handle [discontinued]

AUTUMN // 2

“There’s a new kid!”

Everyone always hyped up when there was a new person at school. If it was a girl, the boys would try to holler at them while the girls would either ignore them or see if they were cool. If it was a boy, new crushes would spring like springs and boys would try to see if they were cool or lame. Usually the new kid would fit in quickly, so there wasn’t a problem.

We, meaning me, Denim, Berah, Autumn, Cayron, Monroe and Jax were all standing in the 900 hallway chatting. Cayron and Autumn were talking as usual, and Jax was constantly flirting with Monroe. Berah looked kind of lonely scrolling up and down on his phone, so I decided to talk to him later. “I’m showing him around.”

I looked over at Denim, and he was leaning up against his locker. He was looking at me, just blinking. “Is it a guy or a girl?” I began to question him.

“It’s a guy. He’s from Europe. I’m gonna see if he’s cool or not, maybe he could hang with us.” He nodded his head towards our group. “He’s getting here in the middle of first period, so I won’t be there.”

The bell rung, and he gave me a quick kiss before heading off to the office. I looked around for Monroe, but she was already walking off with Jax. I saw Berah looking at me, and once I caught him, he looked back down at his phone.

“Hey,” I waved. “You wanna walk with me to first?”

He smirked then playfully shrugged his shoulders. I lightly nudged him, and he nudged me back. We began walking to our creative writing class, and we talked about what colleges we applied to and the ones we wanted to get into.

“I want to go NYU, University of Southern California, even Belmont.” He sighed as we walked in to the classroom. We sat in the second to last row, and he sat in the desk to my left. “I’m just trying to get out of here. Not a lot of good things here in Georgia for me. And if I don’t get into college I’m gonna go back home to Texas.”

I didn’t even know he lived in Texas. I asked August, specifically, why he wanted to get out of Georgia so bad. He said that he bigger opportunities elsewhere. I told him the colleges I wanted to go to,  Central St. Martins in England, UEA in England, NYU, Emory (which I could get into free since my mom worked there), and some other colleges in Georgia.

We were assigned to write a short story that answered the prompt on the board that took up the front and back of three pages, which wasn’t really that hard. I put in my headphones and began writing. It felt like seconds later when Berah tapped my shoulder. I looked at him and he pointed to the front. The new guy was here, and our teacher guided him to introduce himself. I looked at how many pages I’d written,  which was two and a half. It didn’t even feel like I was writing that long.

I took out my headphones and turned my music off. The new student at the front began to speak. I could tell he wasn’t shy at all, which was unusual. I mean, he wasn’t extremely confident, but he was extremely laid back.

“My name’s Avi. I’m British.” I could tell from his slight British accent. It had a little bit of an American ending with it, more American than British, though. “I’m 17, and my family just moved here from Oxford.”

The class gave small claps, and I studied him for a little bit. He was tall, his skin was a burnt caramel, and he had the usual hairstyle that all the boys did, his hair shaved on the sides and he was letting it grow out. But his hair was much longer.

“You can take a seat next to Denim if you’d like.”

He nodded and followed Denim into the back. There was no other seat next to him, so Avi just sat behind me. I turned around and waved to Avi, and he gave me a smile back.

“I’m Drew.”

“Hi, Drew.”

“You gonna chill with us at lunch?” Berah asked Avi.

He shrugged his shoulders but nodded. “Ain’t got anyone else to sit with.”

The teacher explained how he would be graded and what he was supposed to be doing. It was only the second day, so he basically missed nothing. We all continued writing for another hour, and in the first twenty minutes of that hour I was finished. I turned in the paper to my teacher’s desk and she thanked me for it. I asked if I could go to another teacher’s classroom to ask a question, and she let me go with a pass.

I was headed to Mr. Lopez’s room, and I forgot that he had a class during this time. All of the freshmen looked at me, and I acknowledged them, then walked over to his desk.

“Hello.” I greeted with a smile.

He looked at me and smiled, continuing to type away at his computer. “How have you been?”

“Being a senior is completely overrated. It’s not as hard as it looks. I’m just trying to get my applications filled out early.”

I came to him yesterday, asking him to fill out an application for me to help me get into the colleges I wanted. He would fill out his portion referring me to the schools, and he would exaggerate on how much of a good student I was. He would give pictures of my paintings to them, and that would hopefully increase my chances of getting in, especially to the art schools I applied for.

“You want to get into UEA or St. Martin’s, right?” He asked. I nodded fiercely, then pulled out my phone to get another look at them. “I have a good friend who goes to St. Martin’s. He could probably put in a good word for you.” He winked, and I almost screamed in glory.

I had so many oppurtunities, and St. Martin’s was at the top of my list. UEA was next in line, and my other schools were just schools I applied to just in case. Maybe this was a good chance of me getting into my dream school.

I went back to class and walked with Berah to lunch. He told me while I was gone that they found out more about Avi, and they said he was a part of our crew. I greeted Monroe when we walked into A lunch; we (her, me, and Berah) sat together during lunch since everyone else had B lunch.

“The new guy is cute.” Monroe winked.

“His name is Avi.” I darted my fork into my pasta. It was silent, and Monroe was pushing up against me. Oh no.

“No, I don’t like him. I mean yeah he’s cute, but I have a boyfriend.”

“I didn’t say you liked him. I just said he was cute.”

i don't know if you forgot, but Berah is August Alsina, and Avi is Jaden Smith. you can check the cast on the side (if you are on a computer) or at the end of each chapter (on the app)

Rough's update will probably come later on today or tomorrow hopefully. :)