Not Another Faker

Chapter Five

     I gotta be honest, first day of school kinda makes me feel like I'm gonna die. I walk in and it feels like everybody already knows. I began walking, looking for my class, which is when I tripped over someone. "Wow watch it." "What are you doing on the floor?" "What are you doing standing up? Here help me up."  I grab his hand and help him up. When he got up he just stood there in front of me. "Can I help you with something?" "Uh no. You lookin for a class?" "Oh yeah." I hand him my schedule. "Oh 204 yeah it's down the hall to the right." I grab my schedule and walk away. "Wait I didn't get your name." I turn around. "That's probably for the best."

         In this moment I just wanted to run. I wanted to keep running until I fell off the face of the earth. But no, instead I just walked in. "Oh Julia hi. I'm Mrs. Williams, lovely to meet you." I shook her hand. "Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?" "No not really." "Come on just a little introduction. Alright class we have new student joining us for the rest of the year." I roll my eyes. "Hi my name is Julia Maxwell and I just moved here from New Jersey."

       The teacher whispered to me. "Oh Julia could you explain your, situation." I whispered back. "Do you mean cancer?" "Yes." "Okay um I have a 'situation' called cancer. To be more specific I have leukemia." I tried to sit down but she kept calling me back. "How about you tell us more about your life, they would love to hear more." "I really don't think they care, like look at them they couldn't care less about my life." "Just tell us more." "Fine. My parents had me when they were sixteen. I was diagnosed with leukemia when I was six so I've had this "situation"for ten years now. I lived in New Jersey my entire life, and now I'm here. Happy?" "Yes you may have a seat, anywhere is fine."

"Can I sit here?" "Sorry it's taken." I look at the guy beside her. "Sorry this seats taken too." I see three girls waving me over to them. I look to see if there's an open seat, and there is. But before I even reached them, I felt a hand wrap around my wrist. The hand dragged me across the room. Little did I know there was a person attached to this hand. "No way am I gonna let you feed yourself to the wolves on your first day." "What?" "You can't sit with them, your practically killing yourself." "I'm sorry who are you?" "Sawyer Logan, at your service. Anyways I just saved your life." "They don't look so bad." "Gigi, Mya, and Rory. Rory being short for Aurora. You don't have to worry about her, she's the nicest person you'll meet. Gigi and Mya are the main bitches. Oh and make sure you watch your back around here. People will stab you in the back before you even have a chance to get your locker combination memorized."

"Alright class todays lesson is a continuation of yesterday's lesson. Now Julia." I look up. "I don't expect you to understand the lesson. To Kill a Mockingbird is the book we've been reading, and once you fall behind it's hard to catch up. I understand if you are unable to comprehend what's happening." Everybody looks at me. We all knew she wasn't talking about me being behind in class. She was talking about the fact that some people with leukemia or cancer in general can have a hard time learning and comprehending new things cause they are so exhausted from treatments and stuff. For me it is not that case. Actually I've never been so exhausted that I couldn't comprehend or learn new things.

"Rude for you to assume that I can't focus due to leukemia. In fact I've actually read To Kill a Mockingbird five times, for fun." "Oh well, perfect. Also I wasn't assuming anything, I was just keeping your situation in mind." I gave her that look. You know that look you give to someone when you want to tell someone to shut up but can't. "Damn Mrs. W she told you." "Ian we don't tolerate that language in here." He looked at me and smiled. He smiled as if he had my back. But I didn't even know him. I lean over to Sawyer. "Who is that?" "Ian Miller. The most annoying guy in our grade, but he's my friend, and once you get to know him he'll always have your back. Which it looks like he already does." I look back at him and smile. "Cool."

       The bell rang and we walked out of the class room. "Come let's stand by my locker so we look cool even though we're not." "Yeah okay." We walked over to her locker. "Oh our lockers are right beside each other." "This day could not get any better." We stood there for a minute then she called a bunch of people over. "This is Julian, Abby, Riley, Harvey, and you met Ian. Guys this is Julia." "The girl with leukemia." "Abby, shut up." "What I'm pretty sure she knows." "Wait what? What are you talking about?" "I like her she's funny." "Yeah I think I do too." "I second that." "I third that." "I fourth that." "I fifth that." "And I sixth." They all liked me. For some reason this whole friend group, likes me. "Now we need Sebs opinion." "Seb?" "Short for Sebastian. We all have nicknames. I'm Say." "But your names Sawyer. The W comes before the Y." "Wow she's wired straight, all colors must be in the right places." "What?" "Ignore him he's just being stupid, also I really don't want be called Saw. Anyway Abby is Abs, Riley is Riles and Harvey is Harv. Julian and Ian are too cool for nicknames, their words not mine."

       The boy I had ran into came up to us. "What do you want?" "The names Sebastian James lovely to meet you. And you are?" "Girl who tripped over you this morning." "Yes I know that but do you have a name?" "Her name is Julia and she has leukemia." "Hey Say." "Yes Abs?" "It's not your diseases to brag about." "I know but it's just so badass, I love it." "Leukemia." He put his hand on my shoulder. This is when I knew was toast. I knew he was gonna run away foaming at the mouth then the entire group will follow him and I'll lose friends before I even have them. "Cool." Cool, I'm cool. Leukemia is cool. Sebastian is so cool. "So what did you guys want?" "Is Julia cool enough to be in our group?" "Since when do you have to be cool to be in our group?" "Shut it Riley." "Um yeah." He looks me in the eyes. "She's pretty cool." "Perfect. I here by declare you, one of us." "Run, run while you can." Sawyer put her hand over Abbys' mouth. "Don't listen so her, she's a tad bit crazy."

       The minute bell rang and we started walking to class. "So Julia do you have nickname that we can call you?" "Um my friends or friend used to call me Jules, and my mom calls me Peach. But don't call me that cause, that would just be weird." "Oh no I'm gonna call you Peach." "Harvey if ever call me Peach I will slap you so hard that it might actually knock some sense into you." "So Jules do you think you'll have to tell every teacher about your leukemia?" I look over at Gigi whose standing at her locker. "No I have a feeling the words gonna get around."