some kind of madness is swallowing me whole

part 6

Ugh, high school, Bella thought as she pulled into the parking lot near a building that had "Front Office" painted on it.

Background

The idea of high school today didn't exist in the same way back in 1915 when Bella attended for the first time. There was a single classroom with one teacher and about 9 or 10 other students. Even that, most of the time Bella wasn't at school. When Bella was 14, around the age students begin high school now, she completely gave up school and helped her mother with nursing. She would've been able to start school around age five but wasn't even enrolled until she was 11. Her mother taught her everything she needed to know anyway. When she became a vampire school never really interested her.

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She walked into the office doors and half regretted making this decision. None other than Mike was there to greet her.

"Hey, you," he still didn't know her name and it was so obvious now.

"Mike, how was your night?" she asked.

"It was great. I had an idea this morning that was too good to pass up. Since you told me that you were learning the school today, I figured, who better than me to show it to you?" he said, too enthusiastic for the morning. "I told Debby here that we were friends but since I didn't know your name she didn't believe me."

"That's very reasonable," she said, giving Debby a thankful look. "How am I going to learn it if you don't give me a chance?"

"I had a feeling you were going to say something like that because I know you so well," he looked to Debby. "So I figured I would show you to your classes all day then you stick around after school and we can walk through it to see if you were paying attention," he finished.

It wasn't a terrible idea but she didn't want to spend the whole day with Mike. He was one of those people who it was okay to see at school but after that, you wanted to pretend he didn't exist.

"Mike, I'll be fine on my own," she said and saw his expression change dramatically. "How about if I need help, I'll ask you?" she quickly suggested.

"I'll accept on one condition," he said and Bella knew where this was going. "You gotta tell me your name," a big smile crept onto his face.

"It's Bella Swan," she said and Mike was elated. He didn't stick around long after that, ready to tell everyone he knows the new girl.

"Hi Debby, is it okay that I call you that?" Bella said to the front desk lady.

"Yeah, sweetie it's fine. Here's your schedule," she said, handing Bella a schedule and two other papers. "There you have a map and the teacher's signature paper. You have to get each teacher to sign it so they know you made it to their class on time. Come back at the end of the day, hand that to me, and I'll give you the other papers your mother needs to fill out," she said, never breaking her smile.

"Okay Debby, thank you," Bella said and walked back out to her car.

She had to move it from the front office parking lot. She hopped in and maneuvered into the student parking lot. Studying her schedule, it seemed she had just seven minutes until homeroom started. She picked up everything she needed and headed into the building.

Of course, by no other luck she has, Mike was in her homeroom.

"Bella! Fancy seeing you here" he shouted her name, excited he finally knew it.

"Of course you're here, Mike," she said sarcastically.

"Bella, come meet everyone," he said, stretching out his hand for Bella to take it. "This is Angela," he said pointing to a girl with black hair that was so black it had blue tones to it in the light. "This is Tyler," he said going around the circle that was there. "This is Eric. This is Jessica. And this is Lauren."