The piercing screech of the brakes broke her from her reverie. The driver swung open the door as the bus came to a halt at the entrance of Aurora High.
Taylor sat alone against the window of her seat, her brown eyes peering out at the ominous building before her. It was yet another building within a sea of inescapable buildings she had inevitably become accustomed to. She grabbed her backpack and hoisted it over her shoulder as she hesitantly stood up to join the line forming in the narrow aisle along the center, her shoulder-length brown hair tangled in the straps.
The bus was animated with chatter between friends as the procession moved forward. The anxiety bubbled within her empty stomach. A boy with bright eyes and dusty blonde hair offered her the small space in front of him. She nodded and smiled shyly at the gesture as she quickly fell into line with her new peers.
As her feet landed on the pavement, Taylor paused to capture her surroundings. She tugged on each strap of the backpack anchored onto both of her shoulders as a crutch to brace herself. Students who were once behind her in line on the bus began to pass her on either side. Their stride was purposeful and came with ease. Taylor looked down at her feet that were adorned with bright red sneakers, her first pair of newly purchased shoes, and willed them to step forward to the large oak doors that marked the entry to the school. There were two surly female teachers, each using her body to hold open a door to welcome the noisy stampede of teenagers entering the building.
Taylor closed her eyes and felt the morning sun as the rush of students paraded by her. It was one of many first days for her, but this day was decidedly different. It even smelled different, inexplicably sweet. The promise it held urged her toward the doors, her feet feeling less weighty, ironically less chained by the insecurity of the unknown. She heard her feet lock into step with the students around her.
As Taylor crossed the threshold, she witnessed throngs of students crisscrossing in front of her, and a familiar buzz filled her ears. The school's interior was as formidable as its exterior; the large corridor stretched endlessly in front of her. There were rows upon rows of navy blue lockers, shiny black trim lined each doorway, and large limestone tiles covered the floors. The bulkhead just above her bore an image of a menacing figure—he was blue with horns and held a pitchfork in his hand. "Home of the Blue Devils" was plastered on the wall just beneath him.
Lockers slammed, passersby cast curious glances at her, and still others conspicuously whispered. She spotted the markers above the doorways within the hall. They were beacons. There was one printed in all caps, "OFFICE," to her left that Taylor reckoned was a suitable place to start.
Taylor quickly turned and walked into the office to the front desk. Sitting at the desk was a plump lady in her mid-50s, sorting through a stack of paperwork. Taylor stood nervously for a moment in front of the desk and noted the nameplate. Mrs. Griffin. Her large, curly hair seemed to spring out in all directions. She glanced up at Taylor over her glasses and looked back down at her work.
"Is there something I can help you with, Dear?" Mrs. Griffin asked.
"Hi, I'm Taylor... uh... Hamilton," Taylor stammered. "It's my first day."
Mrs. Griffin's bulging eyes met Taylor's once again, and Taylor immediately felt her presence was unwelcome. "Have you already registered?" Mrs. Griffin asked.
"I think so," Taylor replied with inflection. "Sandra, my adoptive mother, registered me sometime last week, I believe."
Mrs. Griffin let out a heavy sigh. "Well, let me take a look in my system here and see if I can find your information." Mrs. Griffin's short, round fingers typed on her keyboard with such force that Taylor silently wondered if keys would start flying off at any moment.
A door to the right within the office flew open, and in her periphery, Taylor could see a face poke out in her direction. "Taylor Hamilton!" the face said.
Taylor turned to see a seemingly young man's kind, excited expression. Attached to this face was a tall, slender, well-dressed body, fitting for someone in a position of authority.
"Come on into my office," he told her.
Mrs. Griffin had since stopped feverishly typing and was now facing the man's direction.
"Barb, I will take care of giving Taylor everything she needs," the man said.
Mrs. Griffin never looked back up at Taylor and instead returned to her stack of papers.
Taylor felt she should be more accustomed to being a proverbial fish out of water, but these introductions were always painfully uncomfortable, especially this early in the morning. She smiled and made her way towards the man's office. As she walked through the doorway, she saw a fellow student sitting in one of the two chairs placed in front of his desk.
"Welcome to Aurora High, Taylor," she heard him say behind her as he pushed his office door closed. Taylor stood as he passed around to his side of the desk. "We are so delighted to have you here! I'm Mark Powers, and I'm the principal," he said as he held out his hand for a handshake.
Taylor peered down at the hand that was unapologetically piercing through her personal space. Physical contact was a privilege that was earned, but she digressed. Taylor gave her hand over to him and gently shook.
