still a teenager

chapter 1: start of high school

Lily watched her mom make her breakfast as she tapped her hands nervously on the table. She was so not ready to start high school. " Do you want me to drive you or are you going to take the bus?" Lily's mom slid a bowl of cereal over to Lily's side of the table while she waited for an answer. Lily had no idea what to say. Was it uncool to have your mom drive you to high school? Or did only the weird kids take the bus? Or did it not even matter and was she worrying for no reason? "I'll take the bus", Lily said after thinking everything through. At least on the bus she could look for kids that she went to middle school with. Not like they would talk to her or even pretend to know her. After Lily finished her breakfast she headed upstairs to get dressed. She opened the door of her closet and saw herself in the mirror hanging on her closet door. She hated the way she looked. She had long, brown hair that was frizzy and curly. She had plain brown eyes and her teeth were still crooked, even though she'd already had braces for the past two years. She decided to go with a casual outfit, since she didn't own any cute clothes. She didn't even know what were cute clothes. She just hoped that high school would be different from middle school. She wanted to have friends who she could sit with at lunch, instead of eating her lunch alone in a bathroom stall. She wanted to raise her hand in class whenever she knew the answer to a question, instead of letting other kids take the glory. She wanted to have a nice high school experience. 

The minute she stepped on the bus she knew she had made a mistake. She saw some kids who had gone to middle school with her, but they pretended to not even see her. Whatever. It's not like Lily would have had the courage to say hi to them or smile. Then the bus also nearly was full, so Lily had to squeeze in front of someone in order to reach the seat near the window. After a terrible bus ride she was standing in the crowded gym with all the other freshman. Lily looked around and it was obvious that she had no friends whatsoever. Everywhere groups had been formed and people were chatting with each other. Lily stared at her shoes and pretended to be interested in the bright pink laces on them. She looked up when she heard a man's voice speaking in a microphone, loud enough for the entire gym to hear. He was wearing a tie and jeans and had large, round glasses on the top of his head. he looked like a clown. Lily couldn't stop herself from grinning. "Welcome, to freshman orientation." The man spoke slowly as if he was talking to a bunch of toddlers. " I am the principal. My name is Howie, but you may call me Mr. Sanders." Some people started laughing. Lily didn't. "Anyway, I want to welcome you all and I hope your experience at Justice High School will be magical." The principal waved his hand which was followed with a loud applause. Many of the freshman started walking towards the exit, so Lily followed. "Well isn't it the precious little Lily." Lily froze as she heard the voice that she knew so well. She slowly turned around, wishing that she could disappear. Or maybe just be transported to an entirely different universe. She looked into the bright green eyes of Madison Jones. The IT-girl. The popular girl. The teen goddess. Whatever you wanted to call her. With her sun-streaked blonde hair and her perfect teeth and beautiful eyes she could get any guy. She and Lily had been best friends through elementary school, until on the first day of middle school Madison decided she didn't want to be Lily's friend anymore and stopped talking to her. A total freeze-out. She had started spreading rumors about Lily that weren't true, and after a while people started picking on her. They one time for example stole her lunch money. Another time they told her the bus was coming 15 minutes later, so she missed the bus and had had to walk. Lily had thought that Madison would leave her alone in high school, but she obviously had been wrong. "Aren't you wearing cute jeans. Did you find them in the garbage can while you were looking for food?" Madison smiled her nasty smile and Lily heard laughter behind them. She wanted to die right there. Instead of coming up with a come-back she bit her lip, trying to stop the tears from coming. Seemed like high school wasn't going to be so different from middle school after all.