UNTIL ANGELS CLOSE MY EYES
Chapter Two

August 19, 2004
Perris High School
Perris, California

Rose got out of the Saturn and looked around the parking lot, her gaze fixed on the campus of her new high school. So far, it didn’t look too bad. She had never been there during the day before, though when she had been a cheerleader at Paloma, she had come to a few games between the schools at night.

Sighing inwardly, she reached for her backpack, hoping it would be large enough to hold all of her books. Experience had already taught her that she would have more textbooks than she wanted, and all of them would be heavy. She doubted that the books here would be any exception.

Walking through the gate and onto the campus, Rose paused to look around. It certainly didn’t look like the crime-ridden, seedy place she had been led to believe it was. Certainly, it wasn’t as new as Paloma, but it didn’t look bad. She looked around, hoping to see someone she recognized in the crowds—some other students from Paloma had transferred to Perris High School as well, since the schools were in the same district—but she didn’t any familiar faces in the crowd. She looked for the two girls she had seen when she had arrived the day before, too, as well as the blonde boy, but there was no sign of any of them, either.

She jumped, startled, as the bell rang. It went on for several seconds, loud and easily heard even with all the noise from the huge crowd of students. This was a real bell, too—not soft chimes like Paloma had. Of course, she had sometimes missed hearing the bell at Paloma and gotten into trouble because of it, so she supposed that this was better.

Pulling out her schedule, she looked at her first period class—chemistry. Unfortunately, she had no idea where it was located, and since school had been in session for more than a week, she didn’t think anyone would be particularly sympathetic if she showed up late.

She stopped a boy who was hurrying by. "Do you know where this room is?" she asked, pointing to her schedule. The boy gave her a confused look. "Do you know where this room is?" she repeated.

"Ah…no…no ingles," he finally replied, then hurried on his way.

Rose sighed in frustration. The bell was going to ring soon, and she had no idea where she was supposed to be.

"Get moving! Come on!" A security guard waved her hand at her, gesturing for her to get to class.

"I…um…I’m new," Rose told her. "Do you know where this room is?"

The security guard looked at her schedule. "New building, first floor."

"Where’s the new building?"

"Over there." She pointed. "It’s easy to recognize—it’s the only two story building on this campus."

"Thanks." Rose hurried off, breaking into a run as the warning bell rang.

She found the classroom and rushed inside just as the final bell rang. Out of breath, she stood in the doorway, wondering what she was supposed to do now.

The teacher, Mr. Horton, turned to look at her. "Can I help you?"

"Um…I’m new, and I have this class…"

He looked at her schedule. "Okay. Go ahead and have a seat at the table in the back." He pointed, gesturing towards the only table with an unoccupied seat.

Rose nodded, hurrying to sit down as the announcements began.

After putting her things down, she looked at the other students at the table. One was a scrawny boy with spiked hair and his pants sagging down around his thighs. He ignored her, more interested in the skateboarding magazine hidden inside his notebook than in anything else.

The other two were the girls Rose had seen in her new neighborhood the day before. She smiled, glad to see the familiar faces.

Joanna glanced towards the front of the room to see if Mr. Horton was watching, then leaned towards Rose. "You just moved into that house on Warbonnet, didn’t you?"

Rose nodded. "Yeah, just yesterday. I saw you guys, but Mom wanted me to help move in. Otherwise I would’ve come and said hi."

Meg sighed. "My mom’s like that, too. We moved in last year, and she made me help move in instead of meeting the cute blonde guy across the street."

Rose thought about the boy she’d glimpsed. "The one on the bike?"

"Yeah." Joanna leaned closer. "He lives right next door to you. He’s kind of hot—even if he is kind of skinny and into art."

"I like art." Rose was growing interested, though she knew she shouldn’t be. "I have it sixth period."

"So does Jack—that’s the guy next door to you. The teacher’s Mrs. Baldwin. You’ve already got an assignment due, but I bet she’ll let you make it up, since you’re new." Joanna grinned. "Jack and…hey, what’s your name?"

