Love On The Beach

Chapter 5

Aria

“Mom! I can’t find my book!!!” I yell as I get dressed for my first day of school.
“It’s out here with your bag!” she yells back. “I figured you wanted to bring it!”
“Thanks!”
After I have everything on, including all my jewelry, I meet my mom and my brother out in our huge living room. Our house is pretty big. It’s a 2 story house, with a backyard with many trees. When you enter through our front door, you're in our living room, and on the right is the kitchen and dining room. The left has the stairs and a bathroom, The stairs lead up to all our rooms and another bathroom.
“Where’s Layla?” I ask.
“Still asleep. Her school doesn’t start for another hour and a half,” my mom says, handing me my school bag.
“I’ll drive you to school today on my way to work,” Kai says in his lifeguard outfit. Which is just shorts.
“Alright,” I say. “But… am I driving today?”
He laughs. “No. I’ll drive today. Save you the stress since it’s your first day of school.”
Today is July 23rd, 2025. First day of school.
“Thanks!”
“You two better get going so she isn’t late to school,” my mom says, ushering us towards the door.
“Got it!” We both kiss her bye, and head outside to the red mustang I drove on Saturday.
As he drives me to school, I put in my airpods and listen to my music as I read my new “Let The Wind Rise” book. I am not able to read for long since my school is very close. I could ride my scooter there if I wanted. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.
Once we arrive at the school, Kai pulls up to the front of the school. When he stops, he tells me, “Have a great day today, okay? Be good.”
“I will,” I say, opening the car door. I close the door once I get out and start walking to the school.
“Hey!” Kai calls, rolling the window down.
I turn around. “Yes?”
“Make some more friends, okay? I know it’s kinda hard for you, but you got this. Hang out with that one kid you told me about. Aaron, was it? Anyway, I love you. Have an amazing day.”
“Thanks,” I say. “I will, and I love you too.” He rolls up the window and drives off towards the beach.
I walk to the front of the school where all the students are at. And there are so many…
How am I supposed to find Aaron in this crowd???
I decide to sit at a bench near the front and continue reading my book with my airpods still in my ears. I was about to finish the third chapter when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I jump and turn around to see who it is.
I look and see it’s the familiar face with dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, with dimples in his smile.
It’s Aaron!
“Hey!” I say, getting up from my seat and giving him a big hug.
He hugs me back. “Hi Aria. I texted you a few minutes ago to say I was here.”
“Oh, really?” I say, checking my phone. Just like he said, I see a text from an unknown number saying, “Hey, Aria! It’s Aaron! Just wanted to let you know that I am at the school! See you soon!”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see that. I had music in my ears while I was reading.” I point to my ears.
“Ah I see. I have my book too,” He says, holding up “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.”
“Oh nice! That’s my favorite one in The Harry Potter series,” I say.
“Mine too!” he says. “Do you have your schedule on you right now?”
“Yep!” I pull a piece of paper out of my pocket. It shows all my classes in order. I have 8 hours, but 7 classes since one of my classes is lunch. My classes in order are Language Arts 11, Algebra 2, U.S. History 2, Orchestra, Lunch, Physics, and Spanish.
“May I see?” he says.
“Yea,” I say, handing him the paper.
He pulls his paper out too to see if he has any classes with me.
“It seems like we have Algebra 2 and Spanish together!” he says with a big smile on his face.
“Sweet! Now I won’t be alone in all my classes!” I say.
He laughs. “You’ll find another person to talk to. With your personality, I can’t see why people wouldn’t want to be friends with you. I met this guy named Zayn on my first day of school, and now we are-”
“Wait,” I interrupt. “Zayn?” When I hear that name, I remember that cute guy I met at the bookstore.
“Yea, Zayn. He’s one of the coolest guys ever. He’s probably here. I don’t know what classes he has, though. Hey, maybe you’ll see him!”
Just then, the bell rings, and all the students rush inside for class.
“Come on! Follow me!” Aaron says.
I follow him into the school, and stay very close so I don’t get lost. If I do, I will die.
