Life Is Challenging (RE-MASTERED)

Chapter 1: Anxiety from Hell

        It's the end of summer vacation and my mother sent me to a town called Arcadia Bay so I could attend a school that I can be happy at.  My past is very tragic for schools and I refuse to talk about it.  My Mother thinks this is what's best so here I am, getting off my bus and looking up at the large letters on the school in front of me.

      "BLACKWELL ACADEMY huh? Seems decent of enough?"  I carry my suitcase and backpack up through the courtyard and open the front door of the school.  A different looking high school than I had anticipated.  Straight ahead were some lockers and the bathrooms.  A man in a light gray jumpsuit was painting a wall.  He had black hair and glasses and was singing a song to himself.

        I walk in the front doors and head into the office right next to the entrance.  A tall man opens the door, and welcomes me in, "Come in, come in, you must be James Carswell,  my name is Ray Wells.  Please have a seat."

        "Yessir, but please, I go by Jimmy, I hate my real name," I walk into his office and sit in the seat in front of his desk.  The name Ray Wells, was on a plaque on the desk. "Umm Principle Wells? I'm sorry but I don't think I'll be comfortable here."  Noticing how nervous I am, he closed his door and sits at his desk.

         "Now Jimmy, I know your first day at a new school is enough to make anyone nervous, I may not know what happened at your previous schools but I can assure you, you will make many friends here at Blackwell.  In fact you'll make one in just a few minutes."  He picks up the phone on his desk and dials a number, "Yes, Mark? This is Ray, please send Max to my office please. Thank you." 
    
       Max? I think to myself.  I hope he is cool, I don't want a preppy asshat dragging me around sounding like they are showing off to the new kid, fuck those preps.

       Principle Wells' office door opened and in walked a young brunette about my age, 17 or 18? I couldn't place it but she was gorgeous, her messenger bag hung at her right hip and she had an old time Polaroid camera around her neck, "You wanted to see me Principle Wells?"
  
        "Ah Max, this is James Carswell, he is our new student, please take the liberty of showing him around campus and make sure to answer any questions he may have, I have also had the liberty of excusing you from your classes for the rest of the day." 
     
            Max is a girl?! Damn I hope I don't say anything stupid or embarrassing in front of her.

       "If you'll follow me James, we can get started okay?" She flashes me a smile as I trip over my own bag and mumble something about purple dinosaurs.  "Oh my god, are you okay?" She walks over to check on me as I smoothly and nonchalantly get up.
     
          "Yeah I'm fine, I was just checking for the elves that tripped me." We both laughed as Principle Wells just stared at me and shook his head.   I followed Max out the front door to the swimming hall, and she stops and looks at me.

        She extends her hand out "Max Caufield at your service, actually it's Maxine but never call me Maxine." I shake her hand and say, "My name is Jimmy Carswell, It's actually James but please don't call me James, nobody calls me that unless I'm in deep trouble."

       We both go into the pool hall and she shows me the pool, I notice the locker rooms and she explains that this place is the main hub of the "vortex club parties" I don't even know how to process that "The Vortex Club? What the fuck kind of thing is that? "Sounds dumb as hell" I say chuckling, Max laughs at my words too and agrees. 

    "It's this popular kids club, a girl by the name of Victoria Chase runs it and she is one bitch of a woman.  You'll meet her soon enough."  Max says looking at me.

       After she showed me around some more and noticing how I seemed tired and beat, I ask Max to show me to the boys dorms, which she happily does. We walk past the fountain in the middle of the school grounds, and I notice some posters of a missing girl.

    "Rachel Amber? What happened to her?"  I ask Max.

   "Nobody knows, that's why there are so many posters.  She was the most popular girl here, and out of nowhere she just disappeared."

        As we enter the dorm courtyard, I hear someone running from behind "Hey, Mad Max whatchu doin? Is this the new guy? What's up man? My names Warren what's yours? I love your shirt man," he points at my Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith shirt.  "Thanks Warren, my name is Jimmy, and yes Star Wars is very cool."  All three of us laugh, I ask Max to help me get my luggage to my room, she obliges and Warren also helps. 

       Turns out, my room is right next to Warrens, I look at the clock on my phone and notice it's 8 o'clock already.  "Shit it's that late? I'm so hungry, do you guys know where to get some food around here?"

    Max and Warren both look at eachother and say in unison "The Two Whales!" I thank them for helping me carry my luggage and Max makes Warren and I both promise to meet her outside in 10 minutes.  

       "Warren, you mind waiting outside for a minute? I gotta change before we leave." He agrees and heads into his room.  I pull off my shirt and throw it on the ground, and pull out my favorite shirt, I don't know why but I have a feeling I'll need this shirt tonight, so I put it on, and the logo "Avenged Sevenfold" was on the front, my favorite band.  I change from my nice slacks, to a pair of ripped jeans and my nice shoes to some green converse.  I feel so much better and more, myself, so I  head outside.  Warren looks at me, "Damn bro, looking sharp or what? Come on, let's go meet Max, she'll kill us if we are late.

      We meet Max and all head to the bus stop heading for downtown Arcadia Bay, for the Two Whales Diner, which Max swears I'll love, she also swears I'll love the waitress. 

    "What is there to do in Arcadia Bay? Where I'm from we had a comic store, an arcade, an indoor skydiving place, and also a huge IMAX theater.  It was so awesome, the seats were set up to shake when the screen shook, there were also speakers next to your head that were more effective for scary or suspenseful movies." I say.

   "Arcadia Bay is boring but there is a comic shop in one of the next towns over, the movie theater is about an hour away though, but we have the Two Whales, which is an okay trade off."  Warren says patting my back.

"Yeah, Jimmy, you'll love it.  Trust us."  Max says smiling at me.