Caught In Between

II. The Golden Retriever

"Hey!" My thoughts were interrupted by a decently tall, blonde boy. He was wearing light blue jeans with a navy blue Hooverville High sweatshirt and white shoes. He seemed very hyper because he was practically jumping up and down in his stance. "My name's Cameron. But my friends call me Cam. You can call me Cam too. Even though you're not really my friend yet. But we can be friends! Unless you don't want to. I mean-"

"Okay, Cam. I'm Brooklyn. But my friends call me Brooke. You can call me Brooke, because I guess we're friends now?" I interrupted his external dialogue.

"Sounds great! You're new here? I know like everyone here, so obviously you're new. It's not a huge school. There's only about 300 people in our grade. I've at least seen everyone, so you must be new!"

"Yeah, I am new. I moved here from San Francisco." 

"You're a senior, I'm guessing? That's so cool because I'm a senior too! This year will be great. It's our final year and we rule the school. You're gonna have a great time at Hooverville. Have you met anyone else yet? I know school hasn't even started yet, but you never know."

I thought back to the stranger who walked into the doors a couple minutes ago. "No," I replied. "Not yet."

"I'll introduce you to everyone! Let's look at our schedules." 

We ended up comparing schedules and we have quite a few classes together: second period AP stat, fourth period AP physics and sixth period PE. My first class of the day is English.

"Hey, I can walk you to English and then pick you up after and show you the way to our next class that we share."

"Sure. That would be great. Thanks."

"No problem!" Cam was so hyper and talkative. He was actually adorable. He definitely seems like the type of guy to get along with everyone. My theory was proved correct when he stopped and introduced me to practically every student in the hallway, and they all seemed to like him.

"You're like a golden retriever. You're so energetic and likable. " I told him.

He didn't say anything for a second, and I was scared I offended him.

"That's not a bad thing! You just seem like a friendly guy."

"Oh. Okay. Yeah. Golden retriever, that's funny." We ended up making smalltalk about Hooverville High. Cam told me that he is quarterback of the football team.

"Is the football team good?" I asked.

"We're not terrible." He said after a second of hesitation.

"So basically you guys suck." 

"Yeah. Our school is not the best at football, but we do excel in baseball, basketball and hockey. I also play baseball in the spring and our team is amazing. Well here's your english class. I have French right now, so I'll be on the other side of the school. I'll be here before you know it to take you to statistics. Have fun, but I don't really like this teacher. Mr. Maxwell always gets mad at me for talking."

"You don't have to take me to my next class. I have a map, I'll figure it out."
"Nonsense! I'm taking you." He suddenly wrapped his arms around me and before I could return the hug, he was done.

"Oh. Another thing about me. I'm a hugger." And then he walked away.

********

I sat down in English class with five minutes remaining before the bell rings. The classroom was halfway filled up, but I didn't make an effort to talk to anyone. They all looked boring. A girl walked into the room then, and I could already tell I'm gonna like her. She had black hair with the front two pieces dyed bright pink. She had winged eyeliner and ripped blue jeans with a black crop top. I already liked her vibe. She looked over at me, raised her eyebrows, and made her way to sit next to me.