The Girl With Green In Her Hair

Chapter 1 - New Place, New People

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I wake up to the usual drone of my phones alarm dazed and disorientated. This isn't my bedroom. Where am I? Then I groan. This is my room, my new one, in my new house. Yay! (Note the sarcasm)

I look around the room. I like it, it suits my needs anyway.It was fairly simple, not too big or too small. It has light grey walls and has an en-suite bathroom and small walk-in-wardrobe to the left of the door. My queen size bed is on your right, pushed into the corner and my desk is in the opposite corner, with the doors out onto the balcony being straight opposite the main door.

I stop my phone making its annoyingly repetitive noise and go into my wardrobe. I quickly dress into black skinny jeans, a black vest and a black sweatshirt that read "Kinda Care, Kinda Don't" and pull on my black converse. If you can't tell, I like black, it helps me not draw attention to myself and I want as little as possible today.

As I walk out of the room, I grab my phone and sling my red and black checkered backpack over my shoulder. Before heading downstairs and sitting at the breakfast bar, dropping my bag beside me. Mum turns around, shocked at my sudden appearance. She has a plate of buttered toast in her hand, so I quickly lean over and take a piece.
"Paige! Manners!" My mother scolds, "Did you look in a mirror this morning?" She asks me. I shake my head at her, I hadn't seen the need to. "Well that explains your hair." She laughs. My eyes widen and I rush into the downstairs toilet to look at my hair. The dark brown hair with green streaks make it look like a real nest made of twigs and grass. I run (which I don't do often) upstairs and quickly brush it out before going back down stairs.

"Paige! Hurry up! You need to go if you don't want to be late!" Mum calls out to me from the living room. I look down at my phone and see it is 7:45, school doesn't start till 8:15.
"I thought it was a five minute drive?" I say, walking into the living room to see her watching Judge Judy on TV.
"Yeah, but I can't drive you. I won't be able to drop you off and be on time for work so you're going to have to walk which will take you about 20 minutes. Plus you'll need to get your schedule, locker number etc."
"Okay, okay. I get the point. I'm going." I say, exasperated. I pick my bag up from the kitchen floor and head out of the door with a final "Bye".

I reach into my back pocket and pull out my phone after rooting through my bag and finally finding my headphones. I put on Young Volcanoes by Fall Out Boy, subtly lip syncing along to the words as I walk. It was lucky my mum had driven me to the school yesterday to make sure we knew the way, at least I had a rough idea where to walk. I see other people my age heading in the same direction, which reassures me that I was going the right way and I'm not totally stupid. As I approach the school gates, I put my phone away and face what I knew would be my new hell.

I walk through the car park and keep my head down, ignoring the stares I could feel from every direction. I carry on walking to the front office, and release a breath I didn't realise I was holding, once I was sheltered away from the judging eyes of my soon-to-be classmates.

"Hello miss, can I help you?" Asks the receptionist, Lorraine. She looks to be around 50 and her unnaturally red hair has grey showing through.
"Umm..." I begin, my social anxiety starting to kick in, "Yeah. I...I'm new here. M...My name is Pai..ge, Paige Thor...Thornton." I manage to stutter out. She nods her head and starts to type on her computer while I stand there awkwardly, wishing my heart would calm down. She turns back to me and smiles,
"Yes, you're right here in the system. I'll just go and print your stuff off. I'll be right back." And with that she walks off leaving me stood feeling like a potato. I shuffle my feet and look down, my stomach lurching with thoughts of being the center of attention.

A breeze ruffles my hair and I snap my head up to the door. I saw three girls walking in and it seems like such a 'mean girls' moment that I have to look away to stop my self from laughing.
"So it's true, the new student is a freak," said a shrill voice.

I turn my head and see a tall girl, roughly 5'8 with wavy blonde hair, deep blue eyes and a killer figure. Basically, she's what every girl wishes to be, and she knew it. Just by the way she's stood I can tell she was going to be like every bitchy girl ever, combined; and I was her new target. God help me. Behind her stand two girls smaller than her. One is a redhead sporting perfect curls, has chocolate coloured eyes and is the smallest at around 5'4. The other is more or less 5'6, has dark brown hair that looks soft as silk and capturing green eyes.

"Do you mind?! I'd rather not have you stare at me or my friends, we don't like people like you." The brunette says harshly. I gulp, confrontation wasn't exactly my strong point (being a small, antisocial person was).
"Oh hello girls! You've met our new student Paige I see." Lorraine is back and has no trouble telling them my name.
"Oops, there's the bell, off to tutor girls. It was nice seeing you Laura, Ashley, Jess." She continues on cheerily after the bell rung far too loudly for my liking. At least I now knew their names too; Blonde Laura, Rude Ashley and Ginger Jess.

I sigh quietly and turn back to Lorraine. She hands me my schedule, locker number, map of the school etc. and bids me good day. I close my eyes, composing myself before walking through the main doors into my nightmare.

***

I look at the papers in my hand and decide to dump my stuff in my locker before anything else. Number 213. Which was...according to the map...all the way on the other side of the school. Great. I sigh to myself and start making my way through the corridors, trying to find the quickest route possible. The long, twisted, repeating corridors aren't helping me to find my way either, not with them all being practically identical.

Eventually, I find my locker and quickly shove anything I won't need into it. Looking back at the schedule, I look at today's classes.

Tutor, English, Biology, Maths, Study, Art, History, double P.E. I roll my eyes seeing double P.E. last on a Monday. Looking at the time it was 8:17, tutor time was almost over, which means I'll most likely be trampled by crowds of freakishly tall jocks and girls with pointy heels. I decide to take my chance to use non-crowded corridors and start towards English as fast as I can, without running of course.

Room 73, Room 74, Room 75 - Mr Thomas - English. The bell rings, I've made it in time. I don't even have time to breathe before the hallways are suddenly cramped, bodies filling up any empty space, as everybody tries to get to the different rooms in 5 minutes or less. I quickly duck into the classroom before I get trodden on. I take a seat towards the back so it will be more obvious if people were looking at me and, hopefully, the teacher will stop them. The class fills pretty quickly but my row stays empty. I didn't think anyone would want to sit next to me anyways.

Why would they? I'm the freaky looking new girl.

It's about 10 minutes into the lesson when the door opens and in walk three people...