Bumps In The Road / Paul Lahote

1. First Day

I walked into the classroom, which was set up the same as the previous two classes I'd been to that day, and found myself a seat near the back of the classroom again. The young teacher made his way through the classroom to greet me specifically and offered me a smile.

"Miss West, isn't it?" The teacher asked, looking down at me through his glasses. I looked up, finding him to me much more appealing to look at in comparison to my other classes.

"Yes."

"I am Mr Winchester, do you by any chance have a laptop?" He asked, his tone actually containing signs of life and vigour.

"Uh...no, it's not with me today" I responded. He nodded.

"That's okay, for today you can use the school laptop. It is expected for you to use your own laptop though. But it is your first day, so don't stress about it" Mr Winchester informed me.

"Thanks, sir." He sent me a smile and retrieved a laptop from the front of the room. Mr Winchester returned to my desk with the laptop and helped me login.

"Alright," he gestures, "Please ask for help if you need help setting anything up, we aren't doing anything too crazy, so I'm sure you'll manage to keep up."

"Okay, thank you." He nodded and walked back to his desk again. It felt like I had a chance to breathe the moment Mr Winchester turned away and walked back to his desk at the front of the room. In the background there was quiet chatter amongst varies friend groups, but for a split second I felt like my brain could catch up with the moment. It felt weird being in a different classroom, in another country and away from everything familiar from me. Being in a school environment made me miss my friends more than ever, in particular Will. I glanced over at the empty desk beside mine and wished that Will was sitting there talking about something random or planning something stupid or looking up car parts for his latest project.

I let out a sigh and happened to notice that the boy with the long hair, who had glared angrily at Embry in our previous class (and that Embry claimed was an 'old friend'), walked into the classroom. His eyes seemed to find mine in an instant and he halted at the door for a moment, a conflicted emotion racing through his eyes. Reaching in, I could feel his anger bubbling beneath the surface but it mingled with curiosity and a hint of disappointment. The boy snapped out of his trance and found a seat a desk away from my right. He plonked himself down and pulled out his necessary items from his bag. There was a strange urge that came over me, a need to approach him and speak to him, so I stood up. My plans were quickly cut short when a blonde haired girl approached my desk and pulled my attention away from the boy with long hair. Lovely.

"Hey, you're the new girl, right?" The girl asked, twirling a strand of her hair through her fingers. I turned my eyes to the girl and nodded. The girl had the softest looking blonde hair that curled perfectly onto her shoulders and she wore a black blouse with a nice grey blazer and clean looking jeans. My eyes flickered to the boy I'd wanted to talk to and I noticed his attention was on this blonde girl and myself (along with most of the class—teacher included).

"Yes, that would be me," I mumbled, "Great guess. I'm Kira." I figured I should attempt to blend in.