Chapter 3- School

This would be my third chapter. Well, half of it. I will have the other half put up today. Please Comment on it. Thank you!!

I arrived at school not a minute too late. I would have been utterly embarrassed to get a tardy my first day. I have English first. Great. That’s almost my worst subject. I looked down at my schedule to see my other classes when it hit me. That smell. It was so…it smelled like…I couldn’t explain it. It was so…heavenly. My heart dropped when I saw the source. He was the most gorgeous guy ever. His hair did this wavy thing when he walked. His eyes were blue. Oh, how I loved the way he smiled as he talked. His voice dazed me into standing there like a complete dork with my mouth hanging open.

Someone tapped my right shoulder causing me to jump.

“Uhh…hey, are you new here or what? We have like one minute to get to class. Hello?…” This short, friendly-looking girl had approached me. She had deep, green eyes and stood there smiling awkwardly at me.

“Yeah, I’m new. I actually have English with,” I glanced at my list really quick, “Mrs. Swilter.”

“Oh, gosh! So do I! come on I’ll show you where it is.” I was quickly dragged through a series of hallways and doors until we got to our destination.

The bell rang as soon as we sat down. I was almost out of breath. Mrs. Swilter was starting to take attendance when her eyes caught mine.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Class, let me introduce you to our new student, Hayley Jones. Hayley just moved from Byers, Texas. Why don’t you guys give Hayley a nice welcome.” When the class didn’t respond to Mrs. Swilter she cleared her throat impatiently. The class erupted in non-sequential “hellos” and “heys.”

I felt eyes glued to me and felt like curling up in a corner and dying. Then I remembered that I was starting to act like the old Hayley and straightened up and smiled. I turned to my new friend and saw her giving me an encouraging look. Today, so far, was going accordingly well. It was no doubt the best first day of school I’d ever had.

We started out learning the uses of commas. This was stuff I already learned in Byers, but I didn’t let that ruin my excitement. It was actually nice to glide through papers. It gave me time to talk to my new friend.

“So is this class pretty easy most of the time?” I said as I glanced over to the friendly girl.

“Yeah, kind of. Sometimes we do these stupid writing contests. Other than that, you just have to learn fast.” She finished her paper and then turned back to me.

“Oh! I’m Emma, by the way. Gosh, I totally forgot to introduce myself. I’m sorry!” Emma blushed and thrust her hand out to me. I shook it and told her it was fine. I was wondering when I would find out her name.

Class went faster than expected. Before I knew it, I was being rushed out with a crowd of people. My next class was calculus with Mr. Monson. I had excelled in all my other advanced math classes in Byers, so when I came here they put me right into calculus. I wasn’t too enthused about it. Emma had geography but ushered me to my second hour anyway.

I really like Emma. She had a nice personality and smiled a lot. She seemed trustworthy enough. I never had a real friend and was kind of edgy about expressing myself. I might warm up to her and be who I really am. Well, maybe not. I don’t need to make a loser out of myself.

The bell rang, and I almost jumped out of my seat. I had been spacing off throughout the whole class period. Once I was out in the hall I spotted Emma. She was leaning against the wall waiting for me. I was happy to see her and quickly rushed over to where she was standing.

“How was Mr. Monson?” Emma said with a smile.

“Well, you were right about his O.C.D. He kept rearranging his shelves. It made me want to go up there and mess everything up!” I said while laughing. It was true! Mr. Monson was constantly straightening things up during class. Emma had warned me before about it, but I didn’t think it was that drastic.

The next two periods crept by slowly. Emma and I had literature together. It was a pretty boring class. Then I had P.E. I usually don’t do sports during gym, but today I joined in a gruesome game of dodge ball. I was put on the cocky looking team. There were some people who acknowledged my existence and some who kept running around flexing their muscles and yelling rather rude things to the other team. When we started playing I noticed a familiar face on the other team. It was that dream guy I saw in the hallway. Oh, wow. I stood there and watched his arms flex as he pulled them back for the throw. I could see every muscle in his upper body and sat there drooling. When he threw the ball his hair shook in a sexy way. It wasn’t until too late that I saw who he threw the ball at. Me. I was still in this little trance, so I didn’t think about moving. The ball was flying full speed at my face, and that’s right where it hit me.

The pain was excruciating. My first reflex was making sure that I still had my face by throwing my hands up and feeling around.