"Rose. Rose DeWitt-Bukater."

"I’m Joanna Gutierrez, and this is Meg Deluche. The geek next to you is Enrique Martinez."

"Shut up." Enrique looked up from his magazine for a moment, then went back to it, ignoring the three girls.

Joanna went on. "Jack and Rose…I like it. It has a nice ring to it…don’t you think?" She elbowed Meg.

"Don’t even start matchmaking," Meg told her. "You tried to set me up with him and it was a disaster. He’s into basketball, art, and the environment," she explained to Rose. "He’s cute, but he’s kind of weird. Kind of intense. He told me he wanted to make each day count, and got this weird look on his face, but he wouldn’t say why. I went to a dance with him last year, and he was embarrassing, wanting to dance weird and swing me around and everything. He tried to show me how to do an Irish jig. Can you believe it? I didn’t go out with him again after that."

"I think he’s cool," Joanna countered. "You should meet him, Rose—maybe you’ll like him. Especially since you like art, too."

"Shh!" Meg looked at the front of the room. "Mr. Horton’s gonna get us in trouble! He’s trying to teach now."

Rose looked apologetically at Joanna and turned her attention to the teacher. Her new neighbor sounded very intriguing, but she had to keep reminding herself that she was still going out with Cal, thanks to her mother. They’d been together for several months, but the longer Rose knew him, the less she liked him. She hadn’t come up with a good way to break up with him yet, though.

When class ended, Joanna pointed Rose in the direction of the library, since she had no second period class. Before she left, she asked, "Hey, Rose, you wanna hang out with us at lunch? We hang out in the senior quad. We’re not supposed to, but nobody stops us."

"Um…" Rose consulted her schedule. "What lunch do you have? I have second lunch."

"Me, too." Joanna nodded. "So does Meg." She leaned closer. "So does Jack, and he usually plays basketball during lunch—right by the quad."

"Would you stop?" Meg shook her head. "Let Rose decide if she likes him." She picked up her books. "I gotta go. I don’t wanna be late. See you later, Rose."

"Sure." Rose grabbed her backpack and slung it on her back. "See ya, Joanna."

Rose walked towards the library, fighting the huge crowds of students, some rushing, some taking their time. One couple was standing in the middle of the walkway, making out. Some of the other kids laughed at them or teased them, but the pair was too caught up in each other to notice.

As she approached the library, Rose caught sight of a familiar blonde head in the crowd. Her heartbeat quickening a little, she followed him up the steps to the library.

The library was crowded, too, but not as crowded as it was outside. Three harried-looking women were working at the desks, checking out books and issuing instructions. The youngest of the three shook her head when Rose started walking towards the stacks of books on chairs, pointing instead towards the piles of books on the floor.

Rose walked towards where she had pointed and began selecting her books, hoping that she was getting the right ones. The blonde boy—Jack—ducked in front of her, grabbing the last of the government books. He looked up at her apologetically for a moment, but didn’t let go of the book.

A book shortage. How typical. There never seemed to be enough books for everyone, or space, or anything else, but more students kept coming, and nothing ever seemed to change. Paloma had had the same problems, despite the assumption that they were superior to Perris.

She looked at her schedule, relieved to see that she didn’t have government until second semester. She smiled at Jack, reaching for an economics book—at least there seemed to be plenty of those! He smiled back. She was about to introduce herself when the strident voice of the woman at the center desk rang out, calling for the next student to some and check out their books, and he hurried away.

Rose stared after him for a moment, reminding herself that she already had a boyfriend, and hurried to collect the rest of her books. The stack was heavy, weighing her down, but she was relieved when the young library worker, Miss Hulstrom, told her that she only needed to bring her books if her teacher told her to—otherwise, she should leave them at home.

When she was finished checking out her books, Rose looked to see if Jack was still around, but was disappointed to see that he had left. Even though she already had a boyfriend, she wanted to meet him. Maybe they could be friends—after all, she lived right next door to him.

