Flowers Still Bloom

4

XO - Eden

Facing my fears was not something that I would ever consider as one of my strengths.

Maybe I could blame it on the way that I was raised in seclusion, or the simple nature of my personality.

Either way, I was terrified.

As I made my way further into the crowded classroom, I hid my shaking hands warily in the long sleeves of my cardigan.

My eyes scanned quickly over the multiple pairs staring back at me, but I refused to keep my gaze on a specific point.

"Miss Devereaux, I assume?" A voice spoke from the front of the room.

I gratefully took my nervous eyes off of the other students, directing myself to face the teacher.

She was an older woman, with kind brown eyes hidden behind a pair of thick-framed glasses and short grey hair cropped just below her ears.

I nodded at her, forcing a small smile onto my face in her direction.

"Come over here and introduce yourself, dear."

I moved slowly over to the teacher, turning away from her to once again face my new peers.

"Um, my name is Rose Devereaux, and I was homeschooled up until this year." I spoke, my voice appearing weaker than I would have liked it to.

A small snicker came up from the back corner of the room, but it seemed too quiet for the teacher to notice.

The rest of the room was silent, appearing bored and not paying attention, and for that I was thankful.

"Alright Miss Devereaux, you can head to that empty desk in the back."

I looked towards where she directed me, and made my way to the only empty desk in the room.

I set my stuff down silently, sliding into my seat.

After adjusting, I allowed myself to glance around at the people in the classroom.

There didn't seem to be any divide in the classroom of cliques like I saw in all the chick flick movies at home, which I was excessively grateful for.

All the students were mixed together with no distinct groups, whispering and talking amongst each other.

The teacher babbled on about the syllabus, giving all of the kids opportunity to pay no attention to what she was saying.

To my right, a girl with blood-red dyed hair chatted away loudly with a ginger dressed from head to toe in pastel pink.

I contemplated introducing myself, but they seemed invested in their conversation. And besides, my nervousness took over before I could allow myself to make such a bold move.

To my left, two boys whispered back and forth, much more quietly than the two girls who rambled loudly.

One of the boys had long dark hair tied neatly back, tan skin complimenting his looks. The other was also quite tan with shorter, dark brown hair.

I wasn't so dim as to realize both of these boys were extremely attractive, so I glanced away quickly before either of them could catch me staring, a light blush coating my cheeks.

I then focused my attention back to the teacher, deciding that I would probably end up sitting alone in each of my classes the rest of the day.

My thoughts were interrupted as a loud noise came from my right.

"Psst!"

I glanced over, noticing the ginger leaning comically over her red-haired friend, looking directly at me.

"You!" She whisper-yelled, "The one with the curls!"

"Sasha!" Her friend scolded, "She's the only new girl here, I think she already knows you're talking to her."

She glared soundlessly at her friend, then turned back to me with a wide smile.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Sasha. And this bitch beside me is Mari."

I smiled at both of them, laughing internally at their interaction.

"I'm Rose." I whispered to them, nervous to finally be speaking to someone other than my father or a worker at the local book store.

"Well since you're new, we can help you around if you want?" Sasha asked.

"That would be great," I smiled.

"You seem nice," Sasha decided with a nod, "That's good, because we need someone nice to balance out this group."

"Speak for yourself," Mari scoffed at her friend, "I think I'm pretty nice."

A moment of silence ran between the two friends as they stared each other down with blank faces.

Sasha suddenly broke her facade, laughing hysterically.

It took her a few minutes to recover from her laughing fit, tears running down her face once she finally looked back up.

"Yeah right, bitch. You're about as nice as my stepmom Amy."

"Don't you dare compare me to Amy!" Mari screeched back, lunging to claw at Sasha's face.

I sat back watching, too amused and terrified to intervene. It amazed me that the teacher had yet to notice the commotion.

A light tap on my shoulder brought my attention away from the fighting friends.

I turned my head to see the long-haired boy I saw earlier leaning towards me.

"Is there any way you can get them to keep their homicidal urges at bay?" He asked, glancing over my shoulder at the two girls getting ready to rip each other's hair out.

I gave him a smile, showing my humor towards the situation.

"I don't think I could do anything about it without risking my own life in the process."

"Get off me before I break your nose!" Sasha's voice shrieked from behind me, along with Mari's response that included swear words that I didn't even know existed.

The boy's eyes flickered to the scene quickly, then back to me. "Understandable. I'm Halian, by the way."

"I'm Rose," I smiled in response.

"And this is Roman," He spoke, gesturing back to the other boy sitting beside him whose eyes were too focused on the fight going on behind me to know that Halian was speaking about him.

I nodded, turning back to the teacher for the last few minutes to catch the last bit of information.

As soon as the bell rang, all the kids stood and rushed to the door.

Mari and Sasha came up behind me.

"Ready to get going?" Sasha's cheerful voice exclaimed, hooking my arm with her's.

Mari followed suit, and they talked amongst themselves as if they both didn't just try to kill each other a moment ago.

I shook off the thought with an amused smile as they led me into the hallway.

Maybe this is going to be fun after all.