Picture Perfect: How I Survived Tenth Grade

By Avana Bree Garza

Although twenty-two-year-old Avana Bree Garza has indulged in writing poetry and devouring books for many years, this is her first novel to be published. When she isnt writing or reading, her pastimes include drawing characters from her stories, singing One Direction at the top of her lungs, and fangirling over multiple fandoms. She enjoys spending time with her friends and family who reside in and around Lockhart, Texas. Avana currently lives in Austin as she is working toward a degree in bilingual education at the University of Texas.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503559394

Avana Bree Garza

Although twenty-two-year-old Avana Bree Garza has indulged in writing poetry and devouring books for many years, this is her first novel to be published. When she isn’t writing or reading, her pastimes include drawing characters from her stories, singing One Direction at the top of her lungs, and fangirling over multiple fandoms. She enjoys spending time with her friends and family who reside in and around Lockhart, Texas. Avana currently lives in Austin as she is working toward a degree in bilingual education at the University of Texas.

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Copyright © 2015 by Avana Bree Garza.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5035-5940-0

                eBook         978-1-5035-5939-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 04/07/2015

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CONTENTS

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

Dedicated to everyone who believed in me and loved me despite everything, even those who are gone now. My family, especially my grandma Garza, my mom and Dad, without whom I would have never found my love of stories. My siblings, Amara, Abram, Amaya and Alain who helped me realize stories were worth sharing. My friends who encouraged me and stuck with me: Estrella, Scott, Andrew, Seth and Rojas. And my teachers who inspired me to grow and learn as much as I could.

AUGUST

I was hoping my first year at the actual high school would be a lot better than the years leading up to it. I’m kinda short and quiet but I have a unique style and my hair is almost never the same color. I play clarinet in the school band. Which automatically means I have a ton of band friends, however I only have three best friends. Xander is my best guy friend (and has been since I met him at the end of 6th grade). He is about 5’ 9", which was taller than me, and a lot of other guys. He is broad shouldered. He looks older than he is, and for that reason no one messes with him. He plays the trombone in the band; he can also play the guitar and writes his own songs (but he doesn’t like to show people). He plays football but he still competes with us in marching UIL. He has straight orange hair and orangeish-brown eyes. There is also Elize she is my best girl friend (since we met in 3rd grade), we tell each other everything. She plays the flute in band, is taller than me, has long straight brown hair and brown eyes that are always full of sparkles, and she is very energetic. And then there is Zayn, no one calls him that though, he is known as Three, which happens to be his middle name (oddly enough, it is some kind of family inside joke). Three is Xander’s best guy friend; he joined ‘the group’ shortly after Xander (and probably only because of Xander, he became one of us quickly though;>), he is a football jock (but can play pretty much any sport) although he does play trumpet very well, and competes with us in marching UIL as well. Three is 5’ 11" but not so broad, he has super curly hair that makes him look like he has a Tarzan looking Afro and brown eyes that are full of mischief. So Xander, Three, Elize and I made up our own kind of group. We’ve been a group since the summer before 7th grade and were (and still are) pretty much inseparable.

In school there is this one boy that I had been in love with since forever his name was John and I adored him, however he was a football player (and was perfect with his wavy dark brown hair and blue eyes that can change color from light green to grey, (depending on what he’s wearing) and I was in band, so that would never happen, sadly, but I have learned to live with that fact.

My first period of the day is Pre-Cal (or hell as I call it); I sit in the back in the corner by nobody. I don’t understand a word of it. It’s like she’s speaking French! (She, by the way is Ms. Welkins) Since her name is a little weird some people just call her Ms. W. Anyway back to pre-Cal well that is some hard crap to understand. It’s like some number divided by this number subtracted by this number divided equals the sum of all that times a number divided by the square of the first number. Catch my drift? I can’t wait for that class to end. After that class I walk to Mr. Rochterfield’s Chemistry class.

On this day the craziest thing happened. I was walking as usual looking at the ground, you know when you get that feeling someone’s looking at you, well I felt that and I looked up surprised and HE was looking at me. My mouth gaped and then he smiled at me I froze and he laughed. Then he walked over to me and said I was wondering if you would mind me sitting with you at lunch. WHAT!?! Did he just say what I think I heard!? I don’t know so I just nod like an idiot. Then he says Great! and walks away. I look around to see if anyone saw that, thank god no one did. I just about freakin’ fainted! I practically ran to Chemistry.

When I got to Chemistry I raced to my corner to sit down and think about what just happened. I looked up at the door and THERE HE WAS!!!!!!! He was looking straight at me with his clear grey eyes!! When he saw me look at him he waved and winked then disappeared. I was shocked senseless, my eyes were wide and my mouth was agape. Mr. Rochterfield walked over and stood above my desk and asked with real concern Are you ok? I was broken from my trance I need to go to the nurse. I squeaked. He was stunned into silence then quickly gathered himself together and said, Here…I’ll write you a pass. I swiped the pass from his grip and raced out the door, through the hallway, passed the janitor’s closet. I ran passed Mrs. Rangel’s Spanish class right as the door swung open, with impressive force I might add, and smacked me right in my forehead, I collapsed on the floor in pain. I could only utter a small squeak of an ow.

