"...Did you sleep okay?" Tristan asked, We were in his car, him in the front seat and me in the back. I nodded, watching the trees shoot by. "I thought we broke that silence barrier last night," Tristan said, I sensed him smile. I laughed a little.
"Yes, I did." I replied.
"That's good," We lapsed into silence, both lost in our own thoughts. I wasn't looking forward to school, being the new kid again, at least this time I would have nice clothes, and my hair was clean and shiny, falling in curls around my shoulders. The clothes had been donated from some of Tristan's female friends, there had been shoes as well, but I kept my own, a pair of white slip-ons, dirtied with age, and worn with time. They had belonged to Sarah, and I kept them with all the power I had. They were still a little damp this morning after last night's rain storm, but I took them anyway.
I wore a black crocheted beanie that I got for Christmas, Sarah had made it herself, and I thought it would prove useful in losing attention today at LaPush Reserve School, it had less than 250 students, my past school had almost 750! All eyes were probably going to be on me, whether I wore a beanie or not. Tristan pulled up his car in front of a modest building, it's stairs covered with students.
"Do you need me to come inside?" he asked when I got out of the car, I turned to face his open window.
"No, I'll manage." I replied
"Okay," he began to roll up the window. "Oh," I turned back to face him. "I'm working late today, so Paul will take you home," he drove off before I could tell him not to bother. There wasn't anything to hate about Paul, there just wasn't anything to like about him. I sighed and walked up the steps to the building.
I found the office relatively easily and went up to the only occupied desk. A woman sat behind and gestured so that I should come up to her.
"How may I help you?" she asked sweetly.
"My name is Neveah, I, uh," I broke eye contact, she had been staring too intently at my eyes, "need my schedule please,"
"Of course," she pulled out a couple of papers from her desk, a map of the school and my schedule. "Your first class is with Mr Evans in the next building, I'll send you a student advisor later to pick you up." she smiled, "have a nice day, Neveah."
I walked down the school corridor, keeping my head bent down, not wanting to draw unwanted attention, I quickly skimmed the map, memorised the route, and stuffed it into my pocket. The school was more like a series of two storey blocks arranged to make a semi-circle. I found my first class, maths with Mr Evans, It was a small square classroom with those desks that came with chairs. Most of them were already filled when I arrived, all eyes burned on me as I gave Mr Evans my slip of paper and he directed me to sit next to a window seat. At least there wouldn't be a huge introduction.
Things seemed to be going fine, they were moving on to a new unit so I wouldn't have to catch up, that was good. I took clean notes, ignoring every stare burning on my back, and created scenarios in my head in the case that Paul didn't come to pick me up. The rest of class was pretty boring, considering that Mr Evans kept drawling on and on about the same stupid fact, I was relieved when the bell rang for the end of Period One.
As I got up to stuff my books into my bag, A guy walked up to me, he had short dark hair, copper skin and a dimple on the side of his cheek. He smiled at me as I got up.
"You're Tristan's niece aren't you?" he asked, he was pretty cute.
"Yeah, I am," I slung my backpack onto my shoulders, and started to walk out of the classroom, he kept in step with me outside, holding the door and then trotting to keep up.
"Do you need help to get to your next class?" he asked helpfully.
"Um, yeah, some help would be nice." I smiled back at him, properly looking up for the first time. I watched as his eyes flickered back and forth, looking at my eyes.
"Awesome," he whispered breathlessly, I smiled, a warm blush brushing across my face.
Just then, a girl with strawberry blond hair, wearing furry leather boots, jeans and a knitted baby blue sweater on top came walking up to us.
"You must be Neveah Sanchez," she smiled at me, her piercing blue eyes taking me in. "My name is Jill, I'll be your student guide for the first couple of days until you get used to this place," she glanced at Dimple-Guy and slipped her hand through the crook of my arm. "I'll bring you to advisory first."
"Actually," Seth spoke up and she turned to face him, "I was planning on taking Neveah to advisory," He looked at me, "Right, Neveah?" Before I could reply, Jill cut in.
"It's my job to take her to her classes, that's why I was assigned," she turned around "come on Neveah, let's go, we'll be late," she set off walking down the hall with her arm slung over my shoulder. I turned to look apologetically at Dimple-Guy, but he was already gone.
it was then that I realized I never asked what his name was. Oh well, I thought to myself, I can ask him next time. I smiled hopefully to myself about the idea of "next time"
The rest of the day went smoothly, Jill was always there at the end of my class to bring me to the next period, sometimes a person would come up to me in class and introduce themselves. During lunch, I sat with Jill and her friends, three other girls and four guys, I could barely tell who was who. By the end of the day, I was fairly exhausted, It was a relief when the last bell rang, although I knew where it was, Jill insisted on walking me outside to the pick up area.
