The girls spend lunch with Diego and his friends. Raul’s girlfriend, Trina, befriends Janet, walking to Drama with her.

“What’s with you? All through lunch, you hardly said a word and you sent off what’s-her-tits. You’ve been trying to get in that girl’s panties forever.”

“She insulted my sister. That disrespects me.” He picked up his books, shoving past his friend.

“I never seen such a weird face on you, man,” Raul said. “You’re looking after my woman funny.”

“No. Shit, no! I swear, man, not Trina.”

Raul glanced over his shoulder. Trina was introducing Janet to people outside the Drama room across the commons.

“That Janet girl?” He laughed, punching his friend. “Man, she’s not your style. Besides, she’s a baby.”

“She’s no baby,” Diego said with a muted sigh. “But she’s sure a babe. How you mean she’s not my style?”

“Cause that girl will never let you in, bro. Face it, she’s virgin pussy, and you’re an old tomcat.”

Diego sighed again, this time more heavily. He swallowed hard, nodding as he took the stairs two at a time, heading to senior English.

“Are we boring you, Mr. Hernandez?” Mr. Franks, the English teacher said.

Diego blinked, sitting up straighter. “Uh, no sir.”

“Perhaps you can tell me what we’ve been discussing.”

“Yeah, sure.” He thought a moment. “You’re discussing the syllabus and you just mentioned Julius Caesar.”

The class laughed. That was exactly what they’d been talking about—five minutes ago. Mr. Franks smirked.

“You’ll stop with me after class, Mr. Hernandez.”

“Yes, sir,” he mumbled, slumping in his chair once more.

After class, Mr. Franks took him aside. He was a man in his late forties. Not unkind, but very strict. “Want to tell me what’s on your mind? You’re usually more focused. This is one of your best subjects.”

“Nothing. It’s not a big thing….”

“Diego, I’ve known you forever. You’ve been my student for two years already. I know when you’re distracted by something.”

Diego shrugged. He wouldn’t meet Mr. Franks’ eyes.

“What’s her name?” Mr. Franks asked pointedly. He waited expectantly for Diego to answer.

“That obvious, huh? What an actor I am.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “I’m gonna be late to class.”

“I’ll write you a note. Who?”

“She’s new, you wouldn’t know her. She’s a friend of my sister’s.”

“Got it bad for her, huh? She tell you no?”

Diego laughed loudly. “I haven’t asked her anything. She’s my little sister’s best friend. I’ve known her since she was seven.”

©2020 Dellani Oakes

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At school, the girls are having a typical first day. When they get to lunch, Diego invites them to sit with him and his friends. One of the girls gets mad.

“Well, sorry,” the girl said in a snotty tone. “I’m supposed to know?”

“They look just alike,” Diego’s best friend, Raul, said. “Pay some attention, bruja.”

The girl raised her hand to hit him, but Diego grabbed her wrist.

“I don’t think so. Take your stuff. Go.” He nodded toward a different table. “Any you others got a problem with my girls sitting here?”

The other women smile pleasantly. “No problem, Diego,” one girl said with a grin. “I’ve been wanting to meet you, Ramona,” she said sweetly. “D. talks about you all the time. I’m Trina.” She held out her hand.

They shook hands and Ramona introduced the others. Once Trina had introduced herself, the others followed. She seemed to be the female leader. She wasn’t with Diego, she sat next to Raul. His arm hung around her shoulders, fingers teasingly close to her breast. Based on the hickeys on their necks, they weren’t just friends.

“What classes do you have after lunch?” Trina asked.

“Math,” Bunny said, wrinkling her nose.

“Biology,” Ramona added.

“I’m in Drama class,” Janet said with a grin. “I can’t wait. The Drama coach came to the junior high last year and taught a class. It was so much fun.”

“I’m in there too,” Trina said. “Mom Frost is awesome, isn’t she?”

“Mom?”

Trina giggled, waving it away. “Tell you later. It’s a story just us Drama kids know. I’ll take you over and introduce you. I’ve got rehearsal for the one acts at the speech meet next month. I’m a student director.”

“Is it too late to try out?”

“Oh, we decided the cast at the end of last year. The season starts so soon, it’s hard to take new people. But, there’s all kinds of other things you can do for speech meets. Mom will talk about that today.”

It was almost time for the bell, so they gathered their trays. The other girls befriended Ramona and Bunny, taking the younger girls to class. Diego watched as Janet and Trina walked off together. Raul punched him to get his attention.

“We’ll be late for class, moron. Come on.”

“Yeah. Coming.”

©2020 Dellani Oakes

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Janet, Ramona and Bunny ride the bus together, meeting Ramona’s brother, Diego, at the bus loop.

