THE KID LOOKED over at Derrick and gave him a facetious grin. “Nice shirt,” he said.
“Uh, thanks,” he said. “You too.”
Suddenly, Derrick didn’t feel so original, like an outsider to pop culture. At the same time, he felt an instant kinship with this grunge holdout.
“I’m AJ,” the kid said.
“Derrick.”
“You new?” AJ asked.
“Yeah. Moved here last week,” Derrick said.
“Dude that sucks. I’m sorry.”
“What? Why?”
Before AJ could answer the question, Mrs. Rogers, a short, plump blonde woman, shushed the class and started taking roll. When she got to AJ, calling out “Tooley, Anthony John,” she looked up and saw the next kid on the list—“Townsend, Derrick”—dressed nearly identically to AJ and she gave a grin. “Did you two coordinate outfits?”
The rest of the class, not having noticed, turned their attention to the two boys in desks in the middle of the classroom and laughed as well. Derrick felt his cheeks go flush and he sunk into his desk, his back forming to the curve of the plastic seatback.
Mrs. Rogers hushed the class again and began going over their syllabus for the semester. Derrick, without turning his head, returned his attention to AJ Tooley and the kid gave him a shrug.
“Welcome to Mount Vernon,” he whispered.
♪ ♪ ♪
After his four morning classes, Derrick found his way to the cafeteria for lunch. After grabbing a brown plastic tray from a pile at the beginning of the lunch line, he made his way through the selections, pulling a slice of pizza, a basket of crinkle-cut french fries, an apple and a paper carton of chocolate milk onto the tray. Once in the open maw of the cafeteria, he scanned the room. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Haley waving in his direction from a table surrounded by other kids.
Derrick made his way over and Haley scooted over on the bench. “Guys,” she said. “This is Derrick. He just moved in next door to me. Chief Davis is his stepdad.”
The group at the table, seven in all, welcomed Derrick, though he stuck out like a sore thumb in his baggy jeans and CBGB shirt. The rest of them wore Tommy Hilfiger or Chaps branded clothing.
One girl, with jet black hair and mocha skin, introduced herself. Her name was Makenna and she asked him where he’d moved from.
“I’ve got a cousin that lives in Clearwater,” an Asian boy said. “Do you know Tommy Tran?”
“I do,” Derrick said. All these questions, coming from different people, he could hardly keep up with who was asking what. He felt like a science experiment, or a new toy. “He’s a Senior this year, I think.”
The Asian boy nodded. “Man, small world,” he said and Derrick agreed.
Haley spoke up, “Coach Vargas asked Derrick to try out for the tennis team.”
“Oh, you’d like that,” the girl with the mocha skin said. “We have a lot of fun at tournaments. Have you played before?”
“No, not at all. We didn’t have tennis in Clearwater.”
“Well,” Haley said. “Come over after school and we can go to Paramount Park and I’ll teach you before you meet with Coach Vargas.”
Derrick really liked the idea of spending time with Haley, so he agreed.
They all continued to eat their lunch and talk, with Derrick being the main subject of conversation. He’d never had so much attention back home in Clearwater, but he was enjoying it. Haley and her friends made him feel at ease and that perhaps this transition would be easier than he’d originally thought.
♪ ♪ ♪
The rest of the day went by quickly, and each class was more or less a repeat of the previous—the teacher took roll call and went over classroom rules and the syllabus. He finally saw Cassandra in their World History class after lunch. Before the tardy bell rang, he asked her if she liked the school, and she said she did. She’d gone to lunch off campus with some kids she’d met in her Chemistry class. Juniors and Seniors were allowed to leave campus for lunch, and she’d gone to an apparently popular place called the Burger Barn, because that’s where a large contingent of the upperclassmen went for their forty minutes. Derrick was jealous that she got to eat off-campus, but he told her that he’d made friends and was invited to try out for the tennis team. She scoffed at that.
“You? Tennis?” she said.
“What?” he said defensively. “It sounds like fun. Besides, I want to start over new here. Not like Clearwater. I was a nobody there.”
“Well, good luck,” she said.
Their conversation was cut short by the teacher, and they left in opposite directions. He hoped that her first day was going well, though. If anything, they had this kindred experience of being the new kids.
With the final bell of the day, all the students poured out of the school and into either the parking lot that resided on the east side of the campus or onto the sprawling front courtyard. Derrick started walking home when he heard a voice calling out behind him on the sidewalk.
“Hey! New kid!”
Derrick turned and saw AJ coming up the sidewalk. After a couple seconds of half-running, he caught up to Derrick. “Hey man,” AJ said. “How was your first day as a Mount Vernon Lion?”
“It was pretty cool,” Derrick said. They fell in lockstep as they crossed the street. “Do you live near here?”
“Yeah, over on Orchard,” AJ said.
“I don’t know where that is,” Derrick said. “We live on Tangerine. Tangerine and Sixteenth.”
“Okay, cool. You’re, like, two blocks from me then.” He pointed to Derrick’s headphones around his neck. “What are you listening to?”
“Just a tape that my mom’s fiancé gave me.” He looked down at his Walkman through the display hole. “Goo Goo Dolls. Superstar Car Wash. It’s pretty good. Here.” He pulled the headphones from around his neck and handed them to AJ.
AJ put them on as Derrick hit play and he started bobbing his head. “Dude, this is rad. I like this!”
Derrick smiled and agreed.
“What else do you listen to?” AJ asked.
Derrick answered with a list of bands that were constant residents of his Walkman’s tray, including Pearl Jam, Fuel, Eve 6 and Bush.
“Dude, yes. Fuel is amazing. And Eddie Vedder is a god.”
Derrick smiled and agreed.
They walked together along the sidewalks away from the school. “Where did you move from?” AJ asked.
“Clearwater.”
“Whoa. What brought you all the way here?”
Derrick explained the situation of moving to Mount Vernon, of his mom and Doug’s upcoming wedding and everything else. For the first time since moving here, he felt relaxed. He felt like he had someone he could talk to. Someone like him.
They talked about music and bands until they got to Sixteenth Avenue, and Derrick pointed off in the direction of Tangerine Drive. “I’m this way.”
“Cool, man. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” AJ said as he turned to cross the street.
As Derrick started walking off toward Tangerine, AJ called out. “Hey. Do you walk in the mornings too?”
“Yeah.” Derrick said.
“Cool. I’ll meet you here tomorrow. 7:45?”
“Sounds good man,” Derrick said and tipped his hand in the air. He turned back around, pulled his headphones over his ears and pushed play.