His Open Arms.

Here We Go.

My foot taps against the car floor loudly, making Mom glare at me. For some reason, that just makes me a lot more anxious.
"Damn it, Athena! Shut up, I'm trying to drive!" She yells. I hide my face in my warm, white sweater. It's not my fault! I'm going to a new school! In the middle of Junior year! My hands shake uncontrollably. I'm not ready. I want to move back to Maine. Screw New Jersey.
I study people, who I assume go to my new school walk by. They don't look so bad. They're going to judge me though. They're wearing normal, stylish clothes. I'm wearing a huge white sweater, jeans and brown UGGS. Everyone was right. I am a big joke.
Finally, we reach the school. I step out of the car, my legs almost instantly turn to jello. My hands are still shaking badly as I slam the car door shut. Mom drives away, without saying goodbye or anything. Oh well, I'm used to that.
I enter the school. Unfortunately, a lot of kids stare at me. I keep my head as low as I can, but it doesn't help. Thankfully, the office is visible as soon as I walk through the big doors, so I won't have to ask people for help. I practically sprint into the office, my eyes landing on a plump lady with short blonde hair. I can tell she's the secretary, mainly by the name tag on her desk.
"H-Hi," I say. I am very bad at hiding my nervousness. She smiles at me, nodding her head. I think she wants me to continue?
"I'm uh, new and need my schedule, please," I mutter. I realize that my nails are digging deep into my arm, but decide to ignore it.
"Ah yes," the lady smiles again. "Name?"
"Er, Athena Yuri."
"Okay, thank you," she says, her fingers slamming the keys of her keyboard. The typing rings through my head, making me feel even more shitty. The secretary prints out a paper, quickly jotting something down on the bottom. Before handing it to me, she stares at my face.
"Oh dear. Are you alright? You're quite pale," she questions. Oh shit. I reach my hand to grab the paper, her eyes fall to that next.
"You're shaking too," she decides to point out. I force a smile, snatching the paper and sprinting out of the office. I feel bad, but I'm not having something like that happen on the first day.
Okay, first I have to go my locker. I squint at the paper. The bottom has messy handwriting scribbled across it: Locker 690. I look at the locker to my right. 412. Shit. I have to look around.
It takes about five minutes torturous minutes of avoiding people until I finally find my locker. I immediately start to fidget with the dial, trying to put in the combination that was written on the paper. It doesn't go so well, with my sweaty, shaky hands.
"Need help?" A voice appears out of nowhere. I squeak, whirling around to see a girl standing next to me. She's pretty, with short brown hair, a nice body and hazel eyes. She wears a slightly tight magenta shirt with black leggings. She gives me a gentle expression, somehow soothing me.
"Hey, it's okay. You're shaking, poor thing. Deep breaths," she whispers. I do as she says, trying to take slow, deep breaths. Her hands rest on my shoulders and doesn't move until I've calmed a bit. Fuck, what a lovely first impression.
"I'm Rosita Hedges," she smiles. I nod, biting my lip. It's almost time for homeroom, and my locker is still locked. I manage to open it quickly though, now that I'm relaxed.
"Athena Yuri," I say, putting my hoodie in the locker, then slamming it shut. Rosita grabs my schedule, reading it over.
"You're in my friend Jonah's homeroom. Are you comfortable meeting him?" She glances up at me. Am I? I shrug, nodding. Rosita grabs my hand and pulls me through the hall. Jesus, she's fast. People stare at me all the way across the hall as i struggle not to fall flat on my face. Finally, Rosita stops and flings me over to someone, I squeak, trying to catch myself but to no avail.
"Whoa!" The person yells. I find myself suddenly wrapped in a pair of muscular arms. I quickly pull away, leaning on the wall for support. My hands are shaking again.
"Jesus, Rosita. You could've killed her," the voice scolds. I chew on my lip anxiously, unable to talk. It feels like I'm not even breathing.
"Whoa. Breathe, Athena," Rosita says. I try to breathe, but it's hard. Fucking panic attacks. They're probably judging me, oh no. They're going to take a video and send it to the whole school. I already messed up, it's only been half an hour. I'm so pathetic. What's wrong with me?
To my surprise, Rosita hugs me. I tense in her arms a bit. Is she doing this out of pity? Yes. That's probably it.
