Natalia: A Classy Introduction

I mustered up the courage, and I placed my butt in the seat next to the rough-looking girl. She didn't seem to like that as the glare suggested. Although, I wasn't really sure what she was expecting, it wasn't like I had much fondness of sitting next to her, and it wasn't like I had a whole lot of choice either. I should have gotten there earlier, but that might require that some schmuck would try to socialize with me, although looking from the quiet tone of the class that didn't seem to be something I should have had concern for.

"Good morning class, please take your seats." a voice rang from the door.
It belonged to a young and fairly gorgeous woman in a form-fitting black work dress. As much as I just wanted to tune out the pledge of allegiance and the beginning morning spiel, there was a fairly large likelihood that since I was the new kid, she would bring me up, and if I looked like I was dozing off, It wouldn't exactly reflect well on me, and as apathetic towards this entire classroom that I was, the least smart thing to do was piss off the only person that could prolong this terrible year by another one, so I pretended to be listening by actually listening.

"Hello everybody, my name is Abigail Raczynski, and I will be your homeroom and physics teacher for this last year."

So she's new blood or something? Okay, that changed things. That meant that my face was as fresh to her than everybody else. I had significantly less "being the new kid" leeway to work with then. I needed to watch my step more.

"Some teachers here wants to be really overly formal and go by their surname... I'm not one of them. You can just call me Abigail... or Abbey if you like."

She seemed friendly enough at least.

"I know that with the budget cuts, and sudden movements, you guys will need some time to find a way to make this new classroom configuration work. It's truly regrettable that we had to make four classes into three, and we had to rotate almost everyone to fit the new school board's frankly esoteric and arbitrary requirements, and it's not exactly the kind of experience somebody wants to be send off to before seeking a higher education, but hey, I don't make the rules, so let's all just try to get along."

Well, she sure weren't afraid to speak her mind about the school. This could be a double edge sword. It either meant she cared too much or too little about the school. If it was the latter, then score! We would surely get along. She wouldn't give a shit, I wouldn't give a shit. It would be a bonding experience. Since she was likely a new teacher there was good chance that that was it too. Rejoice, Natalia, you could get through this year half-assing it.

More importantly it explained why everybody here acted like they didn't know each other. Because they probably didn't, outside of bumping into each other in hallways and the cafeteria, and in P.E.

"And speaking about getting along, I hear we have a new student here, by the name of Natalia. Could Natalia Velez please stand up?"

Well, since I was Natalia Velez, yes, the real Velez, and all the other Natalia Velezes were just imitating, I stood up.
"¡Hola!" I said while making a small hand wave.

"Now Natalia, could you please just tell a little about yourself?"

I smirked on the inside as I looked at the young attractive teacher with a confused expression.
"¿Qué? Tenía la impresión de que todos hablamos español aquí."

The absolutely flustered look of panic on Abbey's face was coated in pure 24-carat liquid gold, as she started to look down into her papers muttering: "Oh no, did the school board mess up the Spanish exchange student program... again?"

I relaxed my face and in a laid back manner let her in on the small prank.
"I'm just messing with you, Miss Abigail."
The look of panic turned to a look of relief before it turned to a goofy smile.

"Hey everybody." I continued: "My name is Natalia Velez. I was born and raised in the US, but my parents moved here from Mexico back in the 80's. I've moved around a lot, lastly Boston, and now I'm here. I like photography, stop motion movies, playing devil's advocate, and just being an overall contrarian in general. I love P.E., and unfortunately Abbey, I have had some bad experiences with physics, but I hope you can prove me wrong."

First impression successfully implanted. Mission accomplished.

"You're on!" Abbey answered with a confident smile.

As much as I did not want to get attached to anyone here, I had to admit that between taking my little prank so well, and the enthusiasm she showed of having a tough student to work with I was starting to like Abbey a bit.

"Okay, thanks Natalia. Pulitzer Price nominee it wasn't, but you gave it the old college go, and I appreciate that."

I winked at her in the same way that some would do fingerguns, and surprisingly she winked back.

"In fact, since most of you are not that acquainted with each other due to the... damn school board... why don't we take a round with all of you standing up and presenting yourselves."

A loud groan could be heard from the entire classroom.

One by one the students gave each a short introduction.
The boys all seemed to be boring caricatures of some 80's teen movie. The jocks, the nerds, the cool kids, the outcasts, there was even that one kid that had a bunch of conspiracy theories about how most liberal presidents really all are lizards. Out of all of the boys only the lizprez guy seemed like someone I would hang out with, because at least he wasn't boring.

The girls were more interesting. I updated my mental notes to accommodate the new information:

1) The girl next to me was definitely confirmed to be trouble. She said her name was Leslie. She gave a short defiant answer with as little info as possible, and all delivered in short succinct sentences. Definitely a "brickwall to hide insecurities" kinda vibe, but she was pretty physically imposing, so I thought better than to test her unless threatened.

2) The cheer-trio were almost definitely huge arrogant wannabe snobs. I was confident that the pecking order went Denise --> Trisha --> Audrey. Denise and Trisha were definitely top tier reasons to hate this class, Audrey didn't follow far behind, but something about her felt odd. She didn't seem as confident in her valley girl demeanor, but she might just have had a cold. I should avoid her too for safe measure.

3) The wheelchair girl presented herself as Rachel. She didn't stand up obviously. She seemed like an artsy kid. She was kinda spaced out which insinuated that she was a bit of a free spirit dreamer. Either that or she had fallen in love with Abbey. I wouldn't blame her if that was the case, I was kinda getting there myself.

4) The nerdy girl, Kate, fit almost right in with my first impressions. She was a bit more energetic and less reclusive than I imagined but other than that I hit the nail on the head with her.

5) There were only two other girls of notice. One was a girl by the name of Delia who were half-asleep through most of the homeroom lesson, looking like she was going to rock a concert in any minute, with her expensive-looking head phones. She seemed like the laissez-faire kind of type.

6) The other girl of note looked a bit like a type of girl the lizprez guy would be suspicious of being a lizard. Clearly donned in a liberal punk-rock protest kinda vibe. "Down with the establishment" and all that, although that seemed to suggest that she would have fellow protestors to have some camaraderie with. She seemed like the sort of person who hated people, and therefore should be easy to avoid, since she didn't seem to want to talk to anyone anyways.

After the introductions, Abbey told the class that they could spend the rest of the lesson socializing. I was about to bury my head in my arms on the front desk, when Abbey walked up to me.

"Can I talk to you privately for a couple of minutes?" she asked.

"Sure." I shrugged.

She pulled me in to a nearby classroom. The weights, scales, measuring tape, high frequency cameras, and audio recording devices seemed to suggest that this was the physics class room we would inhabit in the next lesson.