We go to our lockers and put the books inside that we don’t need for now, and I grab my Language Arts 2 notebook.
Aaron leads me to my class, and wishes me well.
“You will do fine,” he says. “Be confident. You got this.” He winks at me before he runs off to his class.
I take a deep breath, and walk into room 202.
Of course, it starts out embarrassing.
Everyone is already in their seats, and the teacher sounded like she was in the middle of an introduction.
AM I LATE ON THE FIRST FREAKING DAY?
“Well,” the teacher says. “You must be the new student, yes?” I nod. “I thought so. You are a little late, but it’s your first day, so I won’t say anything.”
I nod my head.
Everyone is staring at me…
“You can have a seat next to the blonde girl in the back.” She points to a girl in the back with long, curly, blonde hair. I can’t see her face until she perks her head up when she hears the teacher talking about her. She has icy blue eyes, and smiles once she sees me and waves.
As I walk to my seat, each and every one of the kids in there just stare. Nothing else. Just staring at me like I’m a hideous thing that just entered their classroom, like I’m an enemy. No smiles, some whisper to each other.
I hate this.
I quickly rush to my seat.
“Now, as I was saying, my name is Ms. Madden. I will be your Language Arts teacher this year. I’m gonna point to each of you and you guys are going to say your name. Okay?” Students nod. “Splendid,” she says, then points to students to say their names. She starts in the front of the classroom, so I’ll be last.
The girl next to me closes her book and turns to me. “Hello,” she says with a smile.
“Hi,” I say, a little shy.
“The name’s Cassandra. You can call me Cass if you want,” she says, holding out her hand. I shake it. “What’s your name?” she asks.
“Aria,” I say.
“I’m sorry, are you shy? You seem shy… I can leave you alone if you want.”
“Oh! No! It’s fine. Just being around new people is a little nerve wracking. But I need more people to talk to.”
“Me too. Since last year, I haven’t had as much as I used to.” she says.
“I’m assuming you’re popular.”
“Uh… yea. I was. How could you tell?”
“Well, you’re really beautiful, and you seem like you’d be in the popular crowd.”
“Oh. Thanks. But yea. I used to be popular, but not anymore. I now hate the fact I used to be. I used to be a piece of crap towards people.”
“I see. What happened?”
“Well, me, my ex-friend, and my boyfriend got into a fight.”
“About what?”
“Well, What happened was-”
“Ladies!” Ms. Madden says to us. We turn to look at her. “I’m glad you two are getting along, but pay attention to what's going on. What’s your name, Miss?” She points at me.
“Um…” I say quietly. “Aria.”
“Excuse me?” she says, holding a hand to her ear.
“Aria,” I say a little louder.
“Huh?” she says. She’s getting me annoyed.
This teacher is deaf.
“Aria!” I yell, earning a few laughs and snickers around the class.
“No need to yell, Aria. How ‘bout you?” She points at Cassandra.
“Cassandra,” she says.
“Thank you. Lovely! Now, since today is the first day of school, I will not be giving out work.” The classroom cheers. “Yes, yes, but tomorrow I will give out an assignment.” A few groans go around the class. “Oh, hush up now. Next week, we will head to the library to see what you would like to check out. But, today, for the next 37 minutes in class, you can chat with your friends as I write something for the school board.” She sits at her desk in the front of the classroom.
“Oh, I’m so excited!” Cassandra says with glee. “I love our library.”
“Is it big?” I ask. “I love reading as well.
“You like to read too?” she says surprised.
I turn behind my desk to open my backpack to pull out 3 of my books that I’m reading at the same time (ya, I’m crazy). 2 of the books are from the ‘Trials of Apollo’ series, and ‘Let The Wind Rise’.
“Oooo!” She studies the ‘Trials of Apollo’ series books. “I love this series. The whole Percy Jackson series in general.”
“Percy Jackson is one of my favorite series, too!” I say.