"So there's this party next Tuesday 6 pm at my house, do you want to come?" she asked.
"Uh, let me check with Trista-, my uncle first," I replied, she hugged me tightly.
"Great! I'll tell you all the details tomorrow." she kissed me on the cheek and trotted down the stairs into a blue car that was waiting patiently in front of the school. A couple of girls watched me with slightly envious looks, I got the feeling that Jill was popular. She was nice and all, just a little touchy. I sat down on the steps and waited patiently for Paul.
Many people took school buses, several had their parents pick them up, and some walked. I watched, nobody was picked up by a motorbike, only cars or buses.
"Neveah?" I turned to see Dimple-Guy standing next to me, his backpack slung over only one shoulder. He sat next to me. "You left really quickly,"
"Sorry... I didn't catch your name, what was it?" I asked, he smiled, stretching his legs across the stairs.
"I'm Seth," he introduced
"Oh," a memory clicked in my head, "hey, I think I might have seen you at LaPush beach last night,"
"Yeah, I remember you too," he blushed pink, "Sorry, I hope that didn't sound stalkerish, I just remember." I smiled.
"No it sounded fine," we sat there in silence for a bit, "who are you waiting for?"
"Oh my sister, Leah, she's picking me up, you?"
"My cousin, Paul,"
"Paul Lahote?" Seth asked, scrunching up his nose, "He's hot," I sat still, wondering if Seth was attracted to Paul. "Not in that way," Seth laughed at my expression, "Like his skin, it's burning, like a fever. I shook his hand once, I'm not kidding Neveah, it hurt!"
A loud honk startled us both as a small olive green car pulled up in front of the school building.
"That's Leah, I better go. See you tomorrow Neveah!" he trotted down the stairs and slid into the car, waving at me cheerfully before the car drove off. I waited a while longer, it was really getting late now, almost half an hour had gone by since school ended, and then I heard it, the loud growl of a motor engine. A motorbike came speeding through, twisting and turning through the car park before skidding to a stop in front of the school.
"Neveah!" Paul hollered my name, I ran down the steps to him, he tossed me a helmet.
"What took so long?" I asked,
"I had some things to do... just get your helmet on and get on the bike." he ordered brushing me off.
"Not until yo-"
"Neveah!" He yelled, I jumped in shock, "Get your helmet on. And get. On. the. Bike." He growled menacingly. I clipped my helmet on quickly and mounted his bike. "Was that so hard?" he asked sarcastically. "Put your hands around my waist." I grabbed his waist, his skin was burning hot, even through his t-shirt. He grimaced, but not from pain, almost as if he was thinking of something unpleasant. The motorbike suddenly roared to life and we were off, I clung to him harder, burying my face into his shoulder to hide myself from the wind blowing into my face. I'd never felt so scared as I did right then.
Trees, cars, shot by us at such fast speeds that they were practically invisible, and the sound of the air speeding by us was so loud that I could barely hear anything, It was cold too, with the wind entering my jacket and swirling around my bare legs, I gripped tighter, my nails digging into Paul's skin, trying to warm up as much as possible from his unusual burning skin.
I arrived back at Tristan's house in one piece, to my relief, but much to my dismay, Paul was there the next day, and the next, and the next. Each day was the same, he would come to pick me up half an hour late, toss me my helmet and indicated with a nod of his head that I should get on. He'd drive at a super fast speed, while I clung on for my life as he swerved, he'd drop me off without a word, I'd return my helmet and it would all repeat the next day after school.
I started to get used to school as well, Seth helped me get to my classrooms the first week, until I understood where to go, but even so, he still walked me from maths and to maths. At lunch, I sat with Jill's group, gradually, I got to know them. They were all okay, but nothing compared to my old friends. Back home, we could talk about anything, hang out any time we wanted to and go over to eachothers' houses. Here it was just gossip, gossip, gossip.
Overall the table wasn't bad, they were pretty nice to me, but asked me a lot of questions, I tried to be vague with the personal ones, saying that I came to live here because my mum didn't have time to take care of me right now, I never specified, but I didn't exactly lied.
There were days when I would watch Seth's group longingly, they had a tiny table, with just three or four people, but their laughter and their smiles showed that they were having genuine fun. Our table mostly sat idly in the center of the cafeteria eating our food and having plain talk or gossip that didn't make much sense. I always looked forward to maths, at least there was someone that understood, and that I could talk to.