As I step out of the bus and the fresh autumn air hits my face, my heart races and I'm reminded of the non-comforting words my old teacher had told me.
"They'll accept you. Just give them time. Soon, everyone will want to be your friend."
I stop in my tracks. What if they don't? A short, scrawny geek, great at math, who just moved from way out east, at a new school in 9th grade?? Recipe for disaster. Everyone else in the town already knows each other, so a new kid will be buzz of the streets. Not to mention our background.
"Come on, hurry up!" My older sister shouts, running past me. "We're gunna be late!!"
"Nya, chill!" I reply with a laugh. "The bus just parked. We still have, like, twenty minutes." She stops running once she's halfway up the pavement to the office and turns to face me. I jog a bit to catch up.
"I know, I'm just really excited. New school, new me! You know?" I nod.
"Yeah, sure."
As the door opens and all the kids surrounding us funnel in, I struggle to peek overheads to see the office. On the left, I note. I quickly find Nya's hand and grab it, more trying to comfort myself than her. She's always been more social than me and is already talking to another, red-haired girl on her right. The red-haired girl in question is beautiful. She and Nya will probably get along well.
Me? Well, I swing in the other direction, honestly. And my eyes have already found a tallish, brown-haired boy far ahead. His bright blue T-shirt and eyes could catch anyone's attention. He's talking to an even taller, ravenet boy, whose arms look like they could crush you. They might be in tenth grade, like my sister. My heart races. If we have any classes together, which we probably will (I'm rather smart for my age, and my entire life I've been placed in a higher-grade class for at least one subject, which is math, of course), I could sit near them and get to know them. Suddenly, the ravenet starts shouting.
"Jay, when have we ever found someone we could actually date? Not even the boys are into us." He flexes his arm; "which is saying a lot." Jay sighs and the crowd keeps walking. I feel a tug on my arm as heat leaves my grasp; Nya's turned the corner. I'm on my own now.
I finally find the freshman section of the school and see most of the classrooms' doors have lists of the students on them. Quickly scanning through the list on the nearest door, I saw two names that stuck out to me; Jay Walker, who must be the blue boy I saw in the hallway earlier! That means he's a freshman, too. And -
Me!
I was in Jay's class! This would be the perfect time to get to know him - and maybe his friend, too. But no need to get too hyped; if fourth grade taught me anything, it was that friends didn't always last, and sometimes people simply didn't want to be yours.
I clutched the green heart pendant around my neck and walked confidently into the classroom.
There were only a few people in the room, and they were scattered around the class. The teacher smiled at me.
"Hi, Ruhina!" She said. "Just pick any spot and hang your backpack over the seat for now."
"It's Kai," I corrected. "Ruhina is my last name." The teacher nodded and let me go to a seat.
Before long, the room filled up and the seats around me were filled with students, except for the one directly to my left. The teacher called attendance and remarked that Jay wasn't here yet, which set my mood a little low. If Jay wasn't here, then who was the blue boy from the hallway? But soon, he and the other boy burst into the room, panting and with messy hair.
"I told you, Jay, freshmen are near the front, but nooo, you just HAD to go wandering!" The dark-skinned muscular one yelled.
"Well, maybe I don't know the school well!" Jay responded. "Maybe, Cole, I wanted to explore before the day started so we don't get lost later!"
"Obviously that's not why you went 'exploring,'" Cole remarked.
"Jay, please take a seat," the teacher interrupted. "Late on your first day, I expected better from you, Cole. Go and find your class."
"Sorry, Miss Pierre," Cole muttered and ducked away from the classroom. Jay sighed and took the seat next to me. His sweating must have activated his cologne because he smelled fantastic; like strawberries and ice, and like concrete after rain. It was amazing. My cologne was just a simple smell of campfire, but his scent was special. I could already feel myself getting excited.
"Jay, I hope you don't take after your little friend there. Cole was one of my students last year, as you know, and, as you know, he was not well-behaved. I expect you will not follow in his footsteps?" Miss Pierre said. Jay sighed.
"Yeah, okay. Sorry." He rolled his eyes and leaned back on his chair, his warm, diaphoretic body taking up space in the cool, dry classroom. I smiled slightly, trying not to seem to flustered by just his presence.
"Hi," I whisper during the icebreaker. "I'm Kai. Nice to meet you." I start to panic. What if my voice sounds weird, and my breath smells, and I've got a pimple, and my hair's a mess, and --
"Hey, I'm Jay."
YOU ARE READING
THE NEW BOY - plasmashipping.
FanfictionRuhina Kai and his older sister, Niamo (or Nya for short), just moved to Ninjago City from their tiny village in the east. Kai, nervous for what this has in store for him, eventually makes friends with another boy in their class. Jay Walker is the n...
