Before she knew it, Sophie was standing before Foxfire.
"Woah," she breathed.
Foxfire was not what she expected. The place was huge! The big building stretched on farther than she could see and was at least 15 stories high. The school also gleamed like it was made out of crystal and the top was twisted in turrets that made her feel like this was more of a castle. The entrance was a huge courtyard with a gigantic fountain in the center and there were towering gates that guarded the courtyard as hundreds of teens were talking and playing. She had never seen anything like it.
It also did not help with her nerves.
She silently prayed that no one would notice her as she walked through the gates and into the courtyard. But of course the universe despised her. The world seemed to freeze in time as the hundreds of heads turned to look at her.
Oh no...
What was she supposed to do? Wave and say, "Hi I'm Sophie! Nice to meet you"? She silently cursed herself for not preparing for this ahead of time. So, she just smiled and said, "hi," still not sure if that was the right move.
Everyone stared and then someone yelled, "FREAK".
Then everyone started laughing and pointing. This was Sophie's worst nightmare. She already felt tears pricking in her eyes.
What was she now? A baby?
Then she remembered that her mom always taught her to just ignore people when they make rude comments like that and to just keep walking. So she did.
She tried her best not to make eye contact with anyone. She also heard whispers along the lines of "is that a new girl?", "she looks weird", and "someone trip her!".
She hoped no one would try that last one, but of course someone did.
As she was walking someone stuck their foot out and she fell flat on her face.
"Oof," she cried. Everyone started snickering again.
Why did she have to be so clumsy?
She should have seen the foot before she tripped over it. She slowly got up, sure that her face was as red as ever, and made her way inside, so that she wouldn't trip again.
This was already going terribly wrong.
***
Sophie had received her schedule and locker number from the school's principal Dame Alina. She tried to find her way to her locker, but failed miserably. She already was lost.
Great.
She was about to go find somewhere where she could cry and dig herself a hole, when a figure walked up to her.
He had round features and brown curly hair. He also had a huge smile on his face as he said, "hi! I'm Jensi—are you the new girl—wait of course you are—are you lost? What's your name—wait, are you crying?" Okay, to say this boy was a bit energetic was an understatement.
"Um woah, okay that's a lot of questions. So um I'm Sophie and yes I'm a bit lost with finding my locker," Sophie replied slightly more calm than she was a few minutes ago.
Then Jensi started to squeal and jump up and down. "This is great! I can help you find your way, and you can always come to me for help since I'm your friend!" He said excitedly.
"Wait—we're friends? I mean not that I don't want to be—it's just everyone seems to hate me," Sophie said miserably.
"No way! That's how our school treats new people that they think are awesome! They are just jealous!"
"But they don't even know me."
"Doesn't matter! They just want to see if they can bring you down before you can do anything good. Alright let's go to your locker—wait what's your combo—wait first tell me what your locker number is!"
This was a lot to get used to, but it felt good to finally have a friend. She was lost in her thoughts about how the rest of the school day would go when Jensi finally showed her to her locker.
"There you go! Have a good day, and you know if you don't have anywhere to sit at lunch you can sit by me—I mean the Drooly Boys are a little strange but you can get used to it—but if you don't want to sit by us that's cool—but if you want to," he said nervously.
"I would love to. Thanks by the way," she said as she gave him a small smile.
"No problem! Oh you better hurry up, class starts in five minutes."
"Okay see you later," she said as she finished gathering her things.
Sophie felt a warm feeling inside her. She knew that she barely knew Jensi, but it felt like a start. And maybe the Drooly Boys were just as nice, although she didn't like the sound of that name. Maybe she could make more friends.
They couldn't all be that bad, could they?
Sophie looked down to see that her first class was chemistry. Nervous tingles started to make their way back, but Sophie quickly shut them down. She was going to be fine.
It was chemistry, what could be the harm there?