(}--|January the first day of school|--{)
NORA
Nora woke up long before her alarm was set. School started at 8:30 and ended at 3:00, which was a shorter schedule than Nora was used to. She was looking forward to the change, and looking forward to her classes.
When her alarm finally beeped at 6:45, Nora popped upright and hit the off button. She slid her legs out of bed and dressed in blue jean shorts and a white shirt with a picture of a cat staring up at her.
She put her hair in twin french braids and then added a light touch of mascara, and a bit of blush to her face, before scampering out of the hallway.
Mouse was leaning against the counter on his phone, already dressed for the day in board shorts, a white top with sleeveless side slits, and his signature backwards hat. He looked up when Nora arrived, and grinned at her.
"Hi there," Nora said with a small smile.
"I made you breakfast for your first day," Mouse slid a plate over to her and she thanked him, "Are you nervous?"
Nora nodded ever so slightly. Sure, she was nervous. She was going to a whole new school in an entirely different country, and the education in Australia was said to be so much better than the education in America that Nora was nervous she would be behind the rest of her classmates.
But most of all, she was nervous because her starting school sort of also started a timer. A timer that would end at zero days left in the country she'd already fallen deep in love with. And when it ended, she would have to go home again and bounce from foster home to foster home until she was eighteen years of age, and therefore allowed to lead her own life. Most likely, she would never be able to get back to Australia again.
Nora ate her breakfast in silence beside Mouse, who seemed to understand that she was nervous, albeit he wasn't entirely clear on why, and thankfully he let her be silent.
In rapid time, Nora was picking up her plate and taking it to the dishwasher. She rinsed it off in the sink and then loaded it and closed the lid of the appliance. The clock read 7:25.
Nora walked back to her room and opened her door. She slipped inside and found the new backpack she'd gotten for herself at the back of her closet. It was bright teal, and much larger than her previous one. Talia had already explained to Nora that she should come home packed with loads of homework every day.
Nora slipped the backpack over her shoulders, grateful for having packed it the night before. It didn't feel too heavy, despite the ridiculous amount of notebooks, folders, and writing utensils that she had packed. She'd also made three or four copies of her schedule, which she'd received the night before, and then spent at least an hour color coding the school map she'd also been given. She was well prepared.
Nora clipped the little buckle that would hold her straps together and walked out of her room, but not before grabbing the worn out pair of blue converse that she'd used since she was ten. She slid them on her feet and tied them by the door, aware of Mouse's eyes on her but too lost in her thoughts to acknowledge him.
"Okay, I'm going," Nora said, standing up.
"Best of luck," Mouse offered her a kind smile, which grew wider when she returned a small one of her own.
Nora turned and walked out of the front door, closing it quietly behind her. She checked her pockets for her phone, keys, and a couple bucks of cash just in case, and then hurried down the hall and out the lobby doors. She had a twenty five minute walk to the school, which she didn't mind since she loved walking.
--
Thirty five minutes, two wrong turns, and a whole lot of stress later, Nora found herself staring at the white brick building of New South Wales High.
Kids were already filtering in through the doors, the girls mostly dressed in crop tops and short shorts, and the guys with their basketball shorts sliding down as they slouched in their tank tops. It was a typical first day of school appearance.
Nora took a deep breath and released it in a heavy sigh, before joining the flood of students as they worked their way inside.
Since she was part of a foreign exchange program that had already sent the students their schedules and maps, Nora didn't need to stop by the office. Instead, she trickled in with everybody else and went to her locker, number 168.
Nora put in her pass code and opened the metal door, wincing when the hinges creaked. She stuffed her bag inside and then checked her schedule for what she would need. Each class period was the same amount of time as America's; 45 minutes, and she had a 2 minute break in between classes.
First class was mathematics, and then there was English I, Spanish, cultural studies, lunch, choir, and two periods of P.E. Nora had also already chosen the sports she wanted to do. Swim team would start the next morning, and cheer leading would start after school on the second day of school as well.
"What's your first class?" A voice beside Nora made her jump, and she whirled around to find a boy around her age staring at her.
"Uh, maths. You?" Nora responded.
"Ha! You talk funny. I have math, too. My name's Keitan," The boy introduced himself.
"I'm Nora," Nora responded.
"Nice to meet you. Wanna walk to class together? You look lost," Keitan told her with an infectious grin.
Nora laughed at him and then nodded, "I would like that a lot, thanks, Keitan."
"We're gonna be good friends, I can already tell," Keitan turned and led the way through the crowd of students.
The two reached their math class just before the bell rang. Keitan opened the door for Nora, and she grinned thankfully at him as she walked inside.
"Nice of you two to join us," A voice sounded at the front of the room right as the bell rang.
Nora whirled around, staring apologetically at the young guy in front of her. It took her a moment to realize that he was the teacher, since he didn't look a day over some of the year twelve's that she'd spotted.
"Keitan, I expected more of you, especially on your first day. And you," The teacher jabbed a finger at Nora and she jumped, "You don't look familiar to me at all. What's your name?"
Nora blinked, and then said, "I'm Nora, uh, sir."
The teacher laughed, "Mr. Hayler. It's nice to meet you, Eleanora."
Nora blushed. It had been a long time since anyone had called her by her full name. Even her profile on the foreign exchange page had her nickname instead of her real name because it was so strange for her to be called Eleanora.
"Just Nora, Mr. Hayler, please," She told him.
He nodded, "Well, Nora, take a seat and we'll start the lesson."
