Pieces of Love

Chapter 3

Everyone says that the first day of school is tough, especially when you are going to be a freshman in one of the biggest high schools in San Francisco. For me, it was no different. However, Mrs Schmidt was right in saying that we should familiarise ourselves with the school beforehand. It was a breeze finding my homeroom, while other people had to make their way about, lost. The hallways were total chaos as freshmen were trying to navigate their way about.

Jacob, as it turned out, was in the same homeroom as me and it was a relief to know somebody familiar. Once I stepped into the classroom, I made my way over to him and smiled, earning a smile in reply. "It's so good to know that you are in my homeroom too," he said and I nodded my head in agreement. "I wonder who our teachers are and our classroom schedules..." I had my bag slung on one shoulder and plopped it down on the desk three rows from the front. Jacob followed suit, taking the desk beside mine.

"Guess we are kind of good friends now huh?" he said, looking over to me. I shrugged. Friends? Definitely. By now, students were starting to fill in the desks, some chattering with one another, some pulling out textbooks and stationeries. I fumbled with the leaf-shaped necklace hanging around my neck, nervous. I used to be the top student in middle school, but now, who knows what would become of me now that I'm in Clifford?

Smart footsteps echoed in the hallways and the classroom quietened down, all staring at the doorway in anticipation. A smartly dressed male teacher entered the classroom, his shoes clicking against the floor. Setting his folders down on the desk, he turned around and cleared his throat.

Rubbing his hands together, he said, "Well, good morning fellow students. You can call me Mr Brown and I am your homeroom teacher. This is where you will go before your lessons of the day and I expect everyone to be punctual once the bells ring." He had an air of authority and importance and seemed to have the rare power to keep his students quiet without any effort.

"As you know, you are at Clifford High, an institute of fine education. Over here at your four years at Clifford ..." Mr Brown droned on and on and I had to admit, I kind of zoned out a bit on the school rules. After his introduction, he marked our attendance and gave us our class schedules and locker combinations by calling our names one by one.

"Miss Emma White," Mr Brown called, glancing around the class. I stood up, self-conscious of myself and walked stiffly to the front, where I received my timetable. Heading back to my seat, I caught a grin from Jacob and grinned back before sitting back down. Once all of the schedules were distributed, Mr Brown smiled at all of us, or at least what I thought was a smile as it was hardly distinguishable beneath his killer moustache.

"You may now proceed to your classes," he announced, bringing in the scraping of chairs as the whole class stood up to leave. Jacob and I followed suit, and once we were out of the classroom into the jam-packed halls, we compared each other's timetable.

"Sweet!" Jacob exclaimed, a wide smile spreading across his face. "We share the same classes for Literature and History!" I glanced at my timetable again. "Too bad we are not in the same class for Music. If not, we can show off our amazing musical skills," I joked, laughing. Jacob chuckled and we walked to History class together, a strong friendship building between us.

***

It's lunchtime, the time when the whole school comes down to the cafeteria for lunch. For some reason this made me nervous, as I wasn't much of a sociable person. Surprisingly, Jacob just came to me naturally on our first Music elective lesson, as if we had known each other our whole lives. He had been the one source of comfort, the one other than my violin that helped distract me from the burning pain that I felt when that traitor dumped me for her. So it was with relief that the two of us walked down to the cafeteria together, talking about our new classes and teachers.