Are you ok? Xander asked, his voice full of concern, I couldn’t believe it. Xander hit me with the door!?! I managed to get enough air in my lungs to say I’ll be fine once I can breathe again and he laughed a shaky nervous laugh. Obviously he didn’t think I was ok. Well I lay on the cold teal tiled floor for a few more seconds until he said, Do you need any help? I can help walk you to the nurse to get an ice pack for your head. I thought about that for a moment analyzing the situation before I said Sure, an ice pack sounds really good right about now. He laughed assured I was ok enough to be thinking straight. He held out his hand, which I took with minor enthusiasm, my head still hurt. He held me by the waist just to make sure I wouldn’t fall over, and I felt the weirdest sense of nervousness as the heat of his arm burned my waist. No, this couldn’t be…He was my best friend…oh well my head hurts too much to think about it right now. I can’t believe he just hit me with the door.

When we got to the nurse’s office he opened the door and helped me through it. At hearing the door open the nurse turned around and exclaimed Is She OK? a little too high pitched for my taste. But I didn’t have any time to say anything; Xander explained the whole opening-door-on-my-forehead-while-I-ran-into-it situation. The nurse just stood there for a second then turned to me and asked, Do you need an ice pack? I answered with a sarcastic No, I only came to you to show you my bruise. She didn’t get it at first but then went to the freezer to get my ice pack while I stood there feeling like a jerky idiot.

When I finally felt better enough to go back to class with Mr. Rochterfield, I thanked the nurse and left the room thinking Xander would go back to his class, but no, he had to follow me while I walked to my class. I got annoyed enough to turn around and ask him, Aren’t you going to go back to class? he said, Umm No I think I’ll stay here and make sure you are all right. I think he just wants to skip class and this thought aggravated me for some reason and I got irritated. Geez, why don’t you just stop following me? It’s getting slightly creepy. And I would really rather not have a stalker. He laughed like I was joking. I guess the look on my face gave away that I was not, in fact, joking. He turned red and stammered Oh. I’m sorry. I just wanted to make sure you’re gonna be okay, I mean I did hit you kinda hard. Ugh. Really? Is he really pulling the sympathy card? Well that bothered me even more so I angrily retorted Well I’m fine, you don’t have to feel bad just forget about it and go back to class. He stood there stunned for a moment and then backed off a ways. I turned and headed back to chemistry. When I turned down the hall I could still see him standing there. He hadn’t moved, he stood there staring at the place where I had walked off.

I already had a hard time focusing in chemistry but today I couldn’t get that moment out of my mind. It kept replaying over and over. I was starting to get annoyed at myself for being stupid enough to do that in the first place. Why couldn’t I have just said thanks for your concern but I’m okay or even just leave him alone and let him follow me to class I mean there wasn’t any harm in that…at least I don’t think there is. I mean he is my friend and he had a right to be concerned about me, right? But why do I feel so confused about my feelings for him? I don’t understand, I like John, right?…. My thoughts were then interrupted by Mr. Rochterfield, who decided that that moment would be the best to ask me how to convert degrees in Celsius to Kelvins, which of course I don’t know how to do. So that period ended in humiliation beyond belief, and my mind was full of confusion.

I was stunned, staring at the place where she had been standing I couldn’t help wondering ‘what the heck did I do wrong!?’ I mean, I did hit her with the door, but that was an accident!! She can’t hold that against me!! But she had stormed off upset about.. something…man! I mean this is my best friend, granted I had been in love with her since I met her but I had never actually told her. I was planning on telling her soon because we’re at the high school now and things have changed…but now she’s mad at me and even if I do tell her she’ll probably stop talking to me and I’ll be back to where I was in 6th grade… waiting for a chance…I mean I’m not saying she isn’t worth waiting for because this girl is great, she is her own person and I admire her for that… but now I’ve gone and screwed it up! She hates me. How am I ever going to fix this?… My brooding was then interrupted by a shout Xander!! that caught my attention; I turned wondering who it was that had shocked me back into the real world. It was Three. He came running up to me saying, You’re a long way from a water fountain and I’m pretty sure you have a good explanation for being over here which you will have to tell me at lunch because you owe me big time for saving your butt because Mrs. Rangel was about to write you up for skipping and send out a search party to get you I sighed.

Three was a little over the top sometimes but I must have been out for quite a while if Mrs. Rangel was mad about my absence. I followed Three back to class my thoughts on Bree and my ruined chances. When we got back to Spanish Mrs. Rangel asked for my explanation and I repeated what happened in the hallway, which she accepted but I’m pretty sure she didn’t believe. I was sent to my seat and I tried to pay attention but I just couldn’t, not only because of what happened but earlier I saw Bree talking to John in the hallway and I’m pretty sure he asked her to sit with him at lunch. Three had told me that he had his sights set on her, not because he liked her that much, he hardly knew her, but because she was different from other girls. This thought was profoundly disturbing. I feel like he is going to take advantage of her, but I don’t really know him either so I guess I’ll have to watch what happens and just be there for her no matter what.

