Come Back

Part 3.

August 21

Monday comes more quickly than I thought it would, but I manage to get out of bed on time, eat breakfast, grab my bag, say goodbye to Lily without her shedding too many tears and get out the door on time. Dad allowed me to use his pick up today so I wouldn’t have to take the bus and I could get home right on time. I said thank you to him, but he just ignored me and told me where the keys were. I’m a fairly good driver, but not as good as some people. I still get nervous on large highways. Maybe it’s because of Layla. I don’t know.

The old pick up has been around for a long time, but we hardly ever use it. Back in New York, I virtually never used it because I could pretty much walk anywhere. The high school for Bradley is actually two towns over because kids from five surrounding towns go there. From pictures online, it looked really big and difficult to navigate. The real thing didn’t disappoint.

I park in the first available parking spot, grab my backpack out of the tailgate, and shove my keys in my pocket. Walking up to the front doors of the school where a flagpole sits, I see tons of friends reuniting and laughing, everyone knowing exactly where they belong. Then there’s me. I don’t even know where the main office is and I have to go there to pick up my schedule. My attempt of trying to ask a guy who looked like a football player didn’t go so well, so I stumble the halls trying to follow the very unhelpful signs until I finally come to the main office. An older lady gives me my schedule, a map of the school, and a late pass to use with any class of my choosing today since it will probably be quite a task to find each one on time.

I exit the office and lean against a wall, looking on the sheet for my locker number and hallway. I sigh. Maybe this was a bad idea. Just then, someone comes up behind me and hugs me from behind. I turn around to see Logan. She’s beaming her usual white smile, wearing her long red hair in a ponytail, black cloth shorts and a green tank top. She looks amazing, as usual. “Hey.”

“Hey, Cal!” She gives me another hug, only this time from the front. I hug her back. “How’s your first day going so far?”

I run a hand through my hair and sigh. “I’m really confused,” I confess.

She laughs a little bit. “This school is so retardedly huge. Here,” she takes the sheet of paper out of my hands. “Your locker is right next to mine! I’ll show you where it is. Come on.” She leads me down three different long hallways where we eventually end up at each of our tall, gray lockers. “This is it.”

“Thanks,” I say to her, twisting the lock on my locker and putting a few binders and extra notebooks inside. She opens hers too. It has a picture of a guy on the inside of the door, a mirror, and a few binders inside. She hangs up her sweatshirt on one of the hooks. I wonder why she has a sweatshirt, considering it’s not even close to being cold outside.

“So what’s your first class?” she asks me.

I look down at the piece of paper and tell her, “Sociology.”

“No way,” her mouth drops open with surprise. “Me too! Do you have Mr. Larsen for it?”

“I guess so,” I smile.

“Let’s go!” she says and links arms with me. I don’t really know how to react, but I just let her take the lead. I don’t know who the guy in the picture was in her locker, but I have a feeling he is more than a friend. Unless she treats every guy like this. I’m not sure.

Classes pass by quickly. I only got homework in a few classes, the rest of the classes gave out syllabi to be signed by parents. I had never heard of getting a syllabus signed before, but I guess that’s what they do here at Bradley High School. So far, I’m liking it here. Especially the fact that I have one friend like Logan already. I wonder who her other friends are, considering she insisted on going out to lunch and she didn’t really talk to anyone but me all day.