Falling

Chapter 3

You know how something epic always happens to people on their first day of school?

How they're brutally rejected or warmly welcomed into the throngs of the larger-than-life society we call high school...

I'm sure you're expecting that sort of story from me, something memorable or at least a bit exciting.

Let me assure you, nothing like that happened.

You could say it was like any other day of high school...

I woke up pretty early, (I was new at the whole high school concept, waking up early was not something I stuck to) way before my alarm clock went off, showered, got dressed, and sat down on my bed, contemplating whether to go downstairs for breakfast or not. In the end, my rumbling tummy won out, and I went to eat breakfast.

Breakfast was a slightly tense affair, Mimi and I still weren't bffs yet so she tried to avoid me in any possible way, and I found myself avoiding her subtly so her parents won't notice.

Rachel was her usual bubbly self, and before we all left the table, Aiden asked all of us to go through our parts of the plan and we did.

It scared me a bit, knowing I was to pretend to be somebody I was not for the rest of my life on Earth, but I didn't dwell on it, it was better than being a lab-rat.

As soon as Rachel dropped us off at school, she stuck her head out the window and said to me, "Ok Stella, have a great day at school. And remember, if you need anything Mimi's with you ok?"

"Thank you Rachel, I'll be sure to remember that", I forced myself to smile and walked after Mimi, towards what appeared to be the main entrance of the school.

As soon as we got in, Mimi pointed towards an office and said, "That's the main office, you can go there and get your class schedule. And just so we're clear, you and I aren't friends, just pretend you don't know me while you're here".

And with that she walked away, not once turning back. I sighed and adjusted my bag so the leather strap wasn't digging into my shoulder so much, and headed towards the office on my own.

I honestly wasn't expecting anything less from Mimi.

********

The receptionist was a young woman with a bright smile, she asked me to sit on one of the overstuffed navy blue couches while I waited for the principal.

She checked out some things on her computer and then her expression turned grave as she said, "I'm sorry about your parents, this must all be so strange for you".

I looked at her, not knowing what to say or do, should I be sad? Depressed? Mourning? Grieving? I still hadn't got a grip on all those human emotions, I didn't know how I was supposed to be acting. But before I got all flustered about it she let it drop, probably mistaking my personal dilemma for something else. Maybe she thought I didn't want to talk about it...

Before I could over-think it, the principal came to usher me into his small office. It was pretty fitting because he was a small man himself. He wore thin wire rimmed glasses, and a yellow polka dotted tie with his black suit. His black hair was thinning a bit in front despite his poor attempt to hide it with an overly gelled hair-do.

Everything in his office was neat and tidy, papers kept in some kind of organiser and pens in a pen holder on his spotless mahogany desk. There was a sharp absence of colour, so much so that I was feeling out of place in the office, everything was either grey, black or white, only the furniture was brown, and I found myself unreasonably afraid my colourful outfit would disrupt the harmony of the place.