Merged

Scene Four

My alarm clocked blared, and I suddenly woke up, pale and sweating. I looked at the time, it read 7:17. Oh, no! I was supposed to be up at seventeen minutes ago! I hopped out of bed, letting my covers drop to the floor, and ran down the stairs to grab a bagel.

"Miss Aubrey," Clara appeared around the corner, holding my book bag, "I already packed your bag for you. Do you want me to drive you today so you make it on time?"

I quickly finished the bagel, "No, no, it's okay, I'll drive myself. I can make it." I got off the stool I was sitting on and sped toward the stairs.

"Ok," Clara said, "have fun on your first day."

"Thanks!" I called back to her.

Once I was in my room, I threw on my outfit and ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Thank god I picked out my outfit before, I thought to myself. I was wearing a red tank top, yoga pant capris, and sneakers. Then I grabbed my Victoria's Secret sweatshirt in case I got cold.

I had heard from Kellie and Tiff that some guys in our grade, namely Brett and a few of his cronies, were planning on wear their Hilton football practice shirts, and other Hilton school apparel. I figured that was a bad idea though, since the administration said that old legacy school clothing was not allowed. Instead, my own little way of protesting was to wear casual clothes, but in Hilton's old colors, red and black.

This year we had a new principal, Dr. McDowell, some guy I had never heard of to help make the merger a smooth transition. However, he was even shorter than me, and it didn't make people want to listen to him. But I knew that he was trying his best and I had to respect that. Our newly merged school was called "Oakhill Academy", and I was upset about this was because the students had no say whatsoever in this choice. Or the merge at all.

On the way to school, I ended up driving very distracted, thinking about what today was going to be like with our two rival schools coming together. I was also very nervous for cheerleading tryouts this weekend, since I still didn't know if I was the captain or not. But the one silver lining was now I was gonna go to school with a bunch of cute guys that I had no history with, and I could start with a clean slate.

When I passed the school, I felt a pang of sadness as I saw that the old "Hilton Academy" sign had been taken down, and a new one saying "Oakhill Academy" was put up. The sign was blue and gold, the new Oakhill school colors. I also saw a lot more students on the campus walking into school, and I missed how I knew pretty much everybody at my old school. Now I wasn't going to know half the student body!

I looked down at the time, and my heart jumped, 7:54. I had six minutes to get inside! I floored it, turned into the student parking lot, and then immediately slammed on my brakes. Some car was in my spot!

Seniors didn't get official parking spots, but we all had a general idea of who parked where. In the front row the order usually went me, Kellie, Tiffany, and then a few of the other girls on the cheer squad. Then in the row across from us was Adam, Brett, and other football guys. With this set up, I had the front spot right next to the walkway, and Adam was right behind me.

However, some black convertible was in my spot. It was a nice, clearly new, Mustang, and looked like it didn't belong in a high school parking lot. I peered closer, and the license plate read, "STRONG." Hm, I wondered who that was. It definitely wasn't a Hilton kid, since I had never seen it before. But this car in my spot posed a huge problem. I noticed that both Tiff and Kellie were still in their spots, so why was only mine taken? There were no spots left in the front section, and I was counting on parking in my spot! I grumbled, and drove to the second section, where there were no more spots either!

I cursed the merge under my breath, and finally found a spot in the furthest section from the school. Last year I would have found a spot in the second section easily. I grabbed my bag and checked the time. I had four minutes to make it to homeroom, or I'd get a tardy on my first day! Locking my car, I sprinted to the school, suddenly very glad I wore sneakers and not high heels like Tiffany said she was going to today.

When I passed the office, I looked at the secretary and realized I had two choices. I could try to make it to homeroom without being late (doubtful), or I could ask for a late slip from Mrs. Mars, who likes me. As junior class president, I once helped organize a fundraiser and spent a whole afternoon with her. I walked into the office and up to Mrs. Mars, who was a little hard of hearing, "Hello, Mrs. Mars!"

She looked up and immediately smiled, "Oh hello, Aubrey. How are you doing? How was your summer?"

"It was really good, thank you," I replied loudly, "It was a lot of fun! Except when I got sunburnt in Jamaica."

"Oh," Mrs. Mars cackled, "don't worry about that. Young people's skin is always clear and healthy. You look like you got a nice tan."

I laughed, "Well thank you! Did you do anything special this summer?"

Mrs. Mars adjusted her glasses and grinned, "As a matter of fact, I did a lot this summer..." Just then the homeroom bell rang, and the hallway emptied. "Oh, dear me, you better be off to class! Let me write you a pass." She opened a drawer, pulled out a yellow late slip pass, and began filling it out. Score, I thought.

Suddenly the office door swung open. "Here's one we found trying to sneak in the back entrance," Mr. Cooper barged in the office. Behind him was a guy I didn't recognize, but clearly not a freshman, who was smiling.

"Sit down!" Mr. Cooper yelled at the guy, and the guy sat in one of the office chairs. He looked down at him in disgust, "Detention on the first day? That may be how they did it at Willard, but you're at Oakhill now. So act like it."

Then Mr. Cooper went up to Mrs. Mars, "Write this one up, ma'am. I'll go see if they're any more rascals I can catch behind the school."

Mrs. Mars looked up at him and stopped writing. "Ok, thank you very much Mr. Cooper," Mrs. Mars said to him, nodding.

"I'm just doing my job, ma'am," Then Mr. Cooper turned around, frowned at the guy once more, and stalked out of the office.

"Hey beautiful."

I whipped my head around. It came from the guy in the seat, and I began to study his face. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was actually Todd Stanford, one of the guys whose Instagram I had looked at with Kellie and Tiff! However, it would have been weird to tell him that, so I kept my mouth shut. But I didn't like the way he was smirking at me, like he knew something I didn't.

I looked back to Mrs. Mars, who had silently finished filling out the pass for me. She then finished handed me the pass, "Here you go, sweetie."

"Thank you," I graciously took it, telling her, "Have a nice day!" I began to walk out of the office.

"I heard it's a detention if you're late," Todd said smugly to me as I was leaving, "so I guess I'll save you a seat."

I turned to Todd and waved my pass, "Well I guess it's a good thing I don't have a detention, then." and I sauntered out.

I made my way to homeroom, thinking about what just happened. This was definitely my first encounter with a Willard guy, and it wasn't a very good one. Even though he was definitely hotter in person, there was something about Todd that just rubbed me the wrong way. It was like he knew he was trouble, and he just figured that he could get anything he wanted. Maybe he's the one who stole my space, I thought, but then I quickly dismissed this notion. After all, anyone who parked in the front definitely wasn't late to school and therefore didn't need to sneak into school the back way.

I sighed. This school year already wasn't off to a good start, and the school day had barely begun.

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