We pulled up to Willow Wood Private School and the first thing I thought was, oh shit. I hadn't really had nerves before but looking at this building before me gave me enough nerves to last a lifetime.
Luckily You Belong With Me was playing, giving me the confidence I needed. It wasn't too hard to convince Cooper to play Taylor since the broken ankle was a great excuse.
"Pretty cool huh?"
"Um, that's not what I was gonna say but sure." I said, swallowing hard. I take an extra few seconds to breathe and try to calm my nerves.
"Hey. you okay?" Ben asked from the front turning back to look at me.
"Mhm. I'm fine." I said, trying to fake a convincing smile. He raised his eyebrow like he knew I was lying.
"You gotta get out, babes. You got one minute until the bell." Cooper said. He stepped out of the driver side door to open the trunk. He walked around to my door and handed me my crutches. "You're going to do a great Amelie. If you need me to come get you at any point in the day don't be afraid to call ok?" He said helping me out of the car.
"Hey, what about me? Can I come home too?" Ben whined. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not but it hurt my heart.
"Ha, who's the baby now?" Cooper laughed. I chuckled trying to keep my mood light.
"Bennnn!!!" A female voice laughed as she sprinted over and wrapped Ben up in a hug. Ben hugged her back and kissed her on the top of her head. I'm guessing she was his girlfriend and they were really cute. Once they pulled back she smiled widely at me.
"Is this Amelie?" She asked him. Ben nodded. Smiling sweetly
"Hi I'm Brynn, nice to meet you." She walked over to where I was standing with my crutches next to Cooper's tesla.
"Hi," I said, smiling back at her. Brynn seemed genuinely really sweet and she was so gorgeous, probably one of the prettiest girls I've ever seen. She had gorgeous shiny, light brown hair that was pulled back into a loose ponytail. She had beautiful sea glass green eyes that reflected the sun in the most incredible way. I really hoped I wasn't staring. I kinda felt ugly next to her, but I could see why Ben liked her. I didn't know her but she gave off this beautiful energy.
BRINGG
"There's the bell I gotta go to class! It was nice to meet you Amelie!" Brynn called as she dashed away. She pecked Ben on her way past, and as quickly as she had come, she was gone.
"Ok Millie, we better get going. Bye Coop," Ben told his older brother as he led me towards the school in front of me. Here goes nothing.
"Good luck Amelie, I would say break a leg, but you've somehow already managed that!" Cooper laughed as he hopped back into the car.
"Not funny." I mumbled. Ben snorted once Cooper had driven away.
"Your girlfriend seems nice," I said as we approached the school. I was trying to start a conversation to distract myself.
"Yeah she's amazing, she's been really excited to meet you."
"She's sooo pretty." I stated, then I realized that I'd said that out loud. She 's probably gonna think I'm totally weird.
"She is but she has an amazing personality too." Ben smiled.
Ben walked next to me to the front of the building. It looked like a supersized cottage in the woods. It was all brick with flower boxes on every window. It looked welcoming but I could just tell that the teachers were going to be strict and say things like, pupils and bookbags.
It wasn't a huge school but walking through the double doors with a patterned window above, it felt big. There were what felt like hundreds of people walking through the halls. Some were at their lockers getting books, others were standing around talking about nonsense things, like the last lacrosse game or what they did over the summer. Ben waved and said hi to a few people walking through the halls. Of course he was popular. I rolled my eyes at myself.
People made eye contact with me and whispered. I was tempted to say something until I realized they were probably looking at my cast and the fact that I was crippled.
Halfway down the hall we stop at Ben's locker to get his notebook for homeroom. I look around to get acquainted with what the school looked like, and also so I wouldn't get lost like I did at the house. The hall was pretty dark but the academia style windows brought in a lot of natural light. I looked up towards the more central part of the school when someone passes who catches my eye. He's tall and handsome in a really cute way. His blonde hair looks like he had been running his hands through it for his whole life. He meets my gaze and the corner of his mouth turns up. He walks past and my gaze follows his back.
"Ohhh, Who ya lookin at?" Ben jokes. I blush and shove him into his locker. He laughs. "I was kidding, but obviously you were looking at somebody." He looks down the hall to where the hot guy just went. He makes a big show of peering over peoples heads to get a better look.