"Go take her to the bathroom to calm down. I'll wait for you guys outside," the voice sounds again. I like it. It's low and soothing. Rosita grabs my hand again, but slowly walks with me to the bathroom. Once there, she pushes my hair out of my face.
"Are you okay?" She asks. Jesus, so much pity. I desperately try to hold back the tears, but one slips out and slowly rolls down my cheek. Pathetic, weak bitch.
"Hey, it's okay. I get anxious too. Seems you have it bad though, and that's okay," she soothes. Is she really being serious? Or is it all fake like it always is? Should I give her a chance? What happens if she ditches me? I soon find myself crying. A lot. My throat feels like it's closing up. Rosita hugs me again.
"Shh, hey, you're okay. It's fine," she soothes. Nobody has ever been this nice before. Maybe I should give her a chance.
It takes around 3 minutes for me to calm down, which surprises me. It usually takes half an hour or so. I wipe my eyes, turning to the mirror. My eyes are all red and puffy. Great. I turn back to Rosita.
"Th-Thank you," I murmur. She smiles before patting my head.
"You're adorable, dude. Homeroom is in two minutes, let's go," she says. We walk out of the bathroom. I continue to keep my head low, since I look hideous right now.
"Finally," I hear the low voice groan again. I see Rosita's hand fly upwards and hit his chest. I pick my head up slowly.
The guy is pretty handsome. Shaggy, dark brown hair, crystal blue eyes, tall and muscular. We make eye contact, I quickly look down. I'm terrible at eye contact.
"C'mon, Rosita says you're in my homeroom. I'll take you there," he says. I wave goodbye to Rosita before following him.
We get to homeroom right when the bell rings. We sit at an empty table towards the back. I feel a little more comfortable knowing that nobody can see me without having to turn around in their chairs.
"I'm Jonah," the guy introduces himself. I look up at him, giving a shy smile.
"Athena," I murmur. Jonah smiles, but the smile quickly fades.
"Were you crying?" He asks. I look back down at the table almost instantly. Jonah squeezes my shoulder gently.
"You don't have to hide it, it's okay. Actually, I'd like to try to help you. Is that okay?" He asks. My eyes move back to him. I study his face. He looks genuine.
"O-Okay," I say. Jonah smiles, his hand slides off my shoulder. For some reason, I miss the contact.
Homeroom goes smoothly. According to my schedule, I have maths next. I hate maths.
Jonah offers to take me to the maths room, which I politely decline. I don't need to be bothering him all the time if he plans to help me. Fortunately, I find the room pretty fast. I make a note in my brain that it's down the hall from homeroom.
I enter slowly, trying to look as calm as possible. The teacher comes over to me. I introduce myself as the new student, Athena Yuri. She seems incredibly nice, thankfully. Her name is Mrs Davis. She instructs me to sit with a guy named Dustin in the back. Yikes, he looks scary.
"Hey, you must be Athena," he says as I nervously sit next to him. Okay, he's scary. I nod, avoiding eye contact.
"Chill, I'm not going to kill you, I'm Rosita's boyfriend," he rolls his eyes. Oh. Now I look like an idiot.
"Oh shit. I'm sorry!" I whisper scream. Dustin laughs, punching my arm playfully.
"You're chill, dude."
I study his appearance. He's definitely scary. Good build, silver dyed hair, bluish grey eyes and a lip piercing. He talks to me a lot though, which makes math a lot easier. I focus better with background noise, and can talk while writing notes.
"What's your next class?" He asks. I look at my schedule. Ooh! English. Awesome.
"English," I smile. It's the first real smile of today. Dustin grins back.
"Dude, that's great, kind of. I'm in that class, same with Rosita and Jonah. Our teacher is making us write a story today though," he pouts. I smile again. He looks at me, confused.
"I love writing," I explain. Dustin chuckles, wide eyed.
"Nerd," he teases. I roll my eyes and even laugh a little. Maybe today won't be so bad.
Wrong. After math, Dustin runs off to meet some friends. Okay. English should be down the hallway anyway. That's when a guy comes up to me. I don't know him, but I assume he's a friend of Rosita's.
"Hey, cutie," he says, walking closer to me. I smile anxiously at him.
"You're in my math," he mutters. The guy practically has me pinned against the wall. My heart starts to race.
