The New Girl

Finding Friends

Clara-

I woke up this morning and realized that I didn't have my bike at home. River had told me we would get it today after school since the plan was for him to give me a ride to school today. Of course, since I don't think that is a good idea, I am walking to school. I left extra early this morning so I wouldn't be late. Honestly, I think that being with the guys would have meant me being late to school almost everyday, and I want to work on being on time every day. This might be good for me. Some part of me wants to hang out with the guys, but there is no real longing or heartache since I haven't known them that long. It is best for me to cut ties before I start to care for those idiots.

It took me a while to walk the two miles to school, which I expected. Today I wore tennis shoes and mom jeans with a T-shirt. Dressing cute didn't seem like the mood today, so I also wore no makeup. My ankle doesn't hurt nearly as much and the swelling is down a lot, there is still a decent amount of bruising though. 

The school was buzzing when I got there, since it was only about fifteen minutes before time for class to start. In the mornings I guess if you are there early you get to go to your locker to put things away, then sit in the lunch area, which is called the commons. People sit around at the lunch tables and talk to their friends. Of course, I didn't have anyone to talk to. I found a small table off to the side of the room with six empty chairs. I decided that might be a good place to sit. People looked at me strangely, probably wondering why I was sitting alone. The guys weren't there yet, luckily. I didn't want them to try to talk to me right now. I do have some classes with them, three of my classes are even with River. What I worry about most though is my first class, which I have with Victoria. Hopefully I can get through today without any problems. 

I spent my morning alone at that table, watching people at other tables laugh, talk, and throw things around. A lot of people seemed to really enjoy their time together before school starts. I, however, had not made any progress towards making friends. 

The bell rang signaling that it was time for me to go to my Advanced Chem 2 class. I'm pretty good at most classes, but I don't particularly like chemistry. I think classes like this will look great on my college applications though. I walked through the door and looked for a seat, one that wasn't near Victoria. People sit in slightly different seats each day in here, so I wasn't too worried about irritating someone. 

In the back of the room there was a small group of empty desks and I decided that would be the spot for me. I don't usually sit in the back, typically I would go for the middle or front, but I want to be behind Victoria so I could make sure she wasn't about to do anything to me. Maybe if she sees I'm not hanging around River anymore then she will start to leave me alone. Having an enemy like her was definitely not a good start to my time at this school. Students began filing into the room, and Victoria walked in. She looked at me for a second, then looked away and walked to a desk in the middle. She seems like she also usually sits towards the middle. I think she does that because she can talk to more people, however, I do it because it is usually easier for me to stay engaged if I am closer to the teacher. I will just have to try to make myself pay attention from back here anyway. 

The bell rang for class to start and the teacher walked in from the hallway. She didn't waste any time and got straight to teaching. Today was pretty strictly a lecture and assignment that we worked on independently. I don't like lectures, I am more hands on. However, I must say class didn't go half bad. Victoria was far enough in front of me that I didn't really have to worry about her, but again, I had made no attempt at making friends. For that being the goal of today, I was really failing. Oh well, I still have lunch and six more classes. 

After Chemistry I made my way to my AP Literature class. Yesterday our teacher had handed out a book about the Holocaust to us. A big part of high school English and history classes is learning about the Holocaust and WWII. I walked into the room and saw River sitting already. It seemed strange for him to be in class so quickly, but whatever. After some quick thinking, I decided to sit on the opposite side of the room from him. Best to stay away. There was a desk in the back left corner of the room open, so I went and sat there. A girl was next to me who had long, nearly black hair and light green eyes. She looked bored and a little annoyed. I smiled at her and she gave me a faint smile in return. Neither one of us said anything though. Class involved us silently reading the first three chapters of the book and answering questions on our paper independently, so there was little to no opportunity to talk to people. 

The bell rang to end class and I gathered my thing and stood up, but I dropped my sketchbook and one of my comp books. 

"Crap", I mumbled under my breath as I bent down to pick them up, but the sketch book was already in the girls hands. It had landed opened, and she was looking at the visible pages, but didn't flip through them at all, which seemed respectful. 

"These are great." She said as she handed the book to me. 

"Thank you, I'm Clara, by the way." I said with a big smile. 

"Nice to meet you, I'm Toni." She said and returned the smile. She seemed nice, but pretty quiet. 

"You are in my art class next hour aren't you?" I asked.

"Yeah, I am. We can sit together if you want? I don't think Chris will mind." I smiled at her and nodded.

"I would like that."