The next morning, I woke up to my mother calling me to come to breakfast. Great, Monday morning has finally arrived: my first day at a new school. I was not psyched for this. I groggily sat up in my bed, stretched my arms, removed the blankets, and left my room, heading downstairs for breakfast.
“Good morning, Honey! Are you excited? Today is your first day of school at Harlandale High School!” she said as I walked into the kitchen.
“Oh yeah, sure Mom,” I replied curtly.
“Listen, sweetheart. I know you’re not excited about going to a new school, but listen, it could be so much fun! You can meet new friends! You still have your old friends from New Jersey. You’re never going to lose those. Just make the best of it, ok?” she said and, after kissing my forehead, left the kitchen and walked upstairs.
I sat down at the kitchen table, where my mom left me a plate of scrambled eggs and toast. After eating my breakfast fairly quickly, I poured myself a cup of hot coffee into a travel mug and walked upstairs to my room to pick out the perfect outfit for the first day of school. After ten minutes of scouring my closet and my drawers, I finally found the perfect outfit: a red polka dotted sundress, a dark denim jacket, and gray Vans. I walked to the adjoining bathroom to put on my makeup and straighten my very curly hair. Adding a swipe of lip-gloss, I grabbed my backpack and my travel mug. After descending the front stairs, I slipped into the passenger seat and my mom turned on the engine while I buckled my seatbelt. The ride to school was only seven minutes, so as soon as the car stopped in front of the school, I quickly kissed my mom goodbye and headed for the main school building.
“Have a great first day at school, honey! You’ll do great!!” she yelled as I walked away from the car.
I groaned. Other students were already staring at me. Although I was already seventeen, I still didn’t have my license; this was a good excuse to get one as soon as possible.
As I walked into the school building, I sifted through my backpack to find the letter that was sent to my mother last week about where I should go on my first day at Harlandale. The letter directed me to the front office, which wasn’t terribly hard to find. Knocking on the door, I stepped inside the office after whoever was on the other side allowed me to enter.
“Ah, it’s nice to finally meet you, Allyson. My name is Mr. Jacobson, the principal of Harlandale High School. First of all, welcome to Texas! Your parents told me about the move. I’m sure you will fit in quite nicely here,” he said joyfully.
“I hope so, sir,” I said quietly.
“Here is your schedule for this semester, Allyson,” he said handing me a color-coded schedule of my classes. “Classes go from Monday to Friday and periods one through seven. Think you can handle that?”
“Sure,” I said confidently. “Doesn’t seem too difficult. I just might need some help getting around the school building. I’m not sure where everything is.”
“Ah yes, I have recruited one of our students to be your guide for the week. If you have any questions, just ask him since you both have the same classes. Here he comes now!”
I spun around to face the door that I previously entered. As the door slowly opened, the student walked in the office and jogged towards us. He had dark hair, brown eyes, a snapback on his head, and he was wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and the same color Vans as me. I couldn’t believe my eyes; it was Jc.
“Good morning, Justin. I’m sure you’ll take care of our newest student here, correct?” asked the principal.
“Of course, sir. I won’t let you down,” he responded.
Once he noticed that I was the new student, he smiled a big toothy grin, took my hand, and led me out of the office.
“Hey I didn’t know we’d be going to the same school together!” Jc exclaimed as he closed the door to the office.
“Neither did I,” I replied excitedly.
“Let’s take a look at the schedule, shall we?” he asked.
I nodded in response as he pointed out all the different classes on the schedule. He made sure to mention whom his favorite and least favorite teachers were. As I held the schedule, we brushed hands a few times making us both blush in the process. Unexpectedly, the school bell rang, waking me up from my daze.
“Time to get to homeroom,” Jc said, grabbing my hand once again and leading me up the stairs to room 101C.
Once we entered the classroom, my hands started to clam up. There were so many students, twenty at least in my homeroom alone. I stopped dead in my tracks; I was too nervous to continue. Jc noticed that I’d stopped, so he let go of my hand and placed his hand on my back, leading me to an empty seat. Once I sat down, he took the empty seat next to me and scooted his desk closer to mine.
“Nervous?” he asked with a smirk.
Nodding my head in response, he replied, “Don’t be,” and rubbed my arm with his hand.
The bell rang once again. Announcements blared from the loudspeaker but I wasn’t even paying attention; all I could think about was Jc and how we were going to spend the week together. After announcements, I woke up from my daydream when I heard my homeroom teacher call my name.
“Class, this is our new student, Allyson. She just transferred to Harlandale from New Jersey. Stand up Miss, so everyone can see you.”
I immediately felt my legs turn into jell-o as I stood up from my desk and waved to my homeroom class with a nervous smile. Not wanting to draw any more attention to myself, I quickly sat back down and smoothed out my dress. The bell rang once again, signaling the end of homeroom. Jc nudged me and I followed him out of the room to the first class of the day: Pre Calculus. Ugh.
The rest of the day went by fairly quickly. Jc made sure to sit next to me in every class so that I wouldn’t be so nervous. At the end of the day, Jc helped me find my locker and I started putting textbooks inside.
“Do you want a ride home? I can take you,” he asked.
“Sure, I’d love that. Thank you!” I said, texting my mom that she wouldn’t have to take me home.
“You know, if you want, we can ride to school together everyday. I can take you back and forth,” he suggested.
“No I wouldn’t want you to do that. I don’t want to be a burden,” I replied.
“Trust me,” he said with a wink. “It’s not that big of a hassle. We live right next door.”
Once I finished packing my backpack full of textbooks and notebooks for tonight’s homework, we started walking down the hallway towards the front double doors. Jc popped open the trunk of his car and I placed my backpack inside. After a short ride, we were finally home.
“Wanna come over my house?” he suggested.
“Are we gonna do our homework? We have a lot you know,” I said sensibly.
“Or we could NOT do homework and goof off. Your choice.”
I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend the rest of the day with Jc, so I agreed and walked into his house together.
