Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2001 19:28:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jennifer Douglas <jennydude15@yahoo.com>
Subject: A Brand New World Chapter 1

"Here we go again..." I thought to myself as I took a deep breath and
stepped on school grounds. It was the beginning of my 10th grade year at
Parkland High. I had attended the school for 5 years. This year would be
completely different than the others though, for various reasons.

First, I had gone through a metamorphosis over the summer. After a month
and a half around my extremely girly cousin, all the femininity had rubbed
off on me. I had gone from being a tomboy to a woman, in less than 2
months, which of course was a surprise to all, especially my friends. Today
I was equipped with a blue knee-long flowery skirt, matching top, high
heels, and of course my purse of make-up. I had let my brown hair down
reaching to my shoulders. All of which brought gasps, looks, and talk from
my peers. I looked great, and best of all I felt great, ready to take on
the world.

Secondly, along with my feminine manifestation in the summer had come
another realization, my lesbianity. After much heart searching I had
realized that the reason why I had never had a relationship with a guy for
over a month is because they bored me. It was a game. If I wanted one, I
hunted him out, and when I got him, the game was over and I moved on to my
new prey. It all made sense after I finally took notice of a crush I had on
a friend. Over the summer I had come out to my closest friends, about 10 of
them, and was ready to widen the spectrum. I wasn't about to go out
screaming, "hey I'm gay!!", but it wouldn't be a secret.

Lastly, I was looking to make this the best year of my existence.

At last I reached our meeting spot, where I had agreed to meet my friends.

"Oh my gosh sweety, you look gorgeous!" I heard a shout from Jason, my best
friend. This rather loud remark caused all the chatter from near by to
subside and turn to me. Some of the males were ready to drool, or so I read
form the look on their faces, causing their girlfriends to give them a
disapproving slap or comment. As self-confident as ever, I smiled at him
and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek with a hug.

Jason and I had been best friends since 8th grade in Mrs. Shooler's Science
class. He was sweet, intelligent, funny, and very handsome. We hit it off
from the start, even went out, to later find out we had no business as a
couple. Although this brought disappointment from many of our friends, for
they said we looked great together, we knew we were meant to be just the
best of friends. Even more reassuring of this was when at the end of the
year Jason came out to me as gay.  It brought him great relive to see that
his statement was greeted with a scream of joy and a huge hug from me. I
had always wanted a gay best friend, and now I had one. Since then he has
been my most intimate confidant, and it was he who helped me figure out my
lesbianism.

I went around hugging everyone for about 5 minutes. I was incredibly happy
to see all of my friends reunited again. At last, in sight came
she....Haily. The girl I had lusted about for months. She came rushing to
our spot in the hallway, apparently she had missed her bus and had had to
get a ride. The sight of her made my heart skip. She fell into my arms
giving me a tight hug, and a kiss on the cheek, making my legs go weak and
the rest of me melt. Besides being one of my closest friends, it was my
love for her that made me realize that I loved women. I had come out to her
just a week ago, and although she was very supportive, decided it was best
to keep my feelings to myself. I didn't want to loose her friendship over a
silly crush. I don't know what it was about her, whether her curly blonde
hair that flowed to just bellow her shoulders, or her green cat eyes, or
the air she carried around her, but I knew she had me around her finger,
even if she wasn't aware of it.

The sound of the bell startled my thoughts. I had 5 min. to get to class. I
slipped my arm into Jason's and we walked together towards our first
period, Math.  As we walked in , our friends turned to greet us. After
about 3 min of chatting we took our seats, for the bell had rung, and
awaited the teacher's instructions. The 1.5 hour long class seemed to go by
quickly, as we were given directions for the new coarse. Math was one of my
favorite subjects, although Jason despised it, thus I looked forward to it
al in enthusiasm.

