Old you

Day one: The schedule

"I can't believe I'm actually in highschool." I thought to myself on the ride to a small town with a population of about 10,000 as of 2017. Waverly Iowa, a small comparison to New Prague Minnesota where I had lived before. My nerves only climbed higher as we took a right turn towards the highschool. My sister looked at me as we waited for the cars to go through the cross walk. "You'll be fine Hazel, it's not THAT scary." She said encouragingly. "Yeah, not THAT scary. Say that to the freshman." My mind raced. Don't get me wrong, I love my sister and I do appreciate the encouragement, but she's already a senior. So naturally, she has a ton of friends and people that like her. Heck I mean she's a bubbly person in general. The groups in highschool, The popular, geeks, jocks, Emos, etc. She doesn't belong in one. Well, more like she wasn't generated into one. She's too nice to care what the popular people would think if she hangs with a geek. So she group hops and has tons of friends in those different groups. "Get over it, you may not be as sociable as her but you're independent. When have you needed people." I had to admit. I wasn't as sociable as my sister. I was extremely independent with a will of steel. Along with that, I was a Bednarik and our genetics characterized one thing. Stubborness. I swear I can be worse than a donkeys ass. Especially when it comes to my dad. "Ughhhhh ew, don't think about that piss ass." I was pissed with my dad because he kept telling me to make Christian friends. Which isn't far from my parents expectations. My family is non-denominational, we are Christians who gather in the name of the... "blah blah and blah." Let me update you, I fucking hate church. We moved from Minnesota to Iowa because my dad had issues in my old church, but that's a story for another day. I came to my senses when my sister parked in the back lot. "Makes sense. We would have parked closer if my father hadn't decided to pep talk me into 2020."

I sighed as I grabbed my bag, and lunch. My sister smiled at me and grabbed her things. My brothers had already started walking to the doors but I waited for my sister. Turning towards me she locked the car, and placed my hand in the crook of her elbow. "Hey I'm a senior so I can probably show you around your schedule! But we'll have to ask Mr. Fox which shouldn't be a problem! You know......." my body completely tuned her out as we got closer to the doors and my nerves almost reached their peak. My legs started to shiver even though it was spring and the weather was warm. "Maybe if I throw up I'll call it a sick day and get to go home." I thought the latter because I would embarrass myself in front of the other students walking into school, and I would have to come to school tomorrow anyway. Gaining a random force of confidence I swayed my hips more than usual and let my lips play a smirk. My sister turned to me as if feeling my confidence peak and rose her eyebrow. "Damn Hazel, where did this come from?" My smirk only climbed my cheek. "I'm not sure, call it cliche but I think I'm gonna slay this school." The words smoothly flowed out of my mouth. I honestly shocked myself by the statement. Carter only chuckled and fixed a stray hair on my head. "Good to hear wildness." She added with a wink. We reached the doors and I breathed in deep. I, was not going to wimp out anymore. Lucas was right. I needed to stop hiding the side of me I was comfortable being. "What if they don't like that side of you though?" I pushed that thought to the very back of my mind. Not completely forgotten but not important enough to go over again. "Fuck them." I stared at my reflection in the glass separating me and the inside of the school. I reached for the handle and held the door open for my sister then followed in fluidly behind her. A bell rang and my sister noted that it was the 10 minute bell and I would have to text her my schedule so she could show me around. We walked through the lunch where there were a ton of kids eating breakfast. As we walked in, a few eyes lingered on our retreating figures. I mentally shivered, and ran my fingers through my hair. I swung my hips a little as we exited the lunch room. We made it to her locker and she put in the combo then swiftly swung open the door. I felt like an awkward statement hung in the air because she didn't say anything. "Ummmm...?" I question her. Her green eyes lifted to meet my red browns. "Oh damn! You're still here?" She seemed to be a bit surprised. "Uh.. yeah? I need help with my locker." I stared at her. "Ooooooh yeah... well I need to get to class or I'll be late and so will you. So I'm sure you'll be fine. Find me at lunch?" She kissed me cheek and walked away. "God damnit." Distaste sat in my mouth as my perfect first day started to crumble at my feet. I looked at my schedule and tried to find my locker number. 1784 (sorry I couldn't remember my freshman year locker number) it wasn't on the downstairs level so I climbed the stairs by two. I walked down one aisle and couldn't find it. 1787.. 1786..1785.. 1784!! "Bingo" I mentally fist bumped. Combo, 24-10-22. Alright... here goes nothing. 24..10...22 "I put in the combo do I just pull up? You'd think this would be more easy than rocket science."  I pulled the latch up and nothing happened. I pulled again a little more aggressively. "Shit" I breathed. My panic started to sink in as I tried again and failed. All the other students were gone since the second bell rang meaning we had 5 minutes until class.  Just as I was about to say fuck it and walk into 1st period with my bag I saw my knight in shinning armor coming towards me in a white suit shirt with black pants. "Well more like his head is shinning... not necessarily him."  A laugh bubbled up my throat but I quickly forced it down. "Er, sir! Do you think you could help me with my locker?"

"Damn! Way to go Haz, you officially fucked that up." I tried my best to put on a smile as his intimidating figure drew near. "You know that was the bell right?" He gave me a pointed look. I huffed but replied "look sir, it's my first day here and I transferred here last year so I don't know anything about this school or it's lockers." The mans eyes danced with amusement then he chuckled. "I figured you were fresh. No hard feelings kiddo. Now let's see about this locker..."