Sisters [book one]

Chapter Two

Dedicated to @DreamsToFollow because she's tackling NaNoWriMo in July. Good luck!

Chapter Two

15 days later...

I pull back my duvet and expose my skin to my cold bedroom. I sit up and let my legs dangle off the side of the bed. I look at my clock. It reads 6:01. I check my phone's calendar to make sure. Yep, today's the day.

My heart accelerates in my chest and a hoard of butterflies enter my stomach, taking away any chances I have of eating breakfast. All I can think about are the hallways, the pupils, the lockers, the teachers, the scrutiny...I shake my head, trying to push the images out of my mind.

They cloud my thoughts as I get dressed. Luckily Michele and I went through what I was going to wear yesterday to avoid the panic of having to choose this morning. While it may be one less thing to worry about for some people, to me, it's one less thing to keep me thinking about my new school. The brochures and leaflets sit on my bed-side table. Garfield High School. I'd heard of it before, in casual conversation with people whose friends go to the school but I've never visited or played against one of their teams. To me, Garfield High School is new territory.

At half-past six, I enter the kitchen. Mom and Dad are already awake: Mom's eating scrambled eggs at the kitchen table and Dad's on his laptop. I cross the tiled floor and take a glass from one of the cupboards. I fill it up with milk and lean against the counter.

Dad looks up and says, "Morning hun, feeling okay?"

I nod and take a sip.

Mom stands up and walks over to the sink beside me. She brushes the crumbs from her plate and squeezes my shoulder. "You're going to be fine," she assures. How does she know that?

Michele glides into the room, wearing an ankle-low dressing gown and a pair bunny slippers. She crinkles her nose and says, "Eggs, yeurgh." She then catches my eye and smiles.

"How are you feeling, Hales?" she says, pouring herself a bowl of Lucky Charms.

I shrug. "Okay."

"Just remember, high school doesn't last forever."

It feels like it, I say in my head.

Michele eats; Dad gets up and takes his laptop with him and Mom shuffles me along the counters to wash up. She manages to persuade me to eat a banana.

All the while my family works around me, getting ready for another day, I can't stop picturing scenarios in my head: I trip up on the front steps of the school and a group of senior boys walk past and start laughing. Somehow I end up walking into one of my classes late and everybody's seated and I'm standing there with no assigned place to go. I'm the centre of attention and I have nowhere to hide.

"Honey, are you okay?" Mom says, frowning.

"Yeah I'm fine," I say. "I'm gonna go and get changed."

I walk to my bedroom and close the door. I clench my hands into fists and grit my teeth. How am I going to survive this? I've been out of sync of everything for a year. For a whole year I haven't caught up on the latest trends, the slang, what's cool. They're all going to think I'm so weird. I consider calling this whole thing off, throwing a temper tantrum that'll send me back to square one, back to day one.

I shake my head. No, no I can't do that. There's no time left. I'm already a junior. If I wait another year, I'll be too far behind to get into college...and if I'm not ready for high school, how will I ever be ready for college?

"Haley?"

Michele pokes her head around the door. "Yeah?" I say.

She sits at the end of my bed, still in her pyjamas. "Don't think of today as your first day going back," she says. "Think of it like you never left."

"Minus the fact that I don't know my way around and I've never seen any of the students or teachers in my life." I give her a thumbs up. "Great idea."

Michele rolls her eyes. "That's not what I meant. It's time to start fresh, no-one knows who you are-"

"Except Esmee," I say.

"Except Esmee," Michele repeats. "And she's not going to go spreading rumours, okay? Anyways, like I said, it's time to start fresh. It's time to reinvent yourself. Be anybody you want to be."

I nod. "Right..." My voice trails off. If only it were that simple.

* *

The journey to Garfield High School is longer than the one I took when I used to go to Stanford, which makes sense. There's traffic and Michele spends the time checking her makeup in the rear-view mirror, even though it's already perfect. Her tan hasn't started to fade yet. I look at my own puny arms, white as snow.

"Tomorrow we should set off earlier," Michele says, "To avoid the traffic."

"Yeah," I say.

Twenty minutes later, we pull up to the school's entrance, its appearance less desirable than the pictures in the brochure. Its shabbier outer walls remind me of what Stanford will look like...in about ten years' time; the place is smaller so everywhere is more crowded. Streams of teens enter the front gates. People honk their horns, trying to find a space in the chaos.

Michele drives a little way down the street and pulls up to the curb. My heart catches in my throat.

"Good luck," Michele says and she hugs me. "You're going to be great."

I manage to smile. "Thanks."

"Have you got everything?" Michele says, going through a checklist I know Mom's told her to run through with me. "Your books? Pencil case? Lunch? Your brain?"

I tap my head. "All here."

"And you know what to do? Go to the office and say you're new and your name. And try and look out for Esmee, yeah? Jennifer told me she'll have an eye out for you too."

"Okay."

"I'll pick you up at three, yeah?"

"Yeah." I climb out the car. I wave tentatively then become lost in the sea of pupils. Having people so close to my age in such proximity sends my heart racing. All I can think about is where I'm putting my hands and feet. I'm scared I'll trip up on a person's legs and fall into someone else, perhaps a boy, and he'll think I did it on purpose. I lick my lips, trying so hard not to let it get to me.

I manage to make it to the front steps in one piece. Come on Haley, you can do this, I tell myself, you can do this.