Furry Humans | ✓

6.

'What's up with everyone sniffing today! Do I stink?' I think, resisting the urge to sniff myself.

"Her name's Abigail and I want everyone to treat her like she belongs," he warns, voice growing deeper.

My eye twitches at the double meaning behind his words, easily detected, yet again not understanding the adults in this school, I force myself to smile when he walks around to my side one hand still on my shoulder.

"Would you like to say anything about yourself?" he asks, glancing at me.

"No, thank you," I say quickly and quietly.

He nods and points in the direction of an empty seat in the far left corner, "That'll be your seat next to Samantha—Samantha raise your hand, please."

The girl, Samantha as he called, raises her hand from the seat beside the one I've been assigned to. I nod and adjust my bookbag on my shoulder as I make my way over to my new seat. The room was designed to where the seats were at an obtuse angle, steps being provided as I walk up to my seat.

Sliding into my chair, the teacher finally going back to teacher when I was settled and bringing three forth of the students attention back to the lesson. Slouching, I look out the window I was seated next to and try to collect myself a bit.

"Hi, there."

I jerk in place, whipping around to face the girl in the seat beside me, almost forgetting she was there. I relax a bit.

"Hi," I reply back, quietly.

She smiles, showing all her perfectly straight teeth. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to fully introduce myself; I'm Samantha Jones but people call me Sam for short," she says, reaching over and holding her hand out.

I look at her hand then to her face before fully clasping my hand in hers giving it a shake then releasing it.

"Abigail but you can call me Abby if you want," I tell her, taking out a spare notebook and pencils.

Her head bobs in acknowledgement while she turned back up to the front where Mr. Newman stood by the board, marker in hand, writing down words while spluttering on about cells and genes.

"So what do you think of the school so far?"

I shrug, my pencil scribbling across my paper as I take notes. "It's okay," I tell her, "I'm still trying to get used to everything around me. I literally moved into town the other night."

She makes a noise of understanding. "I feel you on that. My family and I moved from Florida not too long ago, the area in general will take some getting used to."

I nod, scoffing under my breath I'm understanding. What will I'm feeling will be nothing but a distant memory soon enough.

"Florida, though?" I ask a little surprised, "What made you move from such a warmer climate to here?" I ask, curious.

"My father wanted us to come back to his hometown and help his mom."

"That makes sense. Hope all is well," I say genuinely.

A smile reaches her lips, "Thank you."

My eyes snapped to the wall phone as it begins to ring, catching the attention of a few students, some of us watch the teacher as he picks it up, muttering a few words into the mic. Noticeably, his eyes snap to mine before looking away and beginning to talk.

"In all honesty, I didn't want to leave. To me, it felt like I was leaving a piece of myself behind." Samantha explained a moment later, her tone soft.