From Afar

Chapter 1

After Christmas break, the school hallway is packed with students walking, and talking by the lockers. Everyone was excited to share their stories about their recent holday trips to their friends. The bell rang, there were students running towards their classroom and once again, the hallways of West Palm High became quiet. 

Sky Williams headed straight to the principal's office to get his class schedule, he knocked on the door twice, just like what the lady in the front desk said. 

"Come in..." 

He opened the door and entered. A man sitting in a big black office chair was talking on the phone and motioned for him to sit down on the chair. The man muttered a thank you to the person on the phone and turned his attention to Sky, "Good morning, Mr. Williams. Welcome to West Palm High! We are very happy to have you join us."

Sky flashed a smile and answered, "I'm very pleased to be here Principal White." 

"Please, call me Gary. I don't like being addressed as the principal, the students tend to get scared. I trust you had a very nice holiday?" 

"Yes, I did. Thank you. My family wasn't used to the weather here in Los Angeles, but I think we've adjusted well." he replied as he shifted from his seat. 

Principal White nodded with a smile plastered on his face, when the door opened and a lady probably in her early 20's appeared. She was wearing a white blouse tucked in her black pencil cut skirt, she looked at him once and spoke to Principal White, "Is this our new student?"

Sky nodded to answer the lady's question. 

"Well, hello. I'm Kate, the guidance councelor of West Palm High. I have your schedule here with me and I'm here to walk you to your class." 

He looked over to the principal who was busy now dialing on the telephone, and slowly stood. The principal gave him a little wave and mouthed goodluck before focusing all his attention to the person on the other line. Kate walked beside him and stopped in front of a classroom door, "This is your first class for today, Ms. Collins' Literature class. They've already started but she'll understand. Go inside, goodluck." She started to turn away but as he turned the knob, she looked back and said "By the way, don't hesitate to come visit me in my office if you encounter any complications, it's the door across Mr. White's office."

He smiled and took a deep breath before entering the classroom. Everybody turned to look at him, some girls started whispering to each other, followed by low giggles. 

"Welcome to Literature, Mr. Williams. Can I have your admission slip please?" Her smile was warm and welcoming; as he handed her the slip, he glanced at the different faces whose eyes are staring at him. He smiled when he saw a familiar face, the girl from the cafe during his first night here. He noticed how she was staring out the window again and was wearing her hair in a messy braid. 

Ms. Collins cleared her throat that caused Sky to return his attention to her, "Can you say something a little about yourself?" 

Sky stood in front and obeyed, "Hi. I'm Sky Williams and I just moved here during the holidays. I'm from Arizona and it's because of my mom's work that we had to come here. I'm hoping to make everyone's acquaintance." 

Ms. Collins smiled and ordered him to sit in the second row. It was two rows away from the girl in the cafe. 

When class was over, he looked around the room to find the girl and finally introduce himself. He caught up with her by the door, he raised his hand to tap her shoulder when a girl ran towards them and pulled her away, disappearing by the lockers. He let out a sigh and fixed his backpack as he went down to the cafeteria to eat lunch. 

He was waiting in line, consciously searching for the girl when two boys started a conversation, "Yo. I'm Seth and this is Kyle" motioning to the guy behind him who was busy picking an apple. "You're the new student from Arizona right? I was with you in class." 

Seth offered his hand and shook Sky's. "Uh, yeah. I'm sorry I didn't recognize you immediately, I was-" he was cut off when the guy named Kyle joined the conversation, "Hey! Whazzup?" Sky smiled and muttered an "Okay" before grabbing his tray and looked around for an empty table. There was laughter behind him, it was Seth and Kyle goofing around before standing beside him, "Come on, you can sit with us" said Kyle. Sky smiled at the two of them and followed to a recent evacuated table. 

"So," Seth spoke after sipping from his soda, "You play any sport?" 

"No, but I do photography and I also paint. How about you?" turning to Seth. 

"I'm the team captain of the boys' swim team." He replied and started gobbling his pasta. Sky turned to Kyle for an answer who was busy operating his ham sandwich. "Uh, I'm in the basketball team, point-guard" he finally answered. 

Sky started to eat his salad, still secretly looking for the mysterious girl. They were talking about a party tomorrow night when his mysterious girl entered with the girl who intervened with his plan to introduce himself a while ago. Seth might have noticed that he was staring, "Oh man. Her? Really?"

Sky shrugged and looked away, "What?"

"Dude, we saw you stare at her. No use in denying it." Kyle replied.

"Okay? Do you guys know her?" Sky said, seeming very intrigued.

Seth looked at Kyle for a split second, "Uhmm, yeah. Everybody does. She's one of the most popular students here, but she..." he didn't finish his sentence. 

"But she what?" Sky asked.

Kyle took a deep breath, "But she went off the radar after what happened last summer. She was the star player of the girls' soccer team until she got into a car accident that killed her boyfriend."

"He was my teammate in swimming." Seth interrupted. 

"So she's sad and all because she lost her boyfriend?" Sky questioned.

"No,"Kyle answered, "it's because she blames herself for the accident. She was the one driving then. It was raining and the cops thought they were few of the students who drank. She was driving so fast and lost control of the wheel, they crashed into the bridge right outside town." 

"It was all over the news" Seth added, "everybody thought she'd be over it but until now, she hasn't moved on, she just moved away from all of us. Except for her bestfriend, Ashley, twin sister of her late boyfriend."

Sky looked over to where the girls were, "So who is she?"

"Her name's Andi, Andi James. They own the On The House Cafe." Kyle said, then he punched Seth's arm, "Come on, man. Let's go to class."

Andi suddenly locked eyes with him, then looked away. He stood up and followed Seth and Kyle.