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Chapter 3 - Sky

After her brief encounter with the girl who made her feel like an idiot, Sky’s gaze landed on the only spare chair in the room. It was next to a guy with relatively dark brown hair, but Sky couldn’t see anything else since his back was facing her. She could see that he was laughing and joking around with his group of friends, which seemed to consist of 3 guys and 2 girls.

Mustering up a spell of bravery, Sky wandered over to the vacant seat, but before she could say anything, someone else spoke.

“Whoa.... Your hair is like, really red!” Sky’s eyes met with the one that the other girl had called Ryder, the one with dark hair, to find his chocolate brown eyes staring at her. Or more accurately, her hair.

“Um, yeah...” Sky mumbled, not sure on how to answer him.

“You’re the new girl, right?” He asked, his head tilted slightly to one side. Sky simply nodded before Ryder pulled the chair out of the desk and said,

“Well sit down then new girl, you don’t want to be standing there all day.” Sky smiled shyly at Ryder before he introduced her briefly to his friends, who had been watching their friend and Sky intensely.

The guys were Ryder - obviously - Cameron and Sam, and the girls were Lottie and Ellie. Sky learnt very quickly that Cameron and Ellie were boyfriend and girlfriend, from the way they looked at each other and the fact that several of the jokes the guys seemed to laugh about were to do with the two lovebirds.

The form tutor came into the room exactly as the bell rang, so she did the register, making sure to look up at Sky when she called her name so that she knew what her new student looked like. Like everybody else, she too seemed fixated by the colour of her hair. Notices and messages were read out, but Sky didn’t pay much attention.

The second bell obviously signaled the start of the school day, with all the students standing up and leaving the classroom to go to their lessons. Sky couldn’t help but feel lost as she stood up, but luckily for her, Lottie came over and started up a conversation.

“Hey Sky, what lesson have you got first?” She asked, her long blonde hair falling around her as she tugged her bag on her shoulder; it looked really heavy.

“French, I think.” Sky told who she hoped would become one of her friends and the blonde grinned at her.

“Same!” She squealed, before grabbing Sky by the arm and dragging her off in the direction of the French classroom. On the way there, Lottie asked Sky questions to make her feel more at home, and Sky immediately warmed to this girl; there was just something about her that was so lovely.

They arrived at the classroom, and Sky was pleased when she could sit with her friend on the left hand side of the classroom. The teacher soon entered and the first lesson was underway.

*

An hour later, and Lottie and Sky were leaving the French classroom, homework already assigned to the girls. Sky pulled out her timetable and saw that History was her next class. She asked Lottie where this classroom was and was relieved when she saw it was only just down the hall.

Sky entered the class, feeling a little bit better, but her day was about to go downhill. The first thing she saw on the whiteboard was the word ‘test’. She gulped, before trying to find a seat.

“Hey, new girl!” Sky’s gaze fell to Ryder, sitting at the back of the classroom swinging on his chair. She frowned slightly at him, a little miffed that he insisted on calling her ‘new girl’ when that obviously wasn’t her name.

“My name is Sky.” She told the boy, but she sat down next to him nevertheless; she simply received a smirk in response. The teacher entered the room, before inspecting his students. He glared at a couple who entered the classroom late, and then proceeded to speak.

“Okay class, so today we’re going to be doing a surprise test which will determine which set you will be in for the rest of the year. Usually we have two sets, but with so many of you taking history this year, we’ve had to increase it to three. I’m going to hand out the test papers, but don’t start until I tell you.” Sky’s panic increased slightly as the teacher came around and put the test on her desk.

“Begin.” The teacher said simply, and Sky turned the paper over. She was pleased when she found question on things she was confident in, but as the test progressed, she found some of the questions harder and harder. She was starting to worry as she didn’t want to be anywhere but the top set, but a question worth 5 marks came up that she had no idea about. Her eyes widened and she looked up, trying to see if there was anything in the classroom that could help her. There wasn’t, so she looked back down at the question with almost fear in her eyes.

 In that moment, there was only one thing that Sky could think of to do, and she did it purely out if instinct. The familiar tingling sensation ran through her body as something unnatural happened. 

Time froze.