This is the first chapter of my second serial novel, The Year of the Winding Road < click here to see the main page for the novel, read the other chapters if you missed them or have no idea what this story is about.
Note to readers:
While this story does have events in it that were inspired by true life and the people who made them happen, all of it is fictional and made up. The people, aside from the popular culture figures that pepper this novel, are made up using qualities and quirks I have observed in the people I have met in real life. The places are also made up. The popular culture figures are used fictionally, though I tried to remain true to them in my writing.
The emotions though are very real. High school is a time for angst. High school is a time for finding one’s self and learning who and what one will become. I tried to keep that ribbon alive in this piece of fiction.
The journal entries for the most part are real. I still have the real journal that I wrote in during my junior year of high school, and while I changed the timeline of some of the entries, I tried to keep it true to the voice I used as a seventeen-year-old writer. The journal, along with the literary magazine in which I was published and a number of my other high school memories reside in a box in my basement, making the moves with me through life.
First Day of School
Fall 1997
Brianna couldn’t remember if they started school in August or September. All she could remember was that school usually started around the time of her littlest brother Charlie’s birthday, which was the end of August. But what day it was was lost to time.
What Brianna could remember was that it was the start of another school year and she walked to school as usual. Even though it was her junior year of high school and she should have been getting her license since she was already sixteen, she couldn’t. Her parents had mandated that she had to be able to pay the difference in the car insurance to be able to even learn to drive. Since she only was able to have the odd job here and there, she didn’t have the means. So her feet were her usual mode of transportation, though sometimes she rode her bike or the public bus, depending on where she needed to go.
She trudged on to school in her plain black canvas shoes. They were a knockoff brand, but were deemed acceptable by Mom. Brianna had wanted a pair of leather boots that were popular because of their yellow stitching, but Mom balked at the price. This was her best option, since she couldn’t afford anything herself. She chose black because they were easier to keep clean than white ones would be.
Brianna had to save up her own money if she wanted anything more than the basics her parents would buy for her. Mom was willing to pay for some of the fashions that were popular that school year, like the cropped tee-shirts and the occasional flannel and new denim jeans. But if Brianna wanted any of the more popular and more expensive items, she had to buy them herself.
It wasn’t as if she didn’t work. She had spent most of the summer lifeguarding and teaching swimming at the local outdoor pool. She filed papers for an insurance agent, a friend of her mother’s named Sheila. She also did a great deal of babysitting for church members and friends of her parents. But most of her spending money this year had gone to a new three disc cd player she had wanted for well over a year. It was a beast of a thing, with a tape deck and speakers that had an awesome stereo sound. What had been left over was needed for sunscreen and swimsuits, snacks, repairs for her bike since she used it to go to work, and the odds and ends of school supplies that Mom didn’t want to get her because they were superfluous in her opinion.
And there was little hope she’d be able to afford much now. Since school was in session, the lifeguarding was done for the season. Aside from the one afternoon a week she filed papers and the babysitting, she didn’t see any way to get extra money. Christmas was coming too and she would have to find a way to get gifts together. So the latest trends in fashion that she liked would have to wait until they were no longer fashionable before she could afford them.
She sighed as she continued her trudge. She had a zero period this year, a way to get some extra credits in, especially since she wanted to take an extra Advanced Placement course next year as a senior.
She wished she could have had a ride, but Dad wasn’t going to waste the gas money taking her to school. All of her siblings were getting rides though, so she thought it unfair. Annabelle was in junior high and was getting a ride with her best friend. Charlie was only going into fourth grade and got a ride from Dad since it was on Dad’s way to work. And since the elementary school was only down the street from the high school, sophomore Matthew was also getting a part-way ride since he didn’t have a zero period and could walk from the elementary school.
Brianna had pleaded with her parents for a good while, but they wouldn’t cave.
“Only if it’s raining,” Mom said.
Since they lived in Southern California, that wasn’t likely until the winter months.
At least she had her mixtapes and her personal cassette player, she thought.
