The first few days roll along as they would for anyone else. I quickly discovered my life line, Jasmine, a girl a I was friends with in sixth grade before she moved, remembered me. (Well, she remembered Iris and I. Which lead to her remembering we were friends.)
"So I saw Connor walking with Jeremy and his girlfriend and I almost ran into him and I just about had a heart attack," Jasmine babbles to Kailee, Syd, Eliza and I.
"I love Jeremy and Nicole. They're truly the junior power couple," Eliza says to me. That girl is a blessing. Eliza has helped me find all my classes and avoid weird kids and has been an overall godsend.
"Is Connor that kid with the brown hair? Is he in AP Bio with us, Syd?" I say as I stab the little yellow straw into my Capri Sun.
"Wait- you don't know Connor?!" Jasmine gasps at me, and the other three girls gawk at my lack of knowledge with her.
"No..?" I question, feeling nerves fly into my stomach at the lecture I'm about to receive, "Guys, I just got here, like three days ago."
"Oh my god. Everyone knows Connor," Kailee says, stabbing her salad with a crappy plastic fork that is definitely going to break soon, "He's like- the coolest kid at this school. He's been going to senior parties since sophomore year!"
"I bet his body count is through the roof!" Eliza swoons.
I shake my head and I reach into the bag which holds my goldfish, "What's the big deal about him anyway?"
"First off, he's the cutest guy here," Syd says as she stands and gracefully maneuvers her way out of the lunch table to the trash can.
"Connor's even told people himself! His mom didn't give him a name when he was born, she wanted him to be able to pick whatever. Apparently when he was in kindergarten, he turned to his friend Jake Callister and said, 'Give me a name.' And if it hadn't been for Jake Callister that day, he said he probably still wouldn't have a name!" Jasmine squeals, and everyone starts like fawning over Connor, who apparently sits like four tables behind us.
I whip my head between Jasmine and Eliza, confusion drawn all over my face, "That makes you popular here? What kind of a school is this?" How am I not already the queen here if weird is cool, I add in my head.
"Okay- I guess if you put it like that it's weird, Jazz, but like- his mom and dad let him group up doing whatever he wanted! He had no rules! And he still lives like that! Sometimes he'll show up late for no reason! Ugh- do you get more attractive?!" Eliza gushes and Syd is blushing so hard I could see it from an airplane. The only reasonable person here is Kailee.
"What do you think?" I drag Kailee into the conversation and she glares at me for it.
"I think he's attractive sure, but I don't get why that would make him the god you see to view him as," she says as closes her chemistry notebook and crams it back into her bag.
I nod lightly in agreement.
I wander the rest of the day, secretly waiting eagerly for AP Bio. When the time finally comes, as soon as I walk into the room, I glance around for the god Connor. I find him standing at his friend Keith's (I think it's Keith...) desk. Keith says something and they laugh, as they turn to look at me, as I scramble to one of the desks in the back I claimed as my own.
I talk with the girl next to me, who has bright pink hair, and pretend I care about whatever she's saying. I decide I'll crank the charm way up in case Connor looks over.
With the sounding of the warning bell, I pull out my binder and prepare for intense lecture notes like there was at my old school, but I always forget that it's never quite that bad here as I expect it to be.
A minute before the bell that releases us to the next period before the end of the day, everyone starts packing up, and the teacher up front yells at everyone to take down the last slide and "it's still class" and I can literally feel everyone in class rolling their eyes so hard it hurts, myself included.
The bell rings and I stand up, and I take a quick breath as I prepare to turn on my charm to walk out of class. Hey, I gotta do what I can, okay?
"Hey. Hey! Addison, right?" A voice calls, and I glance over my shoulder and almost lost a grip on my charisma for a second when I saw Connor and Keith walking towards me.
"Yeah," I breathe out, trying to sound cool and almost slightly disinterested.
"I don't think we've met yet," Connor says, adjusting the binder in his right hand, "I'm Connor, and this is my friend Jackson."
So... not Keith I guess...
"Hahaha, it's nice to meet you," I giggle in the cutest way possible. Iris would be so proud.
"So you just moved here?" Connor flicks his hair out of his eyes, and I notice that they are, in fact, blue.
"Oh, is that the rumor going around?" I roll my eyes playfully as we start to walk down to my next class, which is vet science.
"In fact it is," Keith- no -Jackson interjects. God, too many names. Too many faces.
"Well, I'll let you in on a little secret, it's true," I say as I'm about to turn away and stride off to my next class. I feel like the bell is about to ring. It makes me nervous.
"Hey, so Jackson and I are headed to the little coffee shop on 22nd and Mammoth after school, and it would be awesome if you came with us," Connor looks at Jackson, who is very clearly checking me out.
I sigh mentally, "Sure! I'd love to! Would you mind giving me a ride? I'm still trying to learn the streets around here," I smile like I don't see Jackson just staring. I'm literally so uncomfortable.
"Oh yeah, totally! Jackson? Would you mind taking her? I have to pick up Mercedes," Connor smiles and I feel my heart sink in my chest. Of course he has a girlfriend. Duh, what was I thinking?!
"Sure! I'd love to! Just meet me back here, aight?"
"Okay!" I manage a peppy voice to my surprise, and I decide now is the ideal time to bounce off to Vet Science.