When Rose got to her third period class, she was surprised and pleased to see that Jack was in the same class, but she didn’t have a chance to talk to him, since the teacher, Mr. Carter, put her in a seat on the other side of the room from him and then started the lecture.

She wished that she could talk to him after class, but she had calculus fourth period, and she had already been informed that the teacher, Mr. Herzog, did not put up with tardy students, new or not, and she had no desire to wind up in OCD her first day at the high school.

Rose was glad when lunch arrived, and was even more glad that she had brought her own lunch when she saw the long lines quickly forming at the cafeteria windows and the pizza cart.

The senior quad, fortunately, was easy to find—she had already walked past it earlier on her way to her English class. Meg and Joanna were waiting for her.

She sat down next to them on the low brick wall that surrounded the quad, her eyes darting around as she looked for Jack.

He was sitting on the wall across the quad, his back to her as he scarfed down his lunch, eyeing the basketball game already in progress.

Joanna noticed the direction of Rose’s gaze and elbowed Meg, then whispered to Rose, "Was I right, or was I right? He’s hot, isn’t he?"

Rose shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. "I guess."

"Oh, come on!"

"Hey! I already have a boyfriend."

"Who’s your boyfriend?"

"His name’s Cal Hockley. He goes to Paloma."

"He plays football, right?" Meg asked.

"Yeah. Captain of the team."

"I know who he is!" Meg snapped her fingers. "He’s that jerk who called a Perris kid a greaser and got into a fight at one of the football games last year." She looked at Rose. "Sorry."

"That’s him, all right." Rose sighed. "He’s got an attitude problem."

"Then why do you go out with him?"

Rose shrugged, not giving her an answer, then turned to look at Jack, who had finished his lunch and was trying to capture the ball from another player. She watched as he got the ball away and threw it through the hoop, frowning a little at the sight of some colorful bruises on his legs. Basketball games must get rough here.

"Maybe you should dump Cal and go for Jack," Joanna suggested, grinning at the way Rose was watching him.

Rose turned to look at her, mouth open. "I don’t even know him! He might even have a girlfriend already."

"Nope," Joanna told her, stuffing a bite of pizza into her mouth. "He went out with a girl from the girls’ basketball team a few times last year, but they’re not together anymore."

"You and your curiosity," Meg grumbled. "Does anything happen you don’t know about?"

Joanna thought for a minute. "Not really." She laughed, ducking as Meg pretended to punch her.

"What have you got next period?" Meg asked Rose. "I have economics with Dekker."

Rose consulted her schedule. "Me, too. Is he a good teacher?"

Meg and Joanna laughed. "Depends on how you define good," Joanna told her. "If you mean is he an easy teacher, yeah. All you have to do is go to class and laugh at his jokes and you’ll get an A."

"And print out his lectures," Meg added. "But nobody does any work in there."

"Do you actually learn anything?"

Meg laughed. "We learned a dirty joke about the governator yesterday."

"He has a bad one about Bush today," Joanna added, laughing. "Wait ‘til you hear it. He has one about Kerry, too."

"I thought this was economics." Rose gave them a puzzled look. Those sounded like political jokes to her.

"It is," Meg told her. "It’s also Dekker. His class is easy—just listen to his jokes, even if they’re not about economics."

The bell rang then, signaling that it was time to go to class. "Come on, Rose." Meg picked up her books. "We both have Dekker next, so you can’t get lost looking for his classroom—not that he’d care. You can be late and he’ll still let you in. He won’t do anything about it—as Joanna has already found out."

"Whatever." Joanna headed across the quad, waving. "See you guys later!"

Rose nodded, then followed Meg, looking at the basketball court as she did so. Jack was still there, throwing the ball back to the kid who owned it. He saw her looking at him and smiled.

She smiled back, hoping to get a chance to meet him soon.

Chapter Three
Stories