CLEAN || Taylor Swift Adoption

TWENTY-SIX

"It's your freshman year..."

~EVERLEIGH~

August 12, 2019

"You ready?" Taylor asked, taking my hand as she stepped out of the car that had pulled up to the front entrance of the school. The building looked relatively empty, and the parking lot was scattered with a few cars. Taylor had told me that teachers and other faculty members were starting to come into the school building to prepare for the new school year, and that was one of the reasons why she was able to schedule us a meeting as soon as possible. She wanted to make sure that I could start school at the same time as everyone else, so hopefully, I wouldn't have any extra attention drawn to me.

Taylor and I walked into the front office of the school, where a security guard took down our names and why we were here. One of them came to escort us to the counselor's office, and it surprised me at how I was already used to having some sort of security guard follow or lead me around to places. Was I getting used to living with Taylor too soon?

I didn't have time to think about it for much longer, because the security guard stopped in a small hallway that held a number of offices. He knocked on one of the wooden doors, which was decorated with stickers, a whiteboard, and a few different schedules and other school policies. All I could hope for was that this woman would be nice. I didn't want to have to deal with yet another adult that hated my guts.

A minute later, a tall, brunette woman opened the door, smiling at Taylor and me. "Hey!" she exclaimed. "Why don't you come on in?"

The security guard quickly left as Taylor and I made our way into the office, sitting down at a round table that was located off to one side. Taylor reached for my hand under the table, gripping it just enough to stop it from shaking. I sent her a thankful smile in return, but in the dim lighting of the room, I wasn't sure that she was able to see it or not.

The brunette woman smiled as she spoke. "I'm Kelly Davis, one of the counselors here at Alcott College Prep," she said.

"I'm Taylor," Taylor replied, reaching out to shake Mrs. Davis' hand. "It's great to meet you."

"I'm Everleigh," I said, noticing how Taylor rubbed the palm of my hand with her thumb as I reached out my hand to shake Mrs. Davis' hand as well.

"Great to meet you both," Mrs. Davis said. "So I'll just give you a basic run-down, and then we can get into it. My job here is to coordinate students' schedules, classes, anything of the sort. If you need to drop or switch a class, I'm the person who you'll talk to. And at the end of the day, my goal is to make sure that you have all of your credits needed to graduate, and that you're setting yourself up well for whatever you want to do post-secondary."

Taylor and I both nodded, and Mrs. Davis turned towards her computer, pulling up a new website. "So let's start off by setting up your schedule, Everleigh," she said. "What are you thinking for English? Freshmen have the option of regular or honors."

"Uh..." I trailed off.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Mrs. Davis said, opening a new window and pulling up a PDF document. "Here's your transcript and last report card from eighth grade. Even though you're going into a completely new district, we had your old school send this over so we can use it to gauge where you'll be best placed in high school."