Stronger

Chapter 3

Mallory and I walked into class. Nobody but the teacher was in the class room. Mallory sat down and I decided to introduce myself to the teacher.

"Hello. My name is Alison I'm new here."

"Oh hello Ali. Pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Mrs. Gravanchi. "

"Nice to meet you Mrs. Gravanchi."

"Why don't you sit next to Mallory? Class is about to start."

I sat down in the empty chair next to Mallory and watched all the kids fill the class.

"Hi. You new?" A boy's soft voice spoke.

"Yeah. My name is Ali." I said not looking at the face.

"Pretty. My name's Carlos."

"Nice to meet you."

"Do you always do that to people you've just met?"

"Do what?" What was he talking about?

"Not make eye contact with them."

"Sorry. Just trying to see what Mrs. Gravanchi's doing." I said turning my face to meet his eyes.

We were silent the rest of class so that I could pay attention to the things I've missed. Coming to a new school a month into it can be hard.

After English Mallory had bio so she said she'd meet me by my locker at the end of class so we could walk to lunch together. We said good bye and parted ways.

I walked to my locker to get my Spanish stuff and a boy with blonde hair was standing at his locker.

"Hi I'm Nash. Never seen you around before. You new?"

"Yeah I am. My name's Ali."

"Nice to meet you. Since you're new... Mind if I walk you to class?"

Was he flirting with me? I've never been flirted with or even had a boyfriend. Everyone at my old school thought I was a freak. Here it's really different. I wonder how many people have wondered about my hand and leg.

"Sure. I'd love that. I have Spanish next."

" That's great. So do I!" He said as we both shut our lockers.

I walked with Nash. We linked arms and skipped down the hall like five year olds. We stopped at a class room and walked in.

"Hola you must be Ali! Me llamo Profesora Torres. " the teacher said.

"Hola Profesora." I replied. When my parents were still around my dad used to speak to me in Spanish so this class will be a breeze.

"There is an open seat between Ryan and Jason. Why don't you take that one?"

I took the only open seat left in the middle of the two boys.

"Hey! I'm Ryan."

"And I'm Jason."

"Hi guys! I'm Ali."

"Nice to meet you." They both said.

"You guys too."

"So Ali. What are you doing for lunch?" Ryan asked.

"Oh I'm going to eat with Mallory."

"I like her. She's cool. Mind if we join?"
Jason asked.

"Sure! I bet Mallory would like to have other people sit with us."

"Awesome. Is it okay if we bring a few of our other friends? Nash, Malcolm and Connor? Jason said.

"Sounds great! I haven't met Malcolm yet. Nash's locker is right next to mine so he and I walked to class together. I haven't met Connor though." I said.

"Oh you'll like Connor." Jason said.

"Yeah. He's nice. Got a bit of a temper sometimes though. But we all do. He can be very cheeky as well." Ryan said.

"Okay everyone class dismissed! Make sure you know your partner for your project by tomorrow." Profesora said.

I told the boys we'd meet them at a table and met up with Nash.

Nash and I walked back to our lockers and waited for Mallory. I finally saw her. She was walking towards Nash and I.

" Hi guys. Ready for lunch?" She asked us.

"Yeah I'm starving!" Nash said dramatically and rubbing his stomach.

"Me too. Oh and I hope it's okay I invited some of Nash's friends to come and eat with us."

"Okay cool!" Mallory said excitedly.

Nash and Mallory hooked arms with me. Me in the middle and just like what Nash and I did we skipped down the hall to the cafeteria.