Anni – An Unwilling New Start | Part 2

The way to school took me about 20 minutes by foot, which I actually enjoyed. I like having time to think while I walk – so on this particular Friday I let the memories of the previous weeks play through my mind. I had now been in Barsinghausen for two weeks, and attended the Hannah-Arendt high school. The six weeks summer holidays that I had spent with Stephanie in Stuttgart had just flown by, where as the last two weeks here had just dragged on endlessly.
I had spent the most amazing summer with Stephanie in Stuttgart – the weather was perfect, we went to the lake nearly every day, or met with friends in the Biergarten. Despite our constant proximity we didn’t get on each others nerves even once, instead we had made wonderful plans for the future, where after our graduation we would find an apartment to live together. As I left again at the end of the holidays, saying goodbye was much more difficult than when I had originally moved six weeks prior.
As opposed to this, it seemed that my parents were realising an unconscious dream of suburban bliss. Thanks to his new job, my Dad wasn’t just paid much more, but also his Work-Life-Balance had improved and in contrast to before he now nearly always made it home on time. My Mum still hadn’t found a new job for herself, but she didn’t seem too bothered by this. She had discovered a love for gardening, and was excitedly planning to create a pond in our backyard. The two of them sickened me somehow. Although I tried to, I couldn’t grant them their happiness – just as they hadn’t granted me mine in Stuttgart. Since my arrival in “exile”, as Stephanie and I had christened my new place of residence, my parents and I made an effort to be friendly towards each other, but there was still a distance between us. I was just grateful that they left me in peace – as my new school, and all the changes associated with that change, occupied my thoughts a lot. My timetable was quite tightly packed, and on most days I had lessons until late in the afternoon. That didn’t bother me though, as I knew then I had less time to spend at home with Mum, the “super gardener”.
I had little interest in social contact, or new friendships, within my class. I’m sure there were certainly two or three interesting people with whom I could have spent time with; but inwardly I was completely focused on distancing myself from the others, which most likely showed externally too. And so I stayed, bar some small talk within lessons, mostly alone. I didn’t need anybody anyway! I phoned nearly everyday with Stephanie, which was enough I had convinced myself. After all, this whole Barsinghausen thing was just a short interlude, an insignificant transitional chapter in my life. It was therefore completely unnecessary to seek out new contacts or even friendships.
After German, English, and History, that Friday we ended with a doubleblock of P.E.. There were about 25 students in the class, and thanks to the good weather we were allowed to play volleyball outside to warm-up. At least I had not been chosen last within the team, I thought - but was immediately annoyed at myself for thinking that. I had already told myself that everything that happened in this town and at this school didn’t matter to me. So, what did it matter if I was one of those "losers" nobody wanted in their team or not? Especially since I was really bad at volleyball anyway.
After the warm-up, we practiced several athletic disciplines at different stations. I began with long jump, and as my first jump went really well, I was too ambitious with my second attempt. The jump went wrong somehow, and when I landed in the sand, my right foot bent inwards. I shouted out instantly, staying where I was and holding my ankle, which was pulsing with pain. When I looked up again, my face grimacing, Sebastian suddenly knelt in front of me. I had several other subjects together with him aside from P.E, but despite that, we had still never spoken until now. Though admittedly, I had already noticed him on my first day of school – he was tall, had an intelligent face with light-blue eyes, and constantly messy and ruffled hair. Not your typical heartthrob, but to me he somehow seemed to radiate a good energy. So much that I had even already told Stephanie about him over the phone when she had asked me about nice or good-looking guys from my new school. Sebastian held his right hand about ten centimetres above my hands, which were still clasping my ankle. As if he wanted to carefully lay them on top of mine, but was too shy to do so. We looked at each other – I had tears in my eyes from the shock and the pain, which had now turned into a dull throbbing. In reality the whole situation probably only lasted about two seconds, but it had seemed much longer to me. “Umm, are you – are you hurt?”, Sebastian asked. He pulled his hand away from my ankle now and was using it to prop himself up off the ground. “I twisted my ankle”, I murmered in a choked voice. At that moment our P.E. teacher headed over to us with a concerned expression on her face. “Hey Anni, everything okay?”, she called out. That ended the short, and somewhat strange moment between us, but also triggered an impulse from Sebastian. As if to protect me from our teacher, he put his left arm around my shoulders very gently but firmly. "She probably sprained her ankle, I'll take her into the gym, if that's okay!" he said to Ms. Seidel, who was standing next to us. It sounded more like a statement, not a question. "Can you put weight on it, Anni?" - Ms. Seidel offered me her hand. I leaned on Sebastian and at the same time I was pulled up by her. "I think it’s okay," I replied in a slightly pained voice.
In the meantime, I was beginning to feel embarrassed as the pain had already begun to subside. Somehow my heartbeat just didn’t want to slow down though. "All right," said Ms. Seidel to Sebastian. "In the room next to the gym you can find ice packs in the small freezer. Let Anni put her leg up and cool it. If it doesn’t get better, you call me, okay?” Sebastian nodded. He had his left arm around my waist and I leaned on his shoulder. Slowly I limped with his help towards the gym.