The New Kid

Chapter 2: The New Kid

"It appears that some of you were late," said Ms. Candace as she shifted her gaze to the friends sitting beside me, "hence missing the morning ceremony."

"Sorry, Miss," said Jesse. "Traffic was bad this morning."

"Oh, I'm sure it was, but the rest of your classmates still got here early, didn't they?"

Ms. Candace's snarky callback was interrupted by the door opening, followed by two more of my classmates shyly entering the room.

"Rebecca, Sarah," called out Ms. Candace, "congratulations on being later than our boys over here."

They apologized as they took the remaining available chairs, saying that they got caught up in traffic. Sarah was the sporty one; the volleyball captain. She's always the one putting in overtime in the gym after training, hoping to make it to the big leagues one day. And you'd usually find Becca scribbling on her notebook or staring at the ceiling with a pair of earphones plugged in.

"Just make sure that you don't keep that up for the rest of the year," Ms. Candace continued to scan the room. "Well class, it looks like we're actually complete."

I looked around. There were only 11 of us in the class, including the new kid whose name I still did not know. I know that our school was pretty small, but 11 students in one class? That's some next level small. We weren't always like this, though. Up 'till last year, we had way more students in the batch, around 50 people strong. Then all that changed when Senior High came in the picture.

"I know you're all familiar with each other already," Ms. Candace continues, "but we have a new student with us today. Would you kindly introduce yourself to the class?"

The new girl stood up, and I was finally able to get a good view of her. She had long, black hair, and fair skin. She didn't stand as tall; she definitely was shorter than me. She had soft cheeks and eyes that looked like they were shy around new people. Being in a room full of people that already knew each other probably didn't help.

"Um, hi, I'm Natalie Ramos," she said shyly, "but I go by Nat for short."

"Welcome, Nat," Ms. Candace said. "I'm sure you'll love your new classmates. Isn't that right, class?"

A resounding yes followed Ms. Candace's question.

"Now, let's discuss how this school year's going to look like for us," Ms. Candace continued. She scanned through her papers, then her face became increasingly confused.

"Alright, looks like you'll be taking the day off," she finally said.

Another resounding, more enthusiastic yes echoed in the class. But that wasn't anything new. In my 9 years of studying in Blueridge School, the first day of classes never included actual classes. The teachers always had meetings throughout the day, and us students just used the time to catch up and hang around in the classroom till dismissal came.

"But from the looks of it, this may not be your only free day," Ms. Candace started to gather her things. "I have to go to a meeting now class, please stay well behaved. Elaine, you're in charge."

"Alright, Miss!" Elaine replied as Ms. Candace walked out the door.

The moment the door closed, the classroom was immediately filled with chatter. Elaine and the other girls turned towards Nat and started talking to her. The boys started chatting, too.

"Hey, wanna go get breakfast?" asked Jesse. "I'm starving."

"You came this late to school and you still haven't had breakfast?" I joked.