My side of the story.

chapter 1 "chicken herpes"

Summer had finally drawn to an end. The summer had been ok, mostly just goofing off with my best friend Loralei. Before I go on, Loralei isn't your typical teenage girl. Then again, neither am I.

      I was blow drying my red hair that morning, I had just recently dyed it mahogany. Or at least that's what it was supposed to be. I looked in the mirror examining my once mousy brown hair. Today was the open house for my Jr. High. My ninth grade year, now technically I was a freshman but the whole school system here is a bit screwed up. anyways, I was a bit nervous because my hair was practically purple. none of my friends had seen my new look, today I was going to show them when we met at the open house.
I sat there staring at the mirror for some time, looking at my freckled face. "I look like a ginger." I thought to myself Then I turned around grabbing my eye liner and applying a thick layer on the bottom of my eyelids. "A gothic ginger." I said out loud.
The phone rang, it was Loralei. She was asking me what time I was going to the open house. We agreed to meet at two with our other friend Mckenna. Mckenna is someone I've known since elementary school, I guess you could say we're friends. I'm just not particularly close with her.

Two O clock rolled around and I was outside of the school waiting for Loralei. Loralei lives pretty far away from our school. She moved this summer to a new house a few towns away. yet she still managed to find time for me and open enrolled in my school for this year. "Finally." I said as I saw her car pull up. The passenger door opened and I was not surprised to find Loralei covered in green marker dots. They were all over her arms and face. "Loralei?" I said somewhat frustrated at her appearance. We both just stared at each other strangely. This was the first time she had seen my purple hair. "I like it!" she exclaimed. "And I like your.. um what are these?" I said, referring to the green dots on her arms and face. "Oh. You mean my chicken herpes?" "your, chicken herpes?" I said in a puzzled yet embarrassed voice. "Yes. I got them from my chickens." she said calmly as if she had explained the strange dots hundreds of times. "you do know that's just green sharpie right?" I asked her teasingly. "no." she said sarcastically.

      "We still need to wait for Mckenna right?" she asked. "Yeah." I said unenthusiastically. In the distance we could see Mckenna running up the hill. "Mckenna!" we both called out, while waving our arms in the air. She waved back, still running up the hill. "Loralei, my hair is purple huh?" I asked hoping the answer was no "Yeah, but I like it." she said grinning and the putting her hand through my short hair

     "Swayzie?" Loralei asked. "what?" I replied dully.  "Why are you wearing your jacket? It's like 100 degrees out here." she asked in her curious voice. I turned a looked at Mckenna again, she was walking up the hill now and was almost here. I turned and looked back at Loralei. "I'm cold." I replied knowing that I was really dying of heat stroke. "Whatever, crazy." she said dully. "Look at you! At least I'm not covered in green dots!" I snapped. I couldn't let Loralei know the real reason I wore my jacket all the time, I thought to myself.

It was quiet from then until Mckenna had reached us. "hey guys." she called out. "hey." I said in my usual unenthusiastic voice. "hello!" Loralei said in a strange British accent. "Let's go inside now. at least we won't have to sit out here in the sun." I said in a monotone voice. "Bye mom!" Loralei called out to her mom in the parking lot. I turned around, heading for the big glass doors to the lobby. I reached out for the handle, the metal handle burning my skin from being in the sun all day. I pulled the door open quickly to be greeted by a blast of cold air conditioning. As I walked inside the Old familiar scent of the school hit me. The smell of school is quite indescribable, it's a mixture of floor wax, paper and Lysol. Yet surprisingly, I missed that smell.