Addiction

Chapter 9 • Welcome

-Gabriel's POV-

This place is amazing! Everything is just...amazing!

The city was beautiful. Filled with buildings ranging from tall to small, painted with vibrant and matted colors, and decorated with windows and lights. The roads overflowed with lavish cars and little to no trash littered the streets. The trees were thriving and lovely along with the flowers and grass. Any body of water that we drove by seemed to sparkle in the sunlight.

I've never been to such a place like this before. The fancy cars and buildings, the overwhelming sound of vehicles honking, the loud music playing from every corner, it was all new to me. A surge of emotions flowed through my veins at just the sight of the city. It was just stunning and we haven't even gotten to the school. But when we did.

I was awestruck.

The school was huge! The parking lot itself looked like a labyrinth and the school's front lawn looked like a magical forest. The driver dropped me off at the front of the school, telling me to enter through the front door and the front desk would be straight ahead. After that, he drove off.

I was left standing in front of the enormous building, in front of the school I will be attending. My mouth hung open and my eye bulged in its eye socket. A smile spread across my face as I continued to look at the school's details. Traveling along the lower section of the entire building was gray stone bricks. It was the same design that covered the pillars at the corner of the building. Besides that, the building was a tanish color, made with some kind of smooth plaster. Two brown lines crossed along the middle section of the building and the flat roof was made with gray stone.

All the window frames were colored dark brown while the front door frames were black. The front doors were made of glass that was tented the same dark color as the windows.

'It looks like a castle.'

When I pushed open the front door, I was astonished. I thought that nothing could one-up the exterior of the school but that theory was proven wrong by the lobby. The floors were dark taupe marble and the walls were a creamy white color with olive-colored wave designs on the lower and upper sections of it. Short brown wall trims ran along the bottom part of the walls beside the olive waves. Painting, pictures, and banners decorated the walls, and a dark gray rug led from the door to the front desk.

Small areas on the side of the room were decorated to look like a mini living room. Olive and white lounge chairs were placed with brown, gray, olive, or white pillows and throw blankets on them. The areas were completed with a black mini table in the middle of it.

What shocked me most was the amount of people here even though it was the weekend. Teens and adults sat in their separate groups, laughing and chatting amongst themselves.

'This place looks like something I'd seen in a movie.' The thought caused my smile to falter. Yasmin popped up in my mind and I knew she would love to see a place like this.

Maybe we could ask her to come visit. The smile returned to my face with a hint of sadness behind it.

'Maybe.' I let out a sigh and I shook the sadness away before I started to make my way towards the desk.

While walking to the front desk, I felt out of place. Everything, everyone was so.. different. So fancy. So rich, clean, and pleasant. And I? I looked unappealing, disgusting. The only thing I had on me was my second-hand clothing, torn-up shoes, and shabby bags. I could already see heads turning toward me as the whispers began. Some looked at me with disgust and judgment while the others looked at me with a look I couldn't quite decipher.

As I got closer, I could see that the receptionist was on her phone. She was leaning on the desk, her shoulder-length blue hair covering her face. She looked quite young. Once I was close enough I spoke up.

-3rd Person-

"Uhm, hello?" Gabriel said shyly. The girl looked up from her phone and groaned. She got up from her seat and headed towards a door that led farther into the front office.

"Babe! Someone needs your help!" Gabriel could hear her yell before the door closed. Gabriel stood there quietly as he waited for someone to assist him. He tapped his fingers on the desk nervously, feeling the stares of others behind him.

"Kassidy! You're supposed to be helping too! You volunteered to do this!" A girl with curly black hair pushed open the door, sighing before making her way toward Gabriel. "Hello. How may I help you?" She smiled.

"Uh hi, I'm- uhm, new?" He gave a sheepish smile after he stuttered out the sentence. The girl nodded her head and turned to a computer beside her.

"Oh, you're the new scholarship school, right? Name please." She glanced over to Gabriel.

"Gabriel Miller." He answered. The girl hummed, typing his name into the computer. They both stayed quiet as she read over something.

"Oh okay—wow, you're quite young for a senior—uhm, so it seems like the principal would like to speak to you about your dorm but your schedule seems to be here. I can get this and a map of the school printed out for you. Would you like that?" She asked, already printing out the papers before Gabriel had the chance to reply. "I'll get someone to take you to the principal's office. Hey Kay? Kay? Kayden!" She yelled as she disappeared into the front office. Gabriel could hear yelling before the girl returned with his printed-out papers and a guy, Kayden.

"This is Kayden, he'll be taking you to Ms. Rivers' office. Then he's going to return without causing a problem. Got it." She spoke sternly towards Kayden. He rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"Whatever." He pushed open a door on the side of the front desk, exited the front desk, and walked to Gabriel. The girl sighed and handed Gabriel the papers.

"Here you go, the papers stapled together is the map. The first section is the map of the left wing, the second one is the map of this building, and the third section is the map of the right wing. At the very top of the page, it will tell you what section you're on as well as the wing and floor. The left-wing is where the cafeteria, gym, some club rooms, and a couple of other things. This building is where all your classes will be. And the right-wing hosts the dorms. The field is at the back of the school. There are some students with green and yellow badges, if you ever need help or if you get lost, you can ask them for help. And if you have any more questions, you can always come here. Bye!" The girl smiled as she waved them off. Her cheery mood reminded him of Yasmin and he couldn't help but smile.

When he turned around, he realized that Kayden was already far ahead of him. Gabriel rushed to catch up and followed behind him.

"So. You're the new scholarship student, huh." It was more of a statement than a question but Gabriel still nodded his head. Kayden side-eyed him, scanning over him slowly. "Aren't you a senior or something? You look twelve." He pointed out. Gabriel smiled and lowered his head. The blunt statement was something he usually heard from Roza.

It remained quiet for a while. Kayden continued to glance over at Gabriel while Gabriel kept his head down. Gabriel's arms began to shake or twitch and he fixed his posture. He caught him almost tripping over his own feet and slowing down his movement. After some time, he picked his head back up and caught Kayden eyeing him.

Kayden stared down at him with a shocked look written across his face before chuckling. Gabriel gave him a questioning look. Kayden pointed towards a door before saying,

"Well, aren't you saucy? Anyway, the principal's office is over here.

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Well, isn't this nice. A new place is such a good place a healing.

FYI, I did go back and edited some previous chapters and because of so, some of the references in this chapter won't but understood until rereading past chapters.

So far, chapter 1-3 have been edited.

Vote. Comment. Enjoy. And bye.

—ℕ𝕆ℝ𝕋ℍ