A Silence Full of Sound

Chapter 2

Walking the corridors, I was completely lost. This school is so big, how does anyone find their way around?

Going in search of my first class was a lot harder than I thought. I realised I needed help, but who could I ask that would speak to me?

I spotted a red headed girl standing by her locker. Be brave, Riley.

I walked over to her and tapped her on the shoulder. The girl turned around and looked at me, a smile began to form on her face.

"Hi, you okay?" I read as she smiled at me.

I nodded and smiled back. She seemed really lovely. I pointed at my schedule and made a confused face and looked around as if I was searching for something.

Confusion flashed on her face as she watched me point to the piece of paper in my hands.

"You're lost?" I nodded, glad that I got the message through.

She smiled at me and looked at my schedule.

"That's my next class. Come on, I'll show you"

She closed her locker and linked her arm in mine. It startled me and I looked up at her, but all she did was smile back at me.

"You're new, right?" I nodded. "Don't worry, you'll be fine with me."

She lead me down the corridor and into a small room where other students had started to take their seats. When we got to the door she unlinked her arm in mine and turned to me.

"You go speak to Mr Drew, and I'll get us seats." And with that she walked off. I watched her sit down at an empty desk, in the middle of the room. That's surprisingly not bad a seat for me to be able to read the teacher's lips.

I walked over to the man sitting behind the teacher's desk and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up at me. The bags under his eyes were deep and it looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. His brown hair was messy and it looked as if he had run his hands through it a lot.

I waved and he smiled. "Can I help you?" He asked me. I showed him my schedule, making sure to point to my name.

"You're Riley? The new girl?" I nodded and smiled. He smiled back at me, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"Okay, we have a new person in our class today. Her name is Riley, please be nice." He addressed the class motioning to me, and making me stand in front of everyone. I would rather be anywhere but here right now.

"Riley, why don't you tell us something about yourself?"

I whipped my head around to the class. Not even knowing what to do. Everyone stared back at me. Eyes were watching me from everywhere. My eyes went wide and heat began to raise in my cheeks.

"You don't have anything to say?" Mr Drew placed a hand on my shoulder. I shook my head.

"Okay, go and sit down."

I nearly sprinted into my seat next to the redhead girl I had met earlier. She smiled at me as I sat down. She leaned closer to me.

"You don't talk much, do you?" I shook my head laughing. She had no idea how little I actually did speak. "I'm Alice. Nice to meet you." She held out her hand and I took it in mine and shook her hand. I smiled back at her as we both turned to listen to Mr Drew.

The rest of the morning went by quite quickly. Luckily Alice was in most of my classes, it seemed we had the same interests. I watched as her face light up when she told me stories. I told her my own and I wrote back notes that made her laugh. She laughed so loud in one of our classes that Ms Michaels, our algebra teacher, nearly kicked her out of the class. We had to calm down a bit after that.