Saving Ellie

Chapter Two: Getting in the Swing of Things

Chapter Two

    Here I am! I just entered the extremely large place that was….

    Not that big.

    So,  this is my school? I know I was told it was small, but I was still expecting two floors. Here, there was a main hallway and a few branching off. That’s all! The whole school only held about four hundred kids though, a hundred per grade. This was big enough.

I actually could not explain at this moment how happy I was that this school was not a big old hunk of smelly kids.

    “Val, let me see your classes!” I handed Serena my schedule. “We have third and last hour together. That’s the benefits of a small school!”

Turns out I had at least one of my friends in every class except fourth hour. Let’s just hope fourth hour wasn’t full of… you know…

    Alyssa and I walked to first hour. “Math. Mrs. Byres. Let’s see… Should be this way.” We made our way through the kids and found our class. It was a small classroom with about twelve seats only. I sat in the back with Alyssa.

“Welcome to Tybee High! This is the Algebra One course. In here you will learn about…”

    And she proceeded to describe what we were going to learn. At the end of class, she handed out a syllabus for our parents to sign.

    Almost every class was like that. I was a little nervous when it came to fourth hour, but no worries. I found a nice seat in the back.

    A few more kids came into the classroom. Fortunately, it was a small class, like the others.

    “Hey everyone! My name is Mr. Fredrickson. I will be teaching you history. I’m hoping to make this class fun, as you know how boring history could be.

    Mr. Fredrickson was a young guy, maybe in his later twenties. He looked like the fun type of teacher. Now, all I have to do is get to know some people in this class.

    Everyone looked around when he called my name. “Valerie Lane?” “Here.” I said shyly.               “Oh, there in the back of the class. Don’t be shy! I see you’re new here. Don’t worry! In time, you’ll fit right in.”

    I felt myself turning a little red. Here we go with the “new girl” moments. They all happen somewhere.

  The teacher continued the role call. “Marianne Portland?”

“Here!”

“Drew Jackson?”

“Here.”

“Landon Collins?”

… No answer.

“Where’s Landon? Well, I guess he might show up tomorrow.”

Mr. Fredrickson continued the class, handing out our syllabuses as usual. Since today was a half day, we only had thirty-minute classes, and about fifteen minutes before the bell rang, the door opened.                                                                                                                                                                 “Mr. Fredrickson, History?”

“Yes, and who are you?”

“Landon Collins. Sorry I’m late. My locker was jammed and... I kind of got lost.”

Mr. Fredrickson smiled. “It’s okay, go have a seat. There’s one in the back, sorry about having to be in the back…”

    Landon walked in. He must have been a little bit taller than me. He had blonde hair that fell in his face, brushing down his forehead and bright green eyes.