The New Girl

Chapter One

People goggled at me in a way that made me suspicious of something not being right on my face. I removed the phone from my pocket and checked my reflection in its front camera. Nothing seemed wrong with me. I mean I had the same black hair which was parted to one side now, puppy brown dreamy eyes and thick lips. And there was not a smudge on my face. But then why were they gawking at me as if I was a freak show?

"Oops!"

I accidentally bumped into a girl and in surprise dropped the phone from my hand.

"I'm sorry!" the girl apologized stooping quickly to get my phone off the little gap between our feet.

I was about to retort something, but then when I saw her face, that beautiful, innocent looking face, no sound came out of me. I felt like as if my tongue had suddenly vanished from inside my mouth.

I noticed her eyes were of the bluest color I'd ever seen. A cool morning breeze came from nowhere and fanned her straight red hair about her face. I must admit she looked like an angel that moment. An angel in floral knee-length cute dress. Internally I asked myself why I hadn't noticed her in the campus before.

"Here." She handed me my phone, beamed and walked away resuming her conversation in her phone pressed against her ear. A few boys on her way gaped at her, the word 'wow!' probably exploding inside their skull. But unfortunately she didn't even glance at them. I watched her back until she turned a corner and disappeared from the corridor.

"Hey, you alright?"

I turned sideway to look down at Arvon Roper who had just walked up to me. He was a head shorter than me and wore thick rimmed specs that made him look more intelligent than he actually was.

"Why shouldn't be I?" I said, starting to walk toward the Big Hall again.

Arvon kept up with me.

"You haven't checked the school's website, have you?"

I stopped walking and so did he.

"Please don't tell me I'm on that stupid dork list."

"I'm sorry, buddy," Arvon said sincerely, handing me his Ipad. "We're on the list."

I didn't have to open the website - www.neontoppers.com - as Arvon had already run it for me. It wasn't the campus' official website, but was just a popular internet site governed by some anonymous person. And this website only did two things: either make a person's reputation at campus or break it.

We new students were made aware of this cyber address through an online message on our cell phones on our very first day at the campus.

"Oh, no!" I stared at my name, Casper Greeling, and a really bad looking photo of me right beside it on top of the names of other dorks and their photos. Only one person was ahead of me. His name was David Benault - my other best friend beside Arvon. I was listed at number two. This was so going to incline my already troubled nerd reputation to the summit. I hated my life.

"Look, I'm not that far behind you, C," Arvon said to me, rubbing my back in consoling way. He was at number three. "You look cooler in real life than in that picture, though."

"Maybe I should stop wearing glasses and go for eye contacts," I said, scrollig the webpage downward to check rest of the names on the dork list. "But I don't understand why people would vote me as top dork."

'Don't worry, C. At least be happy that you got first position on something."

"Shut up A. This is not funny."

"Check out this week's top chicks. I hope that would cheer up your mood."

I tapped on the link to top chicks. In less than a second, the list materialized. Claiming the highest spot on this week was a girl called Lovina Winsor. I shifted my eyes on her picture and nearly let the Ipad fall from my grip.

"Don't get excited, bud," Arvon said. "We're literally nobody to these girls..."

I went deaf for a moment.

So that was her name. Lovina Winsor. The girl in floral knee-length cute dress.