Not Very Stereotypical.

Chapter Six

The loud bell rang again as the girls began dragging me through the long corridor lined with silver lockers. How are they so awake? Apparently I had been claimed, however I was just relieved I managed to meet some people to become my personal tour guides.

I had found out a few more things about the girls during whatever I had just sat through. For example, Gracie was the most American girl you could get, a cheerleader for the school and was addicted to caffeine and loved to party. Similar was Leighton, also a cheerleader but had class but would ruin reputations for a good night out - something I could seriously relate too but for the mixture of friends you wouldn't expect Milly to be amongst them, a "strongly opinionated feminist- basically she's the one that helps us pass our classes" they said. I think it sums them up very well.

"Where are you taking me?" I shouted as the Leighton gripped tighter on to my wrist as Gracie cleared the path through travelling students. My bag began tugging at my shoulders, rubbing them uncomfortably, so groaning, I hoped to slow down but as we turned a final corner the girls stopped suddenly laughing and breathing heavily. "Okay what was that?" I exhaled the words, one hand gripping onto my chest and the other assisting my balance on the wall.

"We needed to go to Gracie's locker before second bell rang. You wouldn't want to be late on your first day would you?" Leighton teased as she spun to look at Gracie entering the code for her locker.

"You guys are psychotic! It's barely 8am!" Milly laughed loudly at me, walking towards me and patting her arms on my shoulder.

Sighing she said "you get used to it." I blew a piece of hair out of my eyes and huffed, crossing my arms. "You have math first right?" I cringed at the name change and innocently handed her my timetable out of my pocket,

"Maths." I said dragging the 's' like a snake. Ha fitting. They all looked at me and shook their heads. Gracie grabbed a few books and slammed the locker shut .

"You're going to fit in here just fine," Leighton looked over Milly's shoulder and adjusted her lilac crop top at the waist, "great you're with Mrs Jones and yours truly." She curtseyed slightly and pulled the paper away from her friend. Her bright green eyes gazed at me and smiled mischievously as she began stepping closer to me.

"I'll pick you up before 3rd period so I can take you to English then we'll meet the girls at the bleachers at lunch." I nodded and looked over at Milly who is slowly beginning to walk away with Gracie. "See you then! Good luck!" Waving back to her to say goodbye, I looked up at Leighton who was texting on her phone.

"OMG, Bethan you're never going to believe this. Look!" She turns her phone towards me to show me an extremely blurry photo of two people on a dark beach. I squinted my eyes to see if I could make it any clearer but failed dramatically.

"Is that supposed to make any sense to me?" She sighed again, shaking her head disappointingly. She brushes off the arm of her backpack and starts walking.

"Okay I get that you're like foreign or whatever but how don't you know who they are. I assume you haven't lived under a rock for your life if you can afford shoes like those." I liked down at my feet to see trainers that I got for my birthday last year. They're definitely not designer but they're also not fast fashion shoes, so I guess she has a point. "Exactly, they're actors from that new movie being released and the fans are all over it."

I tried to make a mental map of the way we were walking but I ended up forgetting it and eventually giving up. As Leighton tried to convince me that the movie she was talking about was the next big blockbuster, I simply nodded and watched as students started disappearing into classrooms and the halls got quieter.

We eventually stood in front of a bright blue door which was pegged open with a short, pointed nose teacher watching over as people file into the classroom. I twiddled my fingers as her eyes landed upon me and the look of relief hit her face. The teacher was wearing a tight black skirt and cardigan and shook my hand as soon as I was close enough to her.

"Nice to see you again Miss Rhodes, I assume this is our new comer?" Leighton nodded and looked at me with a chiffes smile on her face.

"Yes Mrs Jones, this is Bethan. She's from across the pond." She lowers her voice and winks as she introduces me to the teacher in front of me.

The frail hand of the ageing teacher loosens as she curls her smudged orange lipstick into a smile. "It's nice to meet you Bethan, take a seat next to Leighton at the back and don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it."

"Thank you."  I said briefly as I turned to follow Leighton towards our seats.

I took the corner desk by the window as Leighton slumps down next to another member of the class. "Jesus Beth, she loves you already! Took me a whole year to convince her to stop asking me about Trigonometry." She reaches down I to her bag and pulls out a pencil case and notebook with a pout on her face, while I laugh and copy her actions.

"I guess the British card really does do the trick!" I turn towards the front to start hearing the whispers begin again. I refuse to ignore them and begin writing the date and look at the blackboard at the front of the classroom.

Squeaking against the black board Mrs Jones wrote her name in big letters and turned to face the class. "I'm Mrs Jones if you're don't already know and if I didn't teach you last year, welcome!" Leighton already lay back into her chair and clearly gave up, only minutes into the lesson. "Okay but first let's do roll call." Alarmed, I turned to the blonde and looked at her in major panic and hoped she'd explain what the hell I was about to do.

"It's attendance." She whispered trying to hide the laugh she stifled. "Just say here when she says your name, have you never done that before?" I sighed in relief and rolled my eyes at her.

"Of course we did that but she can't just say we're doing something that I've never heard of and expect me to stay calm!" I whisper-shouted and pouted my lips to exaggerate my tantrum.

This time she laughed louder and cause a few people to turn their heads towards us, a few girls giving me dirty looks so I waved sarcastically, turning back towards my book. "That was epic, you're about to be my new best friend." She clapped slightly and raised her hand for me to high-five.