Welcome

Part 1

I left the house with my hands in my pockets. It's seventeen degrees outside. Why am I even in this position? I should be in my bed right now. Under my blankets and thinking about the work that I'm not going to do with a smile on my face.

But that's not going to happen. The school system just doesn't care apparently.

I'm up early. Earlier than any other student would be. This is because I walk to school. Me and two of my closest friends. I honestly don't know how we put up with it. We comfortably sleep in on the weekends knowing we did all of our homework the Friday afternoon, so maybe that has something to do with it. And since we have the exact same schedule, we can keep each other in check.

Speaking of, we need to start meeting up. I start my walk to the other neighborhood across the street. I find it convenient that we live so close to each other. It could've been one of the ways we met, but I honestly think that would've never happened.

Don't get me wrong, we're glad we've met each other. But it could have been under better circumstances...

Though, it has brought us closer than anything else would've. No one says anything about it, but I think the people at school know we've grown super close. They just don't know the reason. We are the odd ones out.

And I am glad to say that. But there's a small part of me that isn't...

"Hey, Scarlet." I automatically recognize the voice and look up from the sidewalk. I know it all too well.

"Hey Max," I said, "heading to Kira's house?"

"Yeah, I got her message," he said, taking out his phone. "I'm glad we wake up early on Fridays. This seems a little last minute." Kira usually doesn't do this sort of thing, especially this early in the morning when we have to go to school. Since it's Friday, we would go get breakfast before getting to school. I'm sure we'll still have time for that, but this must be important if she wanted us to come over.

"So, are we still hanging out after school today," Max asks while trying to warm his hands. "I don't see why we wouldn't. We don't have anything else planned for the rest of the day besides the homework, I guess," I said. I thought about the rest of the day in my head. Yeah, nothing should be happening. We should have a normal day.

Well, a normal day for us, that is.

We walk up to Kira's door and ring the doorbell. Her parents aren't home since they had to leave early for work.

"Who is it?"

"Kira, it's us," I said. 

"Scarlet? How do I know it's you?" We could hear her snickering behind the door. "Kira, open the damn door. It's freezing out here," Max said, a little aggravated. "Is it really," we heard her say. She is clearly enjoying herself, while we're out here freezing our ass off, giving her death glares through the door. We heard it unlock and she lets us in.

"Come in. It's nice and warm," Kira says with a smirk on her face. "You're lucky we like you," I said to her. But I can't help but smile. "So, what's up? Why are we here?" Max asks, starting to take his jacket off. "Well, you can keep your jacket on, because we're about to head back out," Kira says as she puts her on, "But I thought we should talk a little." She leads us back to the door and we walked back into the frigid air.

We start heading down the street to get breakfast. "This isn't about the thing, is it," I ask Kira. I just had a feeling she was going to bring it up. "It is," she started, "Look, we only have the weekend until the first Monday of the month. We can't just sit here and let it happen this time. We need to prepare at least..."

"Kira, you know we tried to do that already. We have to accept the fact that we can't get anything past them. Besides, they made it worse when they found out," Max states. And he's not wrong. We can't risk anything anymore. "It's been a year, you know... I'm sure they're going to point that out," Kira says, changing her tone of voice.

"Look," I put my arm around her, "we can't let them affect us as they have before. It's like we've become immune to it now. Or that's how we should act. But you're right. We need to end this sooner than later."

"We should probably stay together for the rest of the weekend in case they try anything," Max suggested. Once he said that it felt like something hit me, though it could've been the wind. "My parents aren't going to be home all weekend. They come back Monday afternoon. I'm sure you guys could just hang out there."
"I'm sure my parents won't mine," Kira said. "Then it's settled," Max says as he opens the door to the restaurant.

"Good. I'm starving."

...

We made it to school. I'm still surprised that we're here this early. Like thirty-five minutes before school starts. I silently congratulate ourselves.

We all go to our locker. "It's test day guys. Plan accordingly," Kira said fairly loud, walking down the hall to get to her locker. "We literally have a test in almost every class today," Max said, sounding a little annoyed. He stopped at his locker and put in his combination aggressively. I couldn't help but laugh. "What?" I go a couple of lockers down. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

...

We're on our way to class now. We still have thirty minutes until school starts, but they start serving breakfast now. We'll go after we drop our stuff off, even though we just ate. I'm only in it for the juice, to be honest.

We walk into the usual scene. All the desks lined up, the teacher's welcome board, the teacher...

And a student?

"Good morning guys," our teacher said to us. "Good morning," we say in unison. No one comes to class this early. We should know, as we just hang out here till school starts. But now that I say that, this student doesn't look familiar at all. Our class is small compared to others so I'm sure I would've recognized their face.

"If you don't mind, I would like to introduce you to these three. They are amazing students," the teacher said, talking to the student. "Guys, say hi to Maya."

"Hello," she said. We all waved back at her. She's so soft-spoken. It reminds me of when I first met Kira. "She's new here, so I'm sure you'll make her feel welcome."

We made eye contact from across the room as Maya turns back to our teacher. And I know we all have the same question.

"New student?"

-=-=-=-

Here we go. This very first chapter. How was it? I would like to know.

Do not forget your ideas! They could be small details or something that progresses the story. Hopefully, I have incorporated all the ones you had from before. If not, I will make sure they are there next time.

With that being said, have a good day.

-January 23rd, 2019