I'M HIS | BOOK 1 | BOYXBOY

1: "Hi, I'm Angel"

Burkely High School seemed pretty from the outside, although I couldn't see a school field anywhere. It was a tall building, roughly five floors. It had three towers—one of which was also the main entrance to the school. The top of it was painted with a light green color which came to a point. We came to a full stop and my mom reached back and handed me my bag from the back seat. I smiled at her and unbuckled my seatbelt, swiftly I opened the car door and made my way out.

We both exchanged ''I love you's'' and I stood at the curb for a solid five minutes getting an earful of lecturing about doing well in school and focusing in class, both of course in Spanish and English. Typical stuff from parents. I'm not the best student, I'm pretty average. I excel in multiple subjects but fall very flat in others. Things like English, science, and music class I excel at. I fall flat in anything to do with math. Math is the reason my average is lowered at the end of every semester and math is also the reason I want to run away and live alone on a farm with a ton of animals.

I finally waved goodbye to my mom and watched as a group of kids passed me. They looked like they were seniors. Now I was only a sophomore, nothing special about that. Starting a new school is never easy but coming from California to New York I immediately saw major differences stepping into the front entrance. The building was beautifully structured for a public high school. From what I was told, it was a very old school. Built in the late 1800s as an all-boys private academy it was slowly extended into what it is now and became a public school and thus girls were allowed in. I learned all of this because of Wikipedia, where else would I get this information from?

I gripped my bag strap as I saw a woman dressed in the school colors approaching me holding a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. "Hello" she spoke loudly "I'm Ms. Lee, I'm a guidance counselor here and I'm doing freshman orientation today"

"I'm actually a sophomore, but today is my first day at this school"

"Oh, a transfer student, okay just go to that woman" she pointed to a table "You'll collect your schedule and textbooks there"

I nodded and made my way to the desk. There wasn't much conversation."Hi, I'm Kendall— Kendall Flores"

    "Well hello, Kendall" The woman flipped through her stack of green papers and found my name. "I'll need you to sign here" She handed me the pen and I quickly scribbled my name "Here is your schedule and your textbooks" She handed me the paper and two textbooks. One for Algebra and another for History. "This is your schedule for the year, it might change a week or two from now. The school is still moving around students to different classes"

"Thank you" I granted her a smirk and rested the books in my arms. "Do I go up to my first period now?"

"No sorry, you have to walk through that hallway and into the cafeteria, where you'll wait until you're called for the first period"

I nodded and walked through the crowd of people. I expected to feel a lot more out of place for the simple fact that I was probably the only Latinx kid that didn't speak fluent Spanish, but everyone here was so diverse and also mixed with other minorities that it relaxed me and made me less anxious about making friends.

I had heard a lot about New York City schools but one thing that's different here is the groups of people. There was no popular group or hipster group, none of those stereotypical high school kids. No one is shunned away from a certain person because no one cares. New York is so diverse and compact that everyone worries about themselves first then others, and I loved that. As crazy as the city could be, everyone had mutual respect and as far as I can see, they all seemed nice, nothing about rude New Yorkers so far.
    I made my way through the crowd trying my best to not bump into anyone. Upon entering the cafeteria I looked around, scanning the room to see any potential seats. There were definitely a lot of people but most were walking around to catch up with their friends who they hadn't seen since the summer break. My eyes caught a seat at a table and I made my way promptly sitting myself down.