Totally Not Me ( 1D/ N.H. / Niall Horan)

Chapter 2

I pull myself away from his infectious smile and quickly gather my books. We stand up and I move to the side to let him pass as the instructor walks over to us.

"Niall! Would you cop yourself on? You don't meet new people by knocking them down." The instructor says.

"Sorry, Dad." He laughs and looks at me to apologize one more time before taking off down the hall.

"He's a little anxious about his first day." The instructor informs me as students begin to file into the room. That makes two of us! I rush to grab a desk in the middle of the room to blend in to the woodwork.

Right after the second bell rings, the instructor begins, "Hello, class! I'm Mr. Horan. I'll be with you this year as part of an exchange program. Mr. Heller is back in Mullingar, Ireland taking over my classes."

He continues through the hour going through our syllabus for the first semester and giving us a pretest to see where we're starting at.

I had Language Arts 2nd hour and Alexis insisted I sit with her. She gave me brief rundowns on people in class. Seems to be your typical cliquey high school. Alexis appears to be on the top of the food chain in the freshman class. All the boys drool over her and most of the girls want to be her...or at least acknowledged by her. I don't see what the big draw is. She seems to be somewhat cold and not very personable. It appears to be all about Alexis.

If I can just survive this year, then Brent will be gone and so will his bullshit, precious reputation. I don't have to hang out with plastic people and pretend to be something I'm not.

The day continues down this dreary road. Alexis meets up with me in history and once the lunch bell rings, she leads me over to the "only people I need to know", according to Brent.

It's a group of the most beautiful people I've ever seen. I mean, they all must have been Guess models or something.

"Everyone! This is Brent's stepsister, Cailin. This is..." Alexis continues listing a crapload of names that I can't even begin to process.

I just wave, smile, and say, "I'm sorry if I didn't catch your name. It's all a bit overwhelming."

Most of them just chuckle, smile, and resume talking. Alexis makes her way over to the best looking guy of the group and they kiss. That must be Travis, her boyfriend. She talked a bit about him in history.

I turn to be startled by a girl from the group standing right next to me with a welcoming smile.

"Hi! I'm Louise...but please, call me Lou. Cailin, right?" She says.

"Yea. Hi, Lou. I don't suppose you could show me where a girl could get something to eat, could you?"

"That would be some important information." She laughs and continues, "The first two weeks, the campus is closed and we either bring something or buy something here. After that, the campus is open and we can head off campus to grab something to eat. This means we either need to make fast friends with people with cars or bribe people to pick us up something. Nothing is within a good walking distance."

My stomach grumbles loudly as if almost on cue. Lou must have heard it because she motions for me to follow her...I'd follow some creepy old guy to his van right about now with the promise of food. I'm famished!

As we wait in line in the cafeteria, Lou starts asking questions, "Are you going out for cheerleading?"

"No way! That's not my thing. I'd like to go out for volleyball."

"Oh my God! Me too! Have you been playing club ball or anything?"

"Yea. For a few years. You?" I ask. Lou is quite the breath of fresh air compared to Alexis.

"Yep. Only a couple. Tryouts are in a week! I'm so excited."

"Me too." I respond as I get to the front of the line and get my food.

I practically have it eaten as we return to the group. I notice the guy sitting next to Travis keeps looking at Lou.

"Uhmm, Lou? Who's the guy next to Travis? He keeps looking at you." I whisper in her ear so he can't read my lips.

"Seriously?!" Her eyes get really big. "That's Tom. I have liked him since last year...is he really looking at me?!"

"Well, apparently, he's enjoying the view." I tell her and watch her face split in half with the giant smile on it.

Lunch wasn't as bad as I thought it would be...thanks to Lou. The end of the school day is flying by. I head out of graphic design class and over to math. The buildings are right next to each other and it is a short walk. There are a couple students already here. I find my seat and get settled.

"Well...well...so we meet again!" A voice greets me from the student sitting next to me.

I look up only to be caught in those crystal blue eyes again. What was his name again?

"Hi. I didn't recognize you without picking myself off the floor." I respond.

There is that infectious laugh. "I'm Niall." He holds his hand out for me to shake.

"I'm Cailin." I shake his hand. "So you're here for a year from Ireland?"

"Are you stalking me?" He wittily responds.

Oh God! What kind of impression am I making on this kid?! I smile and look at the floor...embarrassed.

He leans down to meet my gaze. "Hey! I was just joking!" His smile is so sweet.

"Thank God! I'd hate to have to reshuffle the schedule of my classes over a restraining order!" The words fall out before I could catch them.

He belts out in laughter as the bell rings and class begins.