The New Kid: a Noah Beck Fanfiction *completed*

11

"Good morning!" I yelled to the crowd around my locker. All of our friends turned to look at me.
They all spoke over each other, begging for details, although we all knew that they had already gotten them. "Has anyone seen Noah?"
The group grew silent, and Nessa nudged me. "He's coming this way."
They all made themselves look busy, but it was a pitiful attempt, and Noah laughed uncomfortably. "Hey," he whispered. "How are you?"
"I'm good. Why don't we get out of this mess?"
I grabbed Noah's hand, leading him down the hallway, much to the disappointment of our friends. "Thank God. That was really awkward. Are they always like that?"
I chuckled. "They were like that with Ryland, if that's what you're asking."

We stopped in front of the classroom door, and I followed Noah's gaze to see our friends standing behind us. They kept a far enough distance to think that they weren't drawing attention to themselves, but a group of fourteen people moving down the hallway in a pack was hard to miss.
We watched as Blake gave Amelie a quick peck on the cheek before walking towards us. "Hey, Noah. How are you doing, man?"
"Don't try for the Bloah thing again right now, man," Noah chuckled.
"Bloah will happen. Even if it's the last thing I do," Blake joked.
"I'll see you at lunch?" I asked, looking up at him. He nodded, and I went into the classroom.

"Do you think that you two are gonna date?" Blake asked as I sat down next to him.
"We're just hanging out right now, Blake. Don't overthink it."
Against Blake's typical nature, he didn't push the matter and quickly changed the subject. "I think that I'm going to ask Amelie to be my girlfriend when I ask her to go to homecoming."
"That's cute. I'm sure that she'll love it," I replied, looking at my phone. I hadn't even considered homecoming. Ryland and I went together the year before, but the fight that happened that night was actually the last straw that led to our break up.
"Earth to Grace. Did you hear anything that I just said?" Blake asked, waving his hand in front of my face.
I shook my head to bring me back to reality. "No, I'm sorry. I was just thinking about last year's homecoming."
Blake suddenly realized. "I'm sorry. I forgot that the first anniversary is coming up."
"I would hardly call it an anniversary," I said, chuckling sadly. "I don't think that I'm gonna go to homecoming this year."

Our teacher entered the room, beginning class, but Blake had decided that the conversation wasn't over. "It's your senior homecoming. You have to go."
"I don't have to do anything. Besides that, I don't even have a date," I whispered back.
Blake tapped my phone, revealing my lock screen, which I had changed to a picture that Noah and I had taken the night before. "Looks like you might."
I shook my head and turned my attention to the lecture. None of it made any sense to me, but Blake would help me figure it out before we had to take the exam.

When the bell rang, I said goodbye to Blake and headed down the hall to my English class. I ran into Jaden on the way there. "I'm about to ask Mads to homecoming, can you make sure she's in there?" he asked. There was the mention of that damn dance again. I nodded, walking into the classroom.
"Hey, Mads. How are you doing today?"
"I'm worried about Jaden. Have you seen him? He usually waits for me outside of my last class, but when I texted him, he said that he had something to do," she answered, checking her phone anxiously.
I shrugged. "I'm sure that everything's fine. Don't worry about it."
As soon as the words left my mouth, Jaden walked into the room, holding what I assumed was Mads' favorite drink from Starbucks. "Oh, thank God! I was worried about you," she said, taking the drink and kissing his cheek as he leaned down.
"Read what the barista thought my name was," he chuckled.
Mads held the cup up, reading the sticker out loud. "'I would like it a latte if you would go to homecoming with me.' That's not a na- oh! Yes! Of course! I would love to!" she exclaimed, jumping up to hug him.
The teacher walked in, clearing her throat. "If you guys are done, we have essays to talk about."

They sat down, whispering excitedly to each other, and I zoned out as the teacher explained the essay that would make up twenty percent of our final grade. Before I knew it, the bell rang, and I found myself mindlessly walking to lunch with Jaden and Mads.
As we walked, Griffin and Dixie caught up with us. The five of us walked silently, sitting down at our regular table near the door. When the rest of our friends had arrived, the conversation began to flourish.
"We need to pick a date to go shopping for our dresses for homecoming," Addison said, taking a bite of her salad.
"Speaking of homecoming," Mads began, "Jaden just asked me today."
The girls shrieked in excitement, and I found myself getting annoyed. It wasn't like me to be bothered by the excitement of my friends, but between not having a date and the disaster that had happened the last time that I went to homecoming, I just wasn't in the mood.

"Are you okay?" Noah whispered in my ear. "You seem like you're kind of out of it."
I nodded. "Yeah. I just don't have a very good track record when it comes to homecoming."
Noah pulled away from my ear, and we were no longer whispering. "About that. Do you want to go with me? I'll extravagantly ask you if you want, but I want to make sure that it's something that you would want to do."
My heart was racing. "Um, yeah. Yeah, I would like that. I would like that a lot."