Secret Friend > > Muke

School and a new friend

Michael woke up to the sound of his alarm blaring All Time Low's "Dear Maria, Count Me In". He groaned as he turned off the loud noise before reluctantly rolling out of bed (and by rolling out of bed, he literally meant rolling out of bed and onto the floor). His parents were already out of the house before Michael was awake; their jobs requiring them to be up early.

It didn't take long for Michael to get ready because the truth was, he didn't care about today. He actually wished today was already over and done with. He wasn't in the mood to deal with judgemental people and their stereotypes this morning. But alas, he was out the door within a couple of minutes and trudging down the sidewalk to his new school. 

As he was walking, he had a nagging feeling that someone was following him. Although he checked his surroundings multiple times and found nothing, he still felt like there were eyes on the back of his head. It continued like that until he reached the gates of Northwestern College. The feeling disappeared only when Michael realised what he would soon be facing; the fear replacing itself with anxiety. Just calm down Michael. It's only a new school, nothing to be anxious about, he told himself. Scrap that. There was a hell of a lot to be anxious about. Michael told himself he just had to focus on taking deep breaths and minding his own business. Yeah, that would get him through the day. The sound of a bell ringing signalled that school had started. Shit, he was going to be late and on the first day of school too! Michael raced up the front stairs and through the glass doors that unveiled the front office.

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Michael stared down at the piece of paper that listed his weekly class schedule. His first subject was PE and he was trying to locate the gym using the map on the back of said sheet of paper. It took him a good 10 minutes before he finally found the door with the words "GYM" displayed on the front in bold writing. As quietly as he could, he opened the door, poking his head through to see if the class was already there. Just his luck, the class was huddled in a group on the floor, listening to the teacher lecture on about something or other. The door gave a loud squeak as Michael opened it further to allow his body to slip through, causing all eyes to divert from the teacher to him. Oh, great.

"Ah, you must be the new student," the teacher smiled. "I'm Mr Peters, the PE teacher, and you must be Michael, correct?"

"Yeah, thats me."

"Welcome, Michael. Class, this is our new student Michael. Please make him feel welcome."

Michael just shyly smiled at the students staring up at him before retreating to a spot at the back of the group. The teacher proceeded to continue with his lecture, which Michael soon found out was about soccer.

"Psst! Hey!" he heard a voice whisper from beside him. Michael turned around to find a raven-haired boy with tanned skin and dark, brown eyes smiling at him.

"Um hi?" he replied.

"Hi, I'm Calum. Nice to meet you," the boy stuck his hand out.

"Michael. Nice to meet you too," he hesitantly shook Calum's outstretched hand, receiving an even bigger grin in return.

"So, where are you from?"

"I moved here from upstate; small town."

"Ah, cool man. Hey, what class do you have next?"

"Uh, science," he said, looking at the sheet of paper again.

"Damn, I have Maths. What other classes do you have?"

"I have English after recess, then History, and then Study and Photography."

"Well, we both have study together after lunch so why don't you come sit with me and we'll go together, yeah?"

"Uh, sure" he agreed.

"Great." Those were the last words Calum said to him before the bell rang for next lesson.

"See you at Lunch," Calum grinned, walking out the gym doors.

Michael stood in shock for a moment. Did he just make a friend?