Finding Lena | ✔️

Chapter Two

Before you start school, they tell you to be yourself. This advice is pretty reasonable, but it's when you hit high school that you realise how inaccurate it actually is.

Being yourself in high school is like jumping into a pool of piranhas. Naked. It'll eat you alive.

Which is partly why people like Phoebe choose to pick on me. When I started high school, I was myself, I was the nerdy girl I had always been, but when she started using it against me, everybody started listening to what she was saying. This meant nobody wanted to hang out with me, which didn't seem like much of a problem until they started targeting me directly. Calling me names, pushing me in the corridor, or simply spreading lies.

The thing is: I don't know how to make it stop. And I don't think there really is a way to do so.

Maybe having friends that stick up for me would help, but like I said, being by myself all the time isn't a problem like it should be. I enjoy my own company. At least, I think I do.

Noticing I only have five minutes until first period, I quickly shuffle to my locker with my head hanging and shoulders slumping. Maybe Jace's encouragement wasn't true after all- this year is going to be exactly like sophomore and freshmen year.

Twisting the lock to the different numbers, I gaze around me, suddenly aware of how busy the corridor is. This makes me slightly nervous, so I hurry up and swing my locker open, collecting my books as quickly as I can.

I stop when the hysterical chatter of two girls beside me catches my attention. They're giggling to each other about something one of them said. I usually stay out of other peoples' business, but they're so close to me that it's hard to ignore them.

Adding my calculus book to the stack in my hands, I hear the first girl with long brown hair say to the other, "I heard Phoebe's already called dibs on him."

Confused, I plonk all of my books into my bag and linger at my locker a little while longer. The sound of Phoebe's name sparks my interest, and I can't help but listen in.

The other girl, who has platinum blonde hair and blue eyes, complains, "That's so unfair! She can't call dibs, he's new which means everyone should get a fair shot."

The brown-haired girl giggles, clutching a text book to her chest. "He's a person, Amy, not a seat on the bus."

The girl with the blue eyes sighs dramatically, slamming her locker shut. "Would be nice if everyone else got a chance though. Apparently he's hotter than Liam Fitzgerald."

Despite only being a junior, Liam Fitzgerald is the captain of the school's treasured football team, and is without a doubt the most attractive boy at our school. Maybe even in all the state of Oregon. He has shocking blonde hair and big brown eyes, as well as an admirable, muscular frame. All of which are enough to woo most of the girls at our school. But he's a womaniser, and isn't subtle about it. He's also a good friend of Phoebe's, and so I try to avoid contact with him at all costs.

So far, I've been successful. Let's hope that's one factor that stays the same as sophomore year.

I'm not intrigued to hear about the new boy, he'll be like the rest of the new kids that join late. At first, quiet and reserved, and then boisterous and egotistical. And if he's as attractive as the girls are saying he is, then he'll be a part of Phoebe's group as quickly as you can say 'I told you so'.

Disappointed, I shut my locker and head to biology, making it through the door just before the bell rings.

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