Triangles - Chapter One: Marty
Chapter One: Marty
My name is Martine Louise Victoria Marie Denise Graw. But I go by Marty. Or Vicky, or Denny, or whatever you want to call me. And yes, I realize if you call me Marty, my name would be Marty Graw.
Basically, my parents were hippies back in the day, and they couldn’t decide on a name. So, acting on a sudden whim (which isn’t unlike them), they put them all together and my name was created. But that’s enough about the background of my name. Let’s look at how I came to be.
I was born in Smallville, because my parents didn’t want to pay the expensive Metropolis General bill that would be if they went there. (Metropolis General is a hospital, if you haven’t guessed.) So, I was born in the small, one-story house on Gavin Street, which is still where I live today. But now, along with my hippie parents Victor and Janet, there are my brother and sister: Zane Michael Alexander Edvinder (don’t ask) Stevenson Graw and Penndra (again, don’t ask) Elizabeth Susan Julia Claire Graw. Yes, we all were unfortunate enough to be born in our parents’ hippie period, and they couldn’t decide on their names, either. Now, mom’s studying to become a lawyer, and dad’s a teacher at Smallville High.
This year, I’m a junior at SHS, Zane’s a sophomore, and Penny (we call her Penny, can you imagine the embarrassment she’d have if we called her Penndra?) is a freshman. Today will be the first day of the school year, and I can’t really say that I’m dreading it, because I look at school as a very important experience. I mean, it’s where you meet your friends, decide on future plans, and so much more important stuff… Anyway, flash to the school day…
The first bell of the day rang, sending all students to the gym for the “Fresh New Year Assembly,” as the school called it. Everyone sat in the section specially marked off for their grade and waited for the beginning-of-the-year speech. Nobody ever really paid attention to it, but afterwards, the students would be separated into their homerooms where they’d all get their schedules.
When the speech was over, the students stampeded to the wall where the homeroom lists were posted, broken down first by grade, then even further by last name. Marty Graw couldn’t believe it when she found out that the school actually put her in her father’s homeroom English class. She rolled her eyes, sighed, and headed out of the gym towards room 318, her father’s classroom.
Her dad, the only one already there, was sitting at the large desk in the front of the room. “Hey, Marty,” he said.
“Ugh,” she groaned. She stalked back towards her dad. “Why am I in your 1st period class?”
“I don’t know, hon. Is it a problem?” She didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so she told him that it wasn’t.
“So do I call you dad, or Mr. Graw, or what?” Marty asked.
“Mr. Graw,” he said. “And don’t think I’ll go easy on you because you’re my daughter, either.”
She rolled her eyes. “Do we have assigned seats?” He shook his head, and she dropped her backpack down by a desk in the middle of the room. Soon, other students began to enter the room. Marty didn’t really have any close friends. She was sort of friends with Pete Ross and Lana Lang, the two most popular kids in her grade. There were also a couple of other people that she talked to fairly often, Ben Richards and Sadie Hudson, but she didn’t exactly have the ultra-cool hipster image.
She watched the students enter to see who was in the class. There was Pete, along with Chloe Sullivan. They sat in the front. Ben was in the class, too, and he sat next to her. “Hey,” he said as he pushed his backpack under his desk.
“Hey,” she replied. They talked until the next bell rang, causing her dad to stand up and address the class.
“For those of you don’t know me, I’m Mr. Graw,” he said, shutting the door. “This is Eleventh Grade Advanced English, and this will be your homeroom for the year. I don’t like to go through class rules, because everyone already knows them: raise you hand before speaking, keep your hands and feet to yourselves, yadda yadda yadda. All of the boring, little-kid rules apply here. Let’s get down to business. I’m supposed to hand out your schedules, so come up when I call your name,” he said.
He went through the papers, handing them out to their owners, and soon he called Marty’s name. She retrieved her list and went back to her seat. After Ben got his, they compared classes. She had this class first, then chemistry, then trigonometry, then history, lunch, newspaper (it was her first year as a writer on the Torch), study hall, and art. She only had this class and trigonometry with Ben.
“I don’t really have anything planned for today, except to hand out your textbooks,” her dad said. Each student received the two-year old blue and green text, complete with classic stories, heartfelt poetry, and other readings. Marty groaned as she shoved the book into her bag.
She sighed and turned to talk to Ben again. They chatted about each other’s summers until the bell rang. Marty said good-bye to Ben and hoisted her slightly heavier bag onto her shoulder. She glanced at her schedule. Her chemistry class was in room 324, only three rooms down. She walked in, and the teacher greeted her. “Sit anywhere for now, but you’ll be assigned a seat when class starts.”
“Okay,” Marty said. She sat down in the closest lab station, again being the first in the class. As the students slowly began to come into the room, she realized she wouldn’t have anybody to talk to at all in this class. Ben had band this hour, Sadie was in a higher science level, and she had seen both Pete and Lana go into a classroom further down the hall.
“Is this seat taken?” a voice asked. She looked up. It was Clark Kent. She had only talked to him a few times, and didn’t know him very well.
“No,” she said.
“You’re Marty, right?” he asked as he sat on the stool to her left.
“Yeah,” she answered. “And you’re Clark.”
“Yep. So what did you do over the summer?” he asked. For not knowing each other well, he sure was being nice.
“Nothing really. I went with my dad to a few teacher association things in Metropolis and Topeka, which were all boring. Other than that, I mainly stayed at home,” she said.
“Your dad’s a teacher?”
“Yeah. Mr. Graw. Advanced English,” she said.
“That’s cool. My parents are farmers,” he said.
“Yeah, I’ve seen your farm before,” she told him.
“You have?” he asked. He had a questioning look on his face.
“I’m not a stalker or anything. I’m a friend of Lana Lang’s. I’ve been over to her house a few times and I saw your house and farm from there.”
“Oh,” he said. “Yeah, Lana’s cool.”
Before she could respond, the teacher started talking. Her voice was so slow and boring that literally about one-forth of the class fell asleep. Marty was thankful when she started assigning lab stations and partners. Marty was partnered with Clark, oddly enough, and they were placed in the front, right station.
Soon, class was over, and Clark and Marty walked down the hall to their next classes. “This is my stop,” he said, veering off towards a door where Pete was standing.
“Bye,” she said.
Once she had left, Pete said, “Clark, don’t tell me it’s now a triangle.”
What is Pete talking about? Find out in the next chapter!
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