Blueberry Milkshake

Sunrise

"And I'm calling you AJ from now on," he added.

A grin spread over my face, and he ruffled my hair. I didn't move, and when he went back to his friends, I stared at his back.

I restarted walking towards the giant double doors pushed open inwards. There were arrows on the floor, colourful stickers to guide us to the different sections of the building. I followed yellow, the acting class.

At the end of the corridor, a small group of people around my age waited in front of the classroom.

I felt uneasy. This was everyone's second year in NAA, whilst I was only starting now. Everyone had already befriended everyone. Friendships had been made, and I was a foreigner about to link up to something that didn't need a nexus.

I kept quiet in the corner, observing everyone. This was until a dark-skinned boy came up to us with a smile.

"Hey, everyone! My name is Chris and I'm your assigned guide. If you need anything, you can talk to me or any other guide," he said, brushing invisible dust from his uniform. "Now, I know there are some new students here, so let me show you around."

The group followed him, complaining the whole time about already knowing the place. I didn't dare speak up for myself. I didn't need to put a target on my back already.

We were taken outside, to the tennis courts and basketball fields, the theatre room and the music room, always following the stone pavement that split into several roads and took us everywhere.

"Look who's there, Jade." The brunette next to me pointed at the boys playing baseball.

The black-haired girl next to her looked at where she was pointing and so did I.

"Are you talking about Ray?" she questioned.

I didn't know who Ray was. At that moment I wasn't listening to Chris anymore, but I kept thinking how could I try to talk to those girls.

"Ti piace?" the tall one joked.

"Just because those are the only Italian words you know, doesn't mean you have to say them all the time, Courtney." Jade rolled her eyes.

Italian? They teach that here? Oh, no, I suck at learning languages.

"But it's fun," Courtney complained, "And they're not the only ones! I can say ciao."

"Congratulations," Jade said dryly.

Chris moved to the rock-carved swimming pool, and we followed.

I stared at the crystal water screaming at me to dive in. It was probably freezing, but it looked so fascinating...

"Did we lose part of the group?" I asked no one in particular as I turned back to them, finding only half of the people that were with me seconds ago.

"Don't worry, we didn't lose no one important." Courtney said from my side, "You're new, right? I don't think we've met before"

I swallowed "I-uh... Yeah, I am"

"What do you think about it so far?"

I chewed the inside of my cheek, a bad habit I got when I didn't have gum with me.

"It's huge."

Courtney snorted, "I guess. I'm Courtney, by the way, and this idiot listening to Chris for the second time is Jade."

"I'm making sure there are no new rules!" the girl complained without looking away from the boy.

The brunette rolled her eyes. "I bet an entire week of dirty laundry there aren't."