all for you

everly | meeting yasmin and elias

145.. 146.. 147.. and then the hallway branched off. everly spun in a circle for the fourth time, her face scrunched a little in confusion. 
     "where on earth is locker 148?" she murmured, leaning against the locker behind her. 

she felt like a fool. she had arrived at school thirty minutes early, but twenty of those had been eaten up by her searching in vain for her locker. public school was more confusing than she had thought it would be, which was saying a lot. she had bounced through foster homes and different care systems from a young age before finally being adopted her sophomore year by the sweetest people she had ever met - ivy and levi templeton. they had homeschooled her for a year to make sure she was caught up on everything she needed to know, and gave into her begging to attend a public high school for her junior year. this year.

     "why did i choose public school, again?" she thought about giving up and going down to the front office when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

     "are you alright?" 

everly turned to face the speaker and nearly dropped her books. the girl in front of her was tall, wore dark clothing, and had an intimidating presence. 
almost everyone i've seen so far is tall, everly thought to herself. she giggled nervously.
     "actually, i can't find my locker." 

the girl smirked and her lip piercing shifted with the stretch of her mouth. "let me guess. number one-forty-eight?"

everly tried to mask her surprise. "yea, that's it. how'd you know?"

     "deductive reasoning. you're a newbie, you can't find your locker and mr. mcnamara loves to mess with new kids when he can."
     "the guy in the office," the girl added, seeing the blank look on everly's face.

everly shifted her books in her arms and tried not to look directly at the girl's face. as much as she tried not to be, she was still shy and plenty awkward when meeting new people, and didn't want to overdo the eye contact. she usually looked people steadily in the eyes when talking to them, but more often than not, people were weirded out by it. she turned her attention to counting the girl's piercings instead.

     "nineteen."
everly realized the girl had been quiet for a while and looked up to see her smirking at her again.
     " i have nineteen piercings," she clarified. "you can't see two of them right now."

everly looked down before she could stop herself and felt her cheeks burn as she saw the two imprints through the girl's shirt.
     "oh, god," she blurted. "i didn't - i wasn't -"
     
     "checking me out?"

everly nodded, her whole face on fire, and the girl let out a laugh. she had a husky voice, and her laugh was bright and nice. everly laughed despite herself.
     "i know you weren't. i'm just teasing. we should really get to your locker, though, so i have time to walk you to your class."

everly shifted her books to one side and held out her hand. "i'm everly. everly templeton."

a genuine smile played across the girl's lips as she placed her hand in everly's and shook it. "i'm yasmin."

it had turned out that yasmin was in everly's first period physics class. she had evicted some jock boy named trevor from his seat next to her and placed everly in it.
     "come on, babe," trevor had fake whined. "i'm going to miss you!"

yasmin pretended to barf. "i have a boyfriend, trevor, bug off."

after physics, yasmin walked everly to her english class. "my buddy elias is in this class. i think you'll like him. i call him pretty boy," another one of yasmin's trademark smirks, as everly had come to think of them, crossed the taller girl's face. 

     "elias, you said?"

     "mhm. he's one of the sweetest souls in the entire world. i already texted him about you, so bug him if you need me or need anything."

they arrived at the classroom and yasmin stuck her head into the classroom. "elias!"

a tall boy turned around to look at them. everly's eyes widened. everyone at this school was a giant. the boy - elias - had a sandy mop of thick, curly hair, tan skin, and walked with the recognizable gait of an athlete. when he came closer, everly realized he had one green eye and one brown eye, and they were fringed by the thickest and darkest eyelashes that everly had ever seen. he smiled at yasmin, and two dimples appeared on his face. everly's jaw hit the floor. how was it possible for a human being to look so good? a laugh broke her reverie.
     "everly templeton, meet elias winthrop green." elias winced at the same time that everly's eyebrows nearly shot off her forehead.

     "winthrop?" everly fought to keep a grin off of her face.

     "after my grandfather," elias explained, a slightly pained smile on his face. "yaz, why'd you do that to me?"

yasmin laughed as she skirted out the door. "got to blast! i'm off to calc."

elias turned to everly. "nice to meet you, everly. welcome to our school."

he rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, and everly realized he was shy, too. she smiled at him. "nice to meet you, too. yasmin is quite the character, huh?"

elias laughed, relaxing. "oh, boy. she's a handful, but i love her to death. we've known each other since preschool. here, you can come sit at my table, if you want."

     "i'd love that, thank you." elias grabbed the stack of books from her arms and she grinned to herself as she followed him to his table.