I woke up to the buzzing of my alarm clock telling me to get ready for school. I stayed up too late texting with Derek. I groggily got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to take a quick shower.
When I was finished, I went to my room and put on a pink polo shirt and a pair of jeans. I don't know why everyone cares that they look their best on the first day of school, I honestly don't care. I quickly brushed through my hair, braided it, and put my makeup on.
I went down stairs and grabbed a bowl for some cereal. I ate my breakfast. My phone rang and it was Cara telling me she was here. We carpool together everyday. I grabbed my book bag and went out to Matt's car. I never liked Matt. He was always so mean to me, but I've tried to deal with him because he makes Cara happy. I've never done anything mean to him, I just think he knows that Cara likes me better. I laughed. I got to the car and hopped in the back seat.
"Elle!" Cara screamed. "I've missed you so much!" She said as she turned completely around in her seat.
"I've missed you too Cara." I said as I got buckled. I smiled at her and put my bag on the seat next to me.
"Turn around, Cara. Always face forwards, it's safer." Matt said snappily.
Cara rolled her eyes and didn't listen. She jokingly punched him.
I sighed. "Yeah, hi Matt, nice to see you too," I said to try to let him know he was being a jerk.
"Hmm." Matt said back to me.
Cara butt in and turned to him as we turned down the street to head to our school. "Matt, stop it. She's just trying to be nice."
"Okay," he said back.
"Sorry, Elle. It must be his time of the month." Cara said as she winked at me.
I laughed as we got to the school's parking lot. Matt didn't think it was very funny and he glared at me in the rear view mirror. I grabbed my bag and hopped out of the car. I turned around to wait for Cara, but she was kissing Matt. I rolled my eyes and decided to just keep walking.
I walked to the office to get my schedule. I looked it over quickly, and found my first period class. It was Physics. I shoved the paper in my pocket and started heading for my locker. It was locker 131. On my way to my locker, I ran into Cara.
"Hey, did you get your schedule?" she asked.
"Yeah, first period is Physics with Ms. Fields," I said as I stuck up my nose. Don't get me wrong, Mrs. Fields is a great teacher, she's just really old and gets off topic really easily. She has the attention span of a goldfish.
She handed me her schedule to look over and we only had three classes together; English, Calculus, and History. We put our things in our lockers then sat down at a table outside to wait for the bell to ring.
"So what were you so busy with this weekend that you couldn't hang out with me?" Cara asked.
Should I tell her the truth? I pondered for a bit and decided not to tell her. I didn't want to jinx it, you know? "I was really busy unpacking and I just needed a break before school to relax," I told her.
"Fair enough," she said as our other friend, Toby, came to sit with us.
"So Elle, how was your trip to California?" Toby asked as I laid my head on his shoulder and yawned. Toby an I have been friends since the first grade.
"Okay, I guess. I'm just glad I'm back," I replied.
"I wish Matt was still here," Cara said in a groggy voice.
I got off of Toby's shoulder. "You just saw the guy not even ten minutes ago," I replied trying not to sound too rude.
"Well excuse me for missing my boyfriend," she said as she crossed her arms.
"You're excused," Toby said sarcastically.
"And you're annoying," Cara replied right as the bell rang.
I laughed as we all stood up. Cara looked really annoyed at Toby and Toby looked really annoyed at Cara. They weren't the best of friends. We all headed for our first period classes. Cara waved bye to me as she walked to her Spanish class and she stuck her tongue out at Toby. Toby and I continued walking. I turned to him.
"What's your first period?" I asked.
He scowled at me and said, "Physics."
I smiled at him. "Me too!" We walked until we got to the Physics class door and decided to sit next to each other.
We sat down at the very back table by the door. The bell rang a few minutes later to start class. Ms. Fields walked in and started introducing herself, as if none of us knew who she was. She was an older teacher. She had to be at least 65. She was from New York so she had a very strong accent. She began talking about how her summer was and about how her twin sister got a cat and a whole bunch of other random stuff. I was so not going to like my homeroom. But hey, at least I was with one of my friends.
The bell rang a whole hour later. The first period is the longest class of the day so teachers can give students announcements and other important information. Toby and I picked up all our stuff and walked out the door. We walked to our lockers and met up with Cara.
"Did you guys hear?!" she asked excitedly.
"Hear what?" Toby asked.
"I'm not talking to you, Toby," She replied. She turned to me. "Elle, so you know how Mrs. Cannon got fired last year?"
Mrs. Cannon was our school's History teacher. She got fired because she never did her job. She was never in class. "Yeah?" I replied. "So?"
"Well, I saw the new History teacher, and he's ridiculously hot!" She said as she winked.
"That's nice." I said as I crossed my arms. "Aren't teachers like thirty? That's sick."
"Suit yourself. More for me." She replied.
"What about Matt?" Toby butt in.
"Gawking at my hot new teacher because I'm in his class and I have to pay attention has nothing to do with Matt." She said.
"Sure." He replied.
"Really? Can't you guys just be nice? If you don't like each other, why are you friends?" I said.
"We aren't," they both replied at the exact same time.
I sighed. "Okay." I pulled out my schedule. "Oh, look here, my next class is History. Now I get to see Cara's new lover," I said as I laughed. Toby laughed too.
"That's my next class too." Toby said with a smile on his face.
"Great! What about you Cara? Where are you headed?" I asked.
"History as well." She replied as she started walking with Toby and I to the History classroom.
When we finally got to the door, Cara said "Prepare to be amazed," and then walked past me into the classroom.
I pushed the door open and looked for three empty seats by each other so Toby, Cara, and I could all sit next to each other. The only group of seats that were available were in the very middle of the classroom. I looked around the room but there was no teacher in here. A couple seconds later, the bell rang and there was still no teacher. I got annoyed and looked down at my desk and began doodling on my binder; if he was as cute as Cara says, I'd have all year to look at him.
The classroom door opened, a man walked in and the door shut behind him. "Good morning class, I'm your new History teacher, Mr. Landerson," He said confidently. I never looked up, but for some reason his voice sounded familiar but I didn't think much of it. "This is actually my first year teaching, so I hope you all take it easy on me." The room was silent for a few seconds, until the teacher cleared his throat.
"Before anything, let's start with roll call," he said to break the awkward silence. He read off a list of names and after each one, a voice in the room said 'here'. "Robin Gillian?" he asked.
"Here," a red headed girl with glasses said.
The teacher paused after that. The silence seemed awfully long. "Elle Harding?" he said to break the silence.
"Here," I said as I lifted my hand in the air briefly. I looked up from my drawing for a quick second. That's when I caught his eye. The familiar deep blue ones. My eyes widened in shock, my jaw dropped, and I gasped.
No.
It couldn't be.
But it was.
It was Derek.
"Oh my god," he said whispered under his breath.