"Ben. stop, please." I could feel my face burning, but Ben just laughed. I whacked him in the leg with my crutches. He made an ow sound but then decided it wasn't worth the fight.
Good choice I'd say.
"Come on, let's get you to your homeroom."
I entered my homeroom just in time before the second bell. I looked around the room for an empty seat and I found one near the back of the class.
"Can I sit here please?" I asked the shy looking girl with auburn hair.
"Yeah go ahead." She moved her books off the desk and I took a seat beside her, resting my crutches on the side of the desk.
"I'm Amelie, by the way." I smiled at her after I'd set down my backpack.
She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and smiled, "I'm Marigold, are you new here?" If I had to say that name suits her perfectly. Before I could answer the teacher entered and everyone went silent. So I just nodded instead.
"Good morning students. As some of you may know, if you've had a sibling in my class, my name is Mr. Graves, I will be your homeroom teacher for the year. This class will be where you come first thing every morning for attendance and then you will go to your various classes throughout the day. I have each of your schedules at the front that you may come get on your way out. I'm just going to run through a quick attendance and then we'll talk a bit about Willow Wood and the code of conduct, just some basic first day stuff."
Mr. Graves seemed like a nice guy but he was pretty much the most basic old white guy you could think of. His hairline was receding and his teeth were stained from black coffee and red wine.
I'm not a creep, I promise.
"Okay, Jessica Adams?" He read the first name from the attendance. A reply came from the front of the class. I zoned out completely until I heard my name.
"Amelie Harper?"
"Here," I replied. He said a couple more names and I tried to put names to their faces so I wasn't completely out of the loop when I heard people talking.
"Harry Walker?"
"I'm here." A blonde boy with a British accent answers. As soon as he answers I realize that it's the same boy from the hall. I blush and Marigold does a double take.
"Wait, do you like that guy?" she whispered to me. I looked at her like she was crazy but I felt my face light up like a stop light.
"What? No! Do you know him?" it was the most unconvincing no in the world and I mentally hit myself for asking if she knew him. She laughs revealing cute dimples on her cheeks.
"No I don't know him, I think he's the new kid from England that my brother was talking about. He joined the lacrosse team last week. Apparently he's really good at it. I mean they won their first game so that's good." I appreciated that she was giving me all the information that she knew about him, Harry I guess his name was.
I nodded trying to hold back my smile. We sit in silence for a few minutes while Mr. Graves goes over the code of conduct. When he makes it to the part about smoking and vaping Marigold leans over to whisper in my ear.
"I heard that new kids are soulmates." she whispered, smiling at me. I gave her a look. For a seemingly shy girl she sure had a lot of nerve. Even though I didn't know Marigold I could tell that we were going to be really good friends.
I picked up my schedule and it turned out that me and Marigold had math together, first period, so as soon as the bell rang we went to find it together. We walked into the crowded halls and tried to look for the stairs. Since this school was grades 8-12 Marigold was new here as well so we had no clue where we were going.
When we finally made it to the stairs a voice called my name. I turned around to find Noah walking towards us.
"Can I see your schedule?" He asked randomly once he'd caught us up at the bottom of the staircase.
I raised my eyebrow at him, indicating why.
"Because I want to see if you have good teachers of course!" Noah rolled his eyes.
I groaned and handed him my schedule.
Marigold looked at me quizzically, mouthing something that I couldn't understand.
"Hmm, not bad, she's okay, oh god you have Mrs Lyons for English, good luck with that, she is a Lion!" He grinned, whispering the last part.
"How would you know anyways?"
"Because I had her in 8th, she hated Blake." I mean he kinda made it easy for everyone to hate him, not gonna lie.
"Hmmm, I honestly don't blame her though," I mumbled, under my breath. Noah smirked at something on the paper.
"Why are you over here? your Math is on the other side of the building."
Are you kidding me? Why! my leg is sore and so are my arms from these stupid crutches!
"And where is that?" Marigold asked quizzically.
He let out a heavy sigh. "8th graders, follow me."
Noah took the lead and Marigold stayed back with me because these crutches were making me slow.
"How do you know Noah?" She whisper hissed to me.
"Um, because he's my step brother." I replied. Her mouth made an o shape. "How do you know him?" I mocked.
"I don't personally, I just know him and his- well your step brothers are pretty popular." Marigold corrected herself. I kinda guessed that though by all the girls' eyes that followed Noah as he showed us the way.
