Talk Me Down (Camren)

Chapter One

If there's one thing that Camila Cabello doesn't want to do, it's start her junior year of high school. A year ago, if you'd have asked her about junior year, she would've shrugged and not really cared. It was just another year of school, right? Senior year was the one that mattered.

But now, she's dreading it. Because this year, she'll be attending high school back in her hometown of Miami, Florida.

When she'd lived there in middle school, it'd been her least favourite place in the world. Middle school had been hell – there was a particular group of girls that used to constantly torment her – and she couldn't have been happier when her family had moved away. But now she'd moved back, and her first day of junior year had finally crept up on her.

Camila considers faking sick when her alarm wakes her up, but she knows that her parents wouldn't be fooled. She'd expressed her concerns about moving back to them, and a convenient illness on her first day would be the most obvious lie in the world.

Besides, she has to go eventually.

She gets ready and grabs a banana for her breakfast, but she doesn't say much as her mom drives her to school. Sinu doesn't push her, which Camila appreciates. There aren't any comments about how interesting it'll be to make new friends like there are to her sister, Sofi; Camila made it perfectly clear that she doesn't plan on making friends. She didn't have any when she lived here last time, and she'd appreciated the solitude at her old school in California. While she was a little lonely on the weekends, blending into the background was far better than being bullied.

Not wanting to take her anger about moving out on her mom too much, Camila thanks her for the ride when they arrive at her new school, and she makes her way inside as quickly as she can. She digs into the new backpack her parents had bought her and pulls out her class schedule and a map of the school. With the whole 'no making friends' policy, Camila knows that she's going to have to figure this out herself. She did it at her old school, so it couldn't be that hard here.

She was wrong. The school was much bigger than the one she'd attended in California, and the room names and numbers are a bit too complicated, and she ends up wandering around the empty hallways after the first bell rings.

Desperate, Camila runs over to the first person she sees and calls for help. "Hey, uh, I'm new this year and I have no idea where I'm going. Can I get your help?"

The person she'd called out to – a girl who was rummaging through her locker for something in a hurry – turns around to her, and Camila is a little shocked when she sends her a warm smile. "Yeah, sure. Can I take a look at your schedule?"

Camila walks over and passes her class schedule over to the other girl. "Here. Thanks for helping."

"Don't worry about it." The girl looks over her schedule and smiles. "Perfect. We're in the same class. I can take you there."

"Thank you." Camila watches as the girl drops a physics textbook into her locker and closes the door. "I'm Camila, by the way."

She introduces herself using her middle name – ever since she'd moved the first time, she'd stopped going by Karla and started going by Camila. It helped her separate herself from the bad times she'd experienced.

"Dinah," The other girl replies, sending her another wide grin, "Nice to meet you, Camila. Now come on. We have two hours of math next."

Camila laughs at the disgusted face Dinah pulls. "You don't like math?"

"I think the answer to that one should be pretty obvious." Dinah laughs. "I hate it. What kind of psycho would actually enjoy math, though?"