{source: Pinterest photo: Allie Marie Evans as Evelyn}
"Sorry", he apologizes before he quickly turns his back on me.
"Hi - I mean sure", I blurt out without thought, coming back to reality. Wow, I'm so embarrassing. Why can't I form words like a normal person?
I watch the guy I bumped into walk down the hall and into a room. Oh, right. I need to find my class. And my locker. I'll do that later though. First, I must find my first class of the day.
I walk down the hall and find a piece of laminated paper taped on the wall with a class list on it. I walk up to it and anxiously scan the numbers and names. I eventually find my class and walk down the hall to find the number. I take a deep breath before I enter.
As I open the door, anxiety bubbles up even more in my body as I see every eye in the class on me. Including the teacher.
"Welcome, Ms. Kaegi. I'm Mrs. Snow", the teacher greets after she saw me enter.
"Hi", I say in a shy manner, pulling my hair as I look around the room in awkwardness.
"Have a seat", she says as she gestures over to the empty seat waiting for me in the front of the room. Wait, the front of the room?!
I slowly walk over to the desk and sit down in the seat. I lay down my heavy bookbag and sigh. Now that I'm seated I feel a little less like a nervous wreck.
Mrs. Snow turns around in her chair and scoots up toward the whiteboard. She opens up a dry erase marker and writes down words.
"Today, we will learn these terms as we read today", the teacher informs.
Oh, I forgot to mention that this class is English. I'm not good at it... or fond of it for that matter. So I'm sure Mrs. Snow and I will get along great this year.
⛧ﾐ
The bell rings and I hear everyone behind me get up from their seats. I stay seated as I try to answer the last question on this quiz. I stare at the question thinking until Mrs. Snow says, "It's alright if you don't finish, Nicole. Just guess on the last one, I won't grade you today."
A feeling of relief hit me as she said those words. I circle an answer and get up from my seat. I hand the paper to Mrs. Snow and leave the classroom.
I go out into the hallway and try to find my locker again. As I make my way down the hallway, I see this girl at the corner of my eye eyeing me up and down. I watch her as she jumps in front of me, preventing me to walk further. I stop and look at her in confusion.
She has curly blonde hair that reaches all the way down to her waist and a bunch of makeup is on her face.
"Hello, you must be the new girl", she greets, more like announcing with her booming voice, making sure everyone surrounding us is able to hear. Her greeting didn't seem genuine, might I add. Her friends come up behind her on each side. I feel like I'm in the movie Mean Girls all of a sudden.
All eyes are fixed on me in the hallway now and I gulp down anxiety that's immediately building up in my body again.
"Yeah", I say, trying to act relaxed and casual as I look around.
"I want you to eat with me at lunch. I'm sure you won't miss us when you enter, we're pretty noticable", the girl offers as she shows a big, fake, toothy smile.
"Well, hope to see you then!" She adds when she notices I wasn't going to answer. She walks away and disappears out of my view. Her friends follow behind show a fake smile at me also. I don't trust any of them. They all give me a weird vibe in my stomach.
Someone suddenly comes up beside me after everyone begins to mind their own business again and I look over at them. It's another girl who has short white hair and is wearing all black clothing.
She smiles at me and assures, "Don't feel intimidated by her, she's just trying to humiliate you and get a reaction. No need to worry. I feel that I have to tell this to every new kid." She mutters the last sentence before I ask, "Oh. Who is she?"
We both start walking down the hallway as I wonder why this girl all of a sudden is talking to me.
"She's the most annoying girl in school. I wouldn't say super popular, no, we don't have that sort of thing really in this school. She's just mean and acts popular. She has about five close friends... Sometimes three; it depends", she replies.
"Oh, okay", is all I say as I listen. I'm not sure how to respond to that.
"She's crushing on this guy who probably doesn't even know who she is because he's so caught up in gaming all the time with his friends", she adds. She talks pretty fast and it's honestly a little hard to keep up.
"Oh, I like to play games too", I add quietly as I stare down at the floor as we walk.
"Oh really? You two would get along then. His name's Dom, by the way. I can introduce him to you at lunch if you want. Also sorry if I'm talking too much, I tend to do that often."
"Oh okay, thanks. And it's fine, I don't mind", I reply as I look up at her.
"Yeah, you're welcome. Oh, right, names. I'm Evelyn by the way."
"I'm Nicole", I reply back with a smile. She returns the smile and asks, "So you need help finding anything?"
"Actually, yeah. My locker", I answer with a sigh of relief. Finally I'm not alone in this hell hole anymore.
A/N:
So sorry you all had to wait on this chapter for some time. But now that I'm finally done with school, I feel I can get chapters out more often. It just takes me so long so write in three books, ya know?
Q: What do you think of Crystal so far? 🤔