"Go ahead and sit if you'd like," he said while he took his place in his own chair behind the large, ornate desk. "Sandra came by to see me when she registered you last week. I've had many of my own first days at new schools when I was young, so I thought I could reach out to you and make the transition a little less jarring," he said, chuckling.
Taylor was flattered that Mr. Powers was going out of his way to welcome her into this facet of her new life, but this made it no less overwhelming. There were new people to meet at every turn, and this was part of what made it unsettling. Taylor had learned to be an acquaintance, to forge only shallow friendships with others because at any moment, she could be walking in another direction with little warning.
As if on cue, Mr. Powers interrupted her thoughts. "That's why I believe in the importance of having a guide of sorts, a peer mentor dedicated to showing you the ropes," he told her. Taylor could now sense the student sitting next to her beaming, eager to fulfill her new role. "Taylor, this is Elizabeth."
"They call me Lizzie," Lizzie exclaimed as she held out her hand. Lizzie was slender with blonde hair and bright green eyes. Her hair was pulled up into a suspiciously stylish, messy bun.
Taylor reluctantly shook Lizzie's hand. "Hi. I'm Taylor," she managed to say. "But you probably already knew that. Sorry," Taylor said as she pulled away.
Lizzie laughed and waved her hand. "Don't worry about it, girl! We've all been there."
Mr. Powers grabbed papers from his printer and handed them to Taylor. "I have your class schedule printed up, and Lizzie will be more than happy to show you to each of your classes and get you acquainted with your instructors."
"Thanks," Taylor muttered as she took the papers from Mr. Powers.
"Oh! Before I forget..." Mr. Powers spun in his chair to the credenza behind him and pulled out a slender box. "You'll need a computer. School certainly isn't what it was in my day!" He passed the box over to Taylor.
Fancy. Taylor grabbed the box and stuffed it inside her backpack.
"As I said, we're very excited that you're here with us, and don't hesitate to reach out to me if you run into any snags." Mr. Powers flashed another toothy smile at Taylor as she and Lizzie got up from their seats and walked out of his office.
Taylor heard the bell tone throughout the school as she and Lizzie entered the hallway. Students who had casually been socializing with others began hastily walking towards their first class of the day. Lockers slammed, backpacks were zipped, and textbooks were heaved.
As first-day-of-semester chaos unfolded around Taylor, Lizzie was perfectly calm. "Don't worry about being rushed today," Lizzie said, still smiling at Taylor. "It's always a bit of a zoo around here at the beginning of the school year, but nobody here expects you to be in a hurry."
Taylor offered Lizzie a nervous smile.
"Can I take a look at your schedule?"
"Sure." Taylor handed Lizzie her schedule, and Lizzie began to walk down the hallway as she looked down, scanning it. Taylor followed her.
"Looks like we have a few classes together!" Lizzie burst out, turning back to Taylor.
Taylor, alarmed by the sudden elation, looked at Lizzie's face. She studied it. Lizzie's mouth was still open, her teeth a sparkling white. Any evidence of eyelids had vanished as Lizzie's eyes protruded from their sockets. Her brows had slid up her forehead no less than an inch, her forehead now wrinkled by the change in facial landscape.
"Awesome!" Taylor replied with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. She wasn't yet certain whether this was a good thing or not.
"OK, so our first class is together, and that is World History with Mr. Kline in Room 32, which is just down here to our right," Lizzie announced, pointing. She and Taylor walked a short length and came to one of the many large, solid gray doors scattered throughout the halls.
Taylor looked above the door to see the marker that read "32." To the right of the doorway, there was a small plaque that showed the instructor's name, "Henry Kline." By the time they reached the door, there were only a handful of stragglers within the hall. Most students had already arrived to their classrooms.
Taylor got a brief view of her classmates through the small, vertical window as Lizzie reached for the doorknob. The door creaked open as Lizzie pulled, and Taylor could feel herself hold her breath. She moved in through the door and walked towards the front of the classroom, Lizzie joining her.
"Good morning, Lizzie. Who do we have here?" Mr. Kline asked, offering a smile to both Lizzie and Taylor. Mr. Kline's expression was warm.
"Morning, Mr. Kline! This is Taylor Hamilton. She is our new student here," Lizzie replied, motioning towards Taylor.
"It's a pleasure to have you, Taylor. There should be a couple of seats available for you girls," Mr. Kline said.
Taylor was a spectacle. She could feel several pairs of eyes following her. She guessed that this is the sort of reception one could expect being the newcomer in a small North Carolina town.
