Laguna - Elleree

This school year, no one knows what’s going to happen at Laguna High. This year, being a senior is awesome. But there are some serious changes that are going to happen. There’s a new guy in town, school drama gets nastier, and families fall apart. This year could be all Ahlieza wanted, or all the opposite.
Ahlieza Sutton sat alone on her piano bench in her cool, air-conditioned room. She sat playing to her hearts content, letting out all her emotions while doing so. She would always let her mind wander off to think of the impossible, of the craziest things. When the song ended, the fantasy ended. Every time it was like a dream. This time, her mind was strictly on the notes written in front of her. No fairytale came to her. It’s like her mind was blocked and she couldn’t think a thing. The notes stopped at the bottom of the page, and for the split second that Ahlieza stopped playing, she heard something. She went over to her window and opened it. There was an electric guitar blaring from the neighboring house. Once the boy playing saw her watching, he stopped, opened his window, and waved. Ahlieza had no clue who this guy was, but that didn’t stop her from returning his friendly smile with a wave.
‘He must be new here’ Ahlieza thought. Over the past couple days she couldn’t keep her mind off of him. She knew that she had never seen him before, but she wanted to keep him all to herself. So she didn’t let anyone know. Not even her best friend Dia Smith that had been her friend since preschool. He looked around her age; he had dark brown hair, gorgeous blue eyes, and was about 6 foot.
Dia was over at Ahlieza’s one day, describing the beautiful new coach purse she bought, when Dia realized that Ahlieza wasn’t paying attention at all.
“Hello, earth to Ahlieza!” Dia said.
“Huh, what?!” Ahlieza was too busy thinking about the guy across the street. She’d seen him only a couple times now. He’d been out in his yard playing with a soccer ball and she’d occasionally see him passing by his bedroom window. She still had not met him yet, though.
“I was trying to tell you about my new coach purse!” Dia exclaimed.
“Oh, yeah, right. It sounds cute.” Ahlieza said with no expression what-so-ever.
Dia knew that something was distracting Ahlieza. She just new Ahlieza well enough that she does not like to be bothered about things.
“So what do you think about being a senior this year?” Dia asked this particular question because she knew Ahlieza was so excited about feeling all superior to the underclassmen.
“Oh my gosh! It’s going to be ah-maz-ing! I can’t believe senior year is finally here!!!”
“Yeah, I guess it might be fun.” Dia said.
“You guess?” Ahlieza was shocked, ‘Oh, what does she know’ she thought to herself.
***
The morning of the first day of school in Laguna was balmy, and very dark. Ahlieza woke up with a start as her radio started blaring ‘Me Love’ by Sean Kingston.
She slowly got up out of bed and made her way over to her closet to pull out her already picked out clothes. When she was about to leave, she checked her phone before turning it off to see that she had 1 new text message. She opened it, and it read ‘Meet me outside in 10’. It was from Dia. The time on the message said that it was sent 12 minutes ago. Ahlieza rushed downstairs and opened the door to find Dia standing there leaning against a new yellow mustang.
***
“Where’d you get it?!” Ahlieza exclaimed as her and Dia were riding down the road to school.
“My mom finally decided to get me one.” Dia explained.
“Since when could you drive stick-shift?”
“Since yesterday, now shut-up! I’m trying to drive.” Dia looked absolutely concentrated like nothing could distract her.
Ahlieza smiled and watched the road ahead of her.
When they came into the school parking lot, they were the 5th people there. They parked, and waited there for 15 minutes watching cars come in and find their own spots. Ahlieza watched an all black Pontiac G6 pull into the parking spot next to theirs and saw the boy from next door walk out of his car.
“Hey Dia, I’ll be right back.” Ahlieza said.
She got up out of their own car and walked over to the boy.
“Hi, I’m Ahlieza. You know, the girl next to your house.” She looked at the guy for about 10 seconds.
“Yeah, I’m Clay.” He looked surprised to know that she remembered him.
“Are you new around here? I haven’t really seen you.” She thought the name Clay suited him.
“Yeah, I just moved in.” his face looked confused, “How’d you know?”
“Well, I just kind of figured since I know about everyone in this town.”
“Oh, well I have to get to class.” He started to walk away.
“I guess I’ll see you around.”
He turned around as he said “I guess so.”
***
Ahlieza was sitting in 1st period trying to explain why she hadn’t told Dia about Clay, when their teacher, Mrs. Grey, did her ‘Welcome Back’ speech.
Ahlieza leaned over and whispered to Dia “I didn’t think he was that big of a deal!”
“Well if you kept him a secret then he definitely would be!” Dia whispered back, “Is that why you were so distracted over the summer?”
“No, it was other stuff” Ahlieza defended, “I wouldn’t be wasting my time thinking about some guy I don’t know.”
Ahlieza still wasn’t so sure about that. She really didn’t know why she thought about him all the time. Was it his extremely good looks, or his amazing smile? She wasn’t for sure, but she definitely knew she wanted this conversation to be over. She straightened up in her seat and listened to Mrs. Grey’s boring speech. But hey, it was better than trying to figure out what was up with Clay.
The bell rang 2 minutes after 8, and Ahlieza set off to her next class. The halls were packed, but as a senior, everyone moved out of her way. She felt so tall and mighty, even though she was only 5’1”.
The next few classes were a breeze. All the teachers just talked about their summers and asked about ours. Then came French 5. I knew it would be hard, but I was literally shaking as I walked into Madame’s classroom. I forgot all the words we studied last year and the year before that… I even forgot how to say ‘hi’! It was bad.
“Bonjour class.” Madame said.
