Lockwood Mysteries

Chapter 2: First Day

The school was in the clear now. When she looked around, there weren't many students gathered around the campus. It was a small town, after all. She observed her new school a bit more. There were no plants, flowers or posters to make the place look a bit more approachable. It was just a plain and dull, T shaped, two story building, coloured in dark red. Jessica approached the main entrance and sighed, "Was expecting a bit more, to be hon-" The sound of squeaking sneakers was heard behind her, almost as if someone fell. The fifteen year old turned around to look at what had happened. When she looked down, a girl around her age with glasses was laying there, as if she were trying to recollect her thoughts. Suddenly, she stood up and gathered her belongings that had scattered all around her.
Jessica crossed her brows and spoke in a blatant manner, "Kinda clumsy, aren't you?" The girl felt a bit embarrassed and looked down, "Uh, yeah, sorry." She then approached the girl and rested her brows, "It's alright. Just watch where you're going." The girl looked up at her and squinted with her glasses, "I don't think I've seen you before. You're new, right? Unlike other schools, all of us here know each other really well. I suppose you knew that? A new student is a sight to see. Did you not see the other students here looking at you?" Jessica looked around and to her shock, the few students that were on campus were looking at her. They were whispering things to each other that were almost inaudible to her. "Don't worry. They mean no harm by that. They never say anything bad. What's your name?"
"The name's Jessica, and what about you?" She felt some sense of relief from knowing that baseless rumours weren't about to be spread about her from seeing the students gossip. "Hehe, my name is Ashleigh. Nice to meet you Jess. Do you mind if I call you that?" The girl that was somewhat shorter than Jessica, her face lit up with a smile. "Uh... Sure, I don't mind." The bell rang and Ashleigh ran inside the school building, "Uh, meet me at lunch since we're friends now!"
"Oh, alright then." Jessica smiled a bit and entered through the main entrance. "Time to find my first class..." She opened her satchel and took out her schedule. Her smile faded and her face scrunched up like she had just taken a bite from a lemon. It turns out that her first class of the day was her least favourite subject of all, which was Mathematics. Her eyes scanned the paper and looked for the class number. "8:00 am... Room 105... Why'd my first class have to be Math? My fault for not checking the schedule before today." She folded the paper and put it back in her bag and started making her way down the huge main hall.
Jessica was a bit surprised to see that the inside of the highschool was way more lively than outside. Even though the school had a small number of students, it seems that their favourite place to gather was the main hall. There were many of them from different grades trying to get to their first class of the day and Jessica was one of them.
It wasn't hard to locate her class because it was on the first floor and was only one turn to the right.
It was a big red door that she stood in front of that had a huge sign saying, "Mr. Peterson's Math Class." She decided to brush her intrusive thoughts aside and knocked on the door. A few moments had passed until a tall man, who looked as if he were in his late fifties, opened the door. He looked down at Jessica and spoke in a deep, raspy voice, "I'm guessing you're..." He began looking for a piece of paper in his pocket. As he pulled out the paper, it had a lot of coffee stains on it. She looked at it rather disgusted and took a small step back. "Right. You're Jessica Brooke... For a new student, you're not making such a good impression on me. You're five minutes late to class." Jessica started to get a bit furious, but kept her composure. How could someone as messy as himself say that she's not making such a good impression on him? If anything, he was the one who was tardy. "Anyways, come into the class and introduce yourself..." He began walking back to his seat and Jessica entered the classroom, closing the door behind her.
Her new math class looked old, dating back to the early 90s. When she stood at the front of the class to introduce herself, she could feel the eyes of her classmates looking at her. Even though her new friend told her that they aren't trying to be mean, she still felt a bit nervous. Jessica finally turned around and told everyone her name, "Uh, hello. My name's Jessica. It's nice to get a chance to finally meet you."