Chapter 2
I pulled into the school and parked the car in one of the few empty parking spots that remained. Chloe grabbed her book bag from the back seat of the car, then tossed me mine. We got out of the car and narrowed our eyes at the bright sunlight.
"Ready?" she asked, smiling excitedly at me. I nodded and smiled back, then closed my door and locked the car. We walked into the entrance of the school and into the courtyard.
"Avery, Chloe! Over here!"
We turned to our left to see a group of three people sitting on one of the stone benches that outlined the courtyard.
"Ashley!" Chloe exclaimed. They ran to each other and hugged tightly. I looked behind Ashley to see Hunter, Daniel, and Julie smiling and waving at us. Smiling back, I turned and walked into their direction. Chloe and Ashley were still hugging each other as I passed them.
"Hey gu- Oof!" I fell onto the hard concrete, landing on my but, as I crashed into something tall and hard. I looked up with one eye as I rubbed my lower back.
"I'm sorry!" a male voice exclaimed. His face came into view as he kneeled down beside me. "Are you okay?"
"Uh, yeah," I muttered. "Sorry, I should watch where I'm going."
I looked at him and let out a silent, startled gasp. I hadn't seen this teacher in school before. Maybe he was the new teacher Chloe was talking about? No, impossible. This man was younger, or at least he looked young. His loose brown hair hung in front of his bright brown eyes, and his clothing attire hadn't looked anything what a normal teacher wears. Was he a new student?
"Here," he said, taking my upper arm. "Let me help you."
I pulled myself up, with the help of the mysterious man, and stood on my own two feet again. He let go of me and I brushed off my butt, then looked up at him again. "Thanks."
"No problem," he replied, smiling. "I really am sorry."
"Don't worry about it," I told him, shaking my head. He nodded, then walked away. I looked back over to where my friends were at the bench, and they were all staring at me. I walked over, feeling their eyes on me every step I took. "What?"
"Avery," Julie said, widening her eyes. "That was Mr. Taylor."
I widened my eyes. "It was?"
She nodded, and Chloe came up beside me. She elbowed me playfully in the side. "Avery! Getting cozy with the teacher, eh?"
I glared at her. "Absolutely not."
She laughed and threw her arm around my neck. "Yeah, sure." I wrapped my arm around her waist and smiled. Oh, how I loved my best friend.
"Wait a second," Ashley said suddenly. "Avery, you look different."
I smiled at her. "Yep."
"You look great!" Julie said.
"Thanks," I smiled. I felt someone else's eyes on me. Looking behind Julie, I caught Hunter staring at me. "Hey Hunter."
"Hey Avery," he said, nodding at me. We all looked around when the chimes of the school bell echoed throughout the courtyard. I sighed, not wanting to depart from my friends this soon. Pulling out my schedule from my back pocket, I looked down the list of teachers.
"Who has Mrs. Winston for first period?" I asked them.
"I do!" Ashley said excitedly. She went to my other side and wrapped her arm around my waist, like I had done with Chloe.
"Awesome!" I laughed. Hunter, Julie, and Daniel got up from the bench and retrieved their backpacks from the ground, then swung them over their shoulders.
"Well, we'd better get to class," Daniel pointed out."
"Agreed," Chloe said, removing her arm from around my neck. I let go of her waist, and Ashley let go of mine. Chloe, Hunter, Daniel and Julie began to walk in all separate directions. "Bye guys!"
"Bye!" Ashley ad I said together. Ashley got her backpack and we both walked to our first period class.
When we entered the classroom, almost all of the seats were taken. Much to our fortunate luck, there were two seats next to each other in the middle. We quickly made our way to them and sat down. The bell rang, and everyone quieted down as the lady at the front of the room stood up from her desk.
She smiled, looking around the room. "Welcome to your senior year, students," she calmly said, smiling wider. "I hope you had a good summer. But now it's you're last year in high school, and we need to get down to business. I'm Mrs. Winston, you're American history teacher."
She was silent for a moment. I looked around the room at my classmates. One girl in the corner was smacking her gum, which annoyed me greatly. A guy a few seats in front of her was chewing on his pen, and another girl was tapping her nails against the desk, obviously bored.
"Now tell me students, how many of you like history?" she asked the class.