“You’re out! Hey…uh…you! I got you out!” He was yelling at me from across the line. I realized that I was still standing there, so I scurried to the outline. I felt so embarrassed. I can’t believe he hit me in the face, of all places. I wasn’t really expecting that. I turned to see a couple more people get out. The dodge ball game turned into a massacre. People were falling to the ground and screaming in pain. Some had bloody noses and were being escorted away. Someone on my team caught the ball and got me in. Instantly I scouted the people getting ready to throw. I wasn’t going to get out this time. As I ran across the floor I dodged a couple. I just stood there dodging until someone broke my concentration.

“I guess it’s just you and me now. I hope you can at least catch.” This buff looking guy was standing five feet away from me. I realized he was right. Everyone else on my team was out. The other team had about five people left in, not counting the lazy ones standing in the back. They didn’t pose a big threat. I gathered up some courage and grabbed a ball that was rolling towards me. I can do this. I can do this. I’ve never had this much pressure brought upon myself. I didn’t want to look like a retard on the first day of school, so I wound my arm back and let the ball sail through the air. It ended up hitting someone in the back while they were turning. I felt pretty happy that I got someone out.

Well, long story short, we ended up losing anyway. I got big-headed and got out soon after my happy outburst. After the game we had to high-five the other team. When we were done with that my dream guy approached me.

“I hope your mom doesn’t think you got in a fight or something.” he said with a smile.

“Huh?” I stood there gaping like a fish.

“I didn’t mean to. I thought you would duck out of the way.” I was still confused about what he was saying.

“What are you talking about?” I asked dumbly.

“Well, you sorta have a black eye! I thought you knew!” His response took me back a second. I didn’t even realize I had one! A black eye! Mom was going to think I got beat up or something.

“Oh, jeez! I didn’t even notice,” I finally said to him.

“I’m really sorry…you know, if you put some concealer on that, it won’t be as noticeable.” He ran his fingers through his hair and half smiled at me.

“Well, I guess I can try. Hey, what’s your name?” I realized I still didn’t know. Now was the perfect time to ask.

“It’s Tyler, and I already know yours, Hayley.” He said that with a large, friendly smile. I swear that my heart dropped to my stomach and floated around down there. He knew my name! Well, everyone did but still. I didn’t think today could get any better.

I walked with Tyler to lunch. We talked the whole way there. He wanted to know what my old school was like and if I liked it here better. Of course, I loved it here!

Lunch today was pork chops and mashed potatoes. Lexington middle school gave us the satisfaction of actually making real food. Not that cheap cardboard crap. Seriously, how can they expect us to eat that stuff?

I didn’t know where to sit at first. Tyler thought I would sit with him. I would have if it hadn’t been for Emma, who I remembered before sitting down. She was sitting with a group of girls near the center of the cafeteria. They were all giggling and covering their mouths. Emma was twirling her black hair around her fingers. Her eyes lit up when she saw me, and she beckoned for me to go sit with them. I pleadingly looked back at

Tyler then shuffled to Emma’s table.

“Hey, Hayley! So how was talking to Tyler?” Emma said then covered her mouth with her hands suppressing a giggle.

“It was…good?” I didn’t know what she expected me to say.

“Hayley, he’s like the hottest guy here! You were so lucky to even walk with him! The girls over there were glaring at you.” Emma was getting all worked up by now. I noticed how energetic she is.

My hair was irritating my face so I brushed it out of my eyes.

“Holy Shitaki Mushrooms!” Emma screamed at me.

“What?!” I looked around confused.

“Your face! What happened?” I now realized she saw my black eye.

“Oh, that. Yeah, I was playing dodge ball. Tyler accidentally did that.” Emma was still staring shocked at my eye. It made me feel kind of uncomfortable. I could feel other eyes boring into me too. I cringed in my chair then straightened back up.

We spent the whole lunch period eating and talking about random things. They kept telling me about all the guys and who I shouldn’t talk to. It turns out that there weren’t many cliques in this school, but there were some.

I guess that Emma and her friends were basically popular. The other table of girls, the ones that were glaring at me, were all b*****s. They traveled among the school in groups viciously attacking unsuspecting girls. Then you had the social outcasts. The ones who could be normal if they tried. The rest were just jocks and other guys combined together. No one really dressed the same but it was easy to tell everyone apart. I’ve always been one to just be nice to everybody. Secretly, on the inside, I was glad Emma pointed all this out to me.

 

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think!! I would really like to know!!

Reviews

[Shellie]

Another excellent chapter. I like the way you focused this on Hayleys 1st day at school esp coz of her insecurities of starting, and its common in stories for the new girl to be seen with the most popular guy there but yours was done way different because of the dodgeball. No really, this chapter was excellent.