Her Little Secret

Chapter 3

The trip took two days. It was dozens of painful hours being in a crammed vehicle. But we finally reached our new house on Saturday. It was a classic ranch house with rust-brown bricks. Our new home. It was surrounded by evergreen trees, and pine cones were scattered everywhere on the lawn. We were definitely somewhere else.

We got out of the truck and I stood still at the end of the driveway, faced towards the house. My mom came up to me and put her arm around me like a side hug. She kissed my forehead. "Welcome home."

Those words became engraved in my brain. Welcome home. Welcome to your new life.

We unpacked. I walked into my room. The walls were painted a light gray. Really pretty, actually. I got my bed and desk set up. I organized my clothes into my dresser. Boxes surrounded the walls of the inside of our house by the end of the day. We set up most of the furniture by the end of the weekend. I had to get used to the new environment still. But yet, the house wasn't pleasing me.

-

In the next week, I had to attend my new high school. It was the first day of school for everyone, so I pretty much blended in. But it was a big school. My old school wasn't this big, so I had to get adjusted to it.

The lockers were a deep red color. There were hundreds lined up throughout the endless amount of halls. My locker number was 136. The locker neighbor on the left of me was a short boy with short black hair, and on the right was a quite attractive girl with long brown, wavy hair. She was right behind my locker door. Before everyone left and the final bell rang, she turned around to greet me. I closed my locker to give my attention to her. I smiled.

"Hi, I'm Allison." She gave an almost too-sweet smile. Her eyes were stunning and piercing.

Of course, I smiled back. "I'm Claire. I guess we're locker neighbors, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"I'm new here - to the area, actually. I kinda know everyone's new here, but I just moved, so I have some adjusting to do," I explained.

"Oh, absolutely! Where are you from?"

"I'm from Connecticut, quite far from here."

"Okay. Well, welcome to Minnesota. I could show you around town sometime, if you wanted to," she offered.

"Oh sure, sometime," I said.

"Okay, I'll see you 'round then," she said as we went our own ways to our homerooms.

I had to get to room 112. It was only a few rooms away.

I was about to walk through the doorway of the room when someone practically body slammed me to the floor. I fell to the ground, landing on my hip. I fell like a fallen princess. I lost control of my arms and my books and pencils flew everywhere. I gasped. I had to look up to see who pushed me down. It was a boy... The first thing I saw was his eyes. When we made eye contact, it was almost love at first sight.

Quickly, I returned to reality. His whole face widened. "I'm so sorry! I really don't know what happened! Are you okay?" I kind of examined him. He had this sort of sexy brown hair and sweet blue eyes.

I looked around to make sure I was alright. I was. He reached out his hand to pick me up. I was blushing big time. He pulled me up slowly. I couldn't help but smile. When I stood up, I said, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"I'm really sorry." He bent back down to pick up my stuff. As he handed everything to me, he added, "I'm Carter by the way."

"Well, I'm Claire," I answered back. I thought I saw him wink at me for a split second as he turned away. Maybe he did.

And then we walked into the room together.

There were already a dozen kids in the class who took a seat. I quickly spotted a desk to sit at before anyone could pick that seat. I looked around the classroom. Carter was only four seats away from me.

The rest of the students found seats for themselves when an adult, whom I assumed was the teacher, walked in. It was a younger man. He was wearing a peach polo shirt and khaki pants. He was a clean, well-dressed man. He went to the front of the classroom to speak. "Welcome to sophomore year, students. I'm Mr. Foundland. For now, I am your homeroom teacher. I am also the biology teacher, so I will see all of you sometime throughout the day." He glanced at the school clock on the wall. "Alright, I have five minutes to explain your schedules."

He picked up a packet of papers from his front desk, and started explaining what the rest of the year was going to be like. But I wasn't really listening to him. I was kinda checking everyone out. I have to admit I was checking out Carter too. He was cute, no doubt.

Then out of nowhere, a bell rang. It must have been the first hour of the day. "Alright, have a great first day, everyone," the teacher added as the class dashed out the room. "If you have any questions, just ask!"

I grabbed my stuff and followed the rest of the crowd. My first class was just down the hall. I was one of the first people to show up to the class...I guess I was early? The teacher in the room told me to sit wherever I wanted, so I sat in the center middle. Just like a typical nerd. Lol. Within the next 30 seconds, people filed through the door. Out of them was my locker neighbor, Allison.

She smiled at me the instant she saw me. She rushed towards me and said, "We're in the same class! That's exciting!" and then sat in the desk next to me. I was pretty happy that I made an instant friend. I was kinda in need of friends at the moment so...

"Yeah, I know right?" I said in agreement.

The class soon started, cutting off our short convo. Halfway through the class, we did an activity where we were asking people how their summers were and telling each other a little bit of themselves. It was basically a half hour of socializing with the class. Pretty much of what I needed. And Allison and I talked the entire time...oops.

"So, have you made some new friends yet?" she asked.

"Um, not too many, the school day barely started," I said as I chuckled a little. "Well, this guy...caught my eye, I guess."

Allison's eyes widened. "OMG, who? Spill!" She talked to me like I was her best friend. It was slightly amusing.

"Well," I answered, feeling my cheeks getting red, "this boy named Carter- "

She cut me off quickly. "Ooooooh, Carter. I know him. Sweet dude," she nodded in approval. I smiled. "You should go out with him! He's single," she added as she nudged my shoulder.

Oh goodness. "Well, maybe. He seems pretty cool," I said, shrugging, playing it cool. But on the inside, I was jumping for joy. I thought I was really into him. My stomach fluttered at the thought of dating.

"Ask him out," she suggested.

Smiling, I said, "I think I will. This week maybe."

She smiled back. "He's into girls like you. He'd say yes to you."

Wow! "Well, okay then. Thanks!"

-

In biology, the class right before lunch, I noticed that Carter and I were in the same class. This could not get any better. He actually was sitting in the desk right behind me too. When it was free time for the last 10 minutes of class, I wanted to talk to him. I thought by maybe giving him my number would be a good start. I opened my pencil case and took out a pen and a slip of paper. I wrote my number on one side of the slip and my name on the other. I turned and was about to hand him the slip.

The only thing that stopped me was that he was flirting with another girl.