Erin

Starting Over

Chapter 2 - Starting Over

The whole thing felt like it was a dream.

I got out of the car. My mom said, "Bye, Erin. Have a great day," from the driver's seat. I didn't respond. The car drove away almost silently as I stared past the metal gates into the schoolyard.

After a patch of green grass, the school was a complete absence of color. Made of gray stone, gray stairs, everything gray, the school didn't look like a fun place to be. At all.

I walked up the gray steps to the front of the school. Lots of other kids dressed in gray and green, the school uniform, accompanied me. I found myself in what I assumed to be a lobby, with a small doorway leading to an office, and two hallways streaming off in either direction. I stood there, wondering which way to go, as students passed me and moved down either hallway, like a river that branches off into two streams. "You need help?" I heard a voice behind me. I turned around to see a tall, smart-looking, and cute boy staring down at me. He had wavy brown hair that reminds me of the rays of the sun. His silver eyes were like two coins. I glanced at the schedule in my hands. "Do- do you know where room A6 is?" I asked nervously.

"What a coincidence," he said. "I'm going there too. And rooms A1 to A20 are on the left, A21 to A40 on the right. Just so you know. On the second floor it's the same, but with B's."

We wandered down the left hallway. Gray stone floor, gray lockers. The hallway seemed more brightly lit than any school hallway I'd been in before. The boy walked at a fast pace, past the rooms we had no interest in. A12, A10, A8...

"Here we are," he said. As we walked in, everything started moving in fast motion. We immediately found ourselves looking at a large classroom of students, all wearing green and gray, all making enormous amounts of noise, talking, laughing, sitting on desks. We were greeted by our home room teacher, Ms. Dyer.

"Welcome back, Tyler, it's so great to see you. Hello, you must be my new student, Erin." I nodded my head. "Welcome to our school, Erin. I know you'll have three great years here." Another nod.

"Come on, I'll introduce you," said Tyler. He dove into the mob of students, and I had no choice but to follow. He introduced me to every single student in the classroom, and I forgot all of their names soon after. Chaos. That was what it was.

Finally the bell rang, and the students all climbed down off the desks and sat in their seats. I watched, stunned, as noise turned quickly to silence. Tyler motioned for me to sit next to him. I sat, smiling. Ms. Dyer addressed her home room class with a speech I didn't listen to. At least not until she called my name. "I'd like to introduce our new student, Erin." She gestured to me. If there's one thing I hate, it's being singled out. And right then, everyone was only staring at me. What did they expect me to do? "Hi," I said, and that seemed to please them. Some kept staring, but most looked back to Ms. Dyer as she gave the rest of the speech. Blah blah blah, what to do during a fire drill, blah blah, uniform, blah. Nothing I hadn't heard before. She finally looked up at the students, gave a little smile, and said, "That is all," right before the bell rang for first period.