Happy Freshman Year

"I slept with Matie’s boyfriend” are the words that changed my entire high school life but that's for later let's start at the beginning. Hi, I'm Matie, and I'm a freshman in high school. I just moved into Dickinson High school in Texas. I used to live in New York but I recently moved here. I’m not exactly a social butterfly or party freak to be completely honest. I would much rather stay inside wearing an over-sized hoodie and reading a book. Today is my first day of school and I'm not looking forward to it at all. I put on a black crop top with little sunflowers on it and some black ripped jeans then straightened my hair. “Hurry your butt up, you're going to be late,” my mother said as I ran downstairs. I zipped up my black jacket and grabbed my white and black vans and my backpack and ran outside to catch the bus. I got on the bus and sat in the back staring out the window. I took out my headphones and switched to my favorite song. About an hour later the bus finally stopped and we arrived at school. I got off the bus and went straight to the principal's office aka my mother's office. Once I got there I sat on a waiting chair and soon my mother walked in. “Hi sweetie, your schedule is on the table along with a map of the school. Do you need me to get someone to walk you around?’  I simply nodded my head no and picked up my stuff and left first class was math in the B building. 

As I was walking to class when Jess and Katie came up to me Jess and Katie have been my friend since kindergarten when I was going to move they decided that they were going to move with me. I think that my mom pulled some strings and got us to have all the same classes. “Hi guys, I can't wait to meet all the boys,” Katie said to me as she struggled to keep up with our fast pace. ``What about you are you looking for anybody” Katie said while moving her eyebrows in some weird squiggly manner. Katie is a five-foot-four blonde with red highlights and a lot of makeup on. She was wearing ripped skinny jeans and a hot pink crop top. “Kat you're an idiot don’t you remember the reason we moved was so her mother could have a better job and so she can be closer to her boyfriend,” Jess said. Jess is a five-foot-five dirty blonde. She is wearing a black hoodie with blue jeans and red and white vans. “Anyways let's go to class before we are late,” I said while we kept walking. As I was walking I saw a person with blue overalls and a black shirt with a rainbow mushroom come up to us along with a friend that was wearing black ripped jeans and an over-sized black hoodie. “Hi I'm Oliver, do you wanna sit with us? Class is starting later so right now we have like fifteen minutes to ourselves,” the person with the rainbow shirt said. “Hi my name is Terrence but you can call me Ter,” the boy with the over-sized hoodie said. “Yeah sure that would be great, I'm Jess, that's Matie and that over there is Katie”. “I'm going to sit over there with the normal people,” Katie said, causing me and Jess to be embarrassed. “I'm so sorry about her; she kinda has an attitude” Jess kept apologizing while I scanned the room for my boyfriend not finding him. “Do you need help looking for someone?” Oliver said while walking to where their table is so we can sit. I nod my head no and she half smiles at me, while walking Ter comes up to me and asks if I can talk. I shake my head no and point towards Jess. Jess looks at me and intimately understands what I was trying to say. “Matie is partially mute so it’s really hard for her to talk, and when she does it hurts a lot so she can talk sometimes but it's really painful,” Jess says, trying to explain why I was unable to answer their questions with words. 

I suddenly feel large hands behind me turning me around and pulling me into a hug. I smile to myself as I smell the cologne immediately knowing who it was. “Omg it has been so long since I last saw you, you’ve remained the same height though so at least you won't be taller than me pipsqueak,” Theo said. He was my boyfriend and he was here omg I forgot to breathe for a sec as I hugged him again while he laughed at my silliness.  “Wait, you know Theo ?” Oliver said with a surprised tone in their voice as if they were questioning something in their head then as if something clicked in their head their eyes lit up and they blurted out “wait so you're the amazing girlfriend this idiot won’t shut up about”. I blushed a deep crimson red as Jess and Oliver burst out laughing at Jess doing the weird squiggle eyebrow thing. Mark grabbed my hand and sat next to me while he pulled out something I couldn't see, Oliver and Jess kept dying of laughter. “Close your eyes,” Theo says. He pulled out a notebook and a pack of colorful sharpie pens. "Here so you can talk with us."

I smiled at the fact that he thought about including me. Katie came up behind Mark and hugged him from behind. “How are you doing? It's been so long since I last saw you,” Katie said to Theo, not letting him get air. Theo motions to me to help get Katie off him. I tap Katie on the shoulder and she lets go of him. The bell rang as I was grabbing the notebook and pen mark given to me. “You have a class with me and Ter,” Oliver said and started to walk in the direction of our class. I followed behind them as we moved through the crowded hallways. We entered the class and the teacher looked at me and smiled. “Hi you must be matie, your mother told me about your little issue but no matter if you have a question you can write to the person next to you”.  I nodded my head and sat next to Oliver while Ter went to go sit next to a dirty blond. “Ok class so let's start,” the teacher said. 

Most of the class period was spent spacing out, drawing, or making little jokes here and there. I almost choked on my water as Oliver told me about a kid nicknamed egghead tripping over his own feet and starting a fight. Katie walked into class late and I noticed that her lipstick was smudged and her hair was a little messy.