We were dismissed at 10 o'clock, and Jason and I parted for our schedules
differed. He proceeded to Marine Biology, and I to English. As I stepped
through the door, I took a look around, and my eyes were soon met by
Haily's enthusiastic greeting as she summoned me to her side, where she had
saved me a seat. I gave her a smile and slipped into my seat. The seats
were separated into 5 rows, 5 seats in each. We sat in the 3rd row from the
front, my favorite spot, and she knew it. A flow of people began coming in,
incorporating themselves around us, trying to talk to us all at the same
time. Our school was separated into many cliques, an unfortunate thing in
my opinion. Yet we were, supposedly, in the "popular" one. I always thought
the idea that people would try to suck up to us, just so their social
status was more recognizable was preposterous, however I never turned down
a new friend. Once again we were settled as the bell rang and the class
commenced. As Mr. Peterson spoke I took a look around the room, glancing at
the faces of my peers. My eyes were transfixed though when I reached the
far right end corner of the room. There were many new arrivals at our
school each year, but for some reason, this was different. She sat there in
a pair of jeans, and an adorable baby blue shirt that read "Angel".  Her
silky dirty blonde hair fell a few inches bellow her shoulders. Her skin
was milky white, the most beautiful I had seen. My thoughts wondered in all
directions, I had no idea why. I finally realized I had been staring at her
when she glanced at me with her sparkling blue eyes. She gave me a cute
smile, and turned shyly back to the teacher. I too turned my attention back
to Mr. Peterson, blushing slightly. No one however noticed. Towards the end
of class, we were allowed free time to talk. I turned to Haily and
whispered that I would be right back. I got my act together, as well as my
courage, and decided to approach the girl, since she was sitting alone
reading.

As I approached I took a look at the cover "Crime and Punishment", one of
my favorite books! She wasn't far along, great.

"Raskolnikov really isn't as crazy as he may seem, how do you like it so
far?" I asked. Oh great opening, I thought ready to beat myself on the
head. She looked up, obviously surprised, yet pleased, I'm sure, that some
one had approached her.

"I'm sure he isn't. The book is phenomenal. I assume you've read it," she
answered. Her voice was gentle and sweet, just like the rest of her
features. I nodded.

"Hi... (I squinted a bit looking at her shirt) Angel...I'm Amanda," and
extended my hand to hers. Pretty corny, but she giggled and put her hand in
mine. It was so soft, as was mine. I felt a little electric shock as I
shook it. That's strange, thought to myself.

"Hehe...My name is Amy, pleasure to meet you," she said removing her hand
slowly.

"So you're new at Parkland?"

"Is it that obvious...?"

"Oh no, not at all," I joked. "It was a wild guess"

She smiled again.

"How do you like it so far?"

"Well it is pretty big, it's difficult to find my way around here" She was
right, our school was known to be big, hosting about 5000 students. But
wait, this was my opportunity.

"I know what you mean, it took me quite some time to get aquainted to it,
even with my friends helping."

"Oh, well I'm new, so I don't know anyone around, just using a map provided
to us at orientation..." Bingo I thought.

"Well, I know my way around pretty well, and if you'd like to, I could show
you around..."

"Really? Oh that would be so great! Thank you! But, at the risk of loosing
your offer, why are you being so nice to me? I mean, you seem to have a lot
of friends to keep you busy, yet you're the first person who has spoken to
me." She asked with curiosity. I wasn't sure how to answer. I could tell
her that something clicked when I looked at her, but that would have
sounded strange, and I didn't want to scare her away just yet. Plus, it's
not as if I was looking for a relationship or anything of the sort with
her, so it wasn't considered hiding away that I was a lesbian. I simply was
looking for a friend...and so I answered.

"I was once new myself, and I wanted you to feel welcome as someone made me
feel my first day." She gave me another adorable smile, and turned to put
her book away, for class was over.

Next was lunch. I took Amy along and introduced her to my crew. As she took
a seat at our table at my left, Jason sat to my right and whispered in my
ear

"Wow, great catch, first day of school, and you're already getting it on!"

I gave him a light punch on the arm, as he squirmed pretending it hurt.

"She's just a friend, and she's new, I wanted to be nice!"

"Sure, sure," He dismissed in a sarcastic tone, but I paid no attention to
him.

The rest of the day went by quickly. Amy had 5 of 7 classes with me. I
showed her around the school, introducing her to my friends. As I walked
her to her bus at the end of the day, we exchanged numbers and
addresses. Before stepping on it, she gave me a hug. It took me a bit by
surprise, but nevertheless I quickly adjusted. Her body felt great against
mine, and I felt myself getting warm inside. However I quickly told myself
to drop it, she was just a friend.

"Thank you for being so kind to me Mandy," My favorite pet peeve, I smiled
to myself. "you're a great person."

With that she stepped up the few stairs of the bus and waved bye to me.

"Well, great start!" I thought out loud. But I had to keep on reminding
myself that this was a friendship, and nothing more, I didn't want to scare
her away.