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New Secrets

She's new. She has a new start at a new school with new teachers and new friends. This could either be a grace from heaven or a disaster from hell. Which of these is it for her? She's hoping the first.

During the first week at the new school, which she transferred into mid-school year, she made a few friends almost instantaneously, possibly due to her charms, she believes. She's settled pretty comfortably in all her classes, got to meet a handful of friendly students and some foes, too. Everything went smoothly just as if she were in her old school with her old classmates, except for one minor difference. These weren't her old classmates.

At her old school, she hadn't really cared for boys, thought of them as annoying, stuck-up little brats just like her brother. But here, the boys aren't the same, and neither is she.

Throughout the first few days at the new school, her eyes have spotted some fairly attractive boys and secretly hoped that they noticed her as well. But those crushes were fast fleeting. She realized how silly her thoughts were and wanted to get rid of them. But despite all her attempts, she was drawn to do the same thing over and over again so she finally accepted this as something normal for a teenager to do. Have crushes.

Nothing's wrong with that, she thinks to herself as she puts her binder in her backpack. Especially since it's nearing Valentine's Day, she imagines up different scenarios in her head where she receives chocolates or flowers in her locker. But she's quick to dismiss those thoughts because she doesn't believe anyone would actually do that for her.

As she's waiting for the bell to ring, indicating that school is over, her teacher brings out a bin filled with packages of skittles.

"This is what we were talking about, New Girl!" her friend exclaims. "Every two weeks or so, she passes out the bags of skittles we paid for before time for whoever we wanted it to be sent to." Her friend is extremely excited as the teacher calls out names one by one so she assumes that, when her own name is called, the large pack of skittles was from her. But when she turned around to look at her friend, she frowned and shrugged to tell her she had no clue who that was from.

She quickly went back to her seat and looked down at the heart-shaped note attached to the bag. Heat rose up to her cheeks and ears but before she could read what was written on the note, her teacher called her name again.

"Me? Again?" She looked up at her teacher who was holding out yet another bag of skittles in her direction.

As she got up to collect a smaller bag of skittles, she glanced at her friend whose huge child-like smile seemed to scream out "That's from me!"

Once she got back to her seat, she examined the smaller pack of skittles first. There was a square note attached that read, "Hey, New Girl, hope you had fun on your first week here! From: You're new bestie."

She looked up and smiled at her friend. "Thanks" she mouthed since her teacher was still calling out names. Then she looked back at the heart-shaped note.

"I think you're pretty" was written in sloppy handwriting on the top and towards the bottom, it was signed with "Your secret admirer." She felt a whole family of butterflies in her stomach as more heat rose to her cheeks.

"What'ya got there?" Her friend peered over her shoulders and before she could stop her, she snatched the note away.

Her face was scrunched up while trying to concentrate on reading the sloppy handwriting but when she got done with it, her eyes widened and she began jumping up and down and quietly whisper-screamed into the new girl's ear "You've got a secret admirer!"

"How do I know it's not a prank and it's actually from one of you guys," she points out as she nods towards the rest of her friends who were already heading out the door since the bell had just rung.

"Cause it's clearly a boy's handwriting," her friend rolls her eyes and continues. "You know all of us have pretty decent handwriting. So it's decided," she clears her throat, "you've got a real-life secret admirer!" She begins to hop up and down again.

In the bus, away from all her friends, she detaches both notes from the bags of skittles and shoves them deep into her backpack. Wow, she thinks, this is exciting yet frightening at the same time! And she tries to remember all of the boys from that class to see if she can figure out who her secret admirer is.

***

For you, Little Duck 😊
DuckemortR5