Chapter 2 - First Day

         When I awoke in the morning I was dazed and a little confused as to where I was. I slowly sat up and draped my legs over the side of my bed. Slowly and reluctantly I hopped off my bed and trudged over to my new-ish mahogany dresser.  My feet dragging heavily on the hardwood floor. I picked up my silver hairbrush and started to comb through the matted mess that I call my hair.

        “Ugh. I cannot believe that I, moi, got stuck with brown hair. My entire freakin family has blonde hair, and I have brown. Just my luck.” I said to my reflection in the mirror. Slowly I trudged down the stairs to the little shop below. Sharon and Dean were standing behind the counter talking, in hushed tones. As soon as they saw me they both went completely silent. 

        There is nothing, I repeat nothing worse than when you walk into a room and everyone shuts up, so you know they were talking about you. 

        “Uh, hi.” I said awkwardly. 

        “Hi honey. Are you ready for school? You have to be there in, like, 47 minutes? I think.” Sharon said, looking at her wristwatch.  Dean turned towards her a little and whispered something, that I couldn’t quite hear. Sharon looked at him for a split second and turned to face me.

        “Dean is gonna drive you to school today. You two will be going to school together, since you’re both sophomores, so…….yeah.” Then she walked away. I stood there for a couple moments, then headed up to my bedroom to get dressed for school.

        Once in my room I shut the door, turned, and locked it. I pulled on a pair of light, distressed blue jeans and a black and white striped Paramore t-shirt., that fit me kinda snuggly. Finished smudging on a little bit of eyeliner, and then went back downstairs.

        “You ready to go?” Dean asked in his angelic voice. 

        “Yeah.  Just let me grab my bag.” I walked to the counter and grabbed my book bag, slung it over my right shoulder, and walked back to face Dean.

        “Ready”  I said in an overly perky tone. Dean smiled and leaded me out to his car. He walked around and opened my door for me, which again surprised me. And to surprise me even more he shut it for me when I sat down. Whoa. 

        We were quiet for the entire 45 minutes it takes to get to school. Dean pulled up to the front of the school and parked by a red mustang (oohhh, fancy!) . He turned off the car and just sat there, not even attempting to get out. I looked over at him in wander and he was staring at me. I quickly looked away, and started to get out of the car, when he grabbed my hand. I looked over, astonished. 

        “Have a nice day” he said smiling his crooked smile. Then he lifted my hand and kissed it. Just like that. As if it was no big deal. I tried to smile back, but I was just too stunned. I could feel my eyes about to bulge outta their sockets. And I felt my mouth drop open, which I quickly closed.  

        “Uh….yeah, sure. You too.”  I muttered. I opened my car door, and climbed out. I looked back and tried to smile at him, before I closed my door. When he pulled the car away to park it in the parking lot, I stared after him. 

        What had just happened? 

        Slowly, shaking my head, I headed for the front doors to my new, personal, hell. 

        I walked into the doors of Chaffton High School.  

        It was only the morning, and the halls were filled with students. The halls of my personal hell were crowded, small, and smelled like sweaty gym socks. Gross! Well, this was the first day of school, and  I didn’t know anybody! But Dean, of course. 

        As I walked into the office I spotted a woman behind the counter. She was wearing a light, maybe lavender?, shirt, and tan khakis! HELLO! Did she know how to dress? I think not.

        “Excuse me?” I called to the woman.

        “Can I help you?” she had a sweet, grandma like, voice.

        “Yeah. I’m Lyra. Lyra Jones. I’m, uh, new here.” I was kinda tongue-tied, if ya know what I mean. The new kid never really knows what to say, do they?

        “Ah, yes, of course you are honey.  Hold on just a moment, please.” she fiddled around with her computer for a couple minutes, and then the ancient printer on the other side of the office, roared to life, making me jump.

        “Here you are sweetie. Now, your first class is here” she pointed to the first class listed on the paper, that was my new schedule. “Your second class here, third here, fourth here, fifth here, sixth here, and seventh here.” when she got done pointing to each class, one after the other, I smiled and left the room.

        I looked at the piece of paper, and at the top right corner was my locker number. I looked at the lockers around me and was nowhere near mine. Oh, great!

        Goddamn, I had no choice but to ask somebody where to go.

        I looked around me, this way, and that, to try and find somebody that at least looked nice. I saw a boy, kinda cute, in a geeky way. Apparently he sensed my stare, cause he turned and looked at me with a cute, crooked teeth grin. 

        “Hi, my name is Erik.” He was talking with a bit of girlyness in his voice. Definitely gay, I thought to myself. I felt a wave of relief wash over me, drowning all my worries about not having any friends. 

        He held his hand out to shake mine. 

        “Hi, I’m Lyra. I’m, umm. I’m new here”

        “I know. I’ve never seen you here before, so that was kind of an indicator.” I was beginning to think I would like Erik. “Do you need me to show you where your classes are, Lyra?”

        What should I have said? “Yes, that would be nice.” Then I would seem weak, and insecure. “No, I’m fine“. Then I would seem rude and antisocial. What is a girl to do?

        “Well, right now, I only need to find my locker.” I said pointing to the number 231 on my schedule. 

        Erik walked me down about 3, maybe 4 different hallways and then we came to a stop in front of my rusted orange locker. I dialed in my combination, and opened the door. Automatically I was overwhelmed with the smell of rust, old cheese, and peppermint. It was pretty nasty. 

        “Oh my god” I muttered, fanning the smell away from my nose. “ That’s horrible!”

        “Well, I would imagine so, nobody’s had that locker in like, 3 years. Which means nobody’s cleaned it in 3 years.” he chuckled. Smiling, he added “But on the bright side, my lockers right across the hall.” 

        “Oh, cool.” Just then the bell rang, for first period to begin. “Well, I better go. Talk to you at lunch?”

        He hesitated a moment, then grinned. “Sure, talk to you at lunch. Good luck with your first half of the day.” 

        I walked down the hallway to my first class, biology. Ugh! Learning the science of life, and living organisms…… this should be fun! Or not. 

Reviews

[Rena]

Sweet!
even better than the first chapter!!
word of advice -
finish the book to have a decent ending.
its always nice to have a finished work so people can read all of it and not have an unfinished book.
I really cannot wait for the rest!!!

don't stop believin'!!
~rena~