In This Town

5. Discoveries

In her head, Imogen was mapping out another journal entry. The day was not yet halfway done, and already she felt overwhelmed in a way she couldn't pinpoint. Her brain felt scattered, and her body felt panicked - like angry ocean waves caught up in a storm, and also the people that got stuck on a boat in the middle of it.

Her day started out normally as she allowed the boy she met in the office to lead her around the school. It didn't occur to Imogen that this same boy with whom she was walking around, still didn't have a name as far as her brain was concerned. Imogen had allowed him to take her around different areas of the school, showing her all of her different classes (feeling silently relieved when she found out they shared their first class) and even the popular places for people to hang out.

It was when their first class was a mere two minutes from beginning that Imogen first noticed something strange.

"So," she began, walking with the boy toward what she remembered as her English class. "What's the name of the English teacher again? Is she nice?"

If it wasn't for the fact that she was walking right alongside her personal tour guide, she might have thought that he'd disappeared into thin air. The silence that ensued for at least a minute after she spoke was enough to make Imogen question her own eyesight.

"Mrs. Adams," he said in a tone that would have passed for normal if his body language hadn't so obviously shifted. His arms, formerly hung lazily at his sides, had reached up to cross in front of his chest, and his eyes suddenly averted down to his shuffling feet. "She's great."

Imogen wasn't sure what made his demeanour shift to one much like when she first ran into him, but something in her brain rang like an alarm, warning that it wasn't her place to pry. They fell into a silence after that, and Imogen took the time to observe all the other students walking by her until they finally reached their class.

Imogen was nervous when she turned into the large room and saw that majority of the students were already seated in their chairs. They all stared at her as she tried to come to a decision on where to sit, offering up a small smile as compensation to those who wouldn't break their judgmental gazes. Imogen watched as the boy who she was with had abandoned her side and began to make his way to the back of the room to sit in a spot beside his friend. He was halfway into his seat when he paused, craning his neck to lock eyes with Imogen who was placing her stuff on a desk in the nearly-empty second row.

Imogen cast her head downward. She wasn't exactly feeling up to the fact that she would have to repeat the same process of being stared at, at least four more times throughout the day with her other classes. A feeling of glum defeat settled over her as she opened her notebook and began to scribble in some doodles to calm her thoughts; that was, until she heard the sound of books being dropped loudly onto the desk beside hers. When she looked over, she had to force away a smile.

"Is this seat taken?" the boy with the messy hair had appeared again, and Imogen made sure to note the smile on his face - straight teeth hidden only slightly by the metal of a retainer. Imogen thought before that she had noticed braces in his mouth, but she hadn't had a chance to see a genuine smile from him until that moment.

"You have a nice smile," Imogen found herself saying before she could help the words from pushing past her lips. "Except I didn't mean to say that out loud... Um, no, this seat is not taken." Imogen blushed, turning her head to the floor once again as a quiet laugh escaped the boy.

"Well, thank you anyway," he said politely, plopping down in the seat next to her.

"So," Imogen trailed off, stretching out the 'o' sound ever so slightly as she spoke. "Forgive me, but I just realized that I don't know your-"