Constellations

Chapter 4

She took a good look at herself in the mirror. Her long hair was braided a little messily, and she won't complain; as long as it stays in that position until the day ends. The new school uniform looked surprisingly nice on her, although the sleeves turned out to be a little too long; not too long to be noticeable, thankfully. The skirt she wears here is slightly shorter than the grey one she wears back home; well, students weren't allowed to wear the skirt above the knees, anyway, unlike here.

She smiled at her reflection in the mirror a little nervously. Desperately she tried to ignore how cold her hands felt and how her stomach was churning, and walked outside the bathroom.

How am I even gonna have breakfast like this?

Distraught, she nearly bumped into Timothy who just got out from his room; he looked just as confused as her.

"Morning," he smiled a little groggily.

"Morning. I'll be off to school with you then?"

"Um, yeah," he replied. "We'd probably end up being in the same classroom too, who knows. Hey, chill for a bit. You look so nervous."

"I've been trying to tell myself that for the past hour, actually," she said, pulling at her sleeves. "At least there's uniforms, I won't have to worry too much about how I look."

"No need to be worried, really. You're okay," he reassured her. "Go get breakfast."

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, smiling. "Thanks. Catch you later, then."

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"So what's your name?"

The girl with the brown hair next to her turned to face her and smiled. "I'm Vikki. What should I call you?"

"Just call me Ara," she replied. She looked ahead at the teacher in front of the class, who seemingly have taken a notice at her and was now expecting her to introduce herself to her classmates. Some also took glances at her, and she noticed Timothy at the back giving her a little smile.

The teacher cleared his throat. "So, Nur..."

"Ara. Call me Ara," she corrected.

"Alright, Ara. Tell us about where you're from and how your stay in New Zealand is so far."

"Um, I'm enjoying it already, to be honest," she smiled, and started telling a few things about her school back in Jakarta and why she chose to be in the student exchange program. Only some of her classmates paid attention to what she's saying (one jerk even had the audacity to look at her mockingly and then chatted with his friend next to him, which she assumed would also be about her), she was glad when it was finally over and she's finally allowed to sit back down. She would have been a lot more nervous if everyone paid close attention to her.

"Wow, that was rude," Vikki sighed. "I'd love to hear more about why you chose to go here, though. You can tell me later at lunch."

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Lunch that day was surprisingly great. Vikki introduced her to the rest of the girls in their classroom (which were all very kind to her), but a comment from one of the student puzzled her.

"Sorry that you have to stay at Timothy's house," the girl laughed, giving her a pat in the shoulder.

"What's with him? He seems pretty nice," Ara remarked, sipping a little from the juice box in her hand.

"Oh, man," she sighed. "No one's told you yet?"

The girl exchanged glances with Vikki before telling her, "He got in trouble for getting into the girls' locker room. Got into one of the lockers, even. You should be careful with him."

"What?" she blurted out, nearly choking on her orange juice; and frowned. "That's so gross. He hardly looked like the type, though. Ugh. The school really had to put me in his house?"

With puppy eyes, she shifted her glance at Vikki. "Can I stay at your place instead?"

"Just kidding, though. His parents are really nice, I don't mind staying there." She twiddled the straw on the juice box between her fingers absentmindedly. "Huh. I would expect that kind of behavior from someone who looked... I don't know, more like a jerk. Did you see that guy in the back of the class who was looking at me?"

"Oh, Derek," Vikki replied. "Yeah, he's pretty popular around here, actually; one of those rich guys. Another guy you should definitely avoid."

"Wow, alright. It's not like I'm gonna catch his attention at all, though; except if he wants to make fun of me, did you see how he looked at me earlier?"

"That was very rude and unnecessary of him," Vikki commented, sighing. "But that's just him, I guess. Well, enough about those idiots. Tell me more about yourself."

They ended up talking about her hometown and nearly everything about her life at the school back home the whole lunch time, but her mind was still fixed on what Vikki had told her about Timothy.

Well, there's either so much to ask him at home, or none at all.

She returned to her classroom with her mind still buzzing, not knowing what to do or what to say to him. One thing she did know, however, was all her thoughts about him changed almost entirely.