Thump thump.
My lungs and stomach threatened to leap out of my mouth.
Thump thump.
"Well, why don't you come on up?" I was hoping I could've avoided this part.
Thump thump.
My feet seemed to move in slow motion across the waxy tiles. There was red, blue and a grimy white.
"Everyone," I felt a hand on my shoulder. "This is Cameron! Welcome to Barkley High School!" The owner of the hand smiled widely.
A few dozen eyes locked on to me, sizing me up. Who was he? Where was he from? Was he smart? Strong? Is he going to be easy to leech money off of?
Finally, my mouth opened. "Hi."
-•-
After a few moments and a few mumbles of "hello, Cameron" later, I walked eagerly back to my seat. It's not like that's the first time I've had to do that, but who doesn't get anxiety in front of like, 30 strangers? Plus I just kind of hate school. It's so awful and stressful! Teenagers can also be pains in the ass. I'm sure you know.
I rested my chin on my folded arms in front of me and looked out the window, trying to tune out the teacher, Ms. Carson or something like that. There were trees starting to redden and shift from lush greens to subdued yellows. A small, brilliantly colored bird perched itself close to the window sill, and I took a mental picture. It would make for a beautiful shot.
Moving my eyes from the smudged glass of the window, I decided to scan the people in front of me. Or the backs of people, I should say. There were a few tousled heads of bright orange, a girl with bright blue hair, another boy with purple streaks in his. Otherwise mostly just brown, a few blond. One of the blond kids was staring out the window, as I had been earlier, his hair curled to frame his face.
"...Be passing out the syllabuses now." My focus turned back to the teacher, who I had managed to tune out for a minute or two.
Ugh, getting right to it, I guess. I sighed and waited for the two-paged packet to grace my desk. I say that 'grace' part in all sarcasm, I hope you know.
"Take a look at the first page and read along silently as I go over it, please." Yup, really looking forward to hearing that about five more times today.
Instead of paying attention to the words, I decided to pick up a pen and sketch on the heavily worded paper. First an oval shape, then the dividing lines, sketch in some hair, add a nose, eyes and... Shit. It's starting to look like him. I was happy to turn over the paper. I didn't need to think about him right now.
Going over the syllabus did not end fast enough. "Okay! Any questions?" Ms. Crayson, I had come to notice her name was, asked. There were no raised hands. "Alright, then let's get to know each other a little better!" She went on, rather chipper. "I know most of you have known each other for the past few years, but we have some new faces and it doesn't hurt to learn more about our classmates." She went around and gave each student a small notecard. I didn't need to hear the instructions to know what to do; this was such a common icebreaker.
Fact about me number 1--fairly common, shared with at least half the class: I own at least one pet. Gotta love our furry friends, right? Or scaly. Or feathery. Whatever.