All Diego’s friends were under strict rules, they couldn’t touch the girls. Flirting was okay, hitting on was acceptable, to an extent, but no touching. They touched, they got the hell beaten out of them. Diego had a reputation of being the toughest guy in school. He wasn’t all that huge, there were guys plenty bigger, who were terrified of him. But he was a swimmer, a boxer and a wrestler. He’d worked hard all his life, and had muscles most guys were jealous of and girls drooled over.

Janet had heard some older women commenting about him once and one lady said he was an Adonis. Janet didn’t know the word, but she went home and looked it up. She had to agree with the description. He was very handsome, almost godlike, with his dusky Latin looks.

Older girls watched as Diego and his buddies walked Ramona and the others to the auditorium for the opening assembly. Here, all their names would be read off by the assistant principal, and they’d go to their first class. In that home room, they would get their class schedules.

“You gotta sit in the sophomore section,” Diego told them, pointing to the right of center. “We sit in the senior section.” He and his friends whooped, doing complicated handshakes.

The girls found seats together and sat down. Janet watched as Diego and his buddies walked to the front row of the center section and made the boys there move so they could sit down. That would be their spot the rest of the year. No one would take it now that he’d claimed it.

“No guy is gonna want to ask me out,” Ramona whined. “Why does he have to be like that? I’ve got the right to date who I want.”

“I think it’s sweet,” Bunny said, gazing at Diego. “And he’s so dreamy….”

“Stop that!” Ramona socked her. “He’s my brother! You just keep those Betty Thoughts to yourself.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“She means don’t be thinking you’re going to seduce Diego,” Janet said with a toss of her head. “Because he won’t look at you twice. You’re like his little sister.” She voiced what she was thinking about herself. She hadn’t realized until today how fond she was of Ramona’s older brother. She was off limits, his baby sister’s best friend. She didn’t have a chance.

The principal walked on the stage to polite applause. He gave his usual first day speech. Mr. Harper was a pretty cool guy. He was nice and he was fair. Most of the students got along well with him, unless they got on his bad side.

Mr. Patrick, the assistant principal, was the opposite. He was mean and rude, especially to the Mexican and Indian kids. He was also kind of dumb. He always mispronounced a bunch of student names when he read them off. He made mistakes with class assignments too, so the counselors would be busy for the next week, fixing his errors.

Ramona’s name was read as “Ramon A. Hernandez.” She’d been assigned boy’s PE as her first class. Mortified, she went to the office to wait her turn to get that changed to girl’s PE.

Bunny Mason was called Benny and sent to health class. Finally, it was Janet’s turn.

“Janet Yarsky,” he said, butchering her last name.

At least he hadn’t sent her somewhere embarrassing. She had to admit that Yarkowsky wasn’t the easiest name and he hadn’t done too badly. She followed her teacher to English class. That was her favorite subject. In fact, she hoped one day to be an English teacher.

The young male teacher leading the group looked like he’d be fun. He was dressed in the weirdest combination of clothing she’d ever seen. His pants were wide stripes of mustard yellow and maroon. His pullover sweater was an ugly green that reminded Janet of pond scum. The shirt was pale blue and his tie was several shades of brown. His chestnut hair was in kind of a shaggy, Beatles cut and his blue eyes sparkled with happy enthusiasm. They got to the classroom and found seats. Fortunately, some of her friends were in the class.

“Hi, I’m Mr. Whitmore and this is Tenth Grade English. In here, we’ll study literature and writing. I’m the debate coach, so we’ll be giving that a try too. Maybe some of you will find out you’d like to argue.”

“I love to argue,” one big guy up front said with a grin. He waved his fists around.

Mr. Whitmore laughed. “Not that kind of arguing. Organized debate is more civilized.”

The big guy snorted, shrugging.

“It’s easy to cut a man down with your fists,” Mr. Whitmore said quietly. “It’s a lot harder to take him down with your words. In here, you’ll learn to verbally spar.”

The rest of the morning went pretty well. Janet had a couple of classes with Ramona and Bunny, then it was lunch time. In the cafeteria, the students had unofficial areas they sat in. The geeks and nerds sat in the corner talking about chess club and speaking in Latin. The stoners took their food to the parking lot where they ate and got smoked up before going back to class. Other groups were scattered around the cafeteria, all of them occupying most of the tables.

The girls stood there with their trays wondering where to sit. A piercing whistle got their attention. Standing on a bench, Diego waved to them. Blushing, they walked over to the table. His big friends made room and the girls sat down. There were other girls there, girlfriends and wanna be’s. Some frowned at Ramona, Janet and Bunny.

“What makes you think you can sit with us?” one girl in a tight white sweater said.

