Day One

As he walked to the college’s entrance, he noticed how people were talking and smiling, it was obvious they have known each other for years. Robert was the only one walking alone; on his mind were his friends back in England, the ones he had known since primary school.

“Hello I’m Simon, did your parents make you walk alone to school too?”. Robert had this flashback of that little kid standing in the hall who had been the first one that talked to him on his first day of school,and who over the years had become his best friend.

Once he was inside the building he could easily perceive all the differences between his old school and this one. The colors in the walls, the locker rooms on the hallways, the way most of the students were dressed, the way they talked, sometimes he heard words which meaning was unknown to him. Some of them would look him in the eyes and some wouldn't even bother to say excuse me or I’m sorry as they pushed him trying to make their way to their classroom.

He was holding a little piece of paper on his hand that had written the number 937 to indicate his locker number. He continued walking as he looked for his locker and ignoring most of the people on his way.

“934,935,936 and here it is”. He whispered as he found it. He took the key out of his pants front pocket and opened the old grey colored locker. It was dusty and it had a faded sticker that read “Keep Out”. Robert smiled as he saw it. It was almost like if it could read his mind, he didn't like people to look into his belongings. He placed a book inside and a package of winter mint gum, which was his favorite, he liked that strong and brain-freeze kind of sensation every time he was chewing it.

Then the bell rang to indicate the students that  they should go to their classrooms. He closed his locker and walked looking for room 305. He gave away the fact that he was new as he kept looking at all the rooms looking for number 305.

“Can I help you son?  You seem to be lost, are you new here?”. A nice white-haired lady asked him.

“Yes, I’m trying to find classroom number 305”. Robert replied her with a low tone of voice like a shy kid that is ashamed of asking something.

“Oh yes, this is right at the end of the hall to the left, is Mrs. Ferguson’s classroom, I must say what a lovely accent you have, are you English?”. She smiled as she placed her arm on his shoulder.

“Yes, I’m from England, pardon me but I must go now”. He replied to her as he start to walk away.

He walked all the way down the hall and turned to the left. As he walked in, some of the students were already sitting on their chairs and others were chatting.  He looked around for an empty chair and hung his backpack on the side. He clasped his hands and looked around, all those papers pinned to the wall, the american flag on one side of the white board, the strange faces surrounding him, then he turned away to see out the window. Those birds flying free, spreading their wings, feeling the wind crashing in their heads. He felt jealousy of them, there was nothing he wished more than to be freed from that strange world he was forced to be in. It was almost like he didn't existed no one seemed to notice his presence as a new student, everyone was so busy on their conversations about what they would do for the weekend that was just one day away. Until Mrs. Ferguson entered to the classroom.

“Good morning everyone”. She greeted her students as she closed the door.

“Morning Mrs. Ferguson”. They all said.

Robert looked at her. Was she really his teacher?, she seemed to be the same age as everyone else in the room, her green dress and black scarf made her look even younger, but her friendly smile as she greeted her students seemed to give Robert some sort of comfort.

“I know you are already planning how you are going to spend this weekend, or am I wrong?, well I would like to remind you that tomorrow is Friday, which means that I have one day left from this week to make you suffer”.

Mrs. Ferguson was not the kind of mean teacher that enjoy scaring her students, what she meant was, that she would make them suffer with one more day left of exercises and tests to do as she was the Math teacher, which was usually the less popular teacher in school.

“Ok, so to start the morning well I want you to open your books to page eleven and answer the first ten exercises of-“.

She took her attention away from her book as she spotted a new face in the back seats of the classroom.

“I’m sorry but it looks like I have a new student here that no one told me about”.

As Robert hear that he slowly lifted up his face from the book and looked at Mrs. Ferguson. His stomach fluttered from his nervousness, it was the exact same sensation he felt every time he was on a landing plane. On his mind he was quietly hoping she wouldn't call him to the front and make him introduce himself to everybody.

“What is your name?”. Mrs. Ferguson asked him.

This caught some of the students attention and they looked back to see who this new student was.

“Robert Graham”. He answered looking straight at her avoiding any eye contact with every other person who was not the teacher.

“Well welcome to my class Mr. Graham, can you please stand up and come over here so all your classmates can see you?”. She asked him.

Just the words he feared to hear. He stood up from his chair and slowly made his way to the front, then he looked at everyone and  noticed a face he already knew. The girl who lived next door, the one who had come to his house looking for her cat, she was there, sitting in the front chair.

“So Mr. Graham where are you coming from?”. Mrs. Ferguson asked him .

“England”. He said with a trembling voice.

Feeling that the eyes of all the thirty people in there  on him made his hands feel cold as ice, although only him could know, he felt as if everyone knew how nervous he was.

“That’s very nice, well Mr. Graham welcome to Spokane Heights and to my class, I hope you enjoy it here and that all of these boys and girls can make you feel like home”. 

“Thank you”. 

“You can return to your chair now”.

As Robert walked back to his seat, he briefly looked down as he passed Nerissa’s chair but she wasn't looking at him.

He smiled because he knew that somehow seeing her there made him feel less nervous, after all she had talked to him before and she was his neighbor, and somehow that made him  feel like he was not totally alone. And it was also a great chance for him to talk to her.