Brianna smiled as she thought of her tapes. She had spent the past few days using her new boom box recording songs from the radio onto cassettes and had most of her current favorites to listen to whenever she wanted. Jewel’s newest singles were interspersed with a certain song by Meredith Brooks that had made her mother frown because of its title. While the opening guitar strums of the song “Ironic” were missing, she was happy to finally have that on a tape. She even had some of the songs from No Doubt in her mixes. She liked the “angry young woman” genre even if her mother and father didn’t understand it. Wasn’t that what being a teenager was supposed to be all about?
One new song she had on her tapes she wasn’t too sure about was one about every day being a winding road. She wasn’t as fond of that song as she thought she would be, even though one of her besties loved it. So she decided she’d record it, hoping it would grow on her.
Since none of her close friends had the optional zero period that semester, it was quiet in the quad. Brianna located her locker, the same small one in a column of three that she had since freshman year. She opened it and positioned the magnetic mirror that she had in her backpack inside the door. She shoved the spiral bound notebooks and binders for her last three classes into the locker along with her lunchbox. Her books from her various classes would be in her locker when she got them.
She had just slammed the door shut when the senior who had the locker above hers came over. His name was Luke. They shared some greetings over the past two years, so it was nice to see he still had the same locker.
“Hi Brianna. I see you have a zero period too?”
She nodded.
“Chemistry.”
“Ooof, got to be awake for that too. I’m lucky that my zero period is computer tech. I can do that class in my sleep. Mr. Fish will let me actually sleep in class, since it’s gonna be a rehash anyway.”
Brianna slung her backpack on one shoulder and smiled.
“I better get going,” she said as the first bell rang. “Gotta get to class!”
“See ya!” Luke called as he slammed his locker shut and headed towards the tech building.
Brianna didn’t have as far to walk, since the door to the sciences building was near her locker. She slipped into the building, checking her schedule for the room number. While she had an idea of which classroom was the correct one, she wanted to make sure. She hated second guessing herself always.
She scanned the room when she entered, taking a deep breath. She hated the feeling of queasy anticipation she always had when faced with new situations. The teacher on her class list had a new name, since last year’s main chemistry teacher had retired.
The teacher was indeed new, but didn’t look to be fresh out of college. He had said he had just gotten his license after working in a pharmaceutical company for a few years. Some of the boys smirked when drugs were mentioned, but Brianna pretended not to notice. She also hoped that, even though her last name of Washington was at the end of the roster, she wouldn’t be placed in the back of the classroom. Even though she wore glasses, new that summer as well, she still didn’t know if she could see the board from the back.
She recognized most of the kids in the class. Many were her classmates from elementary school and the junior high school she attended, so she had grown up with them. A few were new faces since Mesa High School was a magnet school as well as being the high school for her residential area. Up until the end of sophomore year, Brianna had been working the high honors track of the school’s program, but since her final grade in Honors English 10 was a C, she was shifted down a track.
Mom wasn’t too pleased about that.
“You’ve always been good at English,” she chided. “Did your teacher not like your handwriting? I told you several times it was atrocious. You should have been working on making it more legible!”
Brianna knew not to try to defend herself. It was difficult to tell her mother that she had been working on it, a problem that plagued her from childhood because she liked to think faster than she could get words down. But it wasn’t the reason why she couldn’t get better than a C in the class. Simply put, last year’s English teacher just didn’t like her writing style. Miss Bliss thought it was too rough and unpolished and not worthy to continue in the Honors track. It crushed Brianna to be criticized so harshly, but she couldn’t tell her parents.
After all, her dad wouldn’t understand. He didn’t understand why she spent all of her free time holed up in the room she shared with Annabelle, pouring out her soul in her notebooks that she had to buy with her own money while listening to music. He didn’t understand the moments she had to type her stories out on the family computer in the den, saving them to floppy disks. All he saw was the waste of time writing “the great American novel” when others wanted the computer to play games or check emails, since they finally had some sort of internet connection that summer.
Mr. Fitzgerald had let them all choose their own seats, for the time being. Brianna plopped down at a desk in the middle of the classroom, not too far from the front, but far enough that she wouldn’t be seen as a brown-noser.
