The Art of Balancing » work in progress

CH. 3 : "Who's that freight train of confidence?"

"You are going to have an amazing first day." Reid says firmly as we sit outside of Radley in his Mini Cooper. It's more of a demand than a nice, little pep talk, but I can appreciate it nonetheless. The man is running on 4 hours of sleep.

"More or less." I mumble.

I won't say I'm nervous, because I'm not. I just don't like the idea of having to be the "new girl". In a small town like Pearwyn, I was sure they didn't get new kids that often, so the bombarding of questions was definitely about to happen, and that's what I was dreading.

"Hey, you stop that negative thinking right now, kid." Reid grabs my shoulder, his face stone hard before he lets into a smirk. "I love you very, very much, okay? And so does Sasha. And Mac. And I'm sure all these other kids are going to, too. What's not to love about you? You're a Dempsey for Christ's sake. You'll have these kids kissing the ground you walk on in no time..."

I let my eyes wander towards the entrance of the two story building and take it in. Radley is absolutely gorgeous. The building is brick with ivy growing over it, and all of the students are gathered around the front. There's a giant fountain in the middle and a flag pole off to the side, loads of trees scattered around. It was so green and happy.

"And you already know at least one face in the crowd, right? Graham's a nice guy, I'm sure he'll let you sit with him at lunch or something." Reid continues. I only scoff as I pick out Graham Bryant standing with a group of guys and few girls. Instantly, I wonder which one's "Darcy'.

The way everybody looked at Graham like he was the son of God himself made me want to puke. You could clearly pick out the underclassmen girls trying to wiggle their way into his group just to stare at him. And unfortunately, from the looks of it, the possibilities of him being a douche were now raised that much higher.

Then the bell rings and all of the students in their identical navy blue blazers hurry inside. I turn back to Reid and try to muster up a smile. The thing is, though, I've never been the new girl before. I grew up in the same district for the entire time I lived in New York. I don't know if I'll be able to handle the harassing we gave to all the newbies back home.

I seriously need to get out of the habit of calling New York "home". Chances are, I'm not going back, or at least not for a long time. How depressing.

"Atta girl." Reid taps my chin. "Keep that smile on so when people pass you in the hall, they're all 'whoa, whoa, whoa. Who's that freight train of confidence?'."

"Way to rip off SNL." I snort and roll my eyes, grudgingly unbuckling myself from the leather seat and letting the spring weather warm me up to just the right temperature. Reid waves at me, blows me a kiss, then he's off and out of the parking lot. Probably to clean up the house before Sasha's back.

I begin the walk inside the school but only after I've checked myself over for the millionth time this morning. I hate feeling so nervous.

Deep breaths, Violet.

I swing the door open and the lobby of the school is already pretty empty. A few students are straggling by and they take a moment to look me over before hurrying off. Thankfully, there's a sign directing me straight into the main office, so that's where I go.