Taylor recalled the day she first arrived into town at the beginning of the summer. She had been riding in the passenger side of Sandra's large SUV and surveying the scenery from the window for most of the trip. She had seen the excessively large brick sign welcoming their arrival into Aurora. Taylor made a mental note of the population—7,021. Woah.
Lizzie found a desk at the front of one of the middle rows. Taylor took the seat directly behind Lizzie and sat down. She placed her backpack next to her seat and unzipped it to grab a small notebook and a pencil. As she carefully laid the notebook on her desk, Lizzie turned around in her seat and gave her one last quick smile and a thumbs-up.
The bell toned to signal the end of Taylor's third period English class. As Taylor was grabbing her things and shoving them into her rapidly growing backpack, her trusty tour guide, Lizzie, came sauntering into the room.
"Hope you're hungry!" Lizzie said fervently. "I'll take you over to the lunch room, and you can come sit with us, if you'd like."
Most of the butterflies fluttering in Taylor's stomach were quickly being replaced by grumbles. "Thanks. I would love that," Taylor replied. She wasn't sure what to expect, but it was refreshing to already have a place to sit in the lunchroom where school society and its many student factions would be on full display.
The cafeteria was situated at the back of the school. Taylor and Lizzie passed through a set of metal double doors with large windows. Once inside, Taylor examined the room. There was already a long line forming at the lunch buffet, and Taylor watched as students at the front of the line took their trays of food and retreated to one of the many round tables within the room.
Taylor stood beside Lizzie as they made their way along the lunch line, which was brimming with an array of options. Taylor picked up a wrapped corndog from the pan and placed it onto her drab, off-white tray, along with a cup of mixed fruit.
Once she had paid for her lunch, Taylor followed Lizzie over to one of the round tables in the room. Four of the eight chairs were already occupied by some of Lizzie's friends. Lizzie sat her tray down at one of the empty chairs and Taylor sat hers at the chair to the left of her. If there was anyone that she wanted to sit next to, it was the girl that made her feel the most comfortably uncomfortable.
"Hey, guys! This is Taylor. She's the new girl here," Lizzie told them, motioning at Taylor.
Taylor noted that anytime Lizzie was in the room, she didn't have to make her own introduction. It was a latent benefit of being Lizzie's shadow for the day.
"Taylor, this is Grant, Rhiannon, Kelsey, and Beth," Lizzie said, as she pointed with her outstretched hand from left to right. All four of them gave a collective wave to Taylor, a couple of them appearing just as unsettled as Taylor about being in the presence of a new person.
"So, Taylor, tell us about yourself," Grant piped up.
Rhiannon looked over at him with an expression of disapproval and playfully slapped him on his arm. "Dude! Don't put her on the spot like that," Rhiannon scolded him.
"Ow! And why do you call me dude? Taylor, would you call your boyfriend 'Dude'?" Grant asked, amused.
"Umm..." Taylor said sheepishly.
"I'm sure she would if her boyfriend was being an inconsiderate ass!" Rhiannon fired back at Grant.
"Don't mind them. They're basically a married couple. But really, how has your day been so far, Taylor? Absolutely loathe this place yet?" Beth asked her.
"No, not at all. Everyone's really nice," Taylor replied truthfully.
"Psssh! You say that now," Kelsey chimed in.
"Kelsey, it's only the first day! Not passing the vibe check. Beth, you're just as bad," Lizzie said as she pulled her phone from her bag.
"I'm sorry, Liz, but even on the first day, this place is a real buzzkill," Kelsey said, with Beth nodding next to her as another student approached their table.
"Just had history with Mr. Kline. What a friggin' fascist, man," a student said as his tray hit the table.
"Taylor, this is the oh-so-delightful Matthew," Lizzie said, not skipping a beat as she glanced up from her phone.
Matthew looked at Lizzie for a moment, confused, and his eyes finally met Taylor's.
"Hi," Taylor said, her adrenaline reaching an unhealthy level. How many are there?
"Heyyy... a new girl, huh? Welcome to Blaurora!" Matthew said as he pulled the seat from the table and sat down.
"Thanks. I guess," Taylor said, her eyes shifting down to her tray.
Everyone at the table laughed.
"It's true, though, right?" Matthew defended, grabbing his fork and gazing longingly at his lunch.
"What's true?" said another student who reached the final chair at the table.
Taylor brought her eyes back up to see a girl with an inquisitive expression. She oozed confidence. She had dark brown, almost black, hair that landed somewhere past her shoulders. Donning a cropped red blouse with a pair of tight, black leggings, she was captivating. The girl's blue eyes met Taylor's gaze and offered her a friendly smile.
"Taylor, this is Adrienne..." she barely heard Lizzie say.