Hi, my names Caitlin. I moved 2 weeks ago to this town in Halifax, Ackley Bridge. I had to leave everything behind, my friends, school, my family (apart from my parents of course). My mum has a new job here, working in a local bank. Anyway, today is the first day starting at my new school - Ackley Bridge College. I'm super nervous, it's better than starting a new school halfway through the term though because not only is it the first day after the summer holidays, but it's also the first day of this school. It's a merger school of two previous schools in Ackley Bridge. It's still not the best though, because everyone knows people from their previous school they're all going to this new school together. But at least I won't be the only one not knowing my way around. I get dressed into my new uniform, curl my silky, light brown hair and head downstairs for breakfast. My dad has already made me a bagel when I get downstairs, my favourite quick breakfast. My mum is busily getting ready upstairs and making sure she has everything she needs to make a good impression on the first day of her new job. As I'm eating my bagel, I hear my mum hurrying down the stairs. She comes over to the breakfast bar, gives me a massive hug and a quick kiss on the forehead and says she's gonna be late if she doesn't leave now and that she hopes I have a great day. "Alright, see you later love you" I say back to her. She rushes out the house, jumps in her car and drives off. My dad says "we better get going soon, otherwise you'll be late and we don't want that on your first day do we?" I finish off my bagel and grab my bag off the sofa in the living room. I check everything is packed that I need for the day and I go and get my shoes on at the front door. My dad comes over and gives me some money to buy lunch with. I pop it in the back of my phone case so it's safe and stand up. Me and my dad smile at each other and then he says "right let's go!" We get into his car and pull off the driveway. As the car starts moving I get the worst butterflies in my stomach. I'm so nervous. We keep driving, and I'm desperately trying to reassure myself that everything's gonna be okay. We pull onto the road of the school and my dad says "are you ready for this?" "Yeah" I say in a hurry even though inside I'm petrified. I ask him to pull up just a bit before the school not in the car park. He goes "why, are you embarrassed of your old man dropping you off at school?" We laugh as I open the car door and hop out. "Bye dad, love you" I say. "Have a great day sweetheart!" my dad replies. I shut the car door and turn around to face the school. I start walking slowly down the pavement, i just wanna jump back into the car and go back home. My dad begins to drive off while waving at me. I giggle and wave back slightly. I check my watch and notice I'm meant to be inside the school in one minute so I start walking at a normal pace. I walk through the gates and into the reception area. I see a red haired lady looking at me. I awkwardly smile as I walk through into the hallway. There's loads of people hanging around the lockers and chatting and laughing. As I have nobody to talk to, I decide to head straight to my tutor room, the bell will go in 5 minutes anyway. I arrive outside and lean against the wall. There's only a few other people there in a small group, all talking to each other. I take a minute to myself to have a breather and get ready on the inside for my first day here. It doesn't look too bad from what I've already seen, most of the students look nice enough. The bell rings and scares me a little as I was lost in my thoughts but luckily I manage not to show it scared me so nobody looked. A teacher opens the door to our tutor room and starts to let us in. I walk in slowly and smile at the teacher when she goes "morning!" Everyone chooses their own seats, i didn't really know where to sit so I sit at the back, hoping nobody will sit next to me. I'm not saying this in a rude way, I just don't know what to say to new people. However, there's no seats left when a girl comes rushing in 5 minutes late so she takes her seat next to me. Although it wasn't too bad, she smiled and introduced herself to me, she seemed pretty kind. Then the bell rang and we walked off to our first lesson. I check my timetable before I leave the tutor room and see i have English. English isn't the worst subject but it's not the best either. I notice a few others from my tutor go to the same room as me, not the girl who was sat next to me though. The teacher opens the door and lets us in. She smiles at us all, she seems really nice. I was the last person to go in (I did this on purpose so I could hopefully find a seat nobody