Mine

Avery

It's not like I was new to this school. I had been in this area since the age of three. I knew everyone, and I had no reason to be scared. But for some reason, everyday was a huge anxiety battle. Wake up, get ready, and drag myself out into my car. Then take five minutes of hyperventilating to ready myself in the school parking lot for an uneventful day of people paying me no attention. Typical.

"Okay, Avery... Pull yourself together. You do this every day. Today is no different. You've been in school for almost a semester now. This is your junior year." I had this irrational fear of people not accepting me. Well, scratch that- an irrational fear of human contact in general. I had a few friends, but most of them were in the band like me anyways, and they were just as content to keep to themselves, and polish their instruments. Typical.

As I went over my daily pep talk, in the dark of my car, I heard a tap on my window. Oh great, Jess was about to tear into my butt for not meeting her in home room on time to go buy cheap coffee from the concessions like we always did on Friday mornings to celebrate the weekends' arrival. I rolled down my windows without looking up and continued my usual speech about how I needed a minute to pull myself together. "Jess, I'm sorry! I'm not even two minuets late! I was just about to get- oh..."

"Well, this is awkward," the stranger replied, "since you know, I'm not this 'Jess'." Crap. Not only did I just interact with a complete stranger, he was also a really cute one.

"Uh- I-I just-I meant-um-..."

"I'm Matthew." I looked in shock as he extended a hand into my car, through the open window. I just stared, with my mouth gaping.
"Well, I don't know how they do it here in Michigan, but where I'm from, you shake it," he said. "And also, you might want to close your mouth before you catch bugs," he said giving me a quirky side smile. I closed my mouth, and felt my cheeks heat up.

"H-hh-hi," I managed to stutter, "I-I'm A-a-vvv-ery..." This was a crappy start to the weekend. Not only was this stranger forcing his hand into the safe haven known as my car, but I was making a fool of myself. And he was smirking at me. This guy was a tad cockey. He had a thick southern accent, and was wearing a heavy winter coat, even though it was only 20 degrees, warmer than it usually is this early in the dead of winter. Snow was falling in light swirls, and sticking to the brim of his camouflage hat. He had bright green eyes, and I could see tufts of blonde hair sticking out from under his hat. In the light of a street lamp, he looked stunningly beautiful. And that smile...

"Ma'am?"

"Yeah," I said what I thought would sound dreamy, but the wavering tone in my voice had withheld the emotions crashing around me.

"You've been quiet for ,like, 2 minuets now. I asked if you could show me around today?"

WHAT!? Oh my word. "Uh..."

"She'd love too! You must be the new kid!" Jess.

"Uh, yes ma'am?" The beautiful boy named Matthew looked up in surprise as my best friend walked up, wearing a cute skirt with thick leggings, topped off with a jacket, and a matching scarf, her designer Ugg boots leaving prints in the thin veil of snow covering the ground. "I already heard about you, and did a little research. You moved here from a small town in Georgia, and your name is Matthew Peeves. Your 17, an Aquarius, and you happen to have three of Avery's four classes. The only one you don't have is math 4, as you didn't take 2 math classes your sophomore year, like Little Miss Weirdo did last year. I'm Jess, by the way." My friend kept her hands in her jacket pockets and just gave a matter of fact nod in his direction. "It'd be good for her to talk to someone other than the band, and I."

I was going to kill her later. Typical.