The Doctor

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The next morning I woke up with dread. It was the first day of school. A day I didn't particularly look forward to. Well, the first day for Bella and I. It was January, the beginning of the second semester, but it was still weird to show up after an entire semester of school.

I went to take a shower and when I came out of the bathroom, Bella was already dressed and ready. She always had been an early riser, even when we were younger. 

I saw she was wearing a green bowling shirt and jeans. I was wearing a green cardigan with jeans and sneakers.
I grabbed my backpack and walked downstairs. I heard Bella behind me.

We saw that Dad was already gone. He usually left for the station pretty early. "You wanna drive?" I asked Bella, holding out the keys. "I want to survive, so yes." Bella said, grabbing the keys. I stuck out my tongue. She was right though, I was a terrible driver.

Far too fast for Bella's taste. It didn't take long to reach the school, even though it didn't look like a school at all. More like a bunch of houses joined together. Bella parked the truck and I climbed out. We went to the office to pick up our schedules.

The woman behind the desk looked at us weirdly, like she was trying to search our features. She had probably seen our mother around, at least before Mom ran off with us. I realized most of the town probably thought Mom was flighty. That she was a horrible person for divorcing our father. 

Dad would have put stop to the rumors though. It was sad, but sometimes I think he still loves her. I smiled fakely at the receptionist and walked outside. Bella smiled at me. "Well she was nice."

"Liar." I said, sticking my tongue out at her. I'd always been very good at telling when people were lying to me, whether it was little white lies or something bigger. She raised her eyebrows. "How do you always do that?" She asked me. "I don't know, I guess I just have some sort of built in lie detector." I joked. 

We walked down the hallway and I accidentally bumped into a guy. "Sorry." I said automatically, stepping away from him.

The guy was Asian and had shoulder length black hair. He looked at Bella and I and immediately shook his head. "No it's fine. You're the new girls' right? Isabella and Adelaide." He said, and it was more of a statement than a question.

This school barely had any kids, so of course they would spot someone new. It was weird attending a school with so few people, especially considering how huge our old school was.

"Actually it's Bella." Bella corrected quickly. "Yeah and you can call me Addy." I said also, not really wanting to be called Adelaide by everyone. Not that I didn't like my name, I did. It was just a mouthful. It was funny to me how Bella and I both shortened our names, but that was our parent's faults for making our names so long. 

The guy nodded and began to walk beside us. "I'm Eric. The eyes and ears of this place. Anything you need, I got it. Tour guide, lunch date, shoulder to cry on."

Bella and I exchanged a quick look.

"I'm more of the 'suffer in silence' type." Bella told him. And she was right. Bella was sometimes too selfless. She was so used to taking care of Mom that it was ingrained in her to never care for her own wellbeing. 

"I'm on the school paper and let me tell you, you two are news." Eric said and I rolled my eyes. A school paper? Couldn't they think of something else to write about? I suppose in a place this small we were the only news in years.

Bella immediately winced, but he didn't notice.

"So which classes are you two headed to?" He asked, and I could tell he liked Bella by the way his eyes kept straying to her. Better for me, he could bother her.