New Girl

Chapter 2

I start walking towards the bus stop. The crisp September air makes me zipper up my coat. At the stop, there's a couple other people my age standing there. There's one jock-looking boy, laughing with a few girls in cheerleading uniforms. I'm not sure whether they are the types of cheerleaders you see in the movies- bratty and popular. I awkwardly look at them, and when they spot me, they smile. One of them motions me over.
"Hey, are you new?" The jock boy asks. I smile and say "Yeah." Quietly. One of the cheerleaders with long, red hair laugh. "What's your name?" she asks.
"Emily. Emily Brenneth." I tell her.
"Oh. I'm Nicole." She says cheerfully. "You're really pretty too! Right girls?" Nicole asks the little posse of other cheerleaders behind her. "Yeah!" They all say together.
"Nice to meet you Emily. You should try out for the Cheerleading Squad! We are always looking for new members." Nicole winks. Suddenly, the bus pulls up. We all file into the bus, one by one. I ended up sitting next to Nicole.
"So, where are you from?" Nicole asks me.
"California." I say shyly. Even though Nicole is super sweet, I am not the cheerleader type, and I really don't want to fall into that kind of group. When we get to school, I walk in, and turn around, expecting Nicole to be behind me, but she completely ditched me. I walked down the hall, looking at my hectic schedule. My locker is #215. When I get to my locker, there's a group of girls blocking it. One girl has straight, short blonde hair with brown eyes, and another girl has straight, long brown hair dyed blonde at the tips. They are both laughing, and I approach them.
"Excuse me, this is my locker." I say awkwardly.
"Oh, we're so sorry! Wait, you're the new girl right? Hi! I'm Claire McMaster." The brown haired girl says with a smile. She fixes her hair that's pulled back in a cute clip and moves out of the way.
"Yeah I'm new" I laugh. "My name is Emily Brenneth. I'm from California."
"Really? Oh my gosh that is so cool!" Says the blonde haired girl. She's wearing a cute light blue t-shirt and skinny jeans. "I'm Tara Adams."
"Hi!" I say.
"Have you met anyone here yet?" Asks Claire curiously.
"Well, uh I met a girl named Nicole. She's actually really nice!" I say exuberantly. Claire and Tara gasp so loud that other people turn to look at us.
"Oh no. That's NOT good." Tara warns. "Nicole is the worst possible person you could've met! She is the captain of the cheerleading squad, taunts anyone who comes in her way, and totally just makes you feel worthless! You know what, she acts like the sweetest person ever to ANY new kids, because she needs more people on the cheer squad. Do you want to know WHY they need more people? It's because Nicole scared everyone off of the original squad. Where did you meet her?"
"Well, I met her at the bus stop. There was a guy with her too. He had a varsity football jacket on with brown hair and blue eyes." I say. Claire giggles.
"Oh. You met Hunter?" Claire says with a smile.
"Well, not exactly. I haven't really-" I start to say, but Tara rolls her eyes and interrupts me.
"Claire has been crushing on Hunter since the 1st grade. He has been dating Nicole since last month. He is the quarterback of the football team, in every honors class, he's totally cute and every girl seems to have a crush on him at least once in their life." Tara explains. I finish putting my books in my locker and close it shut. I look at my schedule and Tara looks over my shoulder.
"Oh, you're going to room 209. You need to go THIS way. Haha!" Tara turns me around and we start walking. "We are in the same homeroom. Yay!" Tara says. "We have Mr. Maul as our homeroom teacher. He is a little strict, but there are loads of funny people in our homeroom. You'll see." Claire explains as we walk in. There's a tall, skinny, bald-headed man in a white button down shirt with a red tie, which I'm guessing it's Mr. Maul. He greets Tara by saying "Good morning, Miss Adams!" Then he gives me an odd look. "Are you are new student? Welcome to North Oak Middle School!" Mr. Maul says enthusiastically. I nod and smile a bit. At this point, Tara took her seat, and I'm just standing in the back of the room, next to Mr. Maul, while everyone is staring at me.
"Homeroom 209, meet our new student, Emily Brenneth!" Mr. Maul announces. The class lets out a faint hello and they all wave. "You will be sitting next to Hunter, in the front of the room. He points to Hunter. I take my seat and look around. Tara is sitting all the way on the other side of the room.
"Hi." Hunter says.
"Hello." I say shyly. Could this be the start of something new?