As I’ve said before, I love the series. If you haven’t read it, I’ll give a short summary. It’s about this boy named Percy who is a demigod, the son of Poseidon. There’s a lot of Greek mythology in it, gods and goddesses, etc. Percy meets other demigod friends, such as Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, his later girlfriend, and others. They go on quests, fight monsters, lots of crazy things. I don’t want to say anymore so I won't spoil it. But… I will say one thing. BEWARE OF A SPOILER!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT A SPOILER!!!There’s this one scene in the 5th book that I absolutely love, where Percy and Annabeth get thrown in a lake, and they have an underwater kiss, which is super, super, SUPER cute! I have wished that to be my first kiss…
Haha… no. That’s never gonna happen.
“So… you didn’t tell me earlier. What happened between you, your old friend, and boyfriend?” I ask.
“EX-best friend and EX-boyfriend,” she clarifies. “But, last year, at the beginning of sophomore year, I had a boyfriend, who used to be the sweetest guy I’ve ever met. And I also had this friend, Jade-” She points to a girl near the front with red hair, and a crowd of people surrounds her as she’s laughing. “Near the end of the year, I found out she started talking smack about me. Then I found out my boyfriend was doing the same thing. Wanna guess why?” she asks me.
“Let me guess… Did he cheat on you?” I say. She lays her head down, holding a thumbs up with her hand. “Oh my gosh… I’m so sorry. It’s really messed up when people do that. My ex did the exact same thing with my best friend…”
“Oh wow, really?” she says, picking her head up. “Guys are so stupid when they do that. They think we will never find out. But we always do, one way or another. Are you okay?”
“Oh, yea. Didn’t speak to them again. Ever. I have moved on.”
“Me too. I have a new friend. I met him near the end of sophomore year. You’ve met him, I think. He’s told me about you.”
“Aaron?”
“Yes! That’s him!” she says. “He has helped me out a lot this past year. He is such an amazing guy.”
“Yea, he is.”
“You are, too! I mean, you seem like a nice girl. I would love to be friends with you, if you want…” she says.
I smile. “You know? When I first came here, I thought this school would honestly suck, and everyone here would be jerks and I would be all alone. But I’ve met a few people this past week that have shown so much kindness towards me, to a new, quiet, little girl they don't even know. We need more people like that in this world. You have been so nice to me. I would love to be friends with you.”
She laughs. “That’s amazing! Thank you so much.”
“You’re welco-”
“Aww, ain’t this cute?” a squeaky voice says behind us.
Cassandra’s expression darkens. “Aww, great… What the heck do you want, Jade?”
Jade?
Oh no.
I turn and see Jade standing behind us, with an evil looking grin on her face.
“Stop that attitude, Cassy,” she says.
“Don’t tell me what to do! And never call me that again!” Cassandra snaps.
“Ugh. So dramatic.”
“Do not tell me about dramatic. What. Do. You. Want?”
“Nothing. Just checking on my ‘single BFF’ is going.”
Cassandra says a word that my mom would slap me if I ever said it.
“Gotten more feisty, I see,” Jade says. “Oh! And who’s your little pet?”
“I am no one’s pet,” I growl.
“You’re feisty too! Sweet. I’m assuming she told you her ‘sad, tragic story about how me and my boyfriend ruined her life. Gotta say, I love being the villian.”
“I am going to slap you so hard,” Cassandra says.
“I will too. Leave us alone,” I say.
“You guys wouldn’t. You both are probably goodie two shoes. But… that’s my cue to go. Later losers.” She gives a peace sign with her fingers and leaves.
“Ugh. I hate her so much,” Cassandra says when she’s gone.
“Yes. I can see why,” I say.
We sit in silence when the bell rings for the next class.
As we head out, Cassandra says, “I’m glad you’re okay with being friends with me, Aria. I’ll see you around. We can meet at lunch! Bye!” She gives me a high five as I say bye and run to my next class.
I grab my math book from my locker and run to room 223.
I enter the classroom to see everyone just talking to each other as the teacher, Mr. Easton is typing on his computer.
I see Aaron in the back of the classroom waiting for me. When he sees me, he smiles and jesters to the seat next to me.
“Doing good?” he says as I sit down. I smile at him and nod.