"You're adorable," he smirks. His hand slides down to my hip. My hands start shaking again. He leans in and kisses me. The guy grips my arm so I can't escape, violently trying to shove his tongue into my mouth. I feel warm tears sliding down my face. No no no no. Not again. Please, not again. I try pushing him away, but he only starts rubbing his body roughly against mine.
Suddenly, he's on the floor. I see a blurry vision of someone beating the guy up, oh no. I feel a hand grip mine, soon, I'm sitting in a room at a desk."
"Athena, can you hear me?" A familiar voice asks. I try to calm my breathing, but it doesn't work. My vision clears up enough to see Jonah sitting in front of me, gripping my hand. Dustin is to my left, Rosita is to my right.
"Deep breaths," Jonah soothes. I relax a bit, pulling my hand away from his slowly. I look around. We're in English. Oh God. Everyone probably thinks I'm a freak. No! Surprisingly, nobody is paying attention to us.
"What h-happened?" I ask, wiping my eyes. Rosita pats my shoulder.
"Haru Bryce was being a nasty fucking asshole to you," she starts. I shake my head. I know that part. Obviously.
"I know, but then what?" I ask again. She sighs, giving Jonah a small smile. I blink, confused.
"Jonah beat him up," she says. I look at Jonah, who smiles nervously. Fuck. I hold my head in my hands, sighing. The teacher clears her throat, making all of us jump a little.
"Okay, guys. As you know, today we're writing our stories. You can do whatever you want, as long as it's appropriate. Get started!" She yells. Fuck, she's loud. I wince at the ringing in my head. Rosita sighs as I pull out the laptop they gave me in homeroom. I enter the username and password that the secretary had written next to my locker information on my schedule.
"Damn, you type fast," Dustin remarks. I give a small smile. Everyone's always told me that, and I believe them. I lean over, grabbing a clean sheet of lined paper and a pen. I think of a story idea.
It takes me only five minutes to come up with a main character. I've named her Aurora. She's the most popular girl in school, but is misunderstood. Everyone thinks she's a rich slut, but in reality her father abuses her while his mother just watches. I think it's a solid idea. My fingers start hitting the keys.
"Hey, girl," my 'best friend' Jessica shrieks. Jesus, I can't enjoy one page of a book, can I? Jessica flips her long, black hair, smacking her lips.
"Oh my God! Did you hear about Joseph Stewart? He like, totally cheated on Brooke," she rambles. God, she's so basic. Sometimes I feel like a character in some weird cliche thing like High School Musical. Honestly, it's awful. Jessica cocks an eyebrow, waiting for a response from me. Ugh.
"That's awful," I say, trying to sound as 'preppy' as possible.
I can't help but cringe. The story sounds bad so far. I make eye contact with Jonah, who's staring at me. He quickly looks away. Huh. Weird.
"How did you not get caught for beating that kid up?" I ask, tilting my head.
"And how did the teacher not notice me panicking?" The questions come up one by one. I stumble over my words slightly. Rosita sighs.
"Well, Jonah had on a sweatshirt and had the hood up. His backpack was off so no would recognize it. The fight only drew the attention of popular kids anyway, who hate talking to teachers. The teacher was busy talking to someone next door, so we managed to sit you down in a way she wouldn't see you," she explained.
Oh.
Jesus.
I sigh, running my fingers through my hair. This is going to be all over the school. Why does this have to happen to me? God. Pathetic.
The rest of the day drags on with people giving me looks as I walk through the halls. I have a load of homework already. I've had yet another breakdown in the bathroom, too.
When the final bell rings, I'm at my locker within 10 seconds. I can't wait to get out of this hellhole. I turn around, coat in hands. I'm surrounded by Dustin, Rosita and Jonah. They're all staring at me sympathetically. Except Dustin, he's busy checking out Rosita.
"Athena, are you okay? You've been silent ever since English, you didn't eat lunch, and eveeytime I see you, you look like you've been crying," Rosita sighs, looking at me with a raised eyebrow.
"No. I'm not okay. Don't worry about it," I mutter. My voice comes out colder than I wanted it to.
"See? It's just better if I keep quiet. I'll see you guys tomorrow," I say. My eyes well up with tears. I force a smile before turning and walking away.
This day fucking sucked.

Hi guys! This is my first 'book' so don't expect it to be good. The top picture is how I picture Athena to look, just without the freckles. Hope y'all enjoy.