Britney is standing outside the front doors of McGanon High. It's her first day and she's scared as Hell to go in.
No one is going to like her, she'll make no friends just like the last school. Britney is always the outcast no matter where it is that she goes.
The first bell rings and it's now or never, she opens the door and walks in. Her nostrils are assaulted with the smell of cheap school food and horrible body odor.
"Fantastic." She mumbles to herself.
The halls are crowded with kids walking in every direction. It's like a stream of hundreds of fish all traveling through a stream.
She walks into the thick of it, trying to weave her way through without getting shoved or slammed into a locker.
"Where the fuck is the main office?!" She mumbles again to herself.
She sees a girl standing alone in an opening in the hall and heads toward her. When she walks up she smiles.
"Hi I'm new and I'm trying to find the office, will you help me?" She asks.
The girl looks at her solemnly and points to a sign hanging from the ceiling five feet from where they're standing that says "Main Office".
"Oh, thank you." Britney says.
The girl nods her head once and walks off into the crowd.
Britney ignored the oddness of what happened and headed to the Office. When she walked in she was hit with the strong scent of Holiday candles.
It's not even near the Holidays.. But I guess anything to get away from the smell out there She thought.
"How may I help you?" The lady at the front asked her.
"Um, yes. I'm Britney Sannin and I'm a new student." Britney said as she stepped up to the desk.
"Ah yes, the new girl. Just a moment please." The lady said and walked off to a back room.
The lady came back with a manilla folder and sat back down at her desk while opening it. She put her glasses on and shuffled through the papers for a few minutes.
"Aha! Here we go." She handed Britney a square half-sheet of paper, "Here's your schedule. Would you like a map of the school or do you think you can find everything okay?"
Britney looked at the paper which seemed simple enough and smiled at the lady, "I'll be fine thank you."
"Alright dear, have a good first day." The lady said and went to put the folder back.
Britney walked out and looked at the paper again.
1st hour: Government. Room 123
"Okay so 123..that's first floor." She thought out loud to herself.
Britney walked through the hall that was now almost empty and looked for Room 123. She found it on the second hall, third door to the right.
When she walked in, the teacher was already talking. The teacher stopped and looked at her confused for a second.
"I'm new. My name's Britney Sannin" Britney said.
"Oh! Right, I forgot we were getting a new student today." She said and went to the bookshelf by her desk.
Britney stood there awkwardly not wanting to meet the eyes she felt staring at her. She shifted from foot to foot nervously as the teacher struggled to get a book from the shelf. She finally got it and came over.
"Here is your textbook for this class. The only seat left is in the back next to Miss Thomas." She said and pointed to the back of the room.
Britney took the book and turned to look at the back. Sitting in the desk next to the only empty one left was the mysterious girl from the hallway earlier.
"No way." Britney whispered to herself.
"I'm sorry?" The teacher asked quizically.
"Oh, nothing. Thank you." Britney said and blushed as she headed to the desk.
The teacher went back to the board and continued from where she left off as Britney sat down. Britney looked at the girl and saw she was sketching.
"Hi." Britney leaned over and whispered.
The girl looked up at her and nodded then looked back at her sketchpad.
"You're the girl that helped me earlier. What's your name?" Britney asked in a whisper, trying not to let the teacher notice she was talking.
The girl ignored her and flipped to a blank page in her pad and started drawing again. Britney's face fell and she turned back to look at her book.
She'd thought maybe the girl was like herself, an outcast, and they could be friends.
Guess I was wrong she thought.
The rest of the hour she tuned out the teacher's droning voice and stared out the window. Suddenly there was a loud ding and she jumped, then realized it was just the bell to go to second class.
She bent down to get her bag off the floor but when she sat back up there was a folded piece of paper on her desk. She opened and smiled at what she saw.
Violet
That one word was sketched so beautifully and crafted so gently with curls coming off the ends of letters and shadows sneaking behind the word itself and hidden images in the letters.
Britney had never seen anything more gorgeous. She folded the paper back up and put it in her purse, careful not to bend or tear it. She couldn't stop smiling as she headed to her next class.
"So that's her name." She smiled again.
"Beautiful."
