chapitre 1.

chapter one of bralex. alex starts new school.

 

 

Her feet crunched on the gravel as she walked up to the building. Another new school. The third one in two years. At lease she was starting at the beginning of the school year; she hated having to change in the middle.

 

 

 

Alex stopped in front of the steps that led up to the doors and stared up, bending he head back and tilting it up to the sky. A sharp gust of wind made her pull her jacket slightly closed. Other students, those who had presumably been here before, were milling about, exclaiming over new haircuts and tans, summer loves, and the dreaded classes and teachers.

 

 

 

Alex had not gotten a new haircut. Her light brown curly hair was pulled back into a stylishly unruly ponytail. She did have a tan, but it was only slightly darker than the golden-brown that came with her multiracial parentage. There were no summer loves because she had been relocated in the middle of July and nothing had had any chance to blossom. Alex didn’t know any of the teachers, so she couldn’t dread going to Ms Kitchson for English.

 

 

And even if alex had had anything to talk about, she didn’t have anyone to tell it to. But hopefully that would change.

 

 

Alex walked up the steps and into the building. It was a madhouse, plain and simple. At least outside was an open space. Inside, there were so many people crowded around that Alex almost felt claustrophobic.

 

 

 

She pushed through the freshmen who were randomly staring about wide-eyed, searching for the correct room numbers. What astounded Alex was how small they all seemed—some looked barely older than 10! Alex was certain she had never been that tiny in the 9^th grade. She hoped she didn’t look as gawky as they did; it was only high school, after all. Welcome to the best years of your lives, kids, she thought with a grin.

 

 

 

Dancing around people and trying to avoid getting her toes smashed, Alex searched for her locker. 108. Reading the little slip of paper the woman in the office had given her, she twisted in the combination. 0. 8. 10. It clicked and she swung it open. The empty gray space leered at her. There were no roaches and nothing was rotting inside. It would do. She just hoped her classes were in the vicinity.

 

 

 

As she slammed the still empty locker shut, a bell rang. A warning bell? Alex scanned her watch-less wrist, willing the time to appear among the pale hairs. Oh well. It was the first day; the teachers wouldn’t be too harsh.

 

 

 

Taking out her schedule from her messenger bag, she looked for her first class. 20^th Century History. Siaflas. 203. She flipped it over to scan the map. A little square showed 203. It seemed to be located in the next hallway. Alex walked down the hall, turned right, and sure enough, all the 200s were in this one. Well, that’s organised, she thought sarcastically.

 

 

 

When Alex walked into the correct classroom, everyone else was seated. The man at the front looked at her, ticked off something in the notebook he held, and gestured warmly for her to take a seat. The only empty one was next to a tall guy in a pale blue polo. The by smiled at her. He looked like a handsome smurf.

 

 

 

After the teacher introduced himself, he went over the syllabus and then whiled away the rest of the 80 minutes discussing current events. They talked about the situation in Darfur, the Bush Administration, anything a student brought up. Alex was not an active participant.

 

 

 

When the bell rang, Alex was not in the great rush to get out of the classroom. She figured that last was as good as first, because she still didn’t know where she was going.

 

 

 

The second and third classes passed in much the same way. Smurf was in the third class. She wasn’t paying attention to the teacher when she called his name, so he remained Smurf. Alex was pretty sure that the class was her pre-calc class. She had completely zoned out.

 

 

 

The bell rang in tandem with the growl of Alex’s stomach. Shoving the stll blank notebook from her desk to her bag, she began the great pilgrimage to the cafeteria.

 

 

 

‘Hey!’ Alex heard a voice cry. She would have ignored it, if not for the next words. ‘Alex, right?’ Smurf said, falling into step with her.

 

 

‘Uh, yeah. Hi!’ Alex returned his smile cheerfully. Now she felt bad that she hadn’t paid attention to his name.

 

‘I’m Jake,’ he said knowingly. ‘It’s easy to space out in Mrs Lethe’s class; I don’t blame you.’

 

Alex’s initial shyness was quickly disappearing. She laughed and confessed. ‘You caught me. It’s nice to meet you.’

 

‘Likewise,’ he said with a charming smile.

 

 

The two were in the lunch line contemplating the fare: spicy chicken sandwich, curry chicken, or salad. With no hesitation, Jake chose the salad. Alex paused for a moment, then grabbed a plate of the more exit curry, and followed Jake.

 

 

They sat down at an empty circular table. Jake eyed Alex’s tray with a smirk as they took their first bites.

 

‘I knew you had to be new.’

 

 

Alex paused her chewing. Swallowed. Sharp, but almost fruity. The chicken texture was admittedly a little suspect, but Alex was pretty sure she would survive.

 

 

‘Why?’ Alex asked him. ‘It isn’t that bad.’

 

Jake chuckled in response and shook his head.

 

 

They finished their lunches in relative silence. Alex was somewhat surprised. She hardly ever made it through her first conversation in a new school without someone asking her where she was from.

 

 

 

When the two finished and dumped their trays, Jake scanned the emptying cafeteria as if looking for someone. Alex hoped he wasn’t looking for someone else to hang out with so that he could ditch her. Her stomach clenched and fluttered. Alex couldn’t tell if it was some strange bout of nerves or if the curry chicken wasn’t so good after all.

 

 

 

Still scanning the dwindling crowd, Jake said, ‘There’s someone you totally have to meet.’ Then he murmured something incomprehensible, like ‘said meet me in the dining hall…’

 

 

Just then, Alex had to leave to use the restroom. With a quick excuse to her new friend, Alex bolted.

 

She emerged from the restroom feeling much better. And her last class of the day was a study hall. Brilliant.

 

Reviews

[Marie]

Liked it. Held my interest from the beginning to end.

[Genevive Russet]

Good first chapter. Could use another spell and grammar check but overall, nice work.
Best Wishes,
Genevive