More Than Just a Krelboyne Friend

Chapter 1- Welcome, Krelboyne

"This is bull," Heather mumbled under her breath as she looked out the passenger seat window of her mom's 1997 BMW 5 series sedan.

"Hey, watch it. And, I know, I get it. You blended in with the popular crowd in Bluecorn High. But you were smarter than everyone in the school! Now, here, they offer a program that suites you. You'll make new friends." Her mother tried to convince her as she spoke through her dark red lips and straight white teeth.

"Yeah, weird friends. Plus, there's like, only one other girl in the class. And then it's just a bunch of lame nerdy boys, who-" she thought for a second "-who probably have never even TALKED to a girl before." Heather argued while still looking out the window. She was starting to be able to see the school down the road.

"Ah, sweetie, you can't make assumptions like that, now can you." Heather turned to face her mom but she was already facing her too.

"No. I guess not." She mumbled looking down. They arrived at the school.

"Well, here we are. Have fun, oh and you will have fun. And you'll make friends." Heather's mom pulled into a parking space and stopped the car. She turned to Heather and placed her hand on her left shoulder. She smiled, and Heather pulled a little smile to make her feel reassured too. "You've got this." She said firmly.

"I got this." Heather got out of the car and got her denim backpack out of the back seat. She waved goodbye over her shoulder and faced forward, walking towards the two main doors. She was 40 minutes late but the school already knew she'd be. So she made her way to the office.

"Hi, I'm Heather Wildens. The new-"

"Krelboyne! Ah, yes. Down the hall, the last room on the left." The lady interrupted.

Heather said thank you but she wished the lady didn't say it so loudly. Even though there was no one else in the office, she didn't want anyone who wasn't a krelboyne to know she were a krelboyne. Not yet anyway.

Her heart raced a little bit as she walked down the hallway to the room. They're all gonna be staring at me, she thought over. How will they react to... me? She twirled her crimped dirty blonde hair around her pointer finger once and opened the door to the class.

The teacher must've just been talking about her . "Ah! Here she is! Right on time. Come on in," he gestured for her to come in the room more. " Welcome. Why don't you introduce yourself?"

Heather didn't over think what she was saying as she spoke. She wanted to make sure she kept her cool. "Hi, I'm Heather." She casually informed the class. Nailed it. she thought. She stood there at the front of the class smiling a bit, looking at the teacher.

"Well, I'm Mr. Herkabe. Your seat's over there between Malcolm-" a kid with full eyebrows and a flannel waved a little and smiled while his eyes were transfixed on her. "-and Dabney." Another kid with a bowl cut and glasses, who was a little less handsome than Malcolm, waved more enthusiastically. He was wearing a green sweater vest with a lighter green button-up under it. Heather took her seat between them. Mr. Hurkabe talked for a bit more about Heather and what they did in the class, then he ordered for everyone to go work on their lab stuff. She obviously didn't know what that meant.

"Hey, you can partner with me." Malcolm proposed.

Heather smiled. She had to admit to herself, she kinda liked Malcolm just from the way he looked. But she didn't know how he acted as a person, so she thought this would be a good chance to get to know him. Suddenly a kid in a wheelchair rolled up to Malcolm and her.

He took a deep breath. "Me," he sighed out and took another deep breath "too." He informed Malcolm.

"Oh yeah, this is Stevie. He's my usual partner so we'll just be a group of three." Malcolm said as he walked over to a lab table.

"Sounds cool." She said and chuckled a bit. She walked to Malcolm, and Stevie wheeled himself over.

"Wow, this looks intense." She admitted, carefully observing all the tubes and liquids that were placed in front of her.

"Well then," Stevie began, "welcome" another deep breath, "krelboyne."