Beckerson High

Chapter One

The move from Minnesota to Florida over the summer had been discomforting to say the least. Waking up to the sight of palm trees instead of evergreens, or casually seeing alligators outside instead of deer, reminded me I was no longer home. I promise, I really was trying to fit in. During my last few weeks of summer, I went to the beach a couple times, although it only left me sunburnt and dehydrated. I even went golfing, then quickly figured out it was not my forte. Florida wasn't looking too great for me, but my parents were loving it.

My mom had delivered the news of our move to me, excited about her new job opportunity as a Disney World manager. Sounds fun right? Wrong. The moment she set foot in Florida she was whisked away to the park, and only came home around twelve at night. My dad was thrilled to be moving, and quit his job just for my mother. He had been on the look for a while, giving me some father-daughter time. Eventually he landed a job at a nearby construction company, as the safety manager. Good for him, sad for me.

Should I be complaining? Probably not. I have free passes to Disney World on any given day, I live right next to a beach and have a great house with a steady flow of income from my parents.

But, sitting alone at a cafeteria table on the first day of school eating something that barely resembled a fish fillet, made me incredibly miserable.

I'll admit, I wasn't really going out of my way to make friends. Blame it on my social anxiety and shyness. So far, school wasn't all that bad, and the classes were somewhat easy to find. What scared me was the people. I didn't believe the stereotype that Floridians were all crackheads until I entered Beckerson High School. Sitting here at this cafeteria table, I was surrounded by yelling and constant fights breaking loose. I swear I saw a drug deal go down in the back corner of the cafeteria, but it also could've been someone just bringing a large bag of salt to lunch. Don't get me wrong, most schools in Minnesota were like this too, but I had gone to a "higher class" public school, so things were normally more mellow for me.

Poking the supposed fish on my plate, I looked around again at the cafeteria, hoping to catch the eyes of someone else sitting alone. Coming up empty-handed, I sighed and pushed my plate away. There was no way I was going to ingest that.

Bored out of my mind, I pulled my old sketchbook out of my backpack, flipping through the pages that reminded me of home. Sketching always calmed me down, and my favorite thing to draw was characters and people. Landing on a page with a drawing of my friends, I was immediately homesick.

"Woah, that's so cool!"

With a startled screech, I quickly slammed the sketchbook shut, swiveling to see who was talking to me.

A tall boy with floppy brown hair was looking down at me with a huge smile on his face. He had a purple hoodie with a teal swirl on the front, and was holding an energy drink in one hand. I was normally good at reading people, and I could already tell this guy was pumped full of energy, with or without the drink.

"Sorry, I probably shouldn't have been looking without your permission" The boy continues, taking a sip from his drink.

"Uh, no I-It's fine" I stuttered, my nerves going through the roof.

"Well, that drawing looked really good! Why haven't I seen you around?" He readjusted his backpack.

"I just moved here from Minnesota" I mumbled quietly, blushing at the compliment.

"That's so fun! Wait, I should give you a tour! Are you staying after school today?" The boy's eyes lit up, and I didn't want to disappoint him.

"I wasn't planning on it, but I did drive here myself so..." I shoved my sketchbook back into its original spot in my backpack, hoping to get out of here as soon as possible.

"Honk yeah! I'll meet you at the big fish statue out front after class ends!" The boy quickly chugs the rest of his drink and crushes it against his head, then chucks it into the recycling can nearby with so much force, it could shatter a bullet proof window. He then leaves to go join a different table in the cafeteria, out of sight.

"Literally what the fuck just happened?" I mutter to myself as I throw my backpack over my shoulder and exit the cafeteria. Hoping to seek refuge in the library until lunch is over, I find a nice corner and plop myself down in between the history and geography section of the shelves.

I let my head fall back against the books, and let out a sigh of relief, glad to be out of an awkward social situation.

Suddenly, a figure turns the corner, and I'm met head on with a tall, bright pink haired guy looking just as shocked as I am.

"S-Sorry, do you want me to move?" I can barely hear myself at this point.

"No, no, I didn't mean to bother you, sorry" He quickly apologises and leaves the way he came, making me feel awful. He obviously came in this corner for a reason and I blocked him from getting whatever he was trying to get. Nice going, Evie. His hair looked so sick, I wish that I would've said something about it to him, but now it was too late.

Five minutes later, the bell rang signifying the end of lunch. I was seriously considering just staying in this safe little corner, but ultimately faced the fact that I eventually would have to go on a tour after school. There was no point in hiding, my first day of school officially sucked.