Astrid

44

"Here's your class and here's your slip, give it to the teacher and she'll know why you're late and that you're new." Soren spoke in one breath. "Good luck."

I nodded, took a deep breath and opened the door. And suddenly all the attention is on me.

"Why are you disrupting my class," the lady, I'm guessing she's the teacher, asked looking at me from over her glasses.

"I- I'm sorry. I- uh- here," I gave her the slip. She skimmed her eyes through it and nodded.

"Class she's our new student." She turned to me. "You can take a seat next to Mr. Brown."

I saw a boy raise his hand from a corner and I went to sit next to him as our teacher whose name is Mrs. Cooper as it says on the routine, went back to teaching.

"Hey, I'm Andrew," the boy next to me whispered.

I gulped. I have to talk to actual people now. I didn't think this through. I should've just agreed to being home schooled.

"What's your name?" The boy, Andrew asked.

"Astrid," I mumbled, praising myself for not stuttering.

"Oh fuck, you're adorable," Andrew squealed. "I'm going to call you Attie. If you're okay with it of course."

I nodded. I like him. He's cute.

"You can call me whatever you want. But most of my friends call me Drew, I don't like it much though but whatever. So, where did you come from? I mean where were you before coming here? You know what, you should sit with me and my friends at lunch, if you're okay with it. And you're really cute you know that? Like a baby bear. And-"

"Mr. Brown," Mrs. Cooper's sharp voice interrupted him. "You can leave if you don't like my class but don't disturb me."

Andrew was quite for a few moments before he started whispering again. "Sorry for her, she's a real meanie. We all call her Cooper the pooper." He giggled which made me giggle too.

"That's so mean." I couldn't stop laughing.

"Detention both of you," Mrs. Cooper yelled.

"Oops," Andrew whispered and I had to work so hard to stop erupting in laughter.

______________________________________

"Detention," Soren exclaimed. "On your first day! What did you do?"

"I'm sorry." I have disappointed him and now I feel so bad.

Soren sighed. "No no don't apologize. It's alright. Mrs. Cooper loves putting people in detention. Especially us. She didn't like Daemon so now she hates our entire family. It's alright. Just try not to cause too much trouble in her class."

I nodded. "Why didn't she like Daemon?"

Soren just shrugged as we walked to our next class. Andrew had English next and he had to talk to the teacher about something so he left as soon as class finished so I couldn't introduce him to Soren.

Soren stopped infront of a door. "Alright now before we go in let me tell you something. The teacher, Mr. Davis, is a little eccentric but he's nice. But if anything makes you uncomfortable, tell me, okay?"

I nodded.

Soren opened the door and moved a little to let me walk in first. And everyone stared. This class didn't have too many students but it still made me uncomfortable. I've noticed this while we were walking down the hall as well. They all just keep staring. Is it because I'm new? Maybe they're curious because they've never seen me before? But they didn't stare when I was in Mrs. Cooper's class. They stared when I'm with Soren. So maybe they stared at him. Why though? Is he the genius student? I'll have to ask him.

I was lost in my thoughts so I didn't notice when Soren called me. But suddenly I felt someone hold my hand which made me snap out of my thoughts. It's just Soren. He pulled me to a table somewhere at the middle of the classroom and made me sit next to him.

I noticed that all the chatter had died down after we entered. Why?

"Why are they staring," I asked Soren.

"They have nothing better to do. Don't worry about it, ignore them."

Just them an adorable old man in overalls walked in. He looks like a penguin. "Hello class, I'm Jeffry Davis, many of you probably know if, some of you might not know me but that's okay. We have a whole year to get to know each other. Now, anyone who's comfortable introducing themselves can do that-" he paused and took a look around the room. No one stood up or raised their hands. "Okay then I'll call your attendance, pay attention please."

"Adam Adams," Mr. Davis called.

"Here."

"Adam, you have such a fun name," Mr. Davis smiled and Adam Adams just rolled his eyes and sat down.

He continued to call our names while everyone just chattered until it came to me. "Astrid King."

Now, I've been preparing myself to say here for the past few minutes but once the time came I couldn't seem to find my voice.

"She's here," Soren called from beside me.

Mr. Davis just nodded and continued.

"Hey it's okay," Soren whispered, rubbing circles on my wrist.

I nodded and tried to calm myself taking a few deep breaths and focused on what Mr. Davis is teaching.