Surprise

Chapter 11: First day of new school

In the morning, Stella and I ate cereal again and then went back to her room and showered and dressed for school.  Stella put on an old vintage looking beige floral tank top with a ruffled neckline and a buttoned peephole and a gathered waistline.  She paired it with gray denim shorts and a gold leaf headband was cute in her pale blonde hair.

I insisted she looked to girly and innocent, so I made her put on black legging underneath the shorts, which looked really great with the rest of the outfit and her brown strappy heels.

I put on the outfit I’d set out the previous night and we went down the stairs where the rest of the circle pack teenagers, including Tyler, Jack, and Connor were.  I remembered about the other night when Connor had caught me when I fell.  I’d never thanked him.

I would have walked over to tell him I appreciated it, but a look on his face warned me against it.  The broody type, I thought.  Definitely the broody type.  He was dressed in a black shirt unbuttoned over a black t-shirt.  His light brown hair was sticking up a bit, but it was too short to be weird.  I thought absently that girls must flirt with him twenty-four-seven.

“What’s the story with Connor,” I whispered to Stella so quietly that I knew she’d be the only one to hear it, even though everyone in the room (as far as I knew) had above average hearing.  “He’s secluded from everyone else.”

Stella looked at me in a little shock.  “We never told you?  Well, when we get to school I’ll tell you.”  I could tell why; she couldn’t whisper as quietly as I could.

“So how do we get to school?”

“How do you think?  We ride the bus.”   I looked around the room.  There were at least twenty other people, probably closer to thirty.

“Must be a big bus,” I mumbled.

She laughed.  “No, it’s average.  This bus picks us up and one other neighborhood and that’s it.  We end up with just like forty people.  The bus limit is fifty-eight.”

I nodded, not even bothering to ask how she knew that last part.

“But today, my mom’s driving us so that she can get you enrolled.”

I nodded.  “How is that gonna go, anyway?  Don’t they usually need birth certificates, ID, social security numbers?  Do you guys even know my last name?”

Stella stopped smiling.  “Don’t you know your last name?”  Her face was suddenly worried, like she thought she forgot to make sure I didn’t have any amnesia after the whole wolf shock thing.

I shook my head.  “No, that’s not it, I know it, it’s just… how can you put me in school if you guys don’t know this stuff about me?”

Stella shrugged.  “My mom actually knows the principal.  Plus, she’s a witch, remember.  She’s done this before with all of them,” she said, motioning to everyone else in the room.  “Of course, some of them even needed fake legal documents and name changes to stay hidden from who or what they were hiding from.”

I nodded.  “Makes sense.”  Luna Maya came into the hall and opened the door, ushering everyone else out, shouting about catching the bus.  Grumbles exploded around the room as everyone filed out, Connor being the last, not saying anything, with a stride that practically screamed “I don’t want to be here.”

“Alright girls, go get in the car, I’ll be there in a second,” she said, turning to us.

We obeyed quickly and skipped out to the car, laughing.  We waited just a moment and pulled out of the driveway just as the big yellow school bus pulled away.