Judged

Prologue

High school. For some people, it is the best four years of their life, but for others... not so much. 

Today is the first day of my freshman year, and I have to admit I'm more nervous than I think I've ever been in my entire life. Am I scared? No. I mean it's not like I'll be shoved into a trash can by some asshole upperclassmen, right? That only happens in movies, and very rarely in real life. 

Here I am, fresh out of junior high, unsure of what to expect. For some reason, I stupidly agreed to walk to school with my locker partner, Gabby Keet, rather than asking my mom for a ride. If Gabby was actually one of my friends, I wouldn't mind too much, but she's more like an acquaintance. It's not that I don't like her, she's cool and everything, but she just isn't really the friendly type.

How is it that I ended up as her locker partner you ask? Well, apparently locker assignments were available at the beginning of summer, which neither of us knew. And by the time we found out, it seemed everyone already had a locker partner. Go figure. That left us doomed to pair up together, even though we hardly knew each other. Now I found myself walking beside Gabby, secretly hoping I could trust her not to steal my things. She doesn't come off as a thief, but it's hard to tell.

Growing tired of the silence between us, I decide I might as well attempt to make conversation with her. There's still about five blocks until we reach the high school. I glance down at her shoes.

"Hey, I like your vans. Are they new?" I look up at her, praying that she doesn't just say 'thanks' and then grow quiet again.

"Oh, yeah I got them when I went back-to-school shopping."

"Cool. I bought two pairs of converse."

She gives me a sideways glance and then lets out a quiet laugh. So quiet, I could've missed it if I weren't looking at her. What's funny? I think to myself. 

 "Harper, are you being serious? I don't think anybody wears converse anymore. Those are the shoes of our parents' generation." 

Oh no. I immediately blush, and look down at my feet. I am currently wearing black high top converse, and I really hope Gabby is wrong about them. 

"Do you think anyone will honestly care?" I ask.

"Oh.. Uh, no, I guess not..." She shrugs and I see right through her. She thinks my shoes with be my social demise. 

They're just shoes! My subconscious shouts.

***

We finally make it to the school, and I am completely out of breath from the walk. I don't walk long distances often. I lose my breath easily because I have Asthma.

I look over at Gabby and she's perfectly fine. It makes sense, she is a gymnast after all, and obviously that requires you to be in good physical shape. Gabby is 5'7" with extremely long, toned legs and has stick-straight bleach blonde hair, and blue eyes. Every guys dream, according to my mom.

I'm the complete opposite. I have unmanageable wavy red hair, and light green eyes. I measure up to a whopping 5'4" and have the short legs to show for it.

Once we reach the double doors, Gabby spots somebody she knows and strides over to them, not even saying, "Bye" or "Hey, thanks for walking 10 blocks with me so I didn't have to walk alone." Like I said, not the friendly type.

The warning bell rings through the halls from speakers overhead. I reach around to grab my schedule out of my bag, looking for my first period class. English, Ms. Johnson, Room 219

As if the beginning of my day wasn't lovely enough, now I have to walk up a flight of stairs, while still trying to catch my breath from walking 10 blocks. After slowly making my way up the stairs, I find Room 219 and walk in. I spot a couple of my friends and sit in an empty desk near them.