The Misfits

Estelle

Today was my first day at this new school, or should I say this new prison that I'm going to. What a pathetic waste of your teenage years, am I right? Anyway, I had to get up really early today for the stupid first day so that I could fix myself up a bit. At my last school in New York, I wasn't in the slightest bit ready for this crap. I went in without makeup and with my crazy hair and everyone hated my from the beginning.

Yeah, that was pretty bad. Everyone hated me from then on so I just had to suck it up and move along and go screw themselves. It worked okay on some idiots. So now I have to start all freaking over. My dad had this whole freak out last month after getting drunk at a bar, he tried to kill Mom and I. He was sent to jail and me and Mom had to get out of there.

So we went here. I mean, California isn't bad. It's just the stupid school. And my stupid alarm clock wakes me up. That's what happened this morning and it scared my out of my wits, not to mention it also woke my mom up.

Anyway, so now I'm standing in front of the school and my hands are all shaky and sweaty and I'm staring around at all of these clique groups. Football players, hot bad boys, giggling girls with makeup covering their whole face, nerds already studying for a test, cheerleaders doing stunts, the norm. That's how it was at the old school. Complete crap.

There seemed to be only one chic who wasn't in one of those stupid cliques. She was sitting on the brick wall, scribbling away in a notebook and in a sweater when it was freaking a hundred degrees outside! This girl was gonna die of a heat stroke!

Even though the girl wasn't in one of the dumb cliques, she didn't seem like my type of friend. So I went off on my own and sat in the grass, leaning against a tree. I adjusted my The Beatles concert t-shirt that Mom gave to me and my black shorts. I was wearing a pair of combat boots and my auburn hair was piled on top of my head in a messy bun.

I pulled my sketchbook out of my bag and began drawing one of those freaking hot bad boys. Gosh I wanted to screw him. He had messy black hair and twinkling blue eyes that flashed grey every time he looked at the giggling girls. And he wasn't too stocky or anything, but not to lanky either.

I guess I should tell you a little more about me. I'm an artist, I got it from Mom except she's like ten times better than I am. She sells her paintings and we make a living off of the money she gets, it seems like a pretty sweet job if you ask me. I love to draw and paint. I like to take jogs when I need to be alone and I love to take artsy photos of anything that catches my eye.

That's basically all you need to know about me. I mean, you don't really need to know that hate sports and that I'm awful at them or that I'm forgetful or that I get distracted easily OR that my biggest fear is being completely isolated.

The bell rang a little while later and I saw the girl run inside after all of the students and the hot bad boy wave to his friends and go towards the back of the massive group with his hands in his pockets.

I so would've went up to flirt but the thing is, I suck at flirting and then I'd ruin any chances of getting with him. So I just sorta followed after him while staring at his butt. That's not creepy or anything right? You probably hate me already.

I checked the paper that had all of the stuff I needed on it then walked over to my locker. Everything was so neat inside here with all my books perfectly aligned on the top shelf and everything else empty. It made me feel dizzy just looking at the neatness, this needed to be a little messier.

I threw in my sketch pad and my backpack then messed up the books a little bit. I checked my paper again, my first class would be math. I sighed and pulled out my math textbook and checked the map of the school. It looked forever away and there were all of these twisted hallways and confusing things.

Being the person I am, I didn't even try to figure it out. Instead, I looked around for a nerd and saw a guy that looked like he'd know where the math classroom was. He wore a pair of thick, black glasses and he had nice, blue eyes.

"Hey! Hey you!" I yelled as he began walking away. I ran after him, tripping over my own feet a couple times. "Whatzername?" I asked him.

"Excuse me?" He asked, raising one eyebrow. He was my same height and up close, he was kinda cute.

"What is your name?" I asked him, pronouncing every word as if they were a separate sentence.

"Um... Halden." He replied with an amused look on his face. "And you?"

"Estelle." I replied, nodding my head awkwardly. "You new here?" I asked.

"Yes, why?" Halden replied, looking me up and down and making me feel slightly uncomfortable, but it was also kinda nice. He wasn't bad looking, ya know.

"Crap, I new too. You don't happen to know where the math classroom is, do you?" I asked him. It was like everything I said to him was a question, I felt a little bad.

Halden rose both of his eyebrows this time. "Oh, the math classroom. Yes, I do know where that is." He replied, his eyes lighting up as if just the mentioning of math made him feel happy. This guy seriously was a nerd. "That is my next class if you want to walk with me." He said.

I nodded, grinning from ear to ear. "That'd be great, thanks!" I said.

Together, we began walking to the math classroom while talking and telling each other about ourselves. I found out that Halden was from Idaho, that he had a passion for math and really liked science, that he was pretty freaking smart, and that he was an only child. He seemed pretty cool.

Once we made it into the math classroom, we both sat down in the second row next to each other. I saw that one girl again, she was sitting in the first row close the window, still scribbling in her notebook. I wonder what she's writing about...

That's when the math teacher walked in. He was really thin and way super tall with dull brown hair that was graying. He had a pair of glasses perched on his nose. "Hello, my name is Mr. Jackson, I am your math teacher." He said, smiling wearily like he was tired.

He passed out a notebook to each of us. "Now a quick little introduction would be great just so that everyone can get to know each other." He sighed. Everyone began introducing themselves row by row. Once it reached that girl, she stood up hesitantly.

"Charlotte Lightwood." She said quietly then quickly sat back down as if the attention frightened her. When it was my turn, I spoke my name loud and clear, but maybe a little shaky. My face heated up at all the attention and I sat back down quickly, just like the other girl.

Found something we have in common.

Halden smiled at everyone while he said his name. He was a really friendly guy, I kinda like that about him. But in a friend way.

"Keep in mind that these will be your seats for the rest of the school year. Okay, I think that we're good. We should get right into it, shall we? Open up your math textbooks to page five and your notebook to the first blank page. Put the date at the top and..." He droned on about everything we had to do like we were second graders.

I did everything he said and listened to him go on and on about stupid math things that I didn't get, but Halden looked totally interested. He stared at Mr. Jackson, clinging to every word and writing notes every chance he got. His whole first page was filled up front and back. He was a crazy man!

Math was over half an hour later and I went out of the classroom, already feeling beat. I didn't fill up my notebook half as much as Halden, but I didn't really care. "Wowzah, Halden! You're crazy!" I laughed.

Halden laughed with me. "Yeah, well." He shrugged. "Do you need any help with the math assignment?" He asked, eyeing my half filled first page of my note book [ not even front and back ].

I looked up at him, eyes wide. "Math assignment?" I asked.

Halden laughed again. "I'll take that as a yes. I'll give you my number after school today, sound good?" He asked.

I nodded, running a hand over my hair. "Crap." I whispered as we walked back to our lockers.