“Hilary. Are you going to write the answer to the question?” Mr. Hanover, my teacher said. He was a stout man with noticeable grooves of wrinkles forming in his forehead. I was told he wasn't that old but his appearance said other wise. He always had reading glasses leaning over the tip of his nose and when he wasn't reading looked over them with a constant suspicious glare.
“I forgot," I admitted and set the piece of chalk down on the gray tray below the chalkboard that no one knows the name of. Possibly the chalk tray?
He sighed and pointed to my seat. I followed his abnormally short finger back to my seat. I heard a bit of cackling from the students around me. I sat at the 3rd desk from the back next to the window. Stereotypical, I know.
If you haven’t noticed already, a lot of irrelevant stuff goes through my mind at the worst of times. I think I have undiagnosed ADD, but I rather like it this way. It blocks out the idiotic conversations going on around me.
“Hilary, you knew the answer to that,” my best friend Laura whispered to me from behind.
“Yeah," was all I said as I looked out window. The sun was sitting a little off to the left. I found that a bit strange. I wondered if I was the only one who noticed his stuff. I was staring at the bench to the entrance of our school. “Riverside Manor Justice Academy.” A private school located in Riverside Manor, Nevada, and before you think 'Oh Nevada! Las Vegas and all that good stuff.' Stop. We're located on the forgotten outskirts of Nevada. The forgotten part. Anyway back to the bench. Something caught my eye. The sun reflecting off of it. Something shiny. I don't want to seem 'blondish'. No offense to blondes just the only word I could think of right now. I like shiny things.
Suddenly the bell rang. “Okay, have a nice weekend, and don't forget you're project due at the end of the month.”
“Hilary. We have to get started on that. Your dad said he had books on ancient Egypt from his mother right?”
“Yeah. My Granny is always talking about that stuff. How we're decedents of some Egyptian gods or something.”
“At least you know you ancestry. I know I'm from Ireland. That's it,” Laura pouted.
I wouldn't have questioned her being from Ireland. Laura’s hair was a suitable strawberry blonde that laid just past her shoulders. She always straightened it but I wish she would let it sit in its natural curls for a day or two. Right after she washed it, the curls always contoured her round face in such a pretty way. She had emerald green eyes that seemed to always glow and faint freckles that ran in a horizontal line across her petite nose. We had been friends since grade school, and entering ninth was a big step for us.
“Yes. I guess it's kind of cool. But I wish my mom would talk more about her side.”
"Brazilian isn't she?”
“Something along those lines. It's complicated.”
I got my skin complexion from a mix of both my parents. I would call myself a slightly burnt caramel. Maybe I sat out in the sun too long during infancy.
“We can start tomorrow. I have to help my Mama cook dinner tonight. She's on this new fad about organic Asian cuisine. I never heard of half the ingredients," I said, thinking over the list she gave me. My mother was always looking for new things to do together.
“Good luck...”
Laura and I parted ways at the door as she ran off to her boyfriend. I could never remember his name despite them dating since seventh grade. It's not that he was forgetful, he's a nice guy and everything. Tall and handsome with really nice black hair, but I can just never remember his name.
Usually mama picked me up from school, except on Tuesdays when she had yoga. I sat for a class one time. Never again. Woman after the age of 40 should never bend in ways their bodies stopped processing years ago. So on Tuesdays I walked five miles home. I liked it in a way. Time for me to organize all my thoughts. As I walked past the entrance I walked past the bench I was looking at earlier. No doubt the shiny thing was still shining in all its glory. I looked around and wondered why all those who were walking past me didn't notice it. It was pretty distracting. I reached down to touch it. I couldn't even make out what is was. It seemed as if the shine were getting brighter. As a managed just a finger on the mysterious object, the shine, glare, light, whatever you want to call it, dispersed. I stood in disbelief, my pink book bag laying on the ground next to my feet. For just a moment all those around me vanished and I stood alone in complete silence, then nothingness. I don't know how to explain it. It was more of a feeling then something I could catch sight of. The nothingness then gradually left me. I saw a statue of a ----lion? Then I was standing back at school.
