𝓑𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓜𝓮 | 𝘽𝙚𝙣𝙣𝙮 𝙒𝙚𝙞𝙧

1. 🦇

I walk into my new school, Whitechapel High. I look around for the main office of the building to retrieve my schedule for class, to find where my locker is, and what my combination is. Then, a moment later, I spot what appears to be the main office. I walk toward the room and I enter through the door. I walk and stop right in front of one of the secretaries. She types on her keyboard, the clicking of the keys is made audible throughout the room. Her coffee next to her computer steamed, allowing the pleasant aroma of the warm beverage to travel throughout the room. She takes her eyes off the computer screen and turns to look at me. "Hello, what can I help you with?" She asks in a cheerful tone. "I'm new here and I was wondering if I could get a copy of my schedule here?" I question politely with a small smile. She nods, returning the smile. "Of course, one minute," she responds. With a few clicks, she brings up my schedule and then goes over to another area of the room where a printer is. The printer does its job and prints my schedule for the semester. "Here you go. If you have any questions, you can go next door," she tells me, pointing to another area of the building, adjacent to this one. "Thank you so much," I reply. Then, I exit the area of the building and glance at the schedule to view my classes and locker location and combination. 

After going to my locker and finding my way to a few classes, it's time for lunch. I nervously walk to the cafeteria, unsure of who to sit with, since I didn't make any friends yet. I grab a tray and I look over the line of students waiting for their meal. Out of observation, the lunch for today looked like "sloppy joe," which made my face contort into an expression of disgust. I look around the cafeteria to see if there were any vending machines. Luckily, for me, there are. As I walk toward the vending machines, I hear a girl exclaim: "Ah! Dork! Thank you so much!" In a frustrated tone. I turn around and glance toward an angry girl glaring at a surprised boy. I walk toward the girl after she storms off. I stop her and say: "Hey, I saw what happened back there. I have a clean shirt in my locker." Her expression changes to one of happiness. "Oh my gosh, you're a lifesaver," she states gratefully releasing a sigh. "It's no problem. I try to help anyone as much as I can if I'm being honest," I tell her. "That's good to hear," she says with a smile. I nod in response, returning the smile. I walk over to my locker and I open it with my combination. Then, I hand her the clean shirt from the top shelf of my locker. "Again, thank you so much," she states thankfully. "My name is Sarah," she introduces. "Nice to meet you, my name is Zoe," I greet with a grin. "If you want, you can sit at our table in the cafeteria. My friend, Erica, who is a huge Dusk fan, sits there as well," Sarah tells me. I nod and state: "I'll go sit there, then. Thank you for inviting me to your table," I respond with a kind smile. "No problem!" She replies with a joyful grin. I close my locker and reset the combination and I walk back to the cafeteria. 

After entering, I look for signs of any Dusk signs or anything of the sort from the film Sarah told me about. Once I spot the posters, I see a girl with blonde hair tied back into a ponytail, with small glasses looking at her laptop. I walk over to her and decide to introduce myself. "Hi, my name is Zoe. You're Erica, right?" I inquire with a small smile. "Yep, that's me. How'd you find out my name before meeting me?" She asks. "I met a girl named Sarah not too long ago," I clarify. Erica nods in understanding. "Cool," she responds. A moment passes and Sarah comes back into the cafeteria. Erica gestures for me to follow her and we head over to the lunch table that Sarah sits at. "Sarah. Wait up!" Erica exclaims. "Where have you been?" She questions. "I've been texting you all morning," Erica states while she and I sit down in the chairs next to her. "Oh! What happened to your shirt?" She inquires. "Ugh. Don't ask," Sarah replies. "Okay, guess what? I already have 200 tickets sold for the screening. Only seven more days. I seriously think if I had to wait eight more days instead of seven more days, I would go crazy," she frantically tells us. "Yeah. Me too..." Sarah says in a disinterested tone. "You skipped math today. Were you with Jesse?" Erica asks, a smile forms on her lips. "Yes," Sarah responds with a guilty expression. "Who's Jesse?" I ask. "Jesse is Sarah's hot boyfriend," Erica states out of the blue, making me a bit surprised. I reply with a nod. "If I had a cute boyfriend, I'd totally skip class too," she states with a sigh. Sarah gives her an unconvinced look toward Erica. "What? I would!" Erica states in a hurt tone. "Do you think you're the only one who's allowed to break the rules?" She questions. Sarah scoffs. "No, but you're a good girl," she points out. "So are you," Erica mentions. Sarah let's out a sigh. "I don't know anymore," she replies, looking away from us. "Straight A's, always nice to everyone. Trust me, you are," Erica says as she lists the things Sarah has done that make her a "good girl." "Trust me, you are. Anyways, I saved you two more seats," she tells Sarah. "Zoe, I can save you a seat for you too, if you'd like," Erica states with a smile toward me. "Alright," I reply. "Great! Okay, so that's you, Sarah..." Erica relays the information. "Wait, Jesse's coming, right?" She asks. "No, he's not a real Dusk fan," Sarah replies. Erica's smile falters into a frown. "What? How can you date someone who doesn't like Dusk?" She questions, with a hurt tone. "The second book changed my life," Erica argues. "Yeah, I know," Sarah responds in a sarcastic manner. Next, Erica continues to chat about Dusk to us. Then, Erica stops talking as a tall guy with brown hair and green eyes strolls over to our table. He sits down and greets us. "Hi, there." He turns to Erica and asks: "Are you by any chance babysitting the Morgans tonight?" "Yeah. Why, do you know their kids?" Erica questions. "Yeah, one of them is my buddy, sitting right over... there," the boy states as we look over to a kid who is trying to hide himself from us in embarrassment. "He's a bit shy," the boy says. "See you around," the boy says before he leaves and returns back to his table. 

After school, Erica and I reach the school parking lot to confront Sarah. Mainly Erica, since she's a huge fan of Dusk. We see Sarah argue with who I assumed to be Jesse as she pushes him away and stomps away from him. "Well, it's too late to turn back now!" He shouts. Erica and I walk over to the "drama club." "Jesse, Sarah said you weren't a big fan of vampire movies?" Erica inquires. "What? I love vampires. That's exactly what I told her," He responds, a bit annoyed. "Yeah, well I gotta go," Sarah replies before storming off. "Bye, Sarah!" I shout while waving goodbye. "Okay. Well... We'll see you around. Dusk forever!" She shouts fist-bumping. "Hope we all see you two at the screening," one of the drama club members flirts with Erica while lightly touching her arm. Another member that was leaning against the silver car smirks at me, sending me a wink. I cross my arms and Erica smiles. Then, we talk for a moment. While chatting, one of the drama club members starts their car. Next, they drive dangerously close to the trio of teenage boys, two of them I recognize from earlier. "Watch it, nerds! Ha! Ha! Ha!" One of the members who flirted with Erica yells. I stand in utter shock, my eyes widening at their actions. They could have killed those guys. After turning my expression back to normal, I let out a sigh and say: "Well, I gotta go. Goodbye, Erica." I wave goodbye to her with a smile and I turn around and walk toward my car. After starting it up, I back out of my parking spot and drive off to my house.