Snapshots: An unofficial Riverdale story

Prologue

What's the deal?

I ask myself that everyday and I can never come up with an answer. The usual roll call in class, marking me late if I arrive a minute early.

What's the deal?

I guess I'll never know.

"Audra Odette?" Mr. Tomlin glanced around the room. "Do we have an Audra?"

"Here." She emerges from her headphones.

"Ok." I zone out as Mr. Tomlin calls more names and his voice is comforting, but in a professional and interested way.

After a few minutes of drowning in morning haze and names, I hear my own name. "Phoebe Shiloh?"

"Present." I say somewhat sarcastically, the hum of my body working to keep me alive was a nice, captivating sound, and it was almost enough to remove me from my current location. Remove me from here, Southside High School, and take me somewhere serene. Where I could hear the sounds of nature and the peaceful, working silence.

"Toni Topaz?"

Toni walked into the room as he said this, and she sat down silently. "Here."

Without looking from his list, Mr. Tomlin sighed. "Late pass please."

Toni rolled her eyes and left for the attendance office.

"Ok now that that's over with, please take out your Great Gatsby study questions for chapter 3."

Crap.

I trudged down the hallway and grimaced at the pungent smell of the same halls I had walked for two years. Staring down at my phone and adjusting the volume of my earbuds, I didn't notice who was next to me or the tall figure that lurked behind me.

Reaching my locker, I saw that the lock was turned around on spot next to me. Great, another grunting locker neighbor. I snapped the lock open and shoved my Spanish notebook into my locker and headed to Biology. Right before I left I stopped. Maybe the new kid would be different than everyone else at this stupid school. Maybe they care about how your day went and maybe they're a good listener.

New people are constantly breaking my heart. One minute, you're hopeful for a bright future and the next you're staring at your texts and realizing that everyone's always the same. One minute you're laughing and you feel empty of worries and sadness and then you're alone again on your front porch, watching the beat-up cars roam the streets for something that'll give their life some meaning.

I knew I shouldn't have tuned around, it would be like every encounter I'd ever had.

Curiosity tilted my head back to my locker. A tall boy with a gray beanie stared intently at his lock, forcing it open. He caught my eye and let out a weak smile. I raised my head in acknowledgement and turned for the J wing.

That one moment set off a chain reaction that I could never reverse. It created something that I wouldn't even begin to fathom that a small smile could create.