was sat next to). But when I walk in the only seat left is next to a girl who's chatting with a couple other girls. I slowly sink into my seat next to her, really nervous incase I make myself look stupid in front of her and her friends. She was really kind to me instantly though. The teacher tells us all to quieten down as loads of people were chatting to their mates. She then introduces herself as Miss Keane and goes round the room asking us to introduce ourselves. We all do that and have a pretty normal English lesson. The bell goes and I go to my next lesson - science. Our teacher was Mr Hyatt and I wasn't sat next to the girl I was with in English but i was sat on her table. Science passes (surprisingly quickly actually) and it's now break time. Yay but not yay
I walk outside and go and sit on the wall alone. I get my phone out of my bag and unlock it to go and text my old friends. But then I remember we weren't allowed phones at my old school so they won't be able to text back anyway. I turn the phone off and start tapping my hand with it. I look around the playground and see all the best friends dying of laughter together, the boys playing footy and arguing because it's not going their way, the groups of friends sitting together eating their snacks. For a second I nearly start crying because I want to be dying of laughter with my best friends right now, not sat all alone on a wall. I look down at the floor and calm myself down. I hear footsteps near me, but i assume it's just someone walking past me. I pray they don't judge me and just walk past quickly. But a second later, someone lightly taps on my shoulder. I look up quickly and see the girl I was sat with in English and science. I give her a quick smile and say "oh hi." She then says "you're Caitlin right?" I reply "yeah, and are you Nasreen?" She smiles at me and says "yep, but you can call me Nas if you like." I smile back at her and then notice another girl is stood just behind her, a girl with blonde hair in a bun and a leather jacket with a pink fur collar. I wonder who she is and feel awkward incase the other girl wants to speak to Nas and I'm stopping her. Nas realises that I'm probably wondering who the other girl is so she quickly goes "oh yeah, this is Missy, we've been best friends ever since we were born." Missy smiles at me and I smile back. She then says "I'd be careful if I were you Caitlin, Nas can be a right cow sometimes." "Oi" Nas says and slightly pushes Missy. We all start laughing. Nas then turns to me and says "you can come and sit on a table over there with us if you wanna?" "I'd love that!" I reply. Both Nas and Missy say "come on then!" I stand up and follow them both to a table on the other side of the playground. We all sit down and Missy says "are you two in the same classes then?" Nas answers "erm well were in the same tutor and we've been in the same classes this morning but I'm not sure about the rest, do you have your timetable with you Caitlin?" I pull my timetable out of my bag and put it on the table in front of Nas. Nas takes hers and puts it next to mine. "We have all the same lessons!" Nas says with a smile. "Ooh" I say back. I then ask Missy if she's in any of the same classes as us. Missy says "nah, i would be in year 12 like you two, but I dropped out last year at my last school so I have to retake year 11 which means I'm in the same classes as my little sister ugh." Nas then says "and you better not drop out again, coz then you'll be in the same classes as Saleem!" They both laugh a bit before Missy goes "trust me I won't, can't have Hayley the year above me when she's younger." Nas then turns to me and says "Saleem is my little brother by the way, do you have any siblings Caitlin?" I say "nope but I'm very close with my cousins, also you can call me Cait if you like."
"Alright Cait?" a voice says from behind. I turn around to see a boy stood behind me who must have overheard me talking to Missy and Nas.
Missy sighs and says "Ugh Cory go find somewhere else to be it's her first day."
"And she could be spending her first day with me, eh Cait?" Cory says as he slightly elbows me. Missy looks at me and says "ignore him." Cory looks at her and goes "uh never remembered your name to be Caitlin, Missy Booth, Cait can speak for herself you know."
I look at Cory and say "yeah your right I can speak for myself, but who says I wanna speak to you?" Missy and Nas laugh at Cory as he stands there with nothing to say. He stutters "we - well why don't you just hear what I wanted to say first?"
"Go on then, what's so important?" I say.
"Well i would like to take you on a date, your pretty you know" he says snd then he smiles at me. "Hmm, no." I say back to him.
