Punks and Preps

“Faith… Faith!”

Faith Williams heard her name being called as she stepped out of her lavender Volts Wagon beetle. She stood and looked around the schoolyard for whoever had made it their goal to get her attention. When she saw no one making eye contact she grabbed her books from in her car, slammed the car door shut, and proceeded towards the large brick building, where she had spent a good portion of the past four years of her life.

“Faith!” She heard it again and looked through the crowds of teenagers to try to find the person who had been calling her name.

The morning breeze flowed through Faith’s mid length blonde hair; she brought her right hand up to shade her bright blue eyes from the morning’s sunlight. Then, she finally found the culprit. Alyssa Barkley came running towards Faith smiling, Faith smiled back and waved to her friend.

In Shaft High school there were two groups; the Punks who consisted of the skaters, surfers, the kids who wore baggy pants, t-shirts with band names on them, skater ball necklaces, and who died their hair vibrant colors. The second group that filled the school was the Preps, the kids that listened to pop and rap music. They made sure to wear all the top name brand clothing, the girl preps were obsessed with looking perfect, always covering their faces with makeup, wearing short skirts, and always picking apart anyone who was not in their standards. The prep guys were all about sports and getting with the right girl.

For the most part these two groups did not get along with each other. The school’s courtyard was cut in half, before and after school hours the punk kids would gather on one side and the preps would form groups on the other; the same went for the school’s cafeteria. However, there were always a few preps that communicated with some punks. Faith was one of them, some of her prep friends on the other hand loathed the fact that she was friendly with punks, and they were always trying to convince her to stop.

“Hey!” Alyssa said to Faith smiling and out of breath from walking fast through the crowds of students.

“Hey,” Faith said back to her.

“I’m so glad it’s Friday.” Alyssa said with relief in her voice.

“Yeah” Faith agreed and looked at Alyssa as if to ask why on earth she was calling her name like that. Alyssa understood the look and went on to explain.

“Do you have the review notes we took yesterday for Physics?” Alyssa asked trying to sound as innocent as possible.

“You forgot about the Physics test we’re having today didn’t you?” Faith asked while putting on a disappointed look for Alyssa. “You also forgot to even take notes yesterday while you were writing Doug a note didn’t you?” Faith half asked, already knowing the answer. The two girls began walking through the crowds.

“Well…” Alyssa began trying to think up a good excuse. “Well I wouldn’t have been able to study last night anyway… Doug was over really late.” When she saw the face Faith was giving her she realized that wasn’t the best excuse to have used, but it was the truth.

The girls stopped walking. “Here you go.” Faith said smiling. She rummaged through her papers in her Physics folder and handed Alyssa the notes she had taken the day before. Alyssa took the papers and flipped through them, quickly skimming through the notes all neatly written in cursive handwriting. She smiled, wishing she could be more like Faith when it came to schoolwork.

“Thanks a lot.” She said, “I’ll see you later!” Then she started to walk back to the punk side of the courtyard.

“You’re welcome.” Faith said softly knowing Alyssa wouldn’t be able to hear her. Faith turned and began to walk in the opposite direction towards the prep side of the courtyard to talk to some of her friends before heading into school.