Different but Mostly the Same

Chapter Three

~Noah~

   "Isn't that right Noah?" I tune back in when I hear my name come out of Liz's mouth.

   "Sorry I was somewhere else," I say as I take another sip of my orange juice.

   "That's alright sweetheart I was just saying that we should take your father around the town to meet all these lovely new people," I nod as enthusiastically as I can manage. "Your father hasn't really met that many people yet. I don't even think he's seen much of the actual town for that matter."

   "I don't really like the idea of walking around from shop to shop introducing myself to everybody that passes by me. Lizzie, sweetie, I think we need to make friends organically," he places his hand on hers. I cringe.

   "Fine, but I do think we should host some kind of dinner for our new friends," Liz smiles and my father nods.

   "We don't have any friends," I say. "We don't know anybody in this town. Stop acting like we're back home." My dad shoots me a disapproving glare.

   Liz looks at me sympathetically. "Noah, I understand that this has all been a big change but you have to start embracing this new phase in our lives. Our family outgrew our little corner of Arizona, this is our chance, our chance to be one happy family."

   I can't believe those words actually came out of her mouth. We aren't a family, we're just a group of three people trying to convince everybody around us that we are a happy and healthy little family unit. This isn't my home and she isn't my mom.

   I push my chair out and pick up my dishes to put them in the kitchen sink, then I head off to school.

It's week four of the new semester and I still haven't really made any friends. A kid called Aaron has been letting me sit at his lunch table for the past couple of weeks. We don't really talk. I ask him about his day sometimes and he just gives me standard answers, nothing I ever want him to expand on. Every now and then when I really don't feel like sitting in painful silence with Aaron I wander around the hallways all break just listening to music. I really do want to make some friends but I feel as though I'm past the age when I can just introduce myself to people and ask to be their friend. Everybody at this school has known each other since they were born, I feel like I would be messing up the dynamic if I started integrating myself into the social groups.

I take my seat in business, I think it is easily my least favourite subject. It's pretty boring, there's really nothing to learn about and I have absolutely no interest in going into business at college after I finish school. The class is pretty small though and I do  appreciate that. I stand out a lot less when there are only a few people in the classroom as many of them sit by themselves anyway.

I sit there for a couple of minutes doodling on my notebook as I wait for the teacher to come in.

"Alright guys, today's the day," Mr Elms says as he walks through the door, placing his briefcase on the front desk on his way. "As I told you last lesson, we've finished the theory part of your senior business unit. So today you are going to be put in pairs to start brainstorming ideas for your new assignment."

I don't want to do this. I'm going to be stuck with the weird kid nobody ever wants to work with. Everybody is going to pair up with somebody they already kind of know and I'm going to be sitting here alone.

"So, to make this as quick and as painless as possible I have already chosen who you are going to be working with for this task." I hear a few disappointed students around the classroom, I personally, am really happy with this idea. "C'mon guys, I want this experience to be as authentic as possible. We don't always get to work with the people we are good friends with, sometimes you have to put up with people who are completely different to you."