The New Student

New Girl

The new house was bigger than our last. My room smelled of paint. Boxes flooded the entryway and remained untouched in our rooms. Without a bed to lay in, I rolled on the fluffy carpet, equipped with my phone and a charger.

OM High. The school that Susana had told me exactly not to go. How great. My life was going to be screwed. The only positive that I had discovered about the school was that there were no uniforms. But in a way, that could turn out to be a negative as well, considering the strictness of the dress code.

I sighed. Tomorrow was the first day. I closed my eyes and hooked up my earbuds to the radio on my phone. I frowned and opened my eyes, unable to recognize the dub step music that was playing. Hm, it was a song called Super Moon. I downloaded the song and played it on repeat, eventually falling into a sleepy haze.

~~~~~~~

"Mari, today's your first day! Good luck!" My mom dropped me off, kissing me goodbye.

"Bye Mom, you too."

The school was large and impressive. It was clean and white with navy blue edge works. Windows lined the faces of the building and the court yard was nicely ornamented with flowers. I was wearing a simple white shirt with dark jeans and a brown belt. My hair gently brushed my face in the breeze. Gathering confidence from a deep breath, I walked in.

I walked into the office through a door labeled 'Office.'

"Excuse me ma'am," I hesitantly asked the secretary lady who was busily typing something on her computer. "I'm a new transfer student."

She stopped typing and peered at me through her spectacles. "Are you Mari Su?"

The way she pronounced it made my name seem like Marisoo. "Yes," I responded.

"Okay. Follow me." She got up from her desk and walked out. I quietly followed.

In a classroom numbered 21, she pushed open the door and walked in. The chattering from the students was immediately silenced as I walked in. I felt myself turn red and I clenched my fingers to stop them from trembling.

"Students this is your new classmate, Mari Su." I winced when she said my name. "Mari this is your teacher Mrs. Young. Good luck and I hope you like Om High." She left, leaving me prey to the students staring at me.

"Hi Mari! I'm Mrs. Young!" The teacher extended out her hand. She was young and pretty. Her brown hair fell to her shoulders and her eyes shone with excitement.

"Hello Mrs. Young." I took her hand and shook gingerly.

"Mari, would you like to introduce yourself?"

Ah...Something that I had not expected. "Um..." I stuttered, looking at all the eyes that were staring at mine. "I'm Mari Su and I will do my best at school! Thank you!" I was panting from anxiety.

"Thank you Mari. You can sit there in the empty seat." Mrs. Young smiled. I walked towards my desk, which was in the back row, next to a boy who was sleeping in the desk by the window.

"Now class we're going to start our next lesson..."

~~~~~~~

I was horrified when the lunch bell rang. Finding a seat in the cafeteria was going to be tough and sitting friendless was terrifying. I followed the gang of students to a huge food court. Finding an empty table, I sat down and opened my lunch. I pulled out my phone when a hassle of boys suddenly sat down in front of me.

They were all wearing nice clothes, slacks and a polo, which made me feel uncomfortable in my jeans.

"Yo newbie." The tallest boy with long parted hair and a handsome face smiled at me. "I'm Johnny Seo. It's really nice to meet you." He held out his hand, which I hesitantly shook.

"Hello," I heard myself say. Why were they sitting here with me?

"So newbie-" Unexpectedly, a girl with long blonde hair came over and put her hand on Johnny's shoulder.

"Johnny, what are you doing here?" Her voice was sickly sweet, and from my memory, Susana's text flew into my mind.

'All the girls there are bitches'

"Oh Jess, I was just talking to the newbie."

"Why?"

"Because I am a nice person and plus the guys wanted to meet her."

"What?"

"No!"

"We never said that!"

"You wanted to!"

The boys joined in, protesting against Johnny's statement.

"You wanted to see her?" Jess' eyebrow raised as she studied me. I felt uncomfortable under her piercing gaze. If Susana was here, Jess would've been dead meat.

"Johnny, you're not in your right mind. Come and sit with me."

He tried to refuse her offer but eventually agreed. "All right. C'mon guys, lets go." They all left, leaving me behind besides one boy who hesitated. He was wearing a dark hoodie over his polo and stared at me with his large brown eyes. Looking back at what had just happened, I realized that he had stayed silent the whole time. Then he left, without looking back.