Caught in a Web

☣1☣

It was so strange moving from the UK having graduated high school with ten GCSE grades to then go to another country and re=attending 'high school'.  It was my first day at Midtown School of Science and Technology. The hallways seemed busier than those in England, the students seemed less friendly and, the teachers didn't seem to care that I didn't know my way around. Nobody seemed to care that I was unusual. Nobody seemed to even notice me. I had to take a glance down to make sure I was still there; that I hadn't turned invisible. Nope -still there. I wandered the halls for quite some time until I found the room that I presumed I was looking for. Mr Cobbwell's chemistry lab. I placed my hand on the doorknob and inhaled deeply, pushing my way into the classroom. Everyone's eyes fell on me instantly. Luckily, my hair was chopstick curled into a dark lion's mane around my face that - with help from my glasses - I could hide behind. The teacher flicked through a book and looked up at me. "Thalia May?" He asked. I nodded and clutched the strap of my bag even tighter. "Take a seat, we were just discussing pyrotechnic colourant," Thank god! Something that I actually knew something about. There was a whole section on the GCSE specification but I was quite annoyed that it wasn't featured on the exam. At least my hours of revision was worth something. I decided to sit as far into the corner as a free seat would allow and decided to look at the people around me. I could feel the stereotypes already. There was the typical asshole. He had tanned skin framed by voluminous black hair, he was still gawking at me like I was some animal in a zoo. I let my eyes drift to my left where two boys were sitting whispering about something or other. They were the 'dorks'. Clearly so by the fact that one of them was overweight and Asian with a Star Wars backpack. They seemed nice enough but they didn't seem at all phased by my sudden appearance and their ignorance was welcomed. Finally, there was a blonde girl a couple seats over from the guy with the black hair. She had a black headband pushing all of the hair from her face and wore very sensible clothes. She was the typical good girl. I couldn't talk. With my harry potter-style glasses, frizzy hair, interest in all areas of science and shy, nerdy personality, I was the dictionary definition of a nerd. "What colour would I get if I added copper to the flame?" Mr Cobbwell asked. The boy to my left raised his hand but the boy with the black hair turned with a smirk on his face.

"Shut it, Penis Parker!" he hissed. "Red!" He announced proudly to the front of the class. 

"You're wrong," I muttered under my breath. The whole class looked to me. The boy questioned me as if it was a federal offence to call out his mistake but I ignored him. "The correct answer is blue or green," I told the class as I adjusted my glasses and looked down, cowering under my hair. "The wavelength of the photons released when copper burns corresponds to the colour blue," The whole class was stunned. Less because I knew the answer but more almost that I dared to speak out against this guy. The teacher proudly told me that I was perfectly right. The boy curled his lip as if he was about to say something but changed his mind last minute and turned back around. I smiled triumphantly and began to open my bag. "The bullies here make the ones in England look creative," I muttered which caused the two guys next to me - including the one who was on the receiving end of the guys attack. "'Penis Parker?" I repeated and rolled my eyes though I doubt that they could see it. "How original," The boys laughed a little to themselves but the thinner one named 'Penis Parker' seemed a little embarrassed. 

"You're British?" The Asian one asked. I nodded passively and held out my hand to him, introducing myself which he took enthusiastically with a huge smile. "I'm Ned and this is Peter," He told me gesturing to his embarrassed friend. I moved my hand cautiously to his which he took just as carefully. "Are you from London?" He asked simply but his friend sighed and rolled his eyes, telling him that not every British person was from London. I laughed at them a little and looked down to my book.

"I actually lived quite close to London in a place called Richmond. I'd get the train nearly every weekend and spend the day there," The two actually seemed impressed by the fact that I was so close to all of the iconic landmarks. Ned spent the entire lesson asking very stereotypical questions about London whereas Peter asked more varied questions about like the education that I received there. He seemed quite interested in the museum there, saying that he would love to go sometime if he ever found himself in England. Almost too soon, the lunch bell rang and we were freed from the chemistry class.  I slung my satchel over my shoulder and picked up my map of the school that they had emailed to me the week before, determined to find the cafeteria without help. However, I needn't bother as Ned enthusiastically offered me a seat at their dinner table. The school screamed Netflix fiction to me but I suppose that's how it is in America. Big football players raced past us in an effort to get their lunch first and cliques of cheerleaders clotted the stairs. Ned skipped down the hall in front of me and Peter - he was clearly the more excitable one of the two. 

"That was so cool how you stood up to Flash!" He yelled as we sat down at the table, myself opposite the two boys. I shrugged and hid behind my hair once again. So that was the kids name. How pompous. I just shrugged and tucked into my sandwich saying that I hated bullies especially American ones. At least in England they would be creative in what they said and did but here insults just seemed to be based on simple word association. There was something in the way that they interacted with me and each other, a warmth, a genuineness, a softness of spirit that I just couldn't pass up. They listened like they were absorbing my words, not simply waiting for my turn to be over and done with so that they could return to some other topic. The more time that I spent with them the more my spirit lifted, they were the new friends that gave me a higher opinion of Americans as a whole - proving that real and genuine ones did exist.