When we enter the dining hall, Charlie leads me to a table full of other juniors she seems to know from previous years. They are all polite and introduce themselves, but I can already tell that they are not looking to add any people to their social circle. Not to mention, I can hear one girl, clearly the "leader" of the wolf pack, whisper something about my clothes to the girl next to her. This doesn't last for long though because we are all hushed down by the entrance of who can only be the head mistress as she sits at the front of the room in the center of the large wooden table. Coming up to a podium she begins delivering the welcome back speech. I start to doze off due to the jet lag and find myself awoken by someone calling my name.
"Miss Porter please come to the front."
I jolt wake clearly confused as to why the hundreds of people in the room were all staring at me.
But Charlie gives me a big push off the bench and I stumble up to the stage, joining the three others: two guys and a girl. I guess we are the only new students and are meant to share a little bit about ourselves. The first guy starts talking about some region in England that I could honestly care less about, so I start looking around. And that's when someone nudges me in the ribs.
"Hey piss off-" and then I look up at the face of the person who I had practically violated no later than 3 hours ago.
-Remember me?" He says in a relatively cocky way.
I'm so embarrassed I practically don't realize that it's my turn to speak.
"Ummm... Hi. I'm Avery and I guess you can all already tell that I'm American."
This made everyone in the room laugh.
"Where?!" Someone shouts out.
"Uhh- California. LA to be exact."
I hear some oohs and ahhs coming from the crowd. They have clearly all been brainwashed by television and gossip magazines due to all the murmurs about Beverly Hills and celebrities. Little do they know that for most of us, life is definitely not as glamorous as it seems on TV.
I don't think this moment can get much more awkward so I just make it clear that I'm done, for the next person to start, which happens to be the jerk next to me.
"Hey, I'm Chase and I'm from Melbourne, Australia if the accent didn't reveal that already."
How did I not get that this morning, he clearly sounds Australian! Whatever, I take this time to really look him over. Though he seems like an ass, he is definitely easy on the eyes. Towering over me, his blond hair is perfectly tousled while a little afternoon shadow has settled on his chin. But the highlight of his good looks had to be his eyes. I don't understand how they could be that green. They almost looked fake. I also discovered he had a nervous habit of playing with his lip piercing while talking. His right eyebrow is also pierced.
Kinda cute, in a rugged way. Wait no. Stop. This is the bastard that reminded you of the embarrassment of earlier and seemed proud of it. I'm snapped out of my thoughts by his thickly accented voice warming my ear:
"You don't seem like much of the valley girl."
He reveals his teeth a little while smiling. Wow, just wow. No. Stop Avery. Not the time.
Admittedly, he has a point, I don't look like the typical Cali chick. I'm fairly pale and I hate wearing my bathing suit. Plus I burn really easily, so I tend to stay away from the beach. But he doesn't fit in with the Australian type either.
"Well you don't look like much of a surfer dude either."
Finally some confidence Avery, there you go. And with that I walked back to the table with Charlie and her friends.
YOU ARE READING
The Not-So Brits
Teen FictionAn escape. That's what this boarding school was. What was I escaping? My own life, maybe even myself. *********** Different. Outcast. Unsocial. All words to describe Avery Porter. Yet who called her this? No one but herself. Her walls, much to other...
