Chapter Text
It was an uncharacteristically hot day in Detroit, with temperatures peaking at 80 degrees. It was the first day for Beth at West Bridge High School and she was already feeling like the world was against her. When her dad left, Beth knew deep down that meant her mom, Annie, and herself would be moving somewhere soon, there was no way they could afford the modest home they were living in during their time in Lansing. Her mom had no education past high school and hadn’t held a real job since before Annie was born 7 years ago. She had struggled on and off with addiction, but their father stayed responsible for their finances in hope that the lessened stress would help her recovery. As always, it didn’t take long for her mom to give into her addiction again, leaving Beth in charge of Annie and figuring out where they would be living now that they were on their own.
They had moved into their new apartment a week ago, a small one back in Detroit where they knew they would have a little support from old friends and the limited amount of family they had left, but Beth hadn’t unpacked much besides some winter clothing, given the time of the year. She didn’t exactly plan on it being over 80 degrees in Detroit in October, leaving her very limited options for what to wear for her first day at a new school. Luckily she had left a denim mini skirt at Ruby’s house a few weeks ago when they had their annual fall photo shoot, something they had done since they met in Kindergarten and became inseparable. She found a maroon tank top in her pile of pajamas, ignoring the fact that her boobs probably haven’t fit in it in over a month, and a cute white lace cardigan to wear on top of it. She put on her white sneakers and decided to call it a day.
After putting on some light makeup and recurling her strawberry blonde hair, she went about getting some cereal out before waking Annie up and ready for school. She had about 30 minutes until they needed to be outside for Mrs. Johnson, Ruby’s mom, to pick them up and drop them off at their schools. As she sat on Annie’s bed she shook her little sister as hard as she could, hoping to wake her from her apparently very deep sleep. Honestly though, how does a seven year old sleep through all of that?!
“Annie come on, it’s our first day! You have to get up!” She said after shaking her sister for what seemed like 5 minutes straight.
“Leave me alone! I don’t want to go, I just want to sleep!” Annie groaned, never even opening her eyes to look up.
“Annie, don't test me. You have three seconds to get up before I throw you in the shower to wake up!” She decided to rip the blanket off and start counting to three. Annie knew better than to try Beth in the mornings, especially when they are on a time crunch, so by the time Beth got to two she was shooting out of bed and insisting she was up.
Now that Annie was awake she began to finally get her dressed, brush her teeth, and to the table to eat something before they had to go. Luckily, they were able to find some warm weather clothes quickly for Annie and had no trouble getting everything done in time. Her phone rang while they were putting their bowls in the sink so they hurried up to grab their backpacks and head out the door to Mrs. Johnson.
The ride to Annie’s elementary school was quick and smooth, with them making small talk along the way about if they were excited to start at their new schools and how Beth was feeling being back in Detroit. If she was being honest, she was happy to be back with her best friend Ruby and in a city that truly felt like home, but she couldn’t lie that she was upset at how they had to move back. Not only that, she had just begun dating a senior at her last school, Dean Boland, and they decided they were going to try and stay together long distance after the move. Ruby was not a big fan of Dean, saying he seemed like a frat boy who only cared what Beth looked like, instead of who she was as a person, but Beth didn’t seem to mind it. She definitely didn’t think she was in love with him, but felt secure and pretty happy in the relationship so she was okay giving the long distance a try.
Having stayed friends with Ruby during the move, she felt like she was caught up on what her old friends were doing now and who was friends with who. Having Ruby by her side at her new school made her feel comfortable and she was just ready to start the day so she wouldn’t be so anxious about it anymore.
As they pulled up to the school, Ruby pointed out Stan Hill, her Freshman year Biology partner that she had crushed on ever since, not saying anything though because she was afraid of what he would say.
“Say something already! From what you said he seems to have a crush on you too, so just say something to him!” Beth whispered to Ruby before they got out, hoping to not let Mrs. Johnson overhear since she didn’t know how much she was aware of.
“I cant!” Ruby whisper yelled back, opening the door and sliding out. “What if he doesn’t like me back? That would be SO awkward.”
“Ugh who cares Ruby? You will never know if you don’t say anything!”
The girls turned around and waved at Mrs. Johnson before beginning their walk into school. The front courtyard was packed full of people since this will be one of the last days of nice weather before the very cold Detroit winter begins. Beth could feel eyes staring at her the entire way into the school, being the new girl she expected at least some stares from those trying to figure out who she was but she definitely didn’t expect this much.
Once inside they stopped at the office so Beth could get her new schedule and was ecstatic to see that she and Ruby had 3 classes together, taking away even more of her anxiety. Ruby told the office she would give her a tour and show her where her classes and locker was, conveniently right next to Ruby’s as well. They made their way through the school to their locker and she was more than happy to put her things away so she wouldn’t have to carry around her heavy backpack any more.
While putting her things away, Lindsey Schaffer, a close friend of hers in elementary school, ran up and began rambling about how it was so good to see her back in Detroit.
“OMG is it really you?! Elizabeth Marks?! I never thought we would see you again but here you are!” Lindsey said as she pulled Beth in for a second hug.
“I go by Beth now but yeah my family moved back here last week. It’s really good to see you again Lindsey!” She said as she finally looked at Lindsey fully.
The last time they had seen each other was at the end of second grade, right before Beth and her family moved, but they had never been that close of friends, so this welcome from Lindsey was definitely unexpected. She looked very different than Beth remembers too, trading her curly brunette hair for long straight blonde hair and light pink highlights throughout. She was wearing a pink flowy dress and white platform sandals with what looked like hundreds of dollars of jewelry everywhere. Ruby had said Lindsey changed but she did not expect this. Lindsey had always been a tomboy when she knew her, always opting to play soccer with the boys at recess instead, but that seemed to have changed as she grew up.
“Oh okay, Beth! Well yeah it was great to see you, maybe we can go get lunch one day or hangout after a football game! Got to go, byeeeeee!” Lindsey said as she ran to her friends down the hallway, all of which looked eerily similar to her.
“Well that was weird… I didn’t think anyone would remember me but okay.” Beth said to Ruby as she closed her locker.
The bell for homeroom rang and the girls began to make their way to Beth’s class. They made it to the door and hugged each other, Ruby giving Beth her final words of encouragement as Beth took a deep breath and turned towards the door. Before she could open it she swore she was seeing a ghost in front of her down the hall. There he was, in the middle of the hallway with a group of friends around, joking as he threw his arm around some girl next to him. While she couldn’t see his face, she knew that it had to be him, Christopher Ramirez, her best friend from childhood and what she might even consider her first love. But why would he be here? He lived on the other side of town growing up, only having met each other through family. She shook her head, there was no way it was him, she was just assuming she knew him, she hadn’t even seen his face yet.
The girl he had his arm around left with a quick kiss on his cheek and walked in the opposite direction. Beth knew she had to go into class but something kept her there, her feet seemingly stuck to the ground and her eyes unable to stop staring at him. One of his friends must have noticed because not long after, he was turning around to meet her eyes, all of her senses coming alive at once.
It was him. No matter what, no matter how, Chris was there, no denying it. Upon realizing this, she quickly looked away and ran into class as fast as she could and began introducing herself to her teacher. She found her seat in the back of the room and got her things out for study hall, but she couldn’t seem to get him out of her mind. Why did she feel hurt about seeing him with another girl? They hadn’t seen each other in almost 10 years, there was no way he even recognized her, so why did it seem like fate was bringing them back together again? All she knew for sure was her first day was turning out much more eventful than she had planned.