After Wonder

Chapter 1/So we're doing this again?

As usual, my mom and dad came to show me off to school. 

"This feels weird without Via." I said. Via went off to College the day before, she's going to a Medical School in Maine. I forgot the name. 

"Have a great first day." Mom said, hugging me so tight I thought she would break my ribs. 

"I'll be fine mom. I have classes with Jack, and Summer, and Henry, and Amos, and Miles." I smiled. Mom let go and held my shoulders, 

"I know. And I love that you will have them. Just remember, be kind, be friendly, and don't pay attention to people if they stare." She said, hugging me again. 

"I'm immune to stares now." I said. "People must think I'm so hot." Mom laughed. 

"I love you Auggie." Mom said before letting me walk up the stairs to the front door. I waved goodbye and walked inside. I found Jack immediately. 

"There he is!"He shouted down the hall. 

"You know it!" I responded. "Reel me in." Jack then pretended he was holding a fishing net and reeled in the invisible line, with me attached. I did weird dance moves as I bounced towards him. 

"Guys. Upperclassmen are looking at you." Henry said. Me and Jack ignored him and kept going till we reached each other. 

"How was your summer?" Jack asked me,

"It was good. We mostly just stayed home, but I spent July in Bridgeport with my friend Christopher. What about you guys?"

"I spent my summer at home." Jack said, everyone else nodded. 

"So I'm the only one that did anything?" I asked. "What classes does everyone have first?" Summer pulled out a map and her schedule, 

"Well my first class is Honors English." She said. "I have to take the elevator."

"I have Advanced Sciences first." I said. "This class has everything. Physical science, Life science, Earth science, Chemistry." 

"Let's go before Auggie completely nerds out to us." Amos said before walking away with Summer. 

"I have that class Auggie. Let's go." Henry said and we followed his map to the classroom. As we walked through the halls I caught some people staring, I just waved and smiled. Winked at some of the girls and they turned away and laughed. 

"That's some nice new confidence you have there." Henry mentioned when we walked into the classroom.

"I've changed. Just not physically." I said smiling and moved to sit down. I made a move to sit next to someone and they quickly placed their bag there. I smiled and kept trying, until I found an empty space with no people in the very back corner. Henry sat in front of me,

"What luck right?" He said. I laughed,

"Yeah. Like the beginning of every school year." I replied. Some kids in a cluster close to us were laughing and giggling to themselves. Me and Henry looked right at them. The boys howled,

"Oh my god!" One of them said, "Is Freddie Krugar in our classroom!"

"That never gets old." I said then looked at them again, "That's like the millionth time I've heard that insult. Thank you for giving me the pleasure to hear it again." I smiled then looked at Henry and shook my head. Our teacher walked in and started teaching.

After Advanced Sciences, me and Jack had English. 

"I've had horrible English teachers since Mr. Browne." Jack said,

"I know right. Hopefully this English class is something good and interesting." I said walking into the elevator. 

"How was Advanced Sciences?" Jack asked me. 

"It was interesting. Once I answered a couple really hard questions, all the whispering stopped." I said. "I feel like I'm back in the fifth grade." Then the elevator stopped and we stepped out onto the floor. Then another student stopped right in front of us, he was holding a pen and what I'm assuming was a map.

"Julian?" I said surprised. He looked up and looked more surprised than I sounded. 

"Oh... hey." Julian waved, dropping the pencil he was holding. "Oh my god sorry." He picked it up then faced us again.

"Hey." He said once more. 

"Shouldn't you be walking, Julian." Jack said, sounding very bitter. 

"Hi Jack. Yeah, I guess I'll see you guys around." Julian then walked away. I looked at Jack, whose face was red. 

"It's been 5 years. Let it go." I said then started walking. We walked into the classroom and sat in the front. I immediately felt a good aura coming from our teacher when she walked in. 

"Welcome class. My name is Miss Emily, it's a pleasure to see all of your beautiful faces. And I'd like to know all of you names so, stand up." She said. "We're gonna play a little game." We all stood up and Miss Emily pulled out a small rubber ball.

"So, I'm gonna pass you the ball, you're gonna spell out your name, tell us your name, then say one thing cool thing about yourself." She said. "Who wants to go first?" Miss. Emily looked right at a kid in the back row and tossed them the ball.

"J-U-L-I-A-N A-L-B-A-N-S. Julian Albans, one thing about me is that I like reading books about WWII." I quickly looked back at Julian. He noticed and just smiled. 

"Why thank you Julian. How interesting, that we actually have some books from that era we'll be reading this year." 

"I've probably already read them." Julian said. 

"Amazing. Now let's continue." Most of the kids we went next, I had no idea who they were. Then Jack went. 

"J-A-C-K W-I-L-L. Jack Will, one thing about me is I like redecorating stuff people would call trash. I redid this old sled when I was 11." 

"That's very unique Jack." Miss Emily said then looked right at me. "Well we only have one person left." Then she tossed me the ball. 

"A-U-G-U-S-T P-U-L-L-M-A-N, August "Auggie" Pullman, and one thing about me is...." I was about to mention Bear then a kid interrupted me,

"You look like you walked through a burning building."

"No." I said looking at that person, then looked back at Miss Emily, "I could really go on and on for hours. But one thing about me is that I've had twenty seven surgeries." I then tossed the ball back to Miss Emily and sat down.

"So I guess we're doing this again?" I asked myself. "It's on."