That’s the word for ‘hello’!
“How was your summer?” Madame asked.
Alright this will be easy Ahlieza thought. It’s the first day! We’re not going to do any French.
***
Ahlieza saw Clay in the cafeteria during lunch. She got her food and sat down beside him.
“So, what are you up to?” She asked him.
“Oh, hi. Nothing.” He seemed surprised once again.
“Sorry, did you not want me to sit here?”
“No, it’s fine.” He said.
“So, how’s the first day at Laguna High?” Ahlieza asked trying to start a conversation.
“It’s OK. This school is kind of weird though, and big.”
“Yeah, it is. I have a hard time finding my classes.”
“But you’ve gone here for years!”
“Yeah, well I guess there are some things I’ll never get used to.”
“Yeah. Alright, I have to go.” He smiled and waved.
Ahlieza smiled back and ate her lunch until Dia joined her.
“I thought there was nothing there.” She said.
“Neither did I.” Ahlieza said in shock.
***
A couple days into school, Ahlieza started to hang out with Clay more. She found out that his old school won the soccer championships and that he’s trying out this year. He also runs track. Ahlieza loved the thought of him being athletic. To her sports = 6 packs.
One Tuesday, Ahlieza was in French when she got called down to the office. Her heart skipped a beat. She was terrified that she was in trouble. However, when she got down there, all they asked was if she’d taken any interest in any colleges. She said ‘no’ and they advised that she should hurry up. Graduation is coming closer. As if she didn’t know.
That same day, Dia got called down to the office. She was told that her parents had just gotten a divorce, and that she could have the whole day off to go home with her mom.
***
“Did you know this was going to happen?” Ahlieza was freaking out. “Did they fight a lot?”
“Ahlieza just shut-up. You talk too much.” Dia was sitting on Ahlieza’s desk chair after school.
Ahlieza knew that Dia was in a bad mood, but she was really being rude.
“I’m sorry. I’m just wondering what could have happened.” Ahlieza said.
“Well so are the rest of us! But we aren’t complaining!” Dia took her jacket off of Ahlieza’s shiny black Yamaha piano and stormed out of the room.
Ahlieza stood in the doorway, surprised about Dia’s sudden outburst.
***
Everyday at school, Ahlieza saw Dia in almost all of her classes. Dia hadn’t spoken one word to her since Tuesday night. Ahlieza hung out with Clay most of the time. He was becoming very popular, having made the starting team for soccer. All the girls were in love with him, the jocks looked up to him, and that left me to be his friend. I missed having all those girl talks with Dia. I couldn’t talk to Clay about guys or anything because that would be weird.
After awhile, Clay found other friends, Dia had her group to hang out with, and Ahlieza didn’t have anyone. She felt alone. She played her piano most of the time. Forgetting about what was most important, like homework, and looking for colleges. She just couldn’t seem to find exactly the right one. She wanted one far away from Laguna. There was too much drama to deal with. She wanted somewhere peaceful and calm. The hassle of school was restless and pained. There was no perfect school for Ahlieza. She needed to make do with something. Somehow she just couldn’t.
Ahlieza’s grades started sinking. It was very unusual because Ahlieza had always been an A, B student. She slacked in almost every subject (especially French), and she would barely utter a sound unless she had to.
***
“I don’t see you hanging out with Dia very much anymore.” Ahlieza’s mom said, “Why’s that?”
“It’s nothing, really.” Ahlieza said finishing her dinner and taking her plate to the sink full of other dishes.
“Oh, well.” Sighed Mrs. Sutton, “It’s your night to do the dishwasher.”
“I’ll get to it.” Ahlieza said as she climbed the stairs to do her homework.
She was going up to her room when she heard the phone ring downstairs. She waited to see who it was.
“Oh, hi Dia!” Her mom was saying, “It’s so nice to hear from you again.”
There was a pause, and then Ahlieza’s mom said “Yes, I’ll give her the message. Thanks for calling!”
Ahlieza rushed into her room and waited for her mom to come up to give her Dia’s message.
Once her mom was up the stairs, she said “Dia called to tell you that she’d like you to come over tomorrow morning before school.”
Ahlieza was shocked to hear Dia called and even more shocked that she wanted her to come over the next morning. There was only one way to find out.
***
Ahlieza walked over to Dia’s house the next Saturday morning. She rang the doorbell awaiting someone to answer the door. Once the door did open, she saw Dia’s mom looking horrible. Her hair had that bed head look like she hadn’t combed it for days and her breath smelled horrible as she said,
“Dia’s in her room.”
She walked upstairs, and into Dia’s room just like she had done so many other times. Dia rushed to give her a hug the moment she entered the doorway.
“I am so sorry. I over reacted.” Dia said over my shoulder, “I was just so stressed with the divorce and everything.”
“I know, it’s alright. I get it.” Ahlieza said.
Everything went back to usual. Monday morning Dia came to Ahlieza’s house to pick her up in her yellow mustang. They walked in the front doors discussing how Rihanna’s dress in the VMA’s was absolutely hideous, and whether they really thought pink was the new black. With this century’s skin tones, no one could ever know!
***
After Dia and Ahlieza apologized to each other, school seemed to be so much better for Ahlieza. She was now really focused and she even started hanging out with Clay more. Dia came to like him and they became pretty good friends. Ahlieza found a college that both she and Dia liked so they could go to school together. Actually they both found about 5 collages. Ahlieza loved school, even her French was starting to get really good. There was so much drama lately, and it was just 4 weeks into school. Ahlieza didn’t want to know what was going to happen next. She just wanted to know that it wasn’t going to happen to her.

Elleree E.