A boy sat down at the desk next to her. He was a new face, at least to her. He was tall and broad shouldered, with brown hair and dark brown eyes. His eyebrows were a bit on the bushy side, but when he saw Brianna looking at him from behind her gold-rimmed glasses, he smiled at her. He had a dark stare that made her heart skip a beat.
Brianna ducked her head, trying to remain aloof. That smile was a nice one and she felt a bit of shyness as she noticed him noticing her. She took a deep breath and shook her head. While Mom had chided her that she needed to go out and meet people, especially boys, Brianna just felt extremely awkward when it came to saying hello to new people. She’d rather just fade into the background than stand out.
“I had several boyfriends by my junior year!” Mom had said with a huff often enough. “You don’t hang around boys often enough. And you don’t flirt with the ones you do talk to. What’s up with you?”
Brianna had chosen not to answer. She always felt like it was easier to just remain sullenly silent then even try to put words to the thoughts that jumbled in her head.
She often felt like her mother just didn’t try to understand her.
Mr. Fitzgerald was finally taking attendance. He went through several names before getting to the H part of the alphabet.
“Patrick Hampton?” he called.
“Here,” the new boy said, looking up from the seating chart where he had marked his seat with his name.
“Patrick,” Brianna said to herself as she doodled on the first page of her science notebook.
She smiled softly as she thought it suited him. As Mr. Fitzgerald got closer and closer to her name, her heart did little jumps. She knew he’d call on her eventually.
“Brianna Washington?”
“Present,” she called out. She hoped her voice didn’t sound as high pitched to others as it did to her.
She snuck another glance at Patrick and then went back to her doodles. She waited for Mr. Fitzgerald to say something of importance again.
After chemistry came Algebra II, which meant Brianna’s two least favorite classes were done for the day. Unlike Matthew, her brain just didn’t seem to be wired for higher math. He was in her first period class. The teacher, Mr. Esparza, put the class alphabetically, which meant she sat directly in front of her brother. She spent most of the period doodling on the syllabus as she tried to keep her hands busy so she’d pay attention. Matthew just kicked back like he usually did.
He didn’t need to work as hard as she did. Math just came easy to him, being a human calculator. It’s why he was technically a year ahead in math already. Brianna imagined him going even further in college.
Second period was Advanced Placement American History with Mr. Carter. After getting the attendance sorted and the classroom expectations settled, he asked the students to write what they expected to learn this year in class. Brianna poured her heart and soul into a page of writing about aspects of history she wanted to learn. She was hesitant to share, since she didn’t want to called the teacher’s pet, but when Mr. Carter called on her, he was smiling expectantly.
He was probably watching her write.
“I want to learn all I can,” she said. “Especially about the Civil War.”
“Why the Civil War, Washington?”
“Because it’s one of my dad’s favorite subjects.”
“It’s a good subject,” he said, nodding. “But is it your favorite subject too?”
She blinked. She hated being put on the spot.
“I like it because I watch a lot of history stuff with him about the subject, I guess.”
He smiled.
“Good then. We’ll be discussing it in class sometime in the winter.”
She smiled as she shifted in her seat and listened to the others share what they had written. Many were mundane things, like “I want to pass the AP test” and “I want to learn about the first president.” Brianna hoped she’d enjoy this class as much as she had her first two years of history. It was her favorite subject, after all.
Her fourth class of the day was Spanish III, a class she also loved. She had to practically run across the campus from her history class to get to the classroom though. She got through the door and found her name on one of the last seats available, sliding into the seat as the bell rang. The new teacher smiled as she stepped to the front of the class.
“Welcome!” she said in Spanish. “I am Senora Allen. While I may have a non-Spanish last name, rest assured I am fluent in the Spanish language.”
They spent the class period going over expectations and then choosing their Spanish names. Brianna chose Liliana, since her middle name was Lillian and her preferred name of Anita was already chosen.
There was a fifteen minute break in the school schedule after the third hour. Brianna made a beeline to her locker to dump her books and grab her snack. She then walked to the planter that had been claimed by her friends last school year. The tree that had been in the center of the planter was gone, having been removed during the summer, but all the usual suspects were already there. Maisie, Adelaide, Corinne, John, Lindsey, and Selena had all claimed spots on the planter or were sitting on the blacktop.