Diego had his arm around her shoulders, nibbling at her ear until she spoke. His arm left her shoulders and he shoved her away. “Since it’s my baby sister and her friends, chica. You be polite to my sister.”

©2020 Dellani Oakes

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Brand New Day is a little different from my usual stories. One thing which makes it unique, is the fact that it takes place in flashbacks. When it opens, the main character is in the hospital. It hops back to her past, as she remembers what brought her to this point in her life. It’s also very sad in places. I’ll try to put a tissue warning on it. And finally, there is one incidence of teenagers having sex (though it is NOT graphic by any means).

I hope you enjoy Brand New Day. I’m not entirely sure where this came from, because I’ve never experienced anything like Janet did. For some reason, the story insisted upon being told.

Lubbock, Texas. 2000

Janet May Yarkowsky lay in bed shivering from withdrawal. Whatever Tex had given her was making her crazy. She had a vague memory of events the night before. The only thing outstanding in her mind was that she’d stood there placidly as he’d threatened to kill her eldest son.

How could I do that? How could I let him threaten Danny? What if next time he didn’t just wave the gun around? What if, somehow, he finds out the truth? That Danny isn’t his. What then?

Another fit of shakes gripped her body as she huddled under the tangled covers. She had to fix this. Had to stop Tex before his hatred and drug augmented paranoia drove him to kill.

She knew Danny wouldn’t leave her like this, not forever. He left her last night because she’d been crazy, too. Standing, frozen, on the porch, staring like a zombie while Tex threatened her boys with a sawed off. Danny did the only thing he could. He took Ricky away. He called his aunt and uncle and they picked the boys up, carrying them to safety.

How did I let it get like this? She asked the wall, but it had no answer. I loved him once, didn’t I? Danny, what would you do if you knew Tex wasn’t your daddy? Would you kill him? Beat the hell out of him like he richly deserves?

She couldn’t tell him and prayed he wouldn’t find out on his own. Another man had her first. A man she loved more than her own life. But it wasn’t meant to be.

“If only….” She whispered to the four walls. “If only….”

Scottsbluff, Nebraska. August 1975

“Janet May, get your lazy butt outta that bed. NOW!”

Sookie, her baby sister, turned on the lights and threw back the covers. Janet had ducked under to get away from the blazing lights. Sookie yanked her hair trying to get the blankets off.

“Mama said get up outta that bed now!” Sookie did everything Mama said. Frequently, that was torturing Janet. “Get up now!”

“Sookie Ann, you leave me be! I still got five minutes.”

“Mama said….”

“Mama didn’t say to scream like a banshee and be a unholy terror.”

“First day of school!” Sookie yelled. “Its the FIRST DAY!”

“I know that!” Janet bellowed, sitting up in bed. “I’m awake, blast it. Leave me be.”

She threw her pillow for emphasis, clipping Sookie on the rear end. Her little sister howled like she was being killed.

“Mama!” Sookie wailed.

Their mother stormed in, on Sookie’s side—as usual.

“I hit her with a pillow,” Janet said before her mother yelled. “She turned on the light, yanked my hair, and nearly snatched me bald. Jerked back the covers like I can’t get up on my own.” Her alarm clock went off. “See? I was gonna give myself five whole minutes. I swear, Mama, y’all treat me like like a baby!”

Janet stormed out of the room and headed to the bathroom for a shower. It was hot and muggy. She wanted to be fresh her first day. She wasn’t in three minutes, hadn’t even soaped her hair, when Sookie banged on the door, yelling.

“Mama says—get out!”

“I will when I’m done!”

“Mama said now!”

“Mama can come her own self and tell me. Go away, Sookie.”

“Janet May!”

“Sookie Ann, swear to God!” She cut off the water.

Dripping and furious, she flung open the door. Sookie stood there looking smug, arms crossed over her flat, ten year old chest.

Janet shoved past her, walking toward the kitchen. “Did you send that little brat to get me?” she demanded of her mother.

“You got to catch the bus….”

“Mama, I know how to get ready. I’m fifteen.”

“First day of high school, I want to see you off.”

“I’m not a baby like Sookie! I been taking care of both of us forever!”

“There’s no need to talk to me like that.”

“There is a need! There’s been a need since Daddy left. But I was too young to know. It’s not my fault he’s gone.”

Her mother stiffened. “You saying it’s mine?”

“You’re the one he argued with, not me. Daddy loved me.”

“He loved you so much he left?”

“He told me—before he left. He told me—Girls belong with their mamas or he’d take me. He told me he loved me and he was sorry, but he had to get away.”

“So, then he just left you, huh? All alone with your mean old mama?” The tone of her voice stung more than her words.

©2020 Dellani Oakes

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