--
It was lunchtime when Nora finally met the rest of Keitan's 'gang'. Adam and Xander were two boys, as nice as Keitan but both drastically different in personalities. While Adam was more of a relaxed, possibly slightly high surfer dude, Xander was a championship swimmer with a fiery attitude and a spunky sense of humor that made Nora spend the whole lunch period in tears of laughter.
Lunch itself wasn't even that bad. A Caesar salad with chicken, cherry tomatoes, and ranch. Nora enjoyed it immensely, especially since it was so vastly different than the crappy fried food that American schools served for lunch.
Nora learned that Adam was head of the surfing team, and Xander was co-head of the swim team with Keitan. All three of them competed in both water sports, and encouraged Nora to try out as well. Nora agreed on the swim team, but was hesitant for the surfing team. She eventually, after much coaxing from Adam, agreed to try out for the surfing team if he taught her his tricks.
After lunch, Nora thought she would be separated again from the guys, but instead, Adam just asked, "Are you in choir?"
Nora nodded, "Yeah," She said.
"So are the rest of us!" Keitan pumped his fist into the air in excitement, which caused Nora to giggle while Adam and Xander rolled their eyes.
"Come on, it's across campus, so we need to hurry," Adam took the lead, his long legs striding across the ground at a remarkable speed. Nora was glad she was in good shape, since she had to jog to keep up with him.
The group of four left the first building and headed toward one at the back that Nora hadn't spotted before. It had the same plain, white bricks and ugly blue window trim as the first one, but it was drastically smaller.
"This is the music department. There's choir, band, musical, play, and speech in here," Adam explained over his shoulder as Nora hurried along beside him and the others.
Xander pointed, "P.E. has it's own separate building, too, since we have a huge lap swimming pool and stuff. We spend the beginning and end of the year learning to swim and then we're basically allowed to do our own thing, depending on the sport we associate most with. The kids that don't have sports usually just walk laps or something."
"Cool," Nora said. And it did sound cool. She knew immediately that she would probably spend most of her time swimming.
Adam pushed open the doors of the fine arts building and Nora was blasted with ice cold air conditioning. That wasn't surprising, seeing as how most people got hot when they performed something.
The choir room was a giant space with about fifty kids milling around. Another guy teacher stood at the front of the class, drawing something on the smart board. Every classroom had one of those, which Nora was surprised at. In America, she hadn't seen more than one of those things, and it had been a very old version.
"Everyone settle down, settle down!" The man at the front of the room finished drawing whatever he was doing on his smart board and turned around, waving his hands in the air at the students.
Slowly, the murmurs from the kids ceased to exist and everyone stood in their places, staring at him.
"Okay, as most of you should know, I'm Mr. Guntley, and I'm the choir teacher. Now, we have a new student this year, right? Eleanora Kane, are you in this room?"
"Right here, and it's just Nora," Nora called. She hadn't felt like her voice was so soft until that moment, when she realized that the sound nearly died in the room.
Still, Mr. Guntley seemed to hear her. He whirled around to face her and flashed a pearly white smile in her direction. "Well, just Nora," He said, "It's a pleasure to meet you. You're a foreign exchange student, correct? Mind telling the class a bit about yourself, where you're from and what's different compared to Australia?"
"Uh, sure," Nora realized in that moment that every eye in the class was on her. She swallowed uncomfortably, and said, "I'm from Iowa, but I lived in Nebraska, too. They're states in America, in the Midwest. It's different there because, uh, well, we have cornfields instead of ocean," There was a laugh from the class, before she continued, "And football is actually football, instead of soccer, and we drive on the other side of the road, which is really hard to get used to."
"Right then. We're all very excited for you to be here, Nora, and I hope to make you feel welcome. So, do you have any idea what part of voice you sing?"
"Uh, I sort of bounced around a lot," Nora shrugged at Mr. Guntley.
He nodded at her, "Okay. How low can you go?"
"Uh, into the bass clef," She sure was saying 'uh' a lot.
"Right then, we'll put you as an alto 2, because we only have one other one and we're in desperate need, alright?"
"Sounds good to me," Nora walked over to a section of chairs where Mr. Guntley pointed.
Students opened their mouths to start talking again, but Mr. Guntley clapped his hands and cut them off, "Basses, tenors, altos, sopranos," He pointed out the different sections where people were supposed to stand, "Lower divisions go to the-your right, my left-side of the section, and higher divisions on the other side."
People began to move instantly. Nora found herself suddenly standing next to another girl, dressed in jean shorts and a cropped pink top. She looked Nora up and down with disgust, "So, new girl," She said, "Just to warn you, this is my spot and if you try to outshine me, then I will make you pay, alright?"
"We'll be singing Take Me to the Water by Rollo Dilworth," Mr. Guntley announced, "As well as The Hanging Tree by Suzanne Collins and Mark Brymer, and Never Enough from The Greatest Showman. The theme is all about power and respect," Mr. Guntley said before Nora could reply to the girl.
Nora and the other students nodded. They began to talk amongst themselves when he turned to grab the music, and Nora glanced at the fellow singer beside her, although it would be a bit of a stretch to call her a fellow singer.
"I'm not gonna cause any problems for you," Nora whispered quietly. She didn't want to confront the girl. Already, she was probably threatened by Nora's presence, and Nora felt bad for invading her safe space. The place where the girl could shine.
Nora was handed the pages of music she needed by Xander, who grinned down at her, "Excited?" He asked.
Nora nodded, "Can't wait!"
Xander moved on, and Nora heard a soft voice beside her whisper, "You already have."
She turned in her seat to find the other alto 2 glaring daggers at her.