A Quarter Mile Away

3 - One Step At A Time

"Yea-no. No I don't.....Uh... I gotta go" I quickly hurried along and started walking towards the door, I made the mistake of looking back only to meet with his gaze still on me. I creased my eyebrows in annoyance at myself and how stupid I must have sounded to him.

"Great going Avery. Not even five minutes in and you almost give away details about yourself" I sighed to myself as I walked to the main office to get my schedule.

* * *

"Miss?"

I looked up from my phone at the older woman knowing she was referring to me, seeming I'm the only person in this office at the moment. "What's your name darling?" she asked when I reach her desk

"Avery, ma'am"

"That's a very interesting name. Well honey, here is your schedule, don't lose it. You are officially the proud owner of locker 214 and here is a map of the school to help you out in case you require it."

I smiled warmly at her, appreciative of the help.

With my schedule now in hand, I started walking towards my assigned locker, it's like I have it stamped on my forehead that I'm new. Everyone just stopped in their tracks just to stare at me, can this get any more nerve wrecking.

Why do they all have to make the new kid stick out like a sore thumb. Can't you just go about your business and not be focused on mine?

Is it really necessary to stop and stare?

Taking in a deep breath, I refused to show them that their stares bothered me as I continued down the hallway in search of my locker, the quicker I got there the quicker I could get to class and not worry about these prying eyes.

As I walked into my new English class, I sighed out in relief that the class was somewhat empty, so I decided to take advantage and select the seat in the far back corner, out of sight from any introductions and out of sight from the stares. After a few minutes, the class began to start filling up, students all chatting with each other, not noticing me thankfully.

"Okay class. Settle down. Yes, welcome back from your very long two days off. I know it's so exciting. Woo-hoo" the teacher says with sarcasm dripping from his voice. They were already a month into Senior Year, so I already knew that I had a lot of work to do and a lot of catching up.

I couldn't help but smile at him, it was good to see some teachers have a sense of humour. Maybe it's because he seems to be a lot younger than most of the teachers I've seen. My guess was that he's in his late 20's-early 30's, "I know you're excited to be back and ready to smash this class with A's. Who's with me?"

A handful of students cheer and clap while others who didn't share the same enthusiasm provided the teacher with a slow exaggerated clap.

"I love the enthusiastic cheers guys, really warms my heart!" He said as he grabbed the first book we would be reading together.

"OK let's start with-"

I looked up to see what had stopped the teacher in his tracks and boy did I regret that decision because when my head came up from my book, I noticed him staring directly at me.

"Hello there"

'Oh god.'

"You must be new?"

'Please stop dude. Just, stop please. Don't make me hate you.'

"Come on, we don't bite do we guys?"

"Speak for yourself Mr. Reid" one of the guys snickered which causes the class to lose concentration and laugh hysterically at his comment. His comment only managed to make me blush like a fool. Mr. Reid obviously sensing my nerves tried to calm me down "Don't pay any attention to Lucas. Do you want to introduce yourself? Give us your name, tell us a little something about yourself?"

"Yea, like are you single and ready to mingle?" Lucas adds in but was hushed by the rest of the class. Had this happened in my old town with my friends being there I probably would have come up with some crude comment and would have put someone like Lucas in his place. But I was no longer Avery; the girl who lived with my mom and had friends, the girl who flaunted her after school activities, spoke her mind...

I was someone new, I had to be someone new. All the things that made me who I was were left the day I escaped the grasps of my mum and her evil husband.

I bit my lip nervously as I tried to think of what to say, the old me would have been like "I'm Avery, I like to ride cars, bikes. Street race every weekend because I thrive on speed and the dangers around me. I'm an adrenaline junkie"

"Uh-um- my name is Avery, I'm eighteen and I enjoy.....reading?"

One or two students snickered at my last comment.

"So you single?" Lucas added in with a serious note

I looked at him with one eyebrow raised. Is this guy for real?

"Are YOU single?" I snapped back at him. So much for not being the old Avery and keeping my mouth shut. Never really had much patience with ignorant people.

"Yea of course baby" he said as he high five'd his friend who I noticed was the guy from this morning, who was now smirking at me.

"It was a rhetorical question, I can tell you're single. You don't look like the boyfriend type"

That comment seemed to send everyone in our class into a laughing fit as well as Mr. Reid who didn't seem interested in stopping us because he was leaning against the board, arms crossed over his chest smiling at our banter.

Lucas looked at me with disbelief "Not the boyfriend type? Baby, feel my shirt. That's boyfriend material."

Not giving him a chance to breathe "Ugh... It looks a little too clingy and hard to maintain."

That's all it took for every single student to erupt into a laughing frenzy. Some even looked at me, shocked that I had the audacity to speak to him like that.

"Dude! Burn!"

"Savage!"

"Someone finally put you in your place Lucas!"

"She's now my favourite person in this school"

"Go Avery!"

My eyes widened in realisation while my face turned red with embarrassment as I slowly sat back down in my seat. Luckily for me Lucas seems to be the type to handle jokes because he just chuckled at me while holding his hands up in defeat.

"Now that is an introduction. Welcome to my English class Avery!"

I looked back to see Lucas smirking at me while the other guy stared at me with a questioning look on his face.

It seems as though my outburst got the unwanted attention I tried to avoid.

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

A/N:

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