Her Name Was Asia

Chapter One: Josh
And she will forever haunt my memory. It was our senior year of high school and I was one of her guy friends. Josh Tilling’s the name; I graduated this year and am going back to Callers Bay High School for some classes (you can do that after to graduate). The hallways will take no mercy on my memory, I’m sure of that. Here is my story:

Slam! Katrina, Nattily, Ella and Maxine all shut their lockers at one time, flipped their hair and walked by in killer heels. Normally they do that once a week or so, whenever a person who really, really wants to be popular is around. It’s a way of showing off. Or when boys they want to date or want to go to a dance with are around. Or if a new person is nearby. It’s a way of saying ‘you’ll never be in our group, we backstab anyone who isn’t’. The popular guys, Jake, Luke, Marc and Nate all came out of the nearest boys bathroom and followed them up on the famous walk to the lawn they take every Friday. The walk to the lawn is when the eight most popular people walk from their lockers, the lunchroom or wherever to the coolest place in our whole school. The front lawn. The stairs are often accepted too. From the end of seventh period till the bell rings for buses they hang out there. No non-popular people are allowed on at this time. We don’t know how the trend started, it just did. From the C hall the new girl comes. You can tell when someone’s new at our school when you see them:
A) Walking down the hall looking at a map.
B) Looking at the classroom numbers and at things that would strike a memory of passing it.
C) Not moving out of the way and keep walking at the popular kids make their weekly walk.
I think she name’s Ann or Anna. Something with an A at the beginning and its strange too. She has curly long black hair, glasses with brown trim and holding a map while fixing her glasses evenly on her nose. She looks up just in time not to run into Katrina. Katrina must be the meanest of them all. Her blonde hair is perfectly straight, she’s got kill me blue eyes, her nose’s is a little turned up at the end and she wears short mini skirts. Today she has a red flower in her hair and is chewing gum. Uh-oh, A is in for it.
“Sorry. Didn’t see you.” A says, gracefully sidestepping them.
Another rule broken. Never sidestep popular people. All of the girls turn and glare at A, scrunching their noses like pigs (cute pigs), tossing their hair and lifting one shoulder. She looks at them like they’re insane, mean idiots, turns and half slams into me.
“Oh, sorry.” She glasses slide down her nose crooked and her backpack swings too far to one side.
“It’s okay. You need any help?”
I have one hand on her elbow incase she might have fallen and look like I’m steadying her. She gives a half fake, half true smile.
“Nah, I’m good. But thanks anyways-” She pauses, not knowing my name.
“Josh.”
She smiles a real smile, showing perfect white teeth that must have once had braces. Some of the cool girls would die for her teeth.
“Asia.”
We shake and she goes off. She’s lightly tanned, not African, but not English. Just about Mexican. She’s nice. And I barely hear a little voice from my heart. ‘You like her’.