New Girl {Shawn Mendes}

2. helping hand

Al's POV

I finish hanging my clothes up in my new closet and start unpacking from one of the boxes. The first thing I pull out spreads a small smile on my face. It was a picture of my friends and I, the no chill squad, we called ourselves. I had to leave them all behind when it happened, but they were there to support me the entire way.

I decide to place the frame on my desk that sat facing the window. I sit down in the chair and lay my head on my arm, this whole unpacking thing tiring me out. I start moving my free hand back and forth on top of the desk, until I feel a pain in my fingertip. I briefly mumble a curse word and inspect my finger, which now has a splinter in it. Awesome.

I pull it out without fail and turn my attention to the desk. Carefully this time, I move my hand along the surface and find the cause of my pain. Someone had etched something at the corner of the desk. I look closer and realize there were two names. It read:

Shawn and Laur♡

Laur from the house in front of me, maybe, but who was this Shawn kid? I put the question in the back of my mind and continue to unpack. I hear a knock at my door as I start to pack up my backpack for the school year.

I look up and see Lauren. "Hey," she says, entering my room and plopping down on my now made bed.

"Hi?" I glance at her and then go back to packing up my notebooks and pencils.

She pauses before nudging me in the side. "Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?"

"Roller skating! Remember earlier?" Laur presses her lips into a thin line, her expression changing to somewhat sad.

I shake my head. "I still have to unpack, it's taking forever," I sigh, trying to get her to leave me alone.

Laur stands up and smiles, her hands resting on her hips. "I could help you! What takes you 5 hours, will take us only 5 minutes,".

I laugh and zip up my backpack, sitting it in the chair in front of my desk. "I don't think we'll be that fast, but I could use some help," Laur smiles and starts for the box that hasn't been opened yet. "No!" I shout. She looks at me terrified, before I walk over to the box. "I should do this one. It's pretty...personal,".

Laur nods and places her hand on her chest. "You almost gave me a heart attack," she smiles and heads to the box I was unpacking earlier.

I pull out a photo frame that sends chills down my back. It was of me, Alaina, and my parents when we went to the zoo in our town. We had a random tourist take our picture in front of the elephant exhibit, since it was my favorite animal. I place it next to the photo of my friends, glancing at the etched names on the corner of the desk.

"Hey, Laur?" I bite my lip and continue through the box of suppressed memories. She looks up at me, pulling out the string of Christmas lights from the box. "Who's Shawn?"

Her face immediately changes to a cold one, hard as stone. "An old friend," she replies, her words short and cut.

"Oh," I look back down at the box, pulling out a stuffed elephant my mother gave me for my 6th birthday. "Was he-"

"Let's not talk about it," Laur interrupts. I turn my focus back to her and see her shaking her head. "Please," she whispers.

I nod and place the stuffed animal on my pillow, the white sheets making the grey animal stand out. "Okay,". I sigh and pull out an elephant figurine, the one my father gave me to match mom's gift. I place it on the opposite side of the photos on my desk.

"Could you help me with the lights?" Laur asks, taking her black vans off before standing on my bed.

"Yeah, let me find the thumbtacks real fast," I open several drawers of my desk before I finally find the jar of pins. I take my shoes off as well, and stand up with her on the bed.

"I was thinking you would want them like, framing around your bed or something?" Laur suggests, holding up the lights to show her thoughts.

"Yeah, that's how it was back home," I smile at her and she smiles back.

"Alright, let's shed some light in this room!"

With Laur helping me, we finished unpacking my room in a half hour. I felt bad about how I treated her when we first met, but I guess you could say that we're friends now.

Laur pulls out her phone, checking the time. "I knew that if I came over an hour early and helped, we would be able to go to the rink right on time," she smiles and walks out of my room.

I laugh and close my bedroom door before following her to the living room. "Nice strategy," I compliment, Laur shrugging her shoulders.

"Have fun, sis, and don't forget a pair of thick socks!" Alaina reminds me.

I groan and run back to my room to search through my dresser for a pair of thick socks. I burst into my room and feel myself in shock of the resemblance of it, how much it looked just like my room from Oregon. I stand there frozen in the doorway, a lump the size of a softball in my throat.

Alaina has to push me in order to get into my room, opening a drawer and pulling out a pair of thick socks. "Sometime or later, you're going to get used to it. It will get better, I promise," she kisses my forehead and hugs me.

I hug her back before pulling away and taking the socks from her. "Thank you," I whisper. Alaina smiles, wrapping her arm around me as we walk back to Laur.

"She's all yours!" Alaina says, pushing me a little towards Laur.

"Thanks, we'll be back by 9!" Laur waves to my sister and walks out of the house. I follow after doing a small wave to Alaina and close the front door.

I run a little to catch up to Laur and breathe in the air. "You go to Pine Ridge, right?" I ask, hoping she said yes.

"Yeah, all the people we're meeting up with do," Laur opens her back door and invites me in, the size of her kitchen being 10x as big as mine. "Are you transferring there?"

I shrug and follow Laur to her living room. "Yeah, my sister and I are going to fill out paperwork Monday. I should be ready for classes when they start next month,".

Laur starts to go up the stairs case and turns around to me. "Well, I hope we have classes together," she says, smiling at me. I nod and follow her, not realizing she was going to her parents room. "Dad," Laur yells.

I wait at the top of the stairs for a while until Laur comes out with who I guess to be her dad. "You must be Hoffman's sister, right?"

I nod, my last name reminding me of my parents. "Yep, that's me,".

"Let's go before we're late!" Laur says, going around me to go down the stairs. "We can get to know Al when we're in the car,".

I smile and follow her out the door to the car that would be taking me to meet my new group of friends.