My Freshman Year

Orientation Part 1

I woke up to the sound of an alarm clock ringing in my ears. I slowly blinked open my eyes and tried to force them open as I turned my head to look at my alarm clock. The time read 5:30am. I groaned and tried to go back to sleep but my mom opened the door and yelled, "Wake up Zaina! You're going to be late for Orientation!!" My eyes flew open when my mum said "Orientation." My mom went back downstairs, closing my bedroom door as she did. Orientation...orientation! Today was my Freshman Year ORIENTATION!!! I was waiting for this day my entire summer! I immediately sat up and throwing off my blanket, I ran to my bathroom to get ready.

I was so excited! Today was the day I would go to River Crest High School and take a tour of the whole school as well as learn about the daily schedule, how to get around school, where the classes were located, and get my schedule!!! I didn't want to be late at all today! I even got a phone because I was finally going to high school and would probably need it.

I came out of my bathroom with my hair done in a high ponytail and went to my closet to pick something out. I ended up choosing a pair of skinny black jeans with a black cardigan on top of a white full sleeved shirt with a high neckline.

I stood in front of my mirror to finish up. I decided to put my black wavy hair in a half ponytail with bangs on either side of my face parted on the left instead of my high ponytail. I kind of wanted to wear a little bit of makeup but it wouldn't look natural and I wanted to look natural so I just put on a tiny bit of makeup powder on my tan face. I did some finishing touches and then grabbing my purse, I went downstairs to eat breakfast.

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I opened the backseat door of my car and stepped outside. "Call me when it's over Zaina," my dad said, "There's going to be a lot of traffic so don't forget."

"I won't," I replied, smiling. This was going to be a great day, I just knew it! "Bye dad!"

My dad nodded and said goodbye as he drove away. I watched him leave and took a quick glance at my watch. I didn't want to be late but I also wanted to explore the school a little, if the staff let us. I turned around to look at the school. It was really large and I had heard its mascot was the cougars and it seemed correct as there was a picture of a huge cougar painted on a large brick wall. There was also the name "River Crest" painted beside the cougar in huge, cursive, midnight blue letters with a black outline. It seemed the school colors were midnight blue and black. It was pretty and I smiled a bit. I was kinda intimidated but it was just a school. Nothing to be afraid of...I hope.

I walked inside to see hundreds of future (a very near future) students like me, standing scattered outside of a door. There was a table where you had to put your orientation papers on. I walked up the the student who was monitoring the table. She looked about as old as I was so I guess she was a future student here too. As I approached, she smiled at me.

"Um...hi," I said very quietly, placing my papers in the correct piles on the table.

"Hi!" She said cheerfully, smiling widely and waving her hand at me. She had fair skin with blonde hair, hazel eyes, and freckles. She looked familiar. I furrowed my eyebrows trying to think where I saw her before. I know I even talked to her. Then a name floated in my thoughts. Chloe. Oh! Chloe! I remembered now. I had talked to her once before during a school event. I guess she didn't remember me anymore as her head had already turned to speak with the next person who came up. I walked away and was still in my thoughts when a female voice interrupted me. I turned around and saw a familiar face. It was Aarashi, a girl I had talked to a little before.

"Zaina!" Aarashi said, she looked relieved. "Can I just tag along with you? My friends' orientations are tomorrow." The orientation was divided into two days so that there won't be tons of people at once although that wasn't working quite nicely.

"Oh, sure Aarashi." I said quietly. "How's summer been?" Aarashi sighed in relief and smiled at me. I gave a small smile.

"Summer? It's been amazing!" Aarashi exclaimed. Then we started to talk.

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 We talked and chatted all the way up until we had to go to our orientation groups. Aarashi was put into a different orientation group than me. We were very sad.

"I really hoped we'd be in the same orientation group but..." I said, frowning at the paper in my hand which read "Orientation group #21".

"Yeah...me too." Aarashi said sadly. But then she said cheerfully, "But we might have some classes together! Here's my number. We can try to find each other during the first week of school!" We exchanged out numbers. I was really glad to have a friend and I had a feeling that we'd be friends for a long time to come. 

We said our goodbyes and I went around the gym, trying to find my orientation group. I finally found it and took a seat on the ground with the rest of the group. There were two female senior students in yellow shirts going taking role of the people in our group. As I looked around, I found out that all the orientation groups had about 6-8 students in the group plus 2 senior or junior students managing them. I didn't pay attention to how many people were in my group but I looked at the faces of the students in our group, trying to find a familiar face. I did find one but she was one of the popular girls at school last year and I didn't want to hang out with a popular person. More like she didn't want to hang out with me.

There was no one other than that girl and I was getting nervous. It looked like almost everyone had a person to talk to in the group. I didn't want to seem like the outcast. There was a quiet girl though with fair skin and dark brown hair wearing black rimmed glasses. She looked like a nice and decent girl so I made up my mind that I'd talk to her once our group was in a much...less crowded and quieter place. Once the two senior girls were done with the names, our group got up and started to walk to a classroom. All the other groups were going to different classrooms as well. The classroom our group went to turned out to be a band classroom. As soon as we settled and sat down, I started thinking of ways I could start a conversation. I was pretty bad at talking and I didn't want to sound dumb or too desperate to have someone to talk with so I casually turned to that girl who was on my left.

"Hi...my name is Zaina...and your's?" I messed up...great, now I sounded somewhat like a creepy person. The girl blinked at me and was quiet for a few minutes. And I had to say, it was awkward.

"Hello. I'm Daisy." She finally said and after a few seconds, smiled at me. I was relieved! I thought she would just ignore me...that would have been very horrible and awkward.

I smiled at back at her widely. I had a feeling I'd just made another long time friend. And I have to admit, I liked that feeling.

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Hey guys! Welcome to my new story! I have big plans for it and it's going to be amazing! And don't worry, I haven't given up on my other story "Why me...?". Anyway, this story is dedicated to my two best friends Donna and Akanksha! Here are their profiles:

Donna_Peters (Donna)

vaishuAK (Akanksha)

THANKS SO MUCH GIRLS! <3

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