High School at Laguna

Part 1

"Take care and have fun!" my mom said to me before I jumped out of the car.

I waved goodbye at her and ran towards the glass doors of Laguna Bay High. I slowed down once I entered. There were so many students there; it was like an elephant stampede. I let myself get pushed into it and immediately regretted it. It was an absolute nightmare for me, as I got claustrophobic. I started to push until I saw a door and ran towards it not caring about who I pushed down in the process.

I closed the door and started to breathe more calmly. Once I was sure that my heart rate was back to normal I looked up to see where I was.

The room was darker than the hall so it took some time for my eyes to adjust. When my eyes adjusted I saw a circle of chairs. The blinds were closed and there was a small lamp in the middle of the circle. The lamp was very dim, but I could see that there was a person sitting on the chair that was facing away from me. He was hunched over something I couldn't see. I was about to leave when I remembered the crowded hallway. So I turned around and decided to ask if the person would be able to escort me to the Principal's Office instead.

"Uh, hey," I said as I slowly walked towards the hunched figure. "Um so I kinda got caught into the crowd outside and came in this room to get out of it."

He slowly turned around to face me. I could only see the outline of his face made by the lamp. He tilted his head a little to the right and said, "So?"

"Well I was hoping if you could help me get to the Principal's Office," I said, "I need to get there to check in and you know, do the things new students do." I was a little surprised by his response but I still managed to get my request out.

"You're new?" he asked sounding a little surprised.

"Yeah" I told him.

He then stood up and put his arms around me. "Well then," he said as he pushed me towards the door, "let's get going."

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"I'm Gabby," Gabby said as we walked out of the Principal's Office.

"I'm Smriti," I said as I shook his hand.

"So when did you move here?" he asked as we walked down the hall.

"Last week," I replied, "but my family's been here longer."

He said nothing till we got to my locker. "So here's your locker, you can leave the things you don't need here and then I'll give you a tour of the school."

"But don't I need a lock?" I asked confused, "And what about class? Isn't it going on right now? Also—"

"Shhhhh" he put his finger up to my lip to silence me. "Your locker opens with your fingerprint. See this pad?" He said as he pointed to the rectangular pad where the lock would have been. "Just put any one of your fingers here to activate it."

I did as he said and the pad turned green and made a sound.

"It's done, now dump your stuff and follow me. We aren't going to class till after break."

"But..." I started to say but he was already starting to walk away. So I put my bag in the locker and followed him.

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The school had a big mural to the side of the building. Gabby said that every year each grade gets to design a painting that goes on the mural and then it is submitted to the principal. He picks the best one and the design is then painted on the mural. He also said that every year our grade always wins. It was all because of one person, Serena. She is a very popular girl in the school and is apparently great at designing. I was impressed by the description that Gabby gave of her and wanted to meet her soon.