
“Everyone do,” Her lack of grammar made me laugh.
“Really?” I gasped, “At my old school,” After I said it, I realized how much I fit the new kid cliche, “Lunch was split up into three different periods. The grades were separated to different lunchtimes.” I pushed open the lunch door and held it open for her, because she made no motion to grab the door. Honestly, I was wondering how she could see where she was going with her hair over her face like that. “Where do you sit- I mean I can sit with you right?”
She stood still in the middle of the cafeteria, “I do what I want.”
“Hm,” I looked around nervously. She wasn’t choosing a place for us to go, so I had to sit down next to a group. Every table seemed so full and every group looked complete to me. I was going to have to step up and awkwardly force myself with people I didn’t know. That was fine when it came to basketball, but this was something totally different. I was off guard and shaken. 684Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZzOiFQ0NBI
