Beautiful Claws by: Tauriel Rogers

1) First Day of School

I took a deep breath before heading downstairs to grab an ice cold water bottle from the fridge and my keys. I drove out of the garage and parked near the back exit, making sure to lock my car. I slung my bag over my shoulder and took another deep breath. Today was the first day of school, the day I became a Junior and I could not  be more nervous. I had absolutely no  friends because I moved here only 2 weeks ago. Thankfully, I found the "Juniors" table to pick up my schedule.

1st - Choir

2nd - English

3rd - P.E. (Coach Kelley)

LUNCH

4th - Math

5th - Physics

6th - History

Choir wasn't hard to find and our names were taped to the seats, so nothing to worry about. The boy on my left was furiously texting and the 2 girls on my right were deep in conversation. I slumped in my seat, knowing nobody was going to talk to me. In English, we were seated alphabetically, so I of course was in the back and all we did was go over the syllabus. BORING. P.E. was horrible; I stood by myself against the wall as everyone else already seemed to have a circle of friends. Beling alone only made people look and whisper and not wanting to stand the humiliation of being the new kid, I just stared at the ground and braided my hair to look busy.

"Hi, are you new here?" I looked up startled. A boy with dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes peered down at me full of curiosity.

"Yes, I just moved here," I answered quietly. The boy gave me a small smile, then replied,

"I'm Skylar, but you can call me Sky...if you want." He held his hand out for me to shake.

"I'm Anna," I said as I shook his hand and returned the small smile. A loud whistle blew, which could only mean our teacher had arrived.

"LINE UP!" she yelled. "I'm Coach Kelley and my rules are simple; dress out, do what you're told, and get along. GOT IT?"

"YES MA'AM!" we yelled back. Then came the long process of getting our uniforms and picking our lockers. I was trying my best to stay out of the way and chose a top locker in the corner. I shoved my bag in there and took off my shoes when a hand came out of nowhere, slamming the locker shut.

"Um, what do you think you're doing?" a tall, slender, bratty looking girl snottily asked.

"Finding an empty locker to put my stuff in. What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Trying to take over our corner," the red head standing next to her said.

"Really? Cuz I didn't see you're name plastered on it," I shot back sarcastically. The first girl pursed her lips, not knowing what to say.

"We've kinda claimed this corner since Freshman year, so if you don't mind, we'd like to keep it," the blonde girl said a littler nice than the others. I slowly pulled my stuff out, grabbed my shoes, and went to the other side of the locker room to the opposite corner. Thankfully, nobody gave me crap this time.

"You must be new here," a girl with purple streaks commented.

"That obvious huh?" I asked.

"Only the newbies would be so daring when it comes to Melissa and her gang," she answered.

"They're the popular brats then?"

"Yeah, so stay clear of them," she warned.

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I'm Anna by the way."

"Lily," she said. Coach Kelly talked about her expectations for our athletic performances and how we should be playing sports, blah, blah, blah. I'm a fairly sporty, fit girl, so I shouldn't have to worry about P.E.

After P.E. came the worst part of a new kids first day of school, lunch. I could already see the social grouping: jocks with the cheerleaders, nerds with the art students, the instrument players with the choir kids, the band geeks with the emo, gothic punks, the outcasts by the trash cans, and everyone else was pretty normal. "Anna, come sit with us," Skylar called from my left side. He was sitting with the "norms;" couldn't hurt, could it?

"Thanks, I didn't want to be the weird one eating alone," I joked.

"Skylar never lets people eat alone. I'm his little sis by the way," Lily informed me.

"Cool," I commented as I ate my lunch. Lily did most of the talking and it turns out she's the Varsity Volleyball Captain. I found out all sorts of things to, but I couldn't focus when Skylar had such a charming smile and kept glancing at me.

"Where's your next class?"

"What? Oh! Right," I dumbly woke myself from my daydream of Skylar and I flying together. "Here's my schedule," I laid it in front of her.

"Hey! You've got Physics with me! We should be lab partners," Lily exclaimed.

"Sure! That would be great!" I agreed as the bell rang.

"I'll see you in History," Skylar smiled and walked away.

"I'll walk you to math since it's down the hall from mine," Lily suggested.

"Thanks." Math was really easy, algebra wasn't always my favorite, but it wasn't the worst either and I enjoyed Lily's company in Physics. My last class of the day was History and I was really excited to see Skylar again. He waved as I walked in and I took my seat behind him. I opened my notebook and checked my phone.

"Are you doing anything after school today?" Skylar asked, turning around to talk to me.

"No, I-"

"That's my seat," Melissa barked, her arms crossed and her minions on either side of her.

"So?"

"So get up!" she screeched.

"Why? I was here first," I pointed out.

"Because, there's an empty seat on either side for my friends if I was sitting there."

"Where else would she sit?" Skylar asked. The red head pointed to a seat in the next row over in the back. I glared a the 3 of them as I moved and when I realized our teacher had a monotone voice, I knew that History was going to be my "fun" class.

"How was your first day of school?" my Dad asked.

"It was ok, kinda boring, but I did make some new friends," I answered.

"That's great! Did they invite you to hang out with them?" my Mom asked. I shook my head. "It's ok, it was only the first day of school," she stayed positive as if not hanging out with people broke my heart. I watched my favorite show, Arrow, until dinner time.

"I wonder what it would be like to be on a team of super heroes?" I thought.

(Selena Gomez as Lily Rogers)