What I Thought I Knew

New Friends

Sadie, who was standing with her boyfriend and a few friends, spots Kara and Lacy getting off of the buses at the front of the school. Around the same time that Sadie had spotted her sisters, so did the rest of the students hanging out on the front lawn. Several stares, a.few whisper, and just like at the bus stop, Kara reaches out to take Lacy's hand. Except this time, Lacy pulls away. "I um, I have to meet a teacher before class." She says, uncomfortably, before running off herself.

Kaylie looks at Kara apologetically when she sees, the panic and hurt on her face. "It's probably her math teacher, she's really bad at math."

Kara nods, not really believing that her sister had to be somewhere, but not knowing what to say either. That's when Sadie breaks away from her friends and makes her way towards her little sister. Unlike Lacy, Sadie had no problem seeing Kara for her age. She reminded her a lot of herself when she was fifteen. In this moment though, Kara seemed even younger then Sophie. "Hey," Sadie says as she puts her arm around Kara's shoulders, and gives her a reassuring smile. "Why don't I show you around and then take you to your first class?"

Kara smiles a bit, "thanks Sadie." Kaylie takes this as her cue to leave, and makes up an excuse about needing to be somewhere.

Sadie walks Kara through the school, showing her where the cafeteria, library and her classes where. There was maybe a minute left as they approached the classroom for Kara's first class of the day.  Sadie glances at Kara, and sees that she still looks very nervous. "How about you wait in the classroom when class gets over and I'll come back and take you to your next class?"

Just like earlier Kara smiles, Sadie was the kind of big sister that she had always imagined when she thought about having a sibling. "You don't have to if you don't want to," she tells her, nervous she'll say she doesn't want too.

Sadie shakes her head, "of course I want too, unless you're embarrassed to be seen with your big sister.

"I mean, at least your cooler then matt." Kara teases, a genuine smile on her face now.

Sadie laughs, "well that's not a very high bar, but thank you, now get to class." She lightly pushes her towards the doorway.

As Kara entered the classroom, she felt a lot more lighter now. Although as she looked at the classroom slowly filling with students, the nerves were starting to come back. "Hey, Karina right?" A boy she recognized from her bus stop said as she walked in.

He had curly blonde hair, and dark brown eyes. "It's Kara actually," she says awkwardly, feeling like this was how her entire day was going to be like.

He smiles and holds his hand out, "Jack, also quick tip, what ever you do, don't sit in the front row, Mr. Shiv spits when he talks."

"Oh, um, where should I sit then?" She liked how he moved past the awkwardness, making her now wonder if he really had been whispering about her this morning.

"You can sit next to me, half the school thinks I'm a psycho now, so not a lot of people sit next to me....annnnnd I probably shouldn't have told you that." He says now the one feeling awkward.

"Well now you have to tell me why," she says as they walk to the back of the classroom. Weirdly, the feeling that she wasn't the only one feeling insecure made it easier for her to relax.

"I accidentally burnt down an old shed I'm the back of the school. I was smoking a joint long story short it went up, and I spent the summer in juvie." Jack tells her, a look of embarrassment as he sits at his desk. "This is the part where you'll decide not to be friends with me."

"You want to be my friend?" Kara says surprised and Jack laughs, but nods. "Why?"

He shrugs, "well your new and I know what it's like to have the entire school talking about you." The last part of his sentence has a sad undertone to it.