Book 1: Valentina

Chapter 2

"Alright to the left is the school that you'll be going to, its just down the street from the house so you wont have to ride the bus." she said pointing to the building.

I was actually happy to be walking because I hated riding the bus, I would never self diagnose my self with Social anxiety, that's what the girls on Instagram are for, but the idea of being on a bus with 25 plus kids scares me, I hate being around more people than I have to. I looked at the building as we were passing it and noticed that it was much bigger than the school i was coming from and it looked like it had stairs on the inside. That was new.

Finally we were at Maggie's house and she was giving me the grand tour. She'd shown me where my room was and left me to unpack but not before she added the cliche mi casa es su casa. I sat on my new bed and looked around my new room and realized that it was bigger that the room that I had living with my mom. I pulled my suitcases onto the bed and separate all of my clothes into drawers and hangers, I grabbed  a bed set from the closet that Mage had shown me earlier and made my bed up, with the black comforter set.

 When I was done I sat on the bed and looked at the room again, Maggie had told me that this room belonged to my mom before he left, and it had been left the same, I could definitely tell.

But, I had to accept that this was my home from now on.

The next morning was my first day of school and I was standing in the office waiting for someone to escort me to class, there had been plenty of people walking in and out of the office and everyone of them scared me because I didn't know who I was looking for, specifically. Another kid walks into the office holding a piece of paper in his hands, which made me nervous, hopefully he wasn't going to be the person who escorted me to my class.

"Mr. Giovanni, here with another detention slip I see." chanted the woman behind the counter.

"Well, Mrs. Sampson I have to find some excuse to see you everyday." he replied.

"Artura Valentina!" shouted a girl walking into the office.

Out of instinct she walked straight to the Hispanic girl sitting next to me,  and the Hispanic girl gave a look.

" So since the name sounds Hispanic, it has to be me right?" she asked.

I stood up, I really didn't want an argument to break out in front of me because everyone in the office would be staring at us, including "Mr.Giovanni".

"Hi,I'm Artura Valentina ." I greeted her, I wasn't surprised when the girl was surprised that, that was my name and I was black, it was common and her facial expression even more common.

Within minutes I was sitting in first period, the late bell hadn't rang so students were still coming into class, staring at me as they passed my desk. Many of them were already whispering about the strange girl at the front of the class, I should've picked a seat in the back of the clssroom. This was what I feared.

When the late bell rang, the teacher stood up and started writing the lesson on the board. People were still talking but it didn't seem like it was about me anymore. I reached down into my bag and grabbed a binder to copy the notes that the teacher had just written on the board, then a skinny guy plopped into the seat next to me.

"Hello." he said smiling way too hard.

"Hi." I replied.

"So where are you transferring from?" he asked

"Georgia." I replied, I didn't really feel too confident about the interaction and he could sense it.

"Hey, relax. I'm not here to pick on you or anything. My name is Nate. I know how it feels to be new at this school, before you, I was the new student." he reassured me.

This calmed me a little. I introduced myself to Nate, and  the teacher got the class quiet, just so everyone could take notes. After class, Nate volunteered to show me to my class, which I preferred since I'd actually had conversation with him.

"So, why'd you move from Georgia?" he asked as we made our way down the hall.

"Something happened with my mom, so I moved in with my grandma." It wasn't a lie but I didn't want to tell the truth.

"Like what?" he asked

" Just some stuff." I answered

"I can take a hint--"

"Hey fag!" screamed a guy walking towards us.

"Hi, Jason, lovely day we're having." Nate replied sarcastically.

Just then the guy, who by the way was built like a brick wall, pushed Nate up against the locker. I didn't take it seriously because Nate was laughing but then, the guy punched Nate in the face. Immediately dropped my history book and bag to try to stop him.

"Hey! Get off of him!" I yelled pulling at the guy's sweatshirt.

The guy turned around and pushed me off of him and when I fell down he kicked me in the ribs.

"Mind your own business, bitch!" he yelled and went back to Nate.

There was a crowd of people standing around but no one helped, people were recording and no one helped me up. By this time I'm upset because he called me a bitch. I stood up and picked up my history textbook and hit him in the back of the head. Nate stared at me as the guy, Jason, fell to the ground.

" My hero." he said as he playfully put his hand over his heart.

We'd spent most of second period inside of the principal's office getting "punished" for what had happened in the hallway.

"Now seeing as this was an act of bullying, and Mr. Rue and you know we don't condone bullying, I'm going to have to suspend you. Five days." Explained the principal.

Jason opened his mouth to speak but a stern look from the principal and he looked at me as if he'd wanted to kill me. I embarrassed him in front of half the school, i was barely five feet and he was an intimidating 6'8 and I'd knocked him out.

"Ms. Valentina & Mr. Ash I'm giving you guys weekend detention, two weeks. Ms. Valentina, this is your first day here,don't make a bad reputation for yourself." said the principle writing out our referrals.

Nate groaned as Principal Wilkerson handed us our detention slips, but I didn't really care it's not my weekends were booked anyway.When we left out of the principle's office Jason glared at me as if to say,"This isn't over.", I wasn't really scared, I know how to handle guys like that, I'd been doing it all of my life. On the way to class Nate kept telling me how he couldn't believe that I'd hit him.

"How long have you been here?" I asked him.

" Almost a year, so obviously we don't get many new students around here. That's why people were whispering about you in first period." he replied.

We stopped in front of a door and Nate was fixing my hair as if he were prepping me to go on stage.

"What are you doing?" I asked waving him off.

"Getting you ready for your close up, Ms. Valentina." He said as he opened the door.

When we walked in the classroom all eyes were on me.