When it was lunch time, Robert walked to the cafeteria like everybody else, taking his tray he walked in the line as he started looking around all the choices, there was nothing that could caught his eye. Cheeseburgers,hot dogs,pizza, that seemed to be the most popular food. He felt relieved as he found the salad bar next to all these greasy food, he took a little of all the vegetables in there, an apple and a bottle of water. Looking around the place seemed to be packed  and he didn't want to make himself dizzy looking everywhere for an empty place, he walked outside and found a tree that seemed to be perfect to lean on.

Nerissa and her friend Hazel were seated on a bench near where Robert was.

“What’s with that guy?”. Hazel asked Nerissa looking at the lonely strange guy sitting under a tree.

“What do you mean?”. Nerissa asked Hazel as she looked at Robert too as he ignored the fact that he was being observed.

"He looks weird and he barely speaks, just like this morning at Mr. Ferguson’s class, maybe he is retarded or something”.

Nerissa smirk at her nodding and she continued eating her sandwich.

“Where have you been beautiful? Are you hiding from me?”. Devin said to the girls as he came from behind hugging  Nerissa and kissing her cheek.

“Hey Devin”. Hazel greeted him with a forced smile, she hated whenever he appeared out of nowhere scaring them.

Devin Barker had been dating Nerissa for one year and a half now. He was handsome and a good guy, but he liked to joke and enjoyed to be the class clown. Back when Nerissa's father died their relationship had been affected and almost over when she had completely isolated from her friends and from him. But now everything seemed to be working out perfectly for them.

“So were you  two talking about me? I heard you say retarded”. Devin jokingly asked Hazel.

“Not your kind of retarded Devin I was telling Nerissa about this new guy in our class, he is so weird”. Hazel said.

“Really?  who is he? some new nerd I can bother?”. Devin asked.

“See for yourself”. Hazel told Devin as she pointed with her eyes to  where Robert was.

“That guy? Oh my god he is not a nerd, he is someone who traveled from the past”. Devin said sarcastically.

“From the past?”. Hazel asked.

“Yeah, just look at that long hair, and his clothes, and those shoes? Come on, the 80’s are way over, someone has to tell him!”. Devin said chuckling.

“Yeah totally dude, this guy looks just ridiculous, I think he got lost in time”. Devin’s friend Sam told him chuckling as well.

Nerissa was just hearing them as they critique Robert but she didn't dare to say anything about him, she knew she could add "Rude" to the list if she told them about her experience with him the day before, but looking at him she felt like it wasn't right to judge someone that soon. She just stood up from the bench and without saying goodbye she started walking with the empty tray on her hands.

“Hey where are you going sweetie?”. Devin asked  walking after her.

“I’m done with my lunch I’m just going to return the tray, and go to the library”. She answered him without stop walking.

“Why do you like that place so much? It’s the center of boredom”. Devin said.

“Is not that I like it Devin, I have to do a research”. Nerissa replied.

“Hey are you mad at me, why don’t you stop walking?”. Devin said grabbing her hand forcing her to stop.

“Devin, I just have a lot of things to do, can we talk after school please?”. Nerissa answered.

“All right, just tell me how much do you love me?” He said grabbing her face with his hands and getting his lips closer to hers.

Nerissa smiled and looked at him, “I love you very much”.

Then he kissed her and moved his hands down to her waist.

Nerissa slowly pulled away, she didn't feel comfortable whenever Devin tried to touch her that way.

“I got to go”. She said.

“Love you”. Devin told her letting go off her hand.

Nerissa kissed her hand and blew him a kiss before walk away.

As she made her way to the library the words of her friends talking about Robert came to her mind. The way he had looked at her just couldn't leave her mind, she had felt scare but she had also felt like he was harmless. But, why would she be scared of him? She barely knew him. She did not know why, but she knew that it was something she didn't want to see again. She walked down the hall holding her books against her chest and when she was a few feet away from the library she stopped as she saw Robert sitting on a chair nearby. Her heart almost escaped her chest as she saw him, he was reading a magazine and she hoped he wouldn't see her. She walked past right in front of him. Robert looked up and saw her, he understood that she was trying to avoid him and he didn't blame her.

 

Author's Note

This chapter has been re-written on a few lines and paragraphs.

Reviews

[Neon]

First off, If I were a Robert, I'd have gonna kick that "Weirdo" Devin outta that place because now I hate "Devin" please, Don't add his character more in your next chapters because I hate seeing someone as beautiful as Nerissa get hurt ... and I hated when he grabbed her hand and kissed her and put his hand on her waist ... now as a reader I can feel that "Nerissa" really doesn't like him from her heart because I can feel the feelings of angels ... because I always love them seeing them happy ... now this chapter's well penned without anykinda minor error, I don't find any error in this chapter and this chapter's damn cool because here .. now am learning more about "Robert & Nerissa" ..hey, please in the ending of the book ...let these both beautiful guys go getting married ... lol because I just now want to see "Nerissa" in my arms ..Opps! I meant , In "Robert's" arms .. Ha!