Missy and Nas both look at me and then at Cory, who's stood in disbelief that someone said no to dating him. "F - fine I guess I'll go somewhere else then, bye." He says while slowly walking off. Missy and Nas both smile at me before Nas says "do you wanna hang out with us after school?"
"Yeah, we could go into town if you want, we can show you around?" Missy says.
"I'd love that, let me just text my dad and tell him I'll be home late" I say while getting my phone out of my bag.
I unlock my phone and go into my texts with my dad and tell him.
Dad 🤍
Me - Hey dad, some of my new mates have just asked if I wanna go into town with them tonight, is it alright if I'll be home late?
Dad - Ofc, I'll let your mum know. Are you having a good day and do you need any money?
Me - yeah I wasn't having a good day but then these two girls came over and now I'm mates with them already so it's going great now :) and no I don't need any money, i packed myself some extra snacks incase I didn't feel like going to the canteen so I'll eat them at lunch, and use my lunch money tonight. Love you 🤍
Dad - Alright, have a great day and love you too sweetie 💕
I put my phone away and turn back to the girls, "yep my dad knows I'll be late now so i can come!"
"Yayyy" Nas says and Missy smiles at me. The bell goes all of a sudden, break has gone so quickly since I sat with the girls.
Missy stands up and picks up her bag "I'll see you two at lunch." She says.
"Alright bye" Nas says.
"Bye" I say.
Me and Nas then start walking off together in the opposite direction to Missy. "What have we got now?" Asks Nas.
I pull out my timetable and look through it. "Uhhh, drama!" I say.
"Dramas pretty good, let's go!" Says Nas as we start walking to the drama room.
*the rest of the school day has passed*
Me and Nas are sat waiting at the gates for Missy to come out so we can go into town together. "She must be being let out of lesson late, she had science so that's probably why." Nas says.
We sit looking for Missy but it's been 5 minutes and basically everyone has gone.
"I'll text her" says Nas.
She pulls out her phone to text Missy.
Missy 💞
Nas - Where r u??
Missy - miss gave the whole class detention soz, I'll be out in two mins
Nas - alr, me and Cait are waiting at the gates for u xx
She comes out after another 3 or 4 minutes of us waiting and we walk out the gates together.
*they have left school, walked into town and have now just arrived in town*
"Let's do some shopping and then we could go to the cafe over there, it's so nice trust me Cait" Missy says and points at a cafe.
"Sure, sounds good" I say.
*they have done some shopping and are now sat in the cafe together*
"How long have you lived here for Cait?" Missy asks after finishing her can of coke.
"I moved here two weeks ago but I've visited a couple times when we were looking for houses." I say.
Nas turns to me and asks "How are you finding it? Do you like it here or would you rather be where you used to live?"
"It's been okay so far, i do miss my family and friends but i still keep in contact with them all so it's not too bad." I say with a slight smile.
*they sit in the cafe for another 10 minutes, talking and having a laugh together and stuff*
We have all finished off our drinks and chatting and now we're just about to go over to the till and pay. We pick up our bags and coats off the floor and go to start walking over to the till to pay. We pay for our things and walk over to the door. My phone starts vibrating in my bag and I get it out and see that it's my dad ringing me. "Hang on a sec" I say to Missy and Nas as I answer the phone.
*on the phone*
"Hey dad, is everything alright?" I say.
"Me and your mum just wanted to know what time you'd be back, mum suggested we could all go out for a nice dinner tonight" my dad tells me.
"We were just leaving the cafe now to walk home, so I'll be 20 mins, half an hour at the most" I tell him.
"Okay, we'll see you when you get home sweetie" my dad says.
"Okay bye, love you" I say back before putting the phone down.
"Okay let's go!" Missy says. Nas pushes the door open, as we step out the door we hear a ton of shouting coming from around the corner.
"What's going on out there?" Nas says.
Missy - "Nah hang on. Shh. Those voices sound familiar. Oh my god wait it sounds like.."