Maisie had been her best friend since they met the summer before Brianna started junior high. They both volunteered to help with things at the summer reading program at the library. They had hit it off then and discovered they would be going to the same school, where they remained friends.
Adelaide was Brianna’s other best friend and a member of her church’s youth group, having grown up in the church. They had been friends since Brianna was in fifth grade and just starting to attend. Adelaide had transferred to Mesa High halfway into the previous school year since her family had moved into the district from the neighboring one in the next city.
The others were friends and acquaintances of Brianna’s. She moved in the outer fringe of the group, never trying to make a mark but tagging along with Maisie, who was one of the central people of the group. Since most of the group were seniors this year, including Adelaide and Maisie, they were all a bit older than Brianna, though not by much. Having a fall birthday meant Brianna was amongst the oldest of her own class.
Mom often huffed over her having “older” friends and no friends her own age. But when Brianna thought about it, most of her “older” friends were actually the same age as she was, since they were all born within a year of each other. Even Adelaide, though born in December of the previous year, wasn’t even a full year older than her. So while they were in different grades, they had that in common. Brianna never understood the argument.
She smiled as she slung her bag to the ground next to Lindsey and plopped down. She opened her granola bar and began to chew..
“Hi, Bri,” Adelaide said with a smile as she looked at her. She was sitting on the top of the planter, her feet on the bench that surrounded it. She had one earbud in her ear, listening to a song on a portable cd player with Selena, who also waved at her.
Brianna looked around.
“Where’s Seth?” she asked.
Maisie shrugged as she looked up from a card game she was playing with Selena, John and Corinne.
“He’s here today.” She nodded her head. “Oh, there he is.”
“So this is where I hang out,” Brianna heard Seth say and she tried to shield her eyes from the blinding morning sun to see who he was with. “This is the gang. That’s Adelaide, Maisie, Selena, Lindsey, Corinne, and John. Oh, and that’s Brianna sprawled out on the ground.”
“Hello,” the newcomer said.
Selena popped out her earbud and looked at Seth.
“Well, aren’t you going to tell us his name?” she asked as the newcomer moved so that Brianna could finally get a good look.
“Oh yeah, everyone, this is Patrick Hampton.”
Patrick stood awkwardly with a smile on his face as he looked around for a place to sit. Brianna quickly moved her feet.
“You can sit on the ground with me if you want,” she said.
He smiled a thanks and plopped down, opening his backpack. He looked at her closely.
“Thanks. You’re in my chem class, aren’t you?”
She nodded as she swallowed her granola bar. Maisie had tossed her a chocolate drop so she was fumbling with the foil. She felt awkwardly clumsy as he seemed to be scrutinizing her.
“What grade are you in, Patrick?” Adelaide asked as Brianna finally got the foil off and popped the chocolate drop into her mouth.
He smiled. Brianna thought his smile was so handsome, but she didn’t say anything. She hoped her cheeks weren’t as red as they felt to her, for she knew she was likely blushing.
“I’m a senior. Been trying to get into Mesa High’s tech program for several years now. They finally let me in this year.”
“So this isn’t your local school?”
“No. I am commuting from Pleasanton.”
Adalaide smiled.
“That’s where I am from. My mom and step-dad moved here last year so I had to transfer here. I am supposed to be a senior at Pleasanton High this year.”
“I was at Clementine High. My brother’s still a sophomore there. My parents had me on the waitlist for the tech program since I was in eighth grade.”
The crew chatted for a bit longer before the fifteen minute break was ended by the cry of the bell. Patrick stood and then offered his hand to Brianna with a smile.
She took it and he helped her up from the ground.
“Nice meeting you, Brianna,” he said. “Where are you heading?”
“I have Drama this hour with Mr. Alley in the 500 building.”
“Cool, I have English in room 504. I can walk with you if it’s on the way.”
