A Harsh Reality | ✓

Chapter 16

Noah

Dealing with an eleven-year-old girl practically begging me to let her go to a concert with her friends knowing she is in no condition to go at six in the morning with only a few hours of sleep to rely on, is not my favorite kind of morning.

I arrived to school late and bumped into Amanda in the hallway. Her hand on her forehead, a small bag in the other. She was obviously lying about the cut she had, but I shrugged it off, knowing she wouldn't tell me and got to class. After what felt hours of numbers and equations the bell rang announcing the end of the class and the start of the next one. I felt like a zombie walking down the hall as students went every which way, hurrying to get to class. The metallic noises coming from the lockers as their doors swung shut and locked kept me awake until I had to go into my next class.

Barely awake, I managed to make it to lunch. I sat down next to Shane with a red tray in my hands, food that didn't even look like real food on top of it. As I try to eat the horrible food, I looked around the cafeteria. Aubrey and her friends sitting in a table with their boyfriends or whatever they were, smaller tables with smaller groups of people, larger tables with larger groups of people, and all the stereotypical groups of people in other tables. A table in the corner caught my eye though.

Amanda was sitting with her friend Hailey facing towards me. The cut was gone, meaning she had covered it and didn't want anyone to know about it, except I did know. They were sitting with another girl. The girl had short, wavy blond hair and big, brown eyes. Her jean shorts were covered in paint, even though her black top had managed to escape. The three of them were chatting excitedly as they ate their food.

"Who is she?" I asked Jack after a moment of eating, who had just sat down next to me and nodded my head towards the girl.

"Oh, she's new," he replied, "Today's her first day in school, I think she is an exchange student from somewhere in Europe."

"I heard she comes from Spain," Shane added.

"Great," I said sarcastically, "Maybe I'll have her in my Spanish class."

"Only one way to find out," Jack said and I rolled my eyes.

I threw my leftover food into the nearest trash can and went to fetch my books because the bell would be ringing soon. Usually, on Thursday's seniors have a shorter lunch period. I walked to my Spanish class, hoping that the new girl wouldn't be going to be there. I was not in the mood to be listening to a teacher scolding us for not learning spanish properly while she could learn english easily.

As soon as I sat down the bell rang, followed by the same metallic noises from the lockers earlier this morning, only this time they were fewer lockers. Students flooded into the classroom, chatting and sitting down as we all waited for Sra. González to arrive. And of course, for having the amazing luck that I have, the new girl walked in. She sat down directly in front of me. I sighed as I saw her turn around to meet me.

"Hola," she said, "You must be Noah." She flashed a magazine cover smile at me. She had a strong accent, obviously stating that she was from Spain.

"That's me."

"I'm Pilar," she replied.

"Lindo en conocerte," I said 'Nice to meet you', american english accent spilling out of my mouth. She laughed.

"When did you start learning spanish?" Pilar asked.

"A few years ago," I said, "What about you with english?"

"Since I was three."

"Wow, that's a lot," I said, "Why did you choose the exchange for?"

"I've never been out of Spain before," she explained, "And flying for the first time alone is scary, but it's for my education, and it would really help my curriculum. I need the scholarship for a university back in Spain." I nodded, completely understanding her.