Moving To Town

Chapter Three: Taking Up On An Offer

You know, I had the most badass dream last night. I dreamt I was a knight in shining green armor. I know that sounds a bit tacky right, cause like what knight wears green? But hey don't judge.

I roll off my bed and crawl to the desk where my phone is charging. My phone says 5:10... and so I guess that means I woke up 5 minutes before my alarm could go off. I unlock my phone and relieve my alarm of its post once again. I shuffle to take a shower, as part of my morning routine, once again taking quite a bit of time cause of how much I love showers. Once I finish my shower I return to my room once again, but to clothe myself this time. As I'm choosing between a nice middle green (not too bright but not too dark) shirt and a navy blue shirt, my mother comes into my room. She looks down at me cause I'm sitting crisscross on the floor, shirtless and wearing only a towel around my waist. I must look like a madman to her, but I have a process I can assure you. 

"Tristan, how was your first day at school?" my mother asks, perhaps with too much enthusiasm. "It wasn't bad but not good either. It was just a eh day really." I say lazily as I decide on the middle green shirt. I get up to go pick out my underwear and dark tan jeans while my mother continues to push further into a line of questions. 'How was... What did you think of... Did you like... and etc, etc, etc'. I just responded normally to everything cause it all was really normal and I don't think there's anything too outstanding about this town in particular. Can't really see yet why she loves this place too much, but if she wants to move back here then its on her. Then my mother asks me a strange question, "Hey Tristan... is it okay if I reconnect with an old friend today?" I look at her confused by what she means as I finish my outfit with my corduroy jacket. "Its an old guy friend from back when I was still in high school in Sacramento. I saw him after work the other day and we talked briefly. He still lives there in town and I wanna reconnect with him over coffee." I look at her, more protectively this time. "Reconnect how Mom?" I give her a look that is supposed to telepathically tell her I don't want her to start any relationships yet. I don't approve cause I don't think enough time has passed yet. I think she understands my look because then she looks at me differently before saying "No Tristan, I'm not looking for any kind of romantic relationships yet." I smile then, like a gambler who just won a game of double or nothing. "Fine, you may have one coffee reconnect with him for now. But I am watching you missy." She chuckles and thanks me before saying that she made me a lunch today, and that its on the counter. With that she goes back to her room to finish preparing for work. I grab my school items and head off for school.

Riding on my way again, still boring as ever. Once again however my path right into the school gate is blocked by what might be the same bulky blonde-haired boy. It looks as though he has headphones in again, and I slow down while he walks himself through the one-lane gate into the school. I follow in behind him and then once the path expands I rush right past him so I can get to the bike rack. As I'm locking up my bike, I see him walk past out of the corner of my eye. He never stops looking ahead though so I don't think he's trying to follow me or something. This might just be the path he always takes. 

Despite having plenty of time before the first bell rings, I decide to head straight for class. I don't have a group of friends I could hang with before school or after. I walk up the stairs to the 200 building where my first class, 209 Psychology One, is. However as I go for the door, it opens up before me. And low-n-behold its Clair again. However, she's joined by that dark brown haired guy that she was chasing yesterday. "Oh hi Tristan." She says with a smile. "Hi Clair. Not crashing into people today I see." I say somewhat comically. She laughs and the brown haired guy just smiles without saying anything. Clair then looks over and has a kind of 'aha' moment. "Oh Tristan this is Keith. Keith this is Tristan, the guy who I said defended me the other day." She explains looking back and forth to us both. Keith sticks out his hand for a handshake but only smiles. I grab his hand, just to be polite and humor him, and smile before saying, "Its nice to meet you." He nods. Clair then turns to me, as she was looking at Keith before hand, and asks if I want to join them in walking to where their friends are. She looks at me with those hazel eyes that kinda remind me of puppies. Do I want to humor her? Do I care to humor her? Won't it be weird for her to try to shove me into her friend group? Won't her friends be annoyed with me butting in? I better decline her, I should decline her.

"Uh sure, lead the way I guess?" I say without thinking. Fuck. I was supposed to decline. Now I'm trapped. Clair bounces up and down with a grin and Keith laughs. They lead me to a spot in between the 200 and 300 hundred buildings that have a walkway with an outcropping. She walks me up to a group of 3 girls and 4 guys, with 2 guys standing while the rest sit either on the bench their crowded around or on the leafy ground. 

Clair introduces them to me in a order from left to right; on the far left was a blonde-haired girl with a similar green/teal streak named Marcelina, next to her was a short guy with dirty blonde hair like me named Sebastian, next to him was another guy with black hair and fair skin named Giovanni (just Gio for short), next to him was a girl named Aeda but prefers to be called Nemo, and then the two guys standing were named Roland and Jacob. However, the one named Jacob kinda looked familiar to me... Have I seen him somewhere before? However before I get to put more of it on my finger he points to me and says "Hey haven't I seen you somewhere before?". I shrug. He then laughs. "Your the guy who keeps passing me on the bike every morning. Did I block your way today?". He laughs again. After he says that I do realize its him, I just didn't pick up on it cause I never got a clear shot of his face before.

Clair then introduces me and they all say my name as if I'm in some AA type club shit. I laugh and shake each of the guys hands while the girls wave at me. They resume their conversations and Keith walks over to join Sebastian and Giovanni, while Clair turns to me. "These are my friends. None of us are really academically smart, and because of that we kinda got typecast as the loner/outcasts." I nod before laughing slightly. I comment that I'm kinda smart and Clair just kinda giggles. "How smart are you? Cause the smartest of us is Gio. And he's got like B's in only a few of his classes." I just shrug and say that last year I got some A's but mostly B's. She nods but doesn't seem to surprised. "Well you miiiiiiiiight beat Gio then." She looks like she might say something else but then the first bell rings. Everyone grabs they're bags and splits into groups as they walk to their respective classes. As I walk in my own direction Marcelina starts calling my name from behind me. "My first class is in the 200 building. Is that where your headed?" She asks. "Yeah my first class is 209 Psychology. What's yours?" I ask back, trying to be polite. "I have 221 Spanish Three. Its gonna be a nightmare." She says before making a face as though she knows she's right. I laugh and she smiles back. 

We walk to our classes, we get to hers before mine cause the numbers work in such a way that the higher number classes are at the front of where we enter and then the smaller numbers are towards the back of the building. She waves by to me before entering her class and I briefly wave back. I then sigh. 

Sure these people seem nice but I don't know. Do I want friends? Do they really even care? They might just be being polite for Clair since she's the one who introduced me. I don't know. Maybe I'll just avoid them from now on.

...

I don't know. I feel awkward around them. Don't look at me like that. Making friends isn't easy. It's stressful. I don't even know why I took Clair up on that offer.