Lost and Found

Dread

The rest of the short car ride to school mostly consisted of their bickering.

It wasn't until we were actually walking into school that the nerves I had about starting new at another school actually hit me. I dreaded making new friends, although I hadn't had too many at my other school, I was hoping to make at least a few here as my life wouldn't be crowded with jobs and worrying about my sick mother anymore.

As we entered the school, Nick nudged me with his elbow. "You ready?" His signature grin made me smile but it quickly faded because of my nerves about today.

"No, not really." I said honestly and he didn't respond, he just put his arm around my shoulder and laughed sweetly as he guided me to the office so I could gather my papers from the office.

When Alex saw how Nick put his arm over my shoulder, he just rolled his eyes and scoffed rudely as if he was embarrassed to be seen with us. Apparently he had different moods by the minute because seconds before he had been acting cordial toward me and Nick.

The bell rang and Nick left me alone to rush to class and I was given my locker number, combination, school handbook, and schedule.

I quickly thanked the office lady and couldn't mistake the confusion after my words after she'd seen my name? Do the other students here not say "Thank you" or something?

I picked up my papers to leave the office and try to find my way to class. As I walked down the hallway I got a bit confused because the numbers of the classrooms outside their doors had a weird order.

I narrowed down where my classroom should have been, but I still couldn't find it. My frustration must have shown because a nice voice somewhere behind me said, "Need some help?"

I turned around and a girl who looked around my age with curly brown hair reached her hand out toward me. It took an embarrassingly long time to figure out that she wanted me to hand her my schedule to see the room number.

I saw her face light up while reading something on my sheet. "Hey, we have a lot of similar classes, and you have some with other people in my friend group too!" I was pleasantly surprised at the kindness that this girl was showing a complete stranger to her, and it must have been what made me drawn to her. "You're in the same first hour as me, we can walk together, it's upstairs."

I almost laughed out loud because of my own stupidity. Of course if the number for the classroom seemed to be missing it was upstairs. She had a late slip in her hand and had already started walking toward the stairs. I had to lightly jog to catch up to her, she was surprisingly fast even with her being so much shorter than me.

I learned in the short walk to class that her name was Quinn and friend group consisted of one other girl and three boys, I really didn't think I needed any more men in my life because surely five was enough... right?

She also mentioned that there was a home football game that night that "everyone goes to". She insisted that I go too. I told her I would think about it.

The day went surprisingly fast, and having some friends to talk to made my school day infinitely better. Their names were Quinn, Bella, Landon, Jack, and Steven.

Quinn was talkative, outgoing, and sweet.

Bella was funny, sarcastic, and high energy. She was immediately friendly to me the moment that Quinn introduced us.

I didn't meet the boys in their friend group until later, at lunch. Landon and Steven were very likeable and funny in their own ways, but once I saw Jack, I couldn't take my eye off of him.