Adelaide had caught his words and looked at Brianna with a knowing smile and a thumb’s up. Brianna knew then that Adelaide had caught her blush. Her bestie waved goodbye.
“Later, Bri-ree!” she said as she herself headed off to her Culinary Arts class.
“Later, Laide!” Bri called, glancing as her friend’s tall frame wove in and out of the crowd. She turned to look back at Patrick. “Yeah, I don’t mind walking with you. I’m in room 510, so it’s actually in the breezeway on the outside of the building. But I know where room 504 is. I can get you most of the way there.”
“Cool.”
As they walked across the quad, Brianna spotted her brother with his best friend walking in the opposite direction and stuck her tongue out at him. She was met with a flip of his middle finger. She laughed.
Patrick looked confused as Brianna laughed.
“That would be my younger brother, Matt,” she said. “That’s a normal response. He’s kind of a jerk.”
He laughed as well.
“My brother can be one too.”
The two of them wove through the crowd making small talk until they reached the 500 building.
“This is where I leave you,” Brianna said. “I need to walk down this breezeway. You’re on your own to find your class. Sorry.”
“No worries. Will I see you at lunch?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I’ll be eating at the planter, like I always do.”
“Cool,” he replied. “See ya, maybe.”
Drama was with Mr. Alley. This was his second year teaching and Brianna wondered if she’d like him. Some of her friends had been in classes with Mr. Alley’s predecessor, the beloved Mr. Shoemaker. They were constantly comparing Mr. Alley to Mr. Shoemaker and nitpicking him as a result of not measuring up.
Nothing remarkable happened in Drama that day. They had the expectations and some impromptu acting, but that was it. Brianna had a feeling this was going to be a class where she could eventually catch up on other homework as needed.
Fifth hour was English with Mrs. Cohen. She had a bubbly personality.
“We’re starting off today with a quick write,” she said after she had taken attendance. “I want each of you to locate a piece of paper and something to write with. I prefer a pen or pencil. You will be turning these in, so make sure you put your name on it. This won’t be given a grade. I just want to see what kinds of thinking and writing styles you each have right off the bat.”
She walked to the board and wrote on it.
If I could change one thing in my life that I did in the past, what would it be?
“I will give you all five minutes to write. Just write. Don’t worry about if you spell words wrong or don’t have it punctuated correctly. This is just a little ungraded exercise for me to see how you think.”
Brianna put her black pen to paper and began to write.
If I could change one thing in my life, I don’t think I would. I like how my life has turned out so far, so why would I change it? Besides, if I went back in time and changed something in my past, I wouldn’t be the same. I wouldn’t have the awesome memories that I have. If I didn’t have the memories, I wouldn’t be who I am. Why go back in time and change something only to find out that the change didn’t make me a better person? People learn from their mistakes. If I change them then what have I learned? Who would I be?
She smiled as she handed it in. The rest of the class time was spent going over class expectations and talking about what they would learn. Mrs. Cohen encouraged all of them to bring in some sort of journal to use for their quick writes in the future, for they were going to be doing at least two a week.
Lunch was next. Brianna was starving. She could have chosen to buy her lunch, but if she did that, she’d have to pay for it from her own money. Mom was more than willing to make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich each morning and pack some snacks into her lunch box. She had a canvas one this year, a purple one that was insulated. Mom had put an apple, some chips and a bottle of water in with the sandwich. There was also a little sticky note in there, stuck to the sandwich.
Have a great first day! it exclaimed.
She smiled. She knew, despite butting heads with them very often, that her parents still did love her.
The conversations between her friends swam around her. She chimed in when she felt it necessary, but because she was really hungry, she focused on her food that lunch. She also glanced around to see if Patrick was going to join them, since he hadn’t yet.
She checked her watch. She had two minutes left before lunch was over. She pushed herself up from the ground and walked back to her locker, fighting with it to open it. She crammed her empty lunch bag into it, pulling out her binders for her last two classes. She glanced at herself in the mirror and her hand over some of the stray hairs that had escaped her ponytail. She frowned. Her hair didn’t want to cooperate today.
