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KATHERINE September 2, 1996
"Do you need me to walk you to class?" I looked at her with my big, brown eyes through the rearview mirror, knowing they would work on her. "I'll take that as a 'yes'." She laughed, putting the car in park and unlocking the doors.
I unbuckled my seatbelt and grabbed my backpack. My mom opened the white door of the SUV, waiting for me to hop out. "Do you think the kids here are nice?" I asked when she pulled my hair out from under my backpack straps.
We started walking toward the school's entrance, my pink lunchbox hitting my thigh as I swung my arms back and forth. "If you are, yes. Are you planning on starting any trouble here?"
I replied quietly, "No."
"Then, they're probably going to be nice to you," she gave me a sweet smile, which helped to calm my nerves. My mom was pretty—I had known this from a very young age—and her smile was so bright and warm, it could calm a storm. "The letter from the school said that your teacher was Mrs. McVie, so her classroom is the one on the right."
I let out a shaky breath. "O-Okay."
"Aw," she wrapped me under her arm and pressed a kiss to my head. "You're going to do great today, hon'. I believe in you." She lightly pushed me into the classroom before stopping to talk to my teacher.
I searched for the desk with my name and frowned. I can't find it because my mom forgot to enroll me. Or maybe the teacher's going to sit me next to her because I'm a bad kid. Maybe-
A small girl with dark brown hair stood in front of me, cutting off my train of thought. Her hair was cut into a bob with bangs. I wonder what she must've done to get that haircut. "Hi! I'm Miranda. What's your name?" Her extroversion shocked me.
"Oh, hi. I'm Katherine. You can call me Kat."
"Well, then, you can call me Andie!" She looked back at the group of desks. "I think you sit across from me." Andie led me to the desks and pointed at my name. Ohh, I see where I got confused. There was another girl with my name, but hers was spelled with a 'c', while mine was spelled with a 'k'.
My mom poked her head into the classroom and smiled when she found me. Her smile grew at the sight of me talking with another student. She waved goodbye, and I reciprocated.
"Is that your mom?"
"Yeah, she's just protective of me. It's hard for me to meet new people."
She nodded, her hair moving with her head. "That's nice of her. Do you wanna see me do a cartwheel? I just learned how in my gymnastics class."
"Sure!"
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By lunch time, unfortunately, I had already eaten all the snacks in my lunchbox. This meant I was stuck going through the line like all the other kids.
I slid my plastic, dark blue tray down the line, adding random sides until I reached the chicken nuggets. "They had strawberries?!" Andie pointed at my tray, her jaw hung low. "Ugh, I must've missed them."
"Wanna share?" I asked.
Her eyes almost burst with joy. "Yes, please!"
We reached the end of line, where I punched in the pin written on my hand, and I laughed.
Walking into the cafeteria always made me nervous, but this school was much bigger than my last one. The mere thought of trying to find a seat in the crowded room made me uncomfortable. I felt a hand on my arm and jumped. "Do you want to sit with me?" I nodded and followed her to a small, circular table. "Thanks. No one ever sits with me at lunch."
"Really? You're so nice, I never would've guessed."
"Thank you! I try to be, but I think all the kids here are losers. Clearly, you aren't since we're friends now." We giggled at her statement.
For the rest of lunch, we asked each other questions about one another, only stopping to eat. "So, why'd you move to Cork?"
"It's a long story." I clasped my hands together under the table and shrugged.
She narrowed her brown eyes at me and glanced at her watch. "Lunch ends in thirteen minutes. We have time."
I sighed and leaned in to whisper, "I was expelled from my last school."
"Expel-?!" She clamped her mouth shut with her hands, her eyes widening to the size of saucers. "Sorry! What were you expelled for?"
I hesitated before answering her. "I was being bullied by this girl, Rose, for two years. She would hit me in class, steal my lunch, and tell kids in my class that I was dirty so they wouldn't talk to me. One day, she kept flicking her ponytail in my face, so I took my scissors and cut it off."
Andie's jaw hung open. "But she didn't get in trouble for hitting you?"
"Her aunt was our teacher, so no. Anyway, the principal gave my mom and dad two options—the charges would be dropped in the case that I was expelled, or I would stay and there'd be a lawsuit."
"So they chose expulsion." I pressed my lips into a firm smile. "That's insane, I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize! You weren't the one bullying me, so don't feel sorry."
The rest of lunch flew by in a blur, and we made our way back to Ms. McVie's classroom. I felt relieved, telling Miranda about why I was expelled from my last school. My parents couldn't even tell their parents why we were suddenly leaving Dublin.
It explained why my dad had stopped acknowledging me at home. I made him move away from all of his friends, his work, his parents. You name it.
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♥︎ xoxo, aloria hey divas!!! this took forever for no reason at all lol i was just unmotivated, plus i hate thxgiving so i didn't even wanna open up the doc 😭
anyway!! how are y'all?? i hope you enjoyed this chapter :)
omg i forgot to say but i watched on friday and it was literally life- changing!!! i had a general idea of what it was about but i feel like ariana and cynthia portrayed their characters so well!! also little nessa was so adorable
WAIT P.S. I SAW THAT CHLOE WALSH PUT TENNESSEE WHISKEY BY CHRIS STAPLETON ON ONE OF HER PATRICK PLAYLISTS AND OH MY GOD 😭😭😭 THAT SONG IS SO SWEET TO ME