 The period was over and I wrote to my friends to go ahead and that I needed something from my locker. I was looking for my looker when I noticed a group of girls in front of my locker. I took out my pen, tapped her shoulder, and pointed to what I wrote “can you please move you're in front of my locker”. I looked around the group and noticed Katie was in the group. The girls around me started to laugh. I looked at them confused at why they were laughing when one of the girls snatched the notebook out of my hand and threw it on the floor like one of those girls from the cringe love stories. I jumped back startled by the noise. Another one of the girls grabbed my notebook and threw it in the trash. I looked at her like she was stupid and grabbed my notebook out of the trash and hit it against the side of her head. She fell to the floor crying and screaming something about getting a concussion because she was bleeding or something like that. 

I walked past them and unlocked my locker. I grabbed my P.E close and walked to the P building. The rest of the day went fairly well until reading at the end of the day. “Matie please come to the front office” the intercom over or heads boomed. I grabbed my stuff and walked to the office, the girls That were in front of my locker earlier were sitting there, even Katie. I took out my notebook and wrote “what's going on, am I in trouble?” “No, you're not in trouble, we just need to clear some things up,” the counselor said. I nodded my head and took a seat. There were four girls there, one of them was Katie. I felt sorta bad about bashing her head with my notebook but it didn't matter plus they dared to tell the counselor when they were the ones that started the problem, to begin with. After, explaining to the counselor what they did she let me go, 

After two weeks I was putting stuff in my locker and saw a note “meet me in the back of the school, bring a mask to cover your face and wear something ps. It starts at midnight tonight”. I pulled aside Oliver and asked what the note was about and they said that it was a club that most of the people that were afab participated in but they usually only go for the drama. I walked to my next class wording about the whole secret club thing. Before I knew it, it was already the end of the day. I spent almost thirty minutes searching for my black and lapiz masquerade mask. I paired it with my lapiz tight dress that faded into black. I snuck out of the house and Oliver was in the front seat followed in the back seat by who I assume is Ter as well as the dirty blonde that I never learned the name of. I got into the passenger seat and Oliver started a conversation with Ter and the blonde and picked at them occasionally making comments about being the third wheel. 

We arrived at the school and Oliver led the way. We saw a campfire and saw about forty girls all on the seats around. We sat at the front, Ter and the blonde on my right and Oliver on my left.  

The night's secrets started with simple things like “I have a boyfriend or I have a girlfriend” eventually it got to Oliver. “I have a huge crush on a person that's in almost all of my classes,” they said, making me gasp and nudge their arm looking at them while doing the squiggly eyebrow thing. They nudge me on the arm signaling to me that it's my turn. I take out my mini notepad and write “ I was bullied from second grade to eighth grade”. To be honest I couldn't think of anything. Next was Ter’s turn in which they said “ I was the one that tripped Egghead and caused the big fight between the boys”. Almost everyone there started to laugh. Some were even snorting. We kept the secrets going until I heard a voice I knew to say the worst possible thing. “ I slept with matie’s boyfriend like two days ago and she still hasn't found out The voice who I then recognized as Katie said. There were gasps all around the fire with some of them being surprised and some of them out of pity. My eyes started to tear up and I stood up and ran to the car right past Katie who was surprised because she hadn't seen me. 

I called my mother and she drove me home. I knew he would do it to me. He had been distant lately and it all started two weeks ago. I stayed in bed for like a week until I realized I never even asked my boyfriend. I texted him and asked if he had cheated on me with Katie and he left me on seen. It made me cry even more. I heard the doorbell and thought my mom ordered pizza. I slipped on a baggy black jacket and fixed my hair a bit. I went downstairs and opened the door. As soon as I did I got engulfed in a huge hug. It was Theo who looked like he had been crying. He took me to the couch and started to explain how he found out and how he would never do that to me and how he was very busy that day. “What were you doing?” I said, not caring about the pain that flooded my throat that made me almost throw up. Theo looked at me with eyes filled with stars. “You spoke,” he said, ignoring my question in the process. “What were you doing?” I said I almost fell to the floor with the pain. He smiled at me and keeled on one foot confusing me until he pulled out a little box. “Will you stay with me till I get you a better ring?” he said. I started to cry but this time happy tears “y-yes, of course” I said not caring about the fact that my throat felt like it was being beheaded. He pulled me into a big hug causing me to fall into him. We hugged on the couch till we fell asleep. When we woke up Oliver had called to tell us Katie was spreading rumors about me sleeping with random boys and Theo with random girls. I had an amazing Idea I grabbed a bottle of numbing spray and a pack of painkillers. I texted all my friends and told Theo what we were going to need and how we were going to do it. We pulled a lot of strings and got a lot of information. We showed up at school and I and the dirty blonde convinced my mom aka the Principal to let us use the stage. We set everything up and waited till it was lunchtime. 

Once the bell rang we all got into our places and waited for everyone to sit down. Hey, Katie, this is for you. Everyone turned to the stage and went quiet. “Did you know Katie has a scar from when she pushed a kid off the trampoline in third grade because they were Trans?. “she used to pick her nose in the fourth grade”. We had gotten recordings from all the girls and boys she messed with and were playing them on the speakers. “She slept with half the boys in seventh grade while dating four of them at the same time”. “They're lying I swear,” Katie said. We kept the recordings going till she ran in the middle of the cafeteria. “Now,” we all said and poured three pounds of feathers, rainbow paint, glitter, and eggs. Then on all the sides of the cafeteria, a whole bunch of flags came down along with a huge poster in the front. “Happy Freshman Year from the gay club”