I hate London!

Aller Anfang ist schwer "Beginning is the hardest" (Chapter 1)

Yeah, she was still angry.
Having to move so far away...

And all that just because her parents wanted to open their business here, hoping for it to work out better than it had in Germany. A record store. Opening it up in Camden town was not the worst idea they ever had, yet Eleonore still wished she could've stayed back in Germany like her brother...

Soon after, Eleonore was walking through the hallways, consulting a map of the classrooms a secretary had handed her when she had come to report for her first day.
She had hoped to get a little more guidance, but the very busy secretary had just handed her the map and that had been it.

So now she was just trying to find her way there.
It was... a little bit difficult.
There were so many classrooms... this school sure was bigger than her last one...
When she finally arrived in her classroom, most seats were already taken.
From the looks of it, most people seemed to know each other...

With a sigh, Eleonore took a seat in an empty chair by the window.
She felt so out of place... some people had such strong accents that she couldn't even understand them...

"You're in my seat."
Eleonore needed a second to react. This was the first time someone had really spoken to her today.
When she looked up, a tall brown haired girl with grey eyes was standing in front of her. "You there. With the stupid hairclip."
Eleonore's hand immediately went to her Star-shaped hairclip. "I... sorry." She said, unsure. "I thought that- sorry."

"Why do you sound so strange?" the girl asked, looking at her.
Eleonore didn't know what to say. Well, this was going great.
"Leave her alone, Meryn . She's new." another student said.

Eleonore just quickly grabbed her backpack and fled to the back of the class, to find another empty seat.
With a sigh, she sat down.
This was worse than what she had expected.

The day seemed to drag on forever.
Even just the time until lunch seemed like an eternity.
When the teacher had asked Eleonore to introduce herself, she had not only accidentally addressed her as "Frau", as you would in Germany, but also as soon as she had opened her mouth and started talking, two of the girls had started laughing.
One of them had been that girl Meryn, that had already made fun of her earlier.
She had immediately wanted to sink into the ground and disappear...

And during lunch time... well, she didn't really know who to sit with in the cafeteria.
So instead she sat in the stairwell, eating her sandwich and reading a book.
"You're... uhm... what are you reading?" she suddenly heard a voice behind her.
Again, Eleonore flinched.
She kind of... just wanted to be left alone, now.

But then she cleared her throat. "Uhm... it's a book about time-travel... but it's in German, so..."
A girl sat down next to her. She had long black hair, an almond complexion and was wearing glasses.
"My name is Willow. I saw you in class earlier... and that Meryn, well that she... you know."
Eleonore shrugged. "I expected people to laugh... don't worry about it. I'm Eleonore."

Willow smiled. "Hi Eleonorie. It's nice to meet you."
Eleonore laughed. Close enough. She knew her name was a mouthful.
At least she was finally talking to someone friendly.

"I just wanted to know if you were alright. You ran off quite quickly after class."
Eleonore nodded. "I'm fine... no worries. But... thanks for checking in..."
"Would you like to sit with me and my friends?" Willow then asked.

Eleonore considered for a second.
But once she thought about sitting at a table with people, interacting with even more people that could potentially laugh at her and the way she talked...

She declined. "No... thank you, but I'm fine here..."
Willow smiled at her. "Alright. If you change your mind, we're in the cafeteria."
Then she got up and left.
Eleonore sighed.
Willow seemed really nice... but who knew if her friends were too...

After the school day had concluded, Eleonore tried to take the underground home... it was also quite confusing.
Everything kind of was, wasn't it?

Eventually she arrived back home, after only getting lost once.
["How was it, Ellie?"] her mother asked, as Eleonore walked into the shop.
["Shit."] Was all Eleonore answered, before she walked up the stairs leading up to their flat.
She was still pissed.
All she wanted to do was to go home... her old home. But her parents had sold the house after the move... She could never go back...

Eleonore had just taken her blazer and tie off and had fallen into bed, when her phone rang.
It was her big brother.
["Hey little shooting Star! How was it?"]
She sighed. ["Don't call me Star. I've heard enough of that today..."]
["So it didn't go well?"] her big brother asked.

No it didn't. It really didn't...