Teenagers scare the living shit out of me!

A new friend and a new start

Gerard took my hand and pulled me out of the reception quickly. I stumbled to catch up with him as he sped off, taking odd turns and hardly stopping to let someone past. "E20, right?" He asked.

I stopped, puzzled, "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Ha, we're in the same first class." I grinned. I'd know one person at least. Gerard seemed like a nice person, his eyes were nice too, they were a bright sort of hazel like leaves in autumn or-

My thought were interrupted as we dashed into a classroom. The teacher looked up from her register and glared at Gerard while the class remained eerily silent.

"Sorry miss, I-" he started.

"Why are you late?" She demanded in a high-pitched, slightly croaky voice.

I side-stepped into the room shyly.

"He...He was showing me to class, miss," I stuttered. The class erupted into whispers, frantically discussing with each other. Oh fan-fucking-tastic! Because I just needed more people whispering about me!

"Oh, you must be Emily," the teacher's voice softened and I nodded. "I'm Miss Williams, you're going to have to sit next to Gerard for today, sorry, but I'll try to find you another seat next lesson" the class laughed and I looked at said boy to find his face red and his eyes watery. What a bitch, what did he ever do to deserve that? My face flushed with anger and I spoke up. "No, I'm quite happy to sit next to him, Miss," I spat out. "So there's no need to find me another seat."

The whole class went silent at my outburst and Miss Williams looked at me with her jaw on the floor. I strolled over to the front desk and took my new book from her hands before sitting down.

               I just sat and stared out of the window as the teacher drowned on about something or other. I couldn't get my head around why she would say that, let alone why she was allowed to.

"Hey, thanks for that," Gerard snapped me out of my thoughts.

"What? Oh, that, don't worry about it." I smiled. "Why did she do that?"

Gerard looked down sadly. "I...I used to be...different."

"What? How do you mean?" I wispered, puzzled.

"I just didn't fit in." He answered. I knew he wasn't saying everything, but I wasn't going to push him.

"Well, she had no right to do that." I said. He just looked up at me, shocked. "You really think so?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?"

He looked down again, fiddling with his sleeves. "Well, no one else seems to think so, that's all."

I looked him straight in the eyes. "No one has the right to do that to you, Gerard."

He looked into my eyes for a few seconds and then smiled broadly. I furrowed my brow in confusion. Why is he smiling? Shouldn't he be upset or something?

"Hey, what have you got before lunch?" He asked. I looked at my timetable to check.

"Uh, History in A4, why?"

"Do you wanna meet up for lunch?" He asked.

I laughed, "Its not like I'll be going with anyone else, of course!"

He joined my laughing and replied. "Ok, I'll meet you outside your class"

The morning passed surprisingly fast, I didn't make any new friends, but I didn't mind. My mum had always said to look for quality, not quantity. Before I knew it, I was walking out of A4 to meet a grinning Gerard and going to the dining hall. "Watch out for the food, it's not all safe." He laughed as we strolled in. I took a glance at some of the items and wrinkled nose. "Yeah, I think I'll just go for an apple."

Laughing, Gerard lead me over to a large table in the corner. There were four other kids sat around it chatting happily. One of them seemed to be a year younger than me, he was slim with straight brown hair and glasses that balanced on the very end of his nose.

"Emily, this is Mikey, my little brother," Gerard gestured to the boy with the glasses and the boy smiled timidly, waving.

"And this is Ray, Frank and Bob." I looked at them in turn. Ray had hair that was like a makeup brush, he smiled and said hello. Bob waved and scratched his ginger stubble, and Frank leapt up to hug me fiercely. His hair was bleached with a black strip right down the middle and he was adorably short, only coming up to about my shoulders. I giggled and he pulled away, beaming. We sat down and began talking about music and comics, before we came onto the subject of me.

"So, where are you from? You have a weird accent." Mikey enquired.

"Oh, Yeah, I meant to ask you that earlier," Gerard asked. "Are you Australian or something?"

I laughed. They really thought I could be Australian? How cute.

"No, I'm from England."

There came a chorus of 'oh's and 'ah's which made me giggle.

"So what made you move?" Ray asked what everyone was thinking.

"My mum got offered a job over here,"

"Are you staying?" Gerard asked.

"Yeah, I think so."

"YAY!" Frank yelled and I giggled. The others around the table began laughing too and soon we were laughing so much that we were cautioned by the staff.

"Well, let's be friends then!" Gerard exclaimed.

Maybe this move wasn't so bad after all.