“Hey, are you new here?” a boy in faded jeans and a rucksack casually slung over his shoulder was standing in front of me. His voice was a deep one, which didn’t entirely fit his face, which was slim, boyish and rather ratty looking. This was the first person who had voluntarily spoken a word to me since I’d arrived at Swinton Community School. I was entirely uninterested in his apparent interest in me but I reluctantly answered him anyway. Mum had told me to act like everyone else. “Yeah.” I said casually, not looking up from my locker which the janitor had so kindly pointed out and given me the key to. It was weird that the janitor looked exactly like what I had imagined. The guy didn’t seem to get the message and leave, he just stared at me while I was shoving empty folders into my locker. “So... um.” He hesitated, “What’s your name and why haven’t I seen you before?” I really didn’t feel like having this conversation, or in fact having any conversation. But again I thought of the rushed words mum had spoken to me before she left for work. “Jenna.” I said ignoring the last part of the question and with that I slammed my locker shut and walked away from the guy who couldn’t just leave me alone.
“Ah, a new student I see.” My new History teacher was already coming over to me before I could make a run for it, to my embarrassment she looked me up and down and then nodded with a smile. “You look like a smart one, what’s your name darling?” I could feel my cheeks tinge a little which I cursed myself for. “I’m Jenna Mavis.” I said to her in a rush and I tried to hurry away from her to take a seat but she stopped me with a hand on the shoulder and said with a satisfied grin, “You’re Celeste’s daughter?” It was like she was taunting me, I nodded despite hating to admit it. She let go of me to take a seat but I could swear I caught her saying “I didn’t even know she had kids” under her breath.
Almost all of the people in my class looked tired, or was it just me? It was strange, at least that’s what I thought as seen as I never had a problem getting out of bed. I realized that I’d seen this on TV-shows all the time, people hated the first day of school for some unknown reason. The one person who didn’t look tired in the slightest was a girl with long black hair tied up in a ponytail. She had almost perfect makeup, the type that you hardly realized was there and she had a slim figure which some people would kill for. Her mouth was slightly lifted up, smiling at no one in particular. Her hazel eyes, I noticed, smiled along. Her full attention was on the blackboard which looked as if nobody had ever even touched it. It seemed strange to me that this girl looked like every other girl, but yet she was entirely different.
“Betty Chamberlain?” “Here.” “Luna Clark?” The girl with the pony tail answered after a pause. “Niall Horan?” the teacher continued “Here.” “Jenna Mavis” I almost panicked as I heard my name but then realized that I was on the list the woman was holding. “Here.” “Debra Myers? “Here.” I lost track of all the other names and stared at the girl I now knew to be Luna. She hadn’t struck me as a Luna at all, when I thought of a Luna I imagined the happy, caught in her own dreams, type whereas she looked like she had a sad story behind her. The History teacher continued down the list, her gaze lingering on every student she checked off. No one was absent. “Right,” she said, putting the list down along with a pen. “I’m Mrs Fox, I’m your new History teacher. We will start this wonderful school year with introductions. Please tell me your name, age, hobbies and” she paused for a little dramatic tension. “ what place and time in history you would like to go, if that was an option of course.” Her short piercing laugh seemed to shake the class awake. “Starting with, you.” I found myself having to try my best to not fall asleep while listening to my new classmates. Before I knew it the guy next to me was introducing himself, which meant that I had to think of my own answer, and quick. “Hi, I’m Harry Styles. I’m sixteen and I love to sing.” Someone in the back snorted, though by the time I’d turned around I couldn’t make out who. Harry ignored it and continued, while I was still frantically deciding what to say. “ I would go back to the mid 1800's and try to change the way people of African descent were integrated into this country.” Hearing this my heart melted a little toward the guy sitting next to me. My brain stopped functioning as I realized everyone was looking at me expecting me to introduce myself. “Hi… um. I’m Jenna Mavis, I’m sixteen. And my hobbies are…” Damn, what could I say? “Painting and drawing. I think I would like to go back to the late 60's, early 70's to Kingston Jamaica. I would want to see Bob Marley live in concert and possibly spend some time with him. Find out why he chose to live his life so doped up on drugs when obviously he was a brilliant man and artist.” It didn’t seem as good as what other people were saying but I heard some general mumbled agreement. Harry nudged me as the girl behind me started to talk. I looked over to the guy, his curly hair sat in a mess on top of his head. His green eyes boring into mine. “So you’re a Bob Marley fan?” He guessed, his interest looked genuine. That was probably the only reason I gave him a half decent answer. I shrugged, “You’ve got to admit he’s pretty awesome.” He nodded and smiled at me, I averted my eyes from him. His gaze was making me uncomfortable.
The remainder of the lesson was boring and uneventful, as I hoped school would be.
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So I'm trying to make every chapter approx. 1,000 words for you! Enjoy. -IronRainbow
