Athena and her mom have just moved to New York City her senior year of high school. Athena wants nothing more than to attend Columbia University in the fall. However Athena must work 3 jobs just to make ends meet for her and her mom. So when Lisa, a...
"Happy first day of school." She said smiling. Damn I forgot I had school. Nothing like being the new girl.
"Come on no skipping!" Mom told me. I groaned in annoyance as she handed me a cup of coffee. 2 creams 2 sugars.
"Thanks." I mumble and she stands up to leave.
I've been the new girl 5 times in my life. Every school is the same. All the same cliches. I wish I could drop out but I'm trying so hard to not make my parents mistakes. I work so hard in school and my dream is to attend Columbia. Mom and I got lucky that her job made her move to New York City. Today I have school and later I have to go to 3 job interviews. Mom and I live in a cramped apartment one of the worst parts of the city but it's all we can afford.
I climb out of bed and into the one bathroom we have. Mom has already left for work so I take a shower and do my morning routine. I comb out my wet hair and blow dry it. I wrap a towel around myself and head back to my room. Mom gave me the one bedroom as she sleeps on the futon in the living room. I tried to protest but she said "I need my privacy." Anyways, I put on some dark wash jeans a blue tank top and loose white sweater. I slip on my old black converse and put on my "Athena" necklace and some small hoop earrings. I then put my bag together.
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I have everything I need so I go into the small kitchen and search for a granola bar and water bottle. As I head for the door I take a deep breathe and try and pump myself up. "You will be fine." I tell myself and brace myself. I lock the door behind me and begin the walk to school.
The city is busy and loud. I love it though. As I cross the street a car pulls up beside me.
"Need a ride?" A boy asks. I keep my head down not daring to look up.
"No thank you." I say politely. I keep walking. I can feel the sweat beginning to build on my palms.
"Are you sure?" He asks and I nod.
I put my headphones in and keep walking. The car takes the hint and drives away. I continue my walk to school. When I arrive I realize how big it is I can't help but feel kind of nervous. I see some nice cars in the parking lot and some people littered in the corridor. I remind myself I'm here to study not socialize, I need to keep my head down and work hard. I walk across the parking lot when all of a sudden someone pulls me back. Before I can speak I realize what almost happened as a car speeds away.
"Oh my god he almost hit you!" The person says. I take my headphones off and look at them. It's a girl with bright red hair. Her eyes are a dark brown and she's wearing all black. Its late August why is she wearing all black?!
"Thank you, so much." I tell her breathing hard.
"It's no problem. That asshole doesn't know how to drive." She says laughing. I think I like already. She's really pretty and seems nice, I mean she did just save me.
"That was Lucian Gonzo." She tells me. I don't know who that is so I give the girl a confused look.
"I'm new I have no idea who that is." I say nervously.
"Bad news is what he is." She says.
"I'm Sandy." She tells me. That is such a cute name I can't help but smile.
"Athena." I tell her and she puts her arm around my shoulder.
"You are like insanely pretty." She tells me as she and I walk to the entrance of the school.
"Uh thanks." I say smiling.
"Let's get you to the office." She tells me and I stay quiet. I get my schedule and I she shows me to class. The day is pretty normal except the "omg new girl"'s I got but that's fine. Everyone looked at me and they were quite friendly. Beside one group of boys. They called out gross stuff and one of them got particularly mad when I told him to "screw off" after he called my "babygirl."
"My name's Athena, asshole." I told him.
"And my name is Lucian, not asshole." He told me.
"Wait are you Lucian, what Gonzo?" I ask trying to remember the name Sandy gave me earlier. I think back to this morning and how he almost hit me with his car. He eyes me suspiciously.
"Who's asking?" He basically growls.
"You kinda almost killed me this morning!" I shout and he looks taken back. His friends standing behind him laugh at his loss for words. I glare at all 5 of them and they stop immediately.
"You don't get to yell at me!" Lucian grits and I fake pout.
"You see the thing is, I don't really care." I said laughing. I'm not here to fight. I turned my back and tried walking away. He grabbed my wrist and I winced in pain.
"Watch your back, princess." He seethed and I smirked.
"Like wise." I said walking away. I winked at him and he looked stunned. I mean it was an empty threat but still, I was proud.
I attended all my classes and tried to focus. At lunch Sandy introduced me to all of her friends. They were all nice and I sat between her and a boy named Jay.
"Hey I'm Jay." He told me. He was cute.
"I'm Athena." I told him smiling.
"Where are you from?" He asked and I tensed. I wasn't really supposed to talk about it.
"Ontario." I lied. It was a habit. I was actually from Quebec but let's roll with it.
"You're from Canada that awesome." He said smiling. He had a dimple in his left cheek.
"Yeah it's ok." I breathed out. I prayed to god he wouldn't ask anymore questions.
"I've never been tell me about it." He said. Oh no. I try to remember stuff from Degrassi.
"Um it's just like any other city I guess. I mean there was a really cool cafe I worked at called Bon Bon." I told him. I smiled remembering it.
"Do you speak French?" He asked. I do actually, fluently.
"That's mostly in Quebec but yeah." I told him. I'm grateful his geography is off.
"Cool I take French but I'm not that great, maybe you could tutor me." He said smiling. I blushed and smiled back.
"J'aimerais bien." I told him and he looked at me weird. He didn't know what I had said, I laughed.
"I would love to." I said and he laughed with me.
"Here's my number, text me if you need help." I told him as I wrote my number on a napkin.
"I definitely will." He said laughing. He seemed nice enough.
"Okay love birds lunch is almost over." Sandy said. The 30 minutes had flown by. I waved bye to Jay as he walked out of the cafeteria. Great now I have 2 new friends. Today was a success.
On my way back from school I felt like someone was watching me. I knew I was being paranoid but ever since my dad got sent away I freak out at the slightest things. I practicality ran home and shut the door locking it.
I tried to catch my breath but I still didn't feel safe.
