Junior Year

I looked in the mirror at my reflection.'Not good enough.' I thought to myself and headed back to my brand new not-even-all-the-way-unpacked closet.

I picked a new outfit and was back at the mirror within three minutes. I put my medium length brown hair in a side braid and dabbed some make-up on my face. The dark blue skinny jeans I was wearing matched my blue and purple flower print shirt. I also had on some black boots.

When I was satisfied with the way I looked, I grabbed my bookbag and jogged down the stairs, picking up a breakfast bar on the way out the door.

When I got to the school I was as nervous as anyone could possibly be. I stared at the brown brick building with a green roof. This was going to be where I spent most of my time over the course of the next two years.

Although it was supposed to be warm and welcoming, the school scared me. It's hallways were probably full of scary people and it's windows might as well of had bars covering them.

I walked through the door with a terrible pain in my stomach. 'Oh God' I thought to myself. I could see my hands were shaking and I was pretty sure that I had abnormally large pit stains.

I had a good reason, though. It was my first day of eleventh grade in a tiny town in Virginia that I had just moved to from across the country.

I had never even been out of my home state of Texas and so this was completely new to me. Basically, I was freaking out.

I had worn my best outfit and made my hair look as pretty as I possibly could, but somehow I felt outcast and different. People barely even noticed me. Some people would look me up and down and then turn away as if saying they didn't need another new kid in their school. They probably didn't by the looks of things.

Since Lima High was the only high school in Lima, Virginia, I'm pretty sure that the students here had mostly been going to school with the same people their whole life.

All I wanted was for someone to say hi. You know how in the movies there's always a happy girl in the main hallway, just waiting for someone new to come? A welcoming commitee? Well there definitely was not one of those here.

As I thought about it I hit something hard and fell over. But it definitely wasn't a 'something' that I ran into. I knew it was a someone by the feel of the strong arms that pulled me up.

"Oh gosh I'm sorry" I said to the 'something hard'.

I looked up straight into the eyes of the most gorgeous boy I had ever seen

He was tall and muscly. His golden hair was curly and slightly messy. His eyes looked like the clear blue ocean of somewhere tropical like Tahiti or Hawaii.

"Oh no it's fine it was all me. You must be new here. I'm Eli."

"Carly." I replied nervously

"Nice to meet you Carly. Welcome to Lima High." he said gesturing to the school.

I laughed awkwardly. "Thank you"

"Well, Carly, I have to get to first period so I'll see you around sometime." He said while inching away slowly.