Beacon High and what changed me

Chapter I

Well here I am. Beacon High. My new school! I'm super duper excited! Oh gosh where is my class! Ah here it is! I walk right into the class and the teacher, Mr. Garcet, introduces me to the class. As he mumbles on my concentration shifts to a guy, staring right at me and our eyes lock. "So, Penelope Grayson, tell us a little about yourself..." Oh no. Not this. I hate it when teachers do this. "Well, uh, there isn't much about me to tell..." Silence falls over the class, which is promptly broken by the teacher. "Well, Penelope, your guide for the day will be..." He scans the class intently. "Chloe Andrews." A girl gets up and trots over to me. "Well, now that everything is over, class, back to work." I have no Idea where to sit. Chloe points at a table and I sit down next to her. I haul out my books and stare at the beautiful drawings on the table. I whisper to Chloe. "Did you do these?" She nods, and hands me a marker pen. "Yeah, better than boring yourself to death. Come on, you try." I'm not sure if I should, I mean, the school must have paid a lot of money for this table. Granted it's not my style of table but bland is apparently the way to go in schools. Before I know it, Chloe smacks my arm. "What was tha-" She shushes me and points at what I had been unknowingly drawing on the table. A huge mandala flower. "You have talent, Little Miss P." I thank Chloe. "How do I get this marker off?" As I start to panic, Chloe leans back and laughs quietly. "Don't be ridiculuous. That was permanent marker." I panic slightly and try to arrange my books to cover it all. "Chloe, what did he just cover, what did I miss?" Chloe shook her head. "Nothing important, Miss P, just some rubbish about cafeteria food and organisational stuff being done incorrectly." I look forward to see Mr. Garcet point at the board. "Remember, this may be a new term, but slacking off still is not acceptable. I know you hate it when I have to be serious but everybody's school marks are slipping, not just in this school but even across America. And this might be the only way I can get Ms. Gordian to stop moaning at us all. She may be the principal and therefore the boss of us but she doesn't have to boss us around." I pull out my drawing paper and carry on the shading of my latest drawing. Just as I start the bell rings, with all the class running out. I get up and follow Chloe to the cafeteria and grab a tray. "Where you sit in the cafeteria is crucial. And boy, do I mean crucial. You've got your geeks, your freshman, your hippies, your band members, the bitchy girlygirls, the sports nutters and the artistes. And me, I fit in right here." She sits down at a table. "The emo goths. Skyler, shift up a little. This is Penelope, she's tagging along for the day." I stare at all the people looking at me. "Chloe, what if I don't know what kind of group to sit at?" She laughed. "Don't worry, dear, you'll be safe here. Anyway as long as you stay away from the misfits and the undecideds..." She points to a group at the back of the cafeteria. "...everything will be a-okay." As I scan the people sitting with me at the table, I see the boy I saw this morning. "So, how does everybody keep contact here? Facebook?" Chloe shakes her head. "Mobile phones and AIM. I'll give you my number if you want." As I start sloshing about the cafeteria mush that had probably been made out of old human face lumps for all I knew, I nod. "Yeah, that would be great." The guy next to me, Skyler, starts talking to me. "So Penelope, what music do you listen to?" I grind my teeth. "Uh, FallOutBoy, Panic! At The Disco, My Chemical Romance et cetera... what about you?" Skyler waved his hand. "Same. But that look is not suitable for a listener of FallOutBoy. Too undecided to be cool, to meh to be a blip on the radar." I tilt my head. "What do you mean?" He smiles. "I mean, Penelope, that we will get you a makeover." I'm not sure if I like the sound of that. I mean, I kinda always wanted to look like that, but I don't know how I'd work that look. "Don't worry, Penelope, we've got you covered. Chloe'll show you around this place and then we can meet up at some place later." The bell rings and Chloe takes me to our next class, Math. Ugh. "Miss P, do you have a middle name?" I nod. "Yeah, it's Cariana." Chloe smiles. "Penelope Cariana Grayson? Now that's a mouthful." We sit down in our math room and our teacher stares at us with a look of complete hatred. "A new one, I see... Introduce yourself!" I swallow hard and Chloe answers the teacher's question. "This is Penelope, Miss Hardbroom, she is, indeed, new." Miss Hardbroom prepares for a shout. "Chloe Andrews did I ask you or did I ask Penelope!?" Chloe just shrugs. "Why are you asking me if you don't know yourself?" An uncertain silence hangs in the air where I swear Miss Hardbroom was trying to suppress the urge of lunging at Chloe. "I'll get you some day, my pretty... and your little friend too!" So she starts to write on the board and scrapes her nails on it. "As you know, today we have a test. You should have prepared for it, so if you haven't, well, tough luck." She hands us papers with all sorts of questions. "Now, be quiet while I have my lunch." She sits down and starts eating a sandwich. I stare at the pages and answer each and every question. One test later, the bell rings and the principal announces that the school must be evacuated due to a gas leak in the cellar. We hastily run to the gates and catch the bus. To my right I see Chloe. "Don't tell me, you take the 33 bus too?" I nod. "Yep, right up to Trousseau Street." Chloe smiles. "So, any plans for the afternoon? Because me and the gang are going to go to the smoothie bar later, wanna come? At that time we can give you that makeover as well!" I don't know... yeah. "Nah, got nothing. When shall I meet you?" She hands me her number and tells me to meet her at 15:30. I wonder what smoothie bar she means. As I hop off the bus and walk home, I start to wonder what this term will be like. Oh well, if it carries on as well as it has today, then I'm really looking forward to it.