My arms were really aching now and so was my foot. I stopped for a sec to shake them out and take a miniature break. I let out a sigh.
"You okay?" Marigold asked as she stopped at my side. "What even happened to your foot I meant to ask."
I quickly filled her in, leaving out the embarrassing parts.
"That sucks, remind me to sign your cast once we get to math though!"
I nodded. Someone really wanted to sign my cast? That came as a shock, I don't even know why. It felt nice though. Maybe I was going to be happy here.
"Why are you guys taking so long?, you're going to be late-" Noah called back and then he probably remembered I had a broken ankle. He walked back over to us.
"You okay? Does it hurt?" Noah asked, putting a hand on my shoulder sounding concerned. I appreciated it but the attention we'd gained made me shrink.
"No, it's fine." I say trying to brush the pain away. I hadn't had my pain medicine since the night before so my ankle was hurting a lot more than it had this morning.
The process of healing, I hate how it still feels so raw.
"Ok, liar hop on my back." Noah said, turning around so his back was to me. I knew he wasn't going to let it go so Marigold held my crutches and I hopped on Noah's back.
Just 2 brothers too go then I'd have a piggy back from them all!, I thought sarcastically as I rolled my eyes to myself. We walked all the way until the end of the hall and then up the stairs.
"How are you so strong?" I asked surprised, once we got up the last step.
"I'm a football player Amelie, and you don't weigh a ton anyways" Noah laughed.
We reached outside of my math classroom 209. I tried to remember where to go for Wednesday, since that was the next time I had math.
I was getting ready for Noah to put me down outside the door but he walked me into the class, closely followed by Marigold who was silently giggling at my embarrassment.
Once I was seated-on the desk for now, the teacher came up to us.
Oh fuck was I late.
"Hi Noah, and nice to meet you guys I'm Miss Honey, what are your names?"
"Like from Matilda?" I didn't know I said it out loud until the class started laughing and Noah ran a hand down his face in amusement. I thought she was going to yell at me but she just laughed. Thank god she was nice.
"Marigold," Marigold said from beside me, and she was actually sitting on a chair. I raised my eyebrow at her in confusion until I remembered Miss Honey had asked for our names, whoops.
"This is my step sister Amelie," Noah introduced me. I could introduce myself geez Noah. But he was nice enough to carry me up the stairs so I wasn't complaining, I just smiled.
She checked off our names on her clipboard. Huh oldschool.
"Are you gonna be good or do you need pain killers?" Noah asked, switching his attention back to me.
"Ehhh I should be good I think." I said, swinging my other leg back and forth, sitting on the desk, to distract me.
"I guess I'll go get some from the nurses office then." Noah sighed, turning to leave.
"What? I just said I was good, are you deaf??" I called.
"Yeah but whenever you say that you usually mean the opposite, I'm not dumb, I know it's hurting you,"
Damn I feel called out.
"I'll be back in like 5 minutes." Noah said, mainly to Miss Honey, and then he was gone.
"He's a good kid, they all are, you're lucky to have him to care for you." Miss Honey smiled a warm smile. I nodded. I was lucky I knew that. I had only lived with them for a few days, and knew them since the beginning of the summer and they'd been welcoming - besides Blake. But he didn't count.
"Don't skip too much of your next class." She called after Noah.
Miss Honey told me that I could stay on the desk for now since we were at the back of class and I wouldn't be blocking anyone. She was super nice.
Once Noah came back in trying not to disrupt the class which was impossible because everyone was curious, he gave me my pain killers and left. I felt a bit better and could actually hop off the desk to sit into my chair.
"Can I sign your cast now?" Marigold whispered out of the blue as she fished through her pencil case for a sharpie.
"Sure," I said as I lifted my leg and put it on her lap. I wasn't watching what she wrote because I was listening to Miss Honey explaining Polynomials. There were way too many rules to follow for my liking but I tried my best to pay attention.
I looked back at my cast once Marigold had finished to see what she had written.
Get well soon Millie! I'm glad we became friends today:)
Love Goldie ♡
I smiled. I'm glad we've become friends too.
~~~~~~~~
what do u think of this one?
whos ur fav character so far?
thanks sm for reading and tysm for 3.5k reads!! thats insane
love eves & izzy xoxo