Joanne through the years.

A New Life

Dianne

"Do you need me to walk you in?" My mother asked worriedly as she pulled up beside the school gate.

"'Ill be fine" I said confidently. My mum had always been rather over protective.

"Do you know where you're going?" Her forehead creased into a frown.

"I'll ask someone" I glared at her.

"make sure you text me because-"

"MUM! I know what I'm doing" I took off my seatbelt and turned fully around so she could see my glare.

"Sorry darling" Mum soothed. "I just get worried, you know. Things didn't work out in Australia so how do I know if the people are any nicer in England?"

"I'll be fine" I slung my school bag over my shoulder and opened and got out the car door.

"Where's my kiss?" My mum pouted. A large group of girls around my age, walking past, heard what she said and began to giggle loudly. I sighed, before rolling my eyes.

"Did I do something wrong darling?" Mum frowned.

"Don't worry about it" I grimaced. My mum pouted her lips again.

"Love you." I closed the car door and walked away. My mum was clearly shocked and took a few seconds to regain control and drive away. I looked up at my new school. It was large and a dull grey colour. Tall iron fences ran around the perimeter. I sighed. I didn't want to leave Australia but I had to because of my dads job. I had got bullied there but I did have a best friend called Oti that I had to leave behind. I still remembered crying as we said our final goodbyes. We had been together since birth. We had spent almost everyday together for the last sixteen years before it all ended with my dad getting offered some really good job in London. I was quite early so I just gazed in through the iron bars. I was so getting lost here. I pulled my timetable and a map that my mum had given me out of my pocket. I had registration first with Mr O'Neil in room 211.

"Oooooh its a newbie" a voice said behind me. I spun around and came face to face with a group of boys.

"Hi" I said uncomfortably.

"Pfft" One of the boys said. I was slightly taken aback. All the boys were looking at me in a mocking way apart from the two furthest away from me. A short (but still taller than me, around 5' 8"), skinny boy with a mop of light brown hair and blue eyes along with a taller, dark haired boy with glasses.

"Where are your manners?" The boy with glasses spoke to the rest of the boys in a thick South African accent. "I'm Byron" he held out his hand for me to shake. I took it. "This is Joe" He nodded his head towards the shorter boy. He grinned a cheeky grin and extended his arm to shake my hand. He was kinda good looking and was the kind of boy that you took any opportunity to touch so I took his hand and held it for a little longer than necessary but he didn't appear to notice.

"Mikey, Jack, Oli, Conor, Josh and Caspar." He pointed to each of them in turn.

I looked nervously at them. All five of them were glaring at me.

"What's your name?" Jack grunted.

"I'm Dianne Buswell" I stated, my Australian accent coming out more than usual.

"Nice accent" Joe grinned.

"Thanks" I blushed.

"What's on your head anyway. It looks like a squirrel died there" Mikey laughed. I tugged the ends of my bright red hair self consciously. Everyone except Joe and Byron laughed at Mikey's snide remark.