After Spanish I have art class, it’s my favorite class because I can express myself through whatever I’m creating without fear of judgment. And the teacher Ms. Hardaway is really funny and supportive. She talks to you and really listens to what you have to say. Today we got a new project; we have to replicate a picture onto a poster. We have to pick a picture that depicts us and who we are and what we love. I immediately know what picture I want to choose. It’s this one we took at the end of our 8th grade year to mark the end of junior high. It’s the four of us sitting on the steps outside the campus, Bree and Elize are on the bottom steps and Three and I are on the steps directly above them. Bree is sitting in between my legs and Elize is sitting in between Three’s. My face is pressed to Bree’s right cheek, who’s left cheek pressed to Elize’s cheek whose other cheek is pressed to Three’s cheek. My arms are around Bree and Three is embracing Elize, and we’re all laughing with the biggest smiles on our faces. This picture expresses who I am through my friends and what I love because I love them. I spend the rest of the period planning out my poster and what color’s I’ll use and I am so focused that I almost don’t hear the bell ring.

Great…lunchtime, I know this is going to be torture. I slowly walk to the cafeteria trying to waste as much time as possible. When I get there I see Three and Elize at the table but no Bree. I walk over to them and before I can even ask where she is Three gives me a look that stops me in my tracks. I look to Elize who is smiling in the direction of the jock area of the cafeteria. I look over and I see John and Bree at a table alone. Bree waves and smiles, at Elize probably, and turns back to John, and I can’t breathe. I slowly fall into my chair and stare at the gray table in front of me. I just lost my appetite.

Three tried to get me to tell him what happened in the hallway that made me almost skip Spanish but after a few attempts that i answer with my brooding silence he quits trying and instead starts talking to Elize. I spent the rest of lunch staring down at that table cursing myself for being so stupid, glancing over at their table watching Bree laugh and smile with John, and listening to the conversation between Three and Elize about the football game on Friday. It was 45 minutes of torture, for once in my life I prayed that lunch would end quickly.

When the lunch bell rang I bolted out of there and practically sprinted to World Geography. I was the first one there, I even beat Mr. Alpier but I don’t care I just need an escape from lunch. I walk to my seat and put my head down. I can’t erase the picture of them sitting there so happily from my mind and my stomach won’t stop churning. Finally after what feels like 5 hours of sitting here feeling the worst depression ever the tardy bell rings and I look up just in time to see everyone rush in, and one person in particular catches my attention, John. I forgot he was in my class! As he walks in I feel intense anger and I have to suppress the urge to tackle him as he walks by me. (If I tried he’d probably throw me to the ground) Then Mr. Alpier comes to the front and starts his lecture on the different weather patterns of the world and temperatures of the different countries. After the lecture he gives us our usual homework, maps to color.

I don’t know why he thinks that this is a good judge of knowledge of the globe I mean it’s just color inside the lines, or close enough to them. But it’s easier than anything else he could give us. The next two classes of the day, biology with Mr. Brian and BCIS with Ms. Yin, went by in a blur and I was walking to band practice as I realize that this would be when I see Bree without John being there. So I walk a little faster on my way to the band hall.

My thoughts of any alone time with Bree before practice were dashed as I walk up to the band hall to see John standing there outside the doors (non-band members are not allowed inside) talking to Bree. I stop walking. …Seriously dude!?! Come on! I was so mad. So instead of being able to talk to Bree for a while before practice I had to get ready for practice while watching John chat it up with MY best friend.

I could not stand it, I almost walk over there to just get her away from him but I didn’t know how. Luckily for me practice is starting so I call Bree! and she turns and makes a face like she is upset and says What? but honestly I don’t care if I make her mad I just want her away from him so I say Practice it starting and then she walks into the band hall, a little reluctantly, but at least John would leave now. I look over to where he is and I see that he is looking right at me, no, not looking… glaring. He continues this for some time and I run inside to get my trombone before I’m late and I wait for Bree and Elize. I turn around and find Bree and Elize just coming out of the band hall and the three of us walk to the practice field. The whole way there I can feel him glaring at my back… I am so dead.

What the heck is Xander’s problem?? I fumed as I got out my clarinet. Elize stopped in the middle of putting together her flute, What do you mean? What happened? Oops had I said that out loud? Oh well, too late to take it back now… Well John was just talking to me outside telling me how much he enjoyed having lunch with me and about the game Friday and Xander just called me to come get ready ‘cause practice is starting’, I mean, who is he my dad?? Elize just looked at me for a second as if she wasn’t sure she should tell me something, then she said Well practice is starting… and then before I could say anything