The bell signifying lunch was over sounded and she slammed her locker shut. Hurrying across campus, she made her way to the back of the school, where in the field was a row of portable classrooms. One of these was where her sixth hour class was.
She was the only junior in her health class and probably the oldest student. Usually that class was taken in either of the first two years of high school, but her schedule did not allow for it and she didn’t want to take it for summer school like she had communication and driver’s education. Supposedly Health in the summer was easier, but she didn’t mind the challenge. She had a student teacher, she discovered. She also knew that Health was going to be a cake class.
Finally, the bell rang and she walked towards her final class. She had Psychology with Coach Chang and was looking forward to it. She had never had a social science class, but had an idea that she wanted to pursue something in the social sciences or humanities in college. Her counselor had recommended the class to her after she had taken the career aptitude test the past spring.
Mom found it hilarious that Brianna had scored low on business aptitude on the test, which was Mom’s subject. But Brianna wasn’t like Mom. She had scored high on writing and creativity, which didn’t surprise her at all. She scored high in history as well, like her father once did. She also scored high on the social science aspect, an avenue she had not explored yet. So she wanted to see what Psychology was like.
Coach Chang was also the basketball coach. While the team didn’t do great, they played well enough that they won a few games. He interspersed that first class with some stats from some of his past players. Brianna didn’t care much for sports except swimming, but she paid attention anyway since he also talked about what psychology was and what they would be doing in class.
By the time the bell rang indicating the end of the day, Brianna was exhausted. She gathered her things and walked to her locker. Pulling out her lunch box and all of the papers she needed to take home for her parents to sign, she shut the door.
She was not looking forward to the walk home from school, since she was so tired, but knew not to bother any of her friends with cars. They all lived in the opposite direction anyway. Besides, her brother had already let her know he’d wait for her. They were going to walk home together.
She hoisted her backpack onto both shoulders, since it was too heavy to carry by the usual single strap with everything in it and began to walk across the campus to the north gate.
“See you tomorrow, Brianna!” a male voice called.
She turned to see Patrick heading for the east gate. She waved to him with a smile. He remembered her name, she thought as her cheeks warmed slightly once more. That was nice.
Matt and his buddy Frankie were waiting for her. They both were talking about some game they had been playing while they stood by the gate, letting students swarm past them. Brianna groaned inwardly as she neared them, for she knew that would dominate the conversation on the way home.
“Hey, Brianna,” Frankie said as she walked up to them.
He was a little guy compared to her brother’s towering frame, but he was as wiry as Matt and just as intelligent. He was just starting to grow facial hair, so there was some scruff under his nose and on his chin.
Matt towered over both of them. His face was full of acne, for he inherited that trait from their father, just as Brianna did. He was built like his sister, all gangly with long arms and legs. Both of them had dark blonde hair, though Matt’s eyes weren’t green like hers, but rather blue. The two of them were forever being asked if they were twins since they looked so close in age.
“Hi,” she called cheerily. “Ready to go home?”
“About damn time you got here,” Matt growled. “What were you doing, flirting?”
“I had to walk all the way across the campus from my last class to my locker and then back across campus to get here, dork,” she replied.
He rolled his eyes as he headed out the gate, expecting her to follow.
“Whatever.”
Frankie was about the only friend who lived near them, so he walked home with them often. The boys dominated the conversation with the latest video game they both were playing. As she trudged behind them, Brianna let her mind wander to Patrick Hampton and how cute she thought he looked. While he wasn’t a poster boy model cute, he was boyfriend material cute.
But she knew that was likely just a dream. She had learned long ago that while she was great at being friends with guys, none of them ever looked at her the way a guy would look at his girl. And since she was so socially inept, she didn’t know how to change that either.
Click here to read the next chapter – Home Life (live on 5 July 2025)
Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction written by K. S. Wood, and thus is copyrighted 2025. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. No part of this work may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author. All rights reserved.If you enjoyed this chapter, please share it with others. Every other Saturday, there will be a new chapter posted for your reading pleasure. The entire story can be found on this page – The Year of the Winding Road
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brilliant, I enjoyed the story, so cool to be able to read it!
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Getting caught up on my replies. Thank you!
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