Beverly Emerson walked through the school doors of Stone Valley High School for the first time. She already felt uncomfortable. She could feel the stares people were giving her, but she tried to ignore them. Every girl she passed had her face caked in makeup, but she didn't, so maybe that was why people were staring. Or maybe it was because Stone Valley was a very small town located almost in the middle of nowhere. New people didn't come often, and when they did, they usually left after their two weeks of vacation were up.
"Hi, you must be Beverly, I'm the school secretary, Ms. Hayes. I have your schedule on my desk." The secretary seemed to appear out of nowhere and started talking to Beverly. At first, Beverly didn't know the bad-fashioned woman was talking to her, but then her piercing brown eyes stared into Beverly's and she knew she was being spoken to.
"Yes, ma'am," Beverly said, a bit disoriented.
"Just follow me, and try to walk fast," the secretary said, spinning around as if she was in a hurry. She paced down the hallway rather quickly, and made her way into the school's office. It wasn't too nice in there, but it seemed as if no one really paid attention to it anymore. Except Beverly. She wasn't used to a disorganized school. The one she went to before she moved was huge and had all new stuff in it that was cleaned often. Here, no one really cared about walking into a messy classroom that hadn't been uncluttered in a while.
"Here's your schedule, Beverly," Ms. Hayes said, handing her a green sheet of paper.
"Thanks," Beverly said and walked out of the office. She could tell the secretary was ordered to go find her and talk to her, and she could also tell the secretary wasn't too happy about it, so she didn't try to prolong the visit by asking for directions to her first class.
Which left her totally lost. It was a considerably small school compared to what she was used to, but that didn't mean she knew where she was going. Beverly was seriously considering turning right back around and facing the exasperated secretary again when a small group of girls came up to her.
A long-legged blonde girl, clearly the leader of the posse, smiled and held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Katrina Pearson, but most people just call me Kat. You're Betty, right?"
"It's Beverly, actually. Beverly Emerson. Nice to meet you," she replied with a tight smile. She wasn't used to attention from girls like this, who she could immediately tell were the fake, cheerleader type.
"Ah, Bev. Pretty name. This is Nicole, Monica, and Shayna," she said, gesturing to the girls slightly behind her, who all gave matching greeting smiles. "What classes do you have?"
Beverly held up the schedule still in her hand and began reading off the list. "Uh, English with Manchester-"
Kat cut her off. "Oh, goody, we have first together! I'll walk you there. Let me see that," she plucked the paper out of Beverly's hands and scanned it silently. "We also have fourth period history with Creed, which means first lunch with everybody, and sixth art with Dalton, which basically translates to the easiest A you will ever get."
"Um, okay, cool. Do you know where locker 317 is? I just want to test out the lock and drop my jacket. It's a lot warmer than I thought it would be."
The girl nearly squealed out of excitement. "Yeah, we'll be locker buddies! I'm 315, and they go by 2s, with the evens across, so we're right next to each other. I can just tell we'll be the best of friends. Say, what do you think about cheerleading?"
Beverly squirmed uncomfortably. "Well, it's not exactly my thing-"
One of Kat's followers, a brunette by the name of Monica, interrupted. "Hey, Kat, we're gonna go. I've got to talk to Spencer about after school. Nice meeting you, Bev."