I looked around, watching only a few students raise their hand slowly. I gulped, but raised my hand anyways. Ashley raised her hand next to me as well, then smiled at me. I smiled back, thankful for her support as making me not the only one who enjoyed history. Mrs. Winston smiled at the few kids who raised their hands.
"That's lovely! I'm sure the rest of you will learn to enjoy it by the end of the year. American history is quite fascinating."
She continued to tell us about what we would learn this year, but I got bored so I tuned her out. I opened my notebook and began to doodle inside of it.
But the time the bell rang, the first page of my notebook was filled with my doodles of hearts, stick people, flowers, and other crappy pictures I decided to draw. I closed my notebook and slipped it into my backpack.
"What do you have next?" Ashley asked me.
"Uh," I pulled out my schedule and looked at it. ""Mr. Harley for Pre-Calculus."
She groaned and rolled her eyes. "Have fun with that," she said. "I have gym."
"I'm already jealous," I told her. She got up and waved goodbye to me. I waved back, then got up from my seat. Hoping the next class wouldn't be as boring, I left the classroom.
~
"How are your classes so far?" Daniel asked me as I took the seat next to him. The sun was shining brightly down on the courtyard, giving it a warm glow. Students were taking their seats at the round, stone tables that were in the courtyard. Some of the students sat against the tall palm trees that surrounded the courtyard, and others sat inside the cafeteria. I preferred outside, as did my friends. I set my lunch down on the concrete table in front of me and turned to him.
"Boring as hell, you?" I replied.
"Marine science is the only class I enjoy so far," he answered.
"Lucky you," I muttered. I poked at the salad I had gotten with my black, plastic fork. I looked up as Hunter and Julie sat down across from us.
"Hey you two," Hunter said.
"Hola!" Daniel greeted them cheerfully in Spanish.
"Hey guys," I said after him. "Where are Chloe and Ashley?"
Julie shrugged, and I sighed, looking back down at my salad once more.
"Avery?"
I looked to my right to see Josh standing next to me, holding a tray of food.
"Hey Josh, what's up?" I said, giving him a smile. "How's high school so far?"
"It's okay," he said. "Can I sit with you?"
I looked at him, annoyed. "Go sit with your friends."
"I can't find them."
"Look harder," I said, shoving a forkful of lettuce into my mouth.
"Josh, over here!" Another male voice said from a few yards away, at one of the other tables in the shade.
"There they are! Bye Avery!"
Before I could say anything else, he ran away to his friends. I felt eyes burning into me, and I looked over to see Hunter staring at me again. Our eyes met for a minute, then he looked down at his food. I stared questioningly at him, but looked away when my eye caught a familiar figure from behind him.
The teacher I had bumped into this morning was walking past our table, holding a green apple in one hand and a novel in the other. I had to admit, he looked as if he had just been pulled out of a cheesy romance movie, where the chick falls in love with the guy who likes to read to himself. He saw me, nodded, then walked past a few other students and finally into one of the doors that led into the school.
"Hello my friends!" Chloe came up to the table, followed by Ashley, and sat down. I shook my head and looked at her.
"Hey Chloe."
"How was all of your classes, guys?" she asked us.
"Not bad," Julie replied.
"Yeah, not as bad as last year," I said.
"So true," Chloe said. "So, since we didn't get to talk much this morning, let's talk now. How was all of you guys' summer?"
We got into a long conversation about what we did over the summer. I kept mine blunt and said all I did was work and exercise. Julie went to Germany, much to everyone's jealousy. Daniel worked at the animal shelter practically every day, Hunter went to Montana to see family, and Ashley went to New York. Chloe stayed home and worked, like me.
Right in the middle of a story Julie was telling us about Germany, the bell rang to dismiss lunch. We all groaned, but got up anyways. Next was fifth period- English. Thankfully, I had it with Chloe. I threw the remainder of my lunch away, said goodbye to everyone else, then left with Chloe at my side.
"I'm excited for next period!"
"Yeah, me too," I agreed, trying to sound enthusiastic. We walked up the concrete stairs and into the building where the English classes were located. I prayed that after this morning, things wouldn't be too awkward with me being in his class. Putting on a smile, I followed Chloe down the hallway that led to our English class.