Beauty in Unlikely Places

Chapter 2 - Another Friend?

“It’s okay mum, I don’t mind. I’ll just walk home. See ya tonight, love ya”

“Okay don’t forget we live on Bluebird Court now. Bye sweetie, talk to you soon, love you” and then she disconnected the call

“Hey Sammy I have to walk home now, are you catching the bus or getting picked up?”

Sammy had finally finished her little happy dance and smiled “Nah, I live just down the road. I usually walk home. I live on Bluebird Court”

“No way!? My new house is on Bluebird Court. I live at number 24, what number do you live at?” I asked excited

Sammy’s signature Cheshire cat smile was back. “Oh my gosh! I live at number 42, that’s just down the road! We can walk together”

We both laughed again and grabbed our bags from our lockers, which luckily happened to be right next to each other. We left the school talking about random stuff. Sammy and I had a lot in common, we got lost into conversation about favourite television shows when we arrived at my house just as mum was pulling into the driveway.

“Hey mum! This is Sammy my friend from school” I said motioning Sammy standing next me

She gleamed and stepped towards my mum and held out her hand “Hey there Ms Smithing, Jacey’s feeding you miss-information though, I’m her best friend from school” She said looking back to me and winking, I just rolled my eyes and laughed

“Of course! My apologies. Mum this is my ‘best friend’ from school” I corrected laughing

“Please to meet you Sammy; would you like to come in for a drink? People your age drink coffee right? Or I can do hot chocolate?” Mum asked Sammy

“Aww I’d love too, but I better get home, another time tho for sure” Replied Sammy smiling

“That’s okay Sammy, I’ll see you at school tomorrow? Do you want to walk together?” I asked hoping she would say yes

“Yeah! I’d love to see you tomorrow, here at 8:00am?”

“Sounds like a plan, bye”

With another flash of her Cheshire cat smile she skipped off down the street toward her house. I turned to mum who was just smiling.

“Hey mum how was your day?” I asked mum walking up the driveway towards the front door

“It was good, but I’m much more interested in yours though” she replied grinning

“Well, if you must ask… I told two people about my eyes today and they didn’t freak out! And I made a best friend. And a guy talked to me!” Suddenly I realised I probably shouldn’t have mentioned the last one but it was too late now, because mum squealed with delight

“I’m so happy for you! You must tell me all about it” said mum with a grin that was almost as big as Sammy’s

And so the night was spent talking all about my exciting first day at school.

The next morning I awoke with a smile on my face when I remembered I’d be walking to school with Sammy. I had a shower and blow dried my hair, I usually hated the way it curled but today it was as if I couldn’t hate anything. I pulled on my uniform and made my way down stairs to where mum was sitting at the table drinking her coffee.

“Good morning sweetie” Mum greeted as I walked in the kitchen

“Morning mum!” I replied happily

We spent a few minutes just talking about things with I looked up at the clock on the wall. It was 7:59am.

“Gotta run mum, have a good day. I love you!” I sudden said jumping up and kissing her on the cheek

“Dido Kiddo” Mum replied and we both laughed and wave good bye

I made down the front driveway only to get attached from behind. “Guess who!?” A voice yelld from behind

“Hmmm” I put my finger up to my chin to pretend like I was thinking “Could it possibly be Sammy?” I asked with a smirk on my face

They released my eyes and came to walk beside me “How did you know?” Asked Sammy defeated

“Sammy, who else would attack a person from behind and ask ‘guess who’” I asked raising an eyebrow

She beamed and we both laughed. “You have a point there Jacey”

“You can call my Jace if you like, my mum calls me that” I said smiling at her

She put her finger to her chin and started tapping it then she looked over at me and grinned “Are you sure you don’t want me to call you Jacey Wacey?” she asked smirking

I laughed and replied “Jace will do just fine” and at that we laughed all the way to school

As soon as we walked in the bell rang for home room. As we entered we took the same seats as yesterday and continued talking. As the teacher walked in, the conversations died down and the room slowly went silent.

“Okay morning students” Said the teacher and she began reading the names out of the list, each student answered until it came to Noah’s name. “Noah? Noah Renafor?” Asked the teacher again

“Sorry I’m here” A voice came from the door; I looked up to see Noah standing there with his hair falling perfectly. Wow, no wonder Hazel had a thing for him. As he walked in you could see Hazel’s relief when she smiled sweetly at him. He half-heartedly smiled back. He looked up and saw Sammy and I and gave us a small wave and we both smiled and waved back. At this Sammy turned back to me and gave me a knowing look, at this I rolled my eyes and we started to laugh again. I never usually laughed this much and it was only 8:30 in the morning.

We chatted for a bit more until the bell rang. Art first up, yes! Art would have to be by far my favourite subject at school. I got up and smiled sheepishly at Sammy. “Art first up!” I chirped

At this she just laughed and sighed getting up leaving the room together. Walking in the hallways at this time should be limited to a little as possible if you didn’t want to get trampled. We were almost at art when I felt a tap on my shoulder, as I turned around I saw the fear in Sammy’s eyes. Silver eyes here I come I thought to myself. 

“Hey, listen up Jacey or whatever your name is. Back off of Noah. He’s mine” Said Hazel with hate raging in her eyes

I coughed lightly and replied “Umm, sure thing Hazel?” I asked looking to Sammy for help but she was looking at her feet. Hazel grunted and stormed off to her class which thankfully wasn’t art.

I turned to Sammy to ask her if she was okay, but that wasn’t necessary I could see the sadness in her eyes. This made me sad and I asked her “Hey Sammy is everything okay? She’s gone now” Looking up from the ground Sammy sighed. I offered her a reassuring smile and she took it.

Grimacing slightly she simply replied “It’s just Hazel can be pure evil sometimes, do you see why I was sitting in class by my self yesterday. It was because of her”

Then suddenly in clicked, Social road kill. Poor Sammy…