Aubrey Garcia's Journey home.

Chapter Twenty Two

"Okay class, settle down"

Aubrey's third period teacher seemed to be trying to direct the class using only hand gestures, like they were in a quoir. The teacher flung her hand in the air, waving it around to get their attention. James snorted, and Eliana giggled quietly.

"What do you think, trying to communicate in sign language or direct an orchestra?" Aubrey asked. The three of them smothered their laughter, trying desperately to not draw attention to James and Eliana.

"This is theater after all." Eliana reasoned, her shoulders still silently shaking with laughter. Mrs. Miller made another random gesture with her hands, and Aubrey raised her's for a question.

"Mrs. Miller?"

The teacher zeroed in on her. 'Yes Aubrey...?"

"Garcia" She finished.

"Ah yes, Aubrey. What's your query?"

"You do know we don't speak sign language, right?"

The whole class roared with laughter, and even that shy looking girl in the corner giggled quietly. Mrs. Miller made a face of pure outrage and clenched her fists to her sides.

The class seemed to laugh even louder at her hand gesture.

"Detention!" She shrieked, throwing her hands up in the air.

The shy girl in the corner who was referenced before laughed a clear, loud laugh that unfortunately for her, the teacher seemed to have noticed.

"Detention for you too um..." The teacher trailed off, as the girl shrank back looking horrified.

The teacher waited, probably expecting the girl to say her name. The girl on the other hand sat paralized, quivering in her seat.

"Well?" The teacher nearly shouted at her.

The girl opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

"Oh lord," Mrs. Miller said, digging around for her roster.

"Alexis Finley?"

The girl nodded.

"Okay, you and Aubrey go to room 301."

Aubrey sighed, and stood up, and James and Eliana did too.

The teacher didn't notice the other two students getting up.

All four of them left the class, walking over to room 301.

"Amazing job Aubrey, first day and you've already landed us all in detention." Eliana said with an exasperated sigh. She felt a bit of shame crawling on her back like a spider.

"You didn't have to come with me!" Aubrey said with a frown.

James snorted.

"Of course we do! We're friends, remember?"

Aubrey just shook her head and looked away, trying to hide the smile that was slowly creeping up her face. They all walked in silence for a moment.

"So," Eliana said, startling them. "Alexis, right?" She said, turning to Alexis.

Aubrey realized with a shock that Alexis had tears streaming down her face.

"Are you alright?" Aubrey asked, feeling even worse than before.

She nodded, and looked down.

She had wavy brown hair that fell down to her shoulder, and sea green eyes that were highlighted by the redness around her eyes. Aubrey studied her, noticing the way she held herself, walked, and talked. I would say she's shy. Aubrey thought to herself. Maybe a little more than shy. Aubrey frowned, noticing that she was shaking.

"Hey, um sorry about Aubrey. She really didn't mean to get you in trouble." Eliana said.

Aubrey nodded vigorously feeling so guilty she could have curled into a ball of shame right there. "Yeah, Aubrey is super nice. It's not her fault that the teacher was asking for it."

Alexis smiled weakly, and wiped away her tears. They finally stopped at room 301, and Aubrey pushed open the door.

It was totally empty.

'Isn't there supposed to be a teacher in here or something?" James asked, looking confused.

Alexis nodded.

"Huh, guess we got the room to ourselves."

Aubrey immediately found a nice chair and pulled out a book. Eliana and Alexis simultaneously pulled out their computers, and got on the same weird video game that Eliana hadd tried to explain to Aubrey about three weeks ago. They looked at each other for a moment then laughed. James sat right in next to Eliana, and watched her play the game. After about ten minutes of Aubrey reading she looked up at the three of them, only to notice Alexis just staring in James' direction. A small twinge of jealousy flared up, which was ridiculous because first of all, Aubrey did not like James that way, and second of all they had literally just met Alexis. Who of course had immediately gotten in trouble for something Aubrey did. But the way Alexis was looking over there... Aubrey bit her lip, and focused on her book.

"So Alexis?" Eliana said suddenly. "What grade are you in?"

"Sophomore." She murmured quietly.

"Oh my gosh same!" Eliana said with a bright smile.

Alexis hesitantly smiled back.

"What classes do you have?" Eliana asked.

She pulled out her schedule and showed it to her. Eliana's hopeful expression crumbled, giving way to awe.

"How do you have senior level classes?"

Alexis shrugged, but Aubrey spotted a hint of pride behind her indifferent expression. Aubrey leaned over to look and noticed she had the same extracurricular as the three of them, (Theater, and creative photo), but two of the same classes as James and Aubrey. The rest were all senior level classes.

"What the heck?" James muttered, looking over as well. "AP Calculus, and AP Human Biology??"

Aubrey raised her eyebrows, feeling a little impressed and envious. Aubrey really did suck at math.

Alexis shrugged again.

Eliana shook her head. "And here I was thinking I was going to have a friend in my classes." She sighed. "At least I have one in my grade, even if she is five times smarter than i'll ever be."
Alexis smiled weakly, but shook her head.

"That's just intellectual smarts." She said, talking for only the third time today.

"Still that's super cool Alexis, you're really smart ." James said, beaming at her.

She smiled shyly.

"Lexi." She said tentatively.

"What?" James aked.

"I go by Lexi."

James smiled warmly at her.

And just like that, Aubrey knew things were going to be very different from now on.