Starting Over (An Andy Biersack Love Story ){sequal To Secrets}

Chapter 23: That Name...

Alice's P.O.V

I practically begged Andy to take me back home. It didn't work out as planned in the end though.

"ANDY. PUT. ME. DOWN!" I kicked and screamed and hit his back with all my might, but in spite of my weakness and thin silhouette, I was nothing against Andy. If anything, I think the weak blows were just tickling him.

"Alice, calm down," he said (calmly, the little jack-donkey). "It's just school!"

"It worries me."

"It shouldn't."

"It shall."

"It shant."

"It should."

"It sounds like you're scared."

"It sounds like alliteration." This made Andy laugh and put me down on the ground, in which I happily bounced on the balls of my feet. We were in front of the building. No one was in sight. They were all probably in their first period; already in class.

"Come on, Small Fry." Andy was ushering was ushering me inside, despite my protests. But once we were inside the building, everything swam back up to me; the laughs I had shared with Jamie and all those years ago with Journee; all the fun times at lunch; all the homework.

The memories were coming back as Andy pulled me into the office where the lady at the front desk sat.

"Alice, I presume?" she asked. I nodded and she handed me my schedule and locker number. My backpack held a lock for the locker. (Why did they insist on having us buy our own locks?) "You'll be showed around the school by our office aid--" she pointed over to a boy hidden in the room by a book, "--and then you can get settled in. First period is almost over so you'll have less hours for today." She smiled at me in which I returned. "Welcome to have you back after a long time, Alice. I hope you'll be fine."

Throughout the whole entire talk, she smiled slightly and gave me those welcoming, warm, thoughtful eyes. The eyes just gave her away.

"Thank you, Mrs. Westerson." For a moment, I saw a look of shock pass by her eyes. As fast as it had come, it was gone. It had faded.

"You're welcome." The office aid got up as Andy, him, and I walked out of the office.

Andy hugged me quickly and pecked me on the cheek (at which the aid looked away, almost mad that possibly wasting his time) and then Andy was gone, calling out, "Have a great first day!" Not that it helped much anyways with the jitters and all.

I turned back to the aid who was already staring at me with wonder.

"Lucky guy," he said, before walking ahead of me into the direction of where my locker was. I caught up to him though, walking behind him by a little. The silence was awkward, our footsteps trudging, echoing off the walls back to us. I wanted to ask a lot, but it kind of scared me to ask.

"You're second period is the same as mine. American History. I'll show you there so you don't have to worry." I nodded, although he couldn't see me because I was behind him.

We stopped in front of a blue locker almost the size of me. He moved out of the way as I figured out how to put in my combination. When I opened it, there was already a shelf installed so I put in a few of my books but kept my backpack with me and then I shut the locker. When I looked back over to the aid, he was already walking away like he owned the place. But ... his walk was funny. Almost as if he WANTED me to laugh.

So I did.

When he looked back behind him, he had a sly smirk on his face. What was he thinking? Did he just know I would laugh or was he purposefully trying to do it? I didn't know but I kept trying to catch up the him as he showed me around.

Cafeteria- check.
Classrooms- check.
Library- check.
Pick up at the end of the day- check.

We headed back to the office and he picked up his stuff. On the way back he explained they let him out five minutes early to ditch the traffic. When I asked what "the traffic" was, all he told me, "Students fill the hallways faster than you can say 'I'," so I kept that in mind as we headed to my first period.

He knocked on the door and a student answered the door (letting us in of course) and told me to wait as we watched the student return to her desk to listen in on the lecture the teacher was announcing. The teacher was a guy, wearing a blue striped, button down shirt, black slacks, and a dark blue tie to top it all off with his black dress shoes. He looked like a good first hour teacher.

"And- is that the new student?" All eyes were directed to me in the back of the room and the teacher beamed, the curious eyes of the students still on me. What a wonderful introduction; your teacher saying a lecture and then getting distracted easily to point you out in the back. I felt silly as he j-walked over to me and the aid- I never got his name, now that I think about it. I'll have to ask him later...

"Hey Mr. Brunner, this is Alice. She'll be in this hour tomorrow," the aid explained.

Mr. Brunner grinned and hugged the aid by the side then dismissed us, mumbling something about, "How we should be hurrying to the next clas to beat 'the traffic' and how we wouldn't want to get stuck in that when the bell rang," and because he mumbled this, we headed to our class and made it right outside the door when the bell rang.

Almost immediately, students came rushing out of classrooms and bustling away from each other. I now understood what The Traffic was.

When we were ready to go in, I stopped the aid (I should stop calling him "the aid" and get his name already) and he stopped abruptly.

"I never got your name," I simply said. He pulled his arm out of my hand shyly and chuckled under his breath, scratching the back of his neck.

"The name's Zack."