Brand New Me

There are many things that are being processed in my head but the main one is saying, I don't want to be here.
I
I stood outside the gates of Arden High School and observed the students inside laughing or complaining about how early it was. I didn't want to be back. This was the city were I spent my early childhood in, which wasn't verte fond of. Long story short, my father had remarried, and of course his pushy wife convinced him to move back to the same neighborhood.

My mother had passed away when I was in middle school. It had been very tough for my dad, and he couldn't stand to live in the same house that held so many memories of the women who had meant the world to him. Using his job as an excuse, we moved out of California to New York. Three years has passed, and my dad had been sent back to California on a business trip, leaving my older brother in charge. When he came back a couple of months later, he sat us down and told us he was completely in love and had proposed to the women who was a total stranger to us.

We didn't argue or made any excuses about her. We wanted our father to be happy, and if marrying this woman meant that I couldn't stop him.

Unfortunately, we had move back to the place that was surrounded with good memories of my mom, and bad memories of my school life. I didn't want to be back. Life for me there had been hell. I had been teased everyday of my middle school years. I would come home crying, retelling the insults the student body threw at me.

I am now a complete opposite of the person I was in middle school. Back then I had huge glasses that covered half of my face, frizzy uncontrollable hair that would stick out everywhere, braces, and a face full of acne. I was the spitting image of a proactive ad. But when I was living in New York, I started to change. I began to wear contacts my freshmen year, and my clear blue eyes were visible. My hair that I had hated so much then, was straight and beautiful. My braces were gone and my face cleared. I wasn't intimidated anymore and no one poked fun of her. Over the years, she had outgrown the awkward girl, and she was now completely confident and positive about her self. But there was now a small part of her that worried she would go back to that girl in grade eight.

"Ready?' I turned to my brother who would be a senior this year. He had come to this school when he had been a freshman so he would already know his way around here. He had also been part of the popular crowd back then, so he would fit in perfectly. Lucky him.

"Truthfully, no," I said.

"C'mon Ari!" Ben chuckled, "This is a whole new stage in your life. Starting high school, in a different school, with new people. A change of events."

"You're trying to make me feel even more nervous then I already am aren't you?" I said.

"Maybe...is it working?" Ben smiled down at me.

I rolled my eyes, "Unfortunately."

Ben laughed and threw his arm around my shoulders, "Lets go, don't want to be late for first period!" He let go of me and he ruffled my hair messing it all up.

"Hey!" I reached up to slap him but his athletic reflexes dodged my hand. I turned away from him and looked at my reflection in the car in front of me, fixing my hair. I looked over to scold at him, but instead of standing next to me waiting, like I had expected him to, he had walked away and was now at least twenty feet away. I rushed to his side, "Don't leave me! You never know when someone can appear and jump me!"

"You'll eventually have to walk down this halls alone Ari," Ben smirked.

"It doesn't mean it has to be this exact moment," Eli looked around her surroundings as they enter the school.

"Ben?" A small voice said behind us. We both turned, and I saw the biggest smile appear on my brother's face.

"Sophie?" He asked.