Chapter 2 - The first day
I felt dizzy. My legs were shaking and I could feel my heart beating fast against my ribcage.
Dad was in a hurry to go to work, telling me to get out of the car faster. So I did.
My feet glued to the pavement, and realisation struck me. I was a student at Nova's Academy of Art. A dream come true.
My passion was always dancing, but I applied for acting. My parents didn't think I could succeed in any. They're just trying to please me, yet I thank them every day for the opportunity.
Butterflies fluttered inside me, and I looked back for some encouraging words. They didn't come because dad was already gone.
With a deep breath, I stepped through the enormous green gates.
I met a yellowish stone pavement snaking its way through the green fields around the stone building not so far away from me.
Kids were jumping on a rope or playing football in the yard, sitting by the stone steps and chatting. They looked so happy all my fears went aside and I made my way to the main building.
Then it hit me. Literally.
A ball flew right into the back of my head and I fell on the ground, face first. Amazing.
It didn't hurt that much, but the embarrassment tainted my cheeks pink. First day and I'm already falling on the ground like a klutz.
I lifted my head and saw a hand stretched out for me to grab. I put my small hand in theirs and they pulled me up effortlessly.
"Are you okay?"
I rubbed the back of my head and looked at him. Wow, he is tall. And older. Maybe fifteen.
His hair was an unnatural greyish white and I couldn't help but focus on it and the geometrical undercut.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I stuttered.
Someone called him "Hey, Reed! Come back, buddy!"
"Just a sec," he yelled back.
I stared at the ball in his hands instead of his eyes when he turned back to me.
"Your name is Reed?" I murmured.
"No- I mean, yeah. It's a nickname."
I let my eyes wander up again, finding his unsettling blue ones. They were nothing like my sky-like irises. His were the bottom of the ocean.
"A nickname? I want a nickname too," I said. "You can call me AJ." It's my initials, first and middle name.
"You can't give yourself a nickname. Someone else has to name you," he argued.
I gulped, staring at the football again. That hadn't crossed my mind. What if they give me some awful nickname to mock for the rest of my life? Like Stinky!
"And I'm calling you AJ from now on," he added.
A grin spread over my face, and he ruffled my hair. I didn't move, and when he went back to his friends, I stared at his back.
I restarted walking towards the giant double doors pushed open inwards. There were arrows on the floor, colourful stickers to guide us to the different sections of the building. I followed yellow, the acting class.
At the end of the corridor, a small group of people around my age waited in front of the classroom.
I felt uneasy. This was everyone's second year in NAA, whilst I was only starting now. Everyone had already befriended everyone. Friendships had been made, and I was a foreigner about to link up to something that didn't need a nexus.
I kept quiet in the corner, observing everyone. This was until a dark-skinned boy came up to us with a smile.
"Hey, everyone! My name is Chris and I'm your assigned guide. If you need anything, you can talk to me or any other guide," he said, brushing invisible dust from his uniform. "Now, I know there are some new students here, so let me show you around."
The group followed him, complaining the whole time about already knowing the place. I didn't dare speak up for myself. I didn't need to put a target on my back already.
We were taken outside, to the tennis courts and basketball fields, the theatre room and the music room, always following the stone pavement that split into several roads and took us everywhere.
"Look who's there, Jade." The brunette next to me pointed at the boys playing baseball.
The black-haired girl next to her looked at where she was pointing and so did I.
"Are you talking about Ray?" she questioned.
I didn't know who Ray was. At that moment I wasn't listening to Chris anymore, but I kept thinking how could I try to talk to those girls.
"Ti piace?" the tall one joked.
"Just because those are the only Italian words you know, doesn't mean you have to say them all the time, Courtney." Jade rolled her eyes.
Italian? They teach that here? Oh, no, I suck at learning languages.
"But it's fun," Courtney complained, "And they're not the only ones! I can say ciao."
"Congratulations," Jade said dryly.
Chris moved to the rock-carved swimming pool, and we followed.
I stared at the crystal water screaming at me to dive in. It was probably freezing, but it looked so fascinating...
"Did we lose part of the group?" I asked no one in particular as I turned back to them, finding only half of the people that were with me seconds ago.
"Don't worry, we didn't lose no one important." Courtney said from my side, "You're new, right? I don't think we've met before"
I swallowed "I-uh... Yeah, I am"
"What do you think about it so far?"
I chewed the inside of my cheek, a bad habit I got when I didn't have gum with me.
"It's huge."
Courtney snorted, "I guess. I'm Courtney, by the way, and this idiot listening to Chris for the second time is Jade."
"I'm making sure there are no new rules!" the girl complained without looking away from the boy.
The brunette rolled her eyes. "I bet an entire week of dirty laundry there aren't."
Jade tsked. "You're crazy if you think I'm doing your laundry."
I smiled shyly at their exchange. Is hoping they become my friends too egoistic? They sound fun.
"I'm AJ," I said, using Reed's nickname for me.
"AJ being what?" Courtney cocked a brow. "Anastasia? Anna Johanna?"
Jade took an interest in the game, "Jamaica?"
I couldn't help but smile at their more and more ridiculous attempts at guessing my name. They weren't even going for realistic names, just random countries and objects.
"It's Avery," I smiled. "My name is Avery."
Jade stretched a hand out. "Nice to meet you, Avery."
I shook it, happy with myself for befriending someone so quickly.
"Well, AJ, the group is walking away so we better run."
Courtney rolled her eyes. "We could just go somewhere else."
"Forget it," Jade cut her off and walked back to the group.
We had no choice but to follow her.
Chris took us through the canteen to a classroom on the ground floor. There, he left us waiting for our drama teacher to show up and instruct us about more trivial things.
I took a seat by Courtney and Jade in the second row, observing everyone else with us. Minutes later our arrival, and still way before the teacher appeared, everyone who had disappeared mid-tour was returning.
One after one, they joined the party, but my eyes lingered on one in specific.
His eyes were dark brown, like melted chocolate, and he wore a leather jacket above the uniform instead of the blazer, which was an odd combination. A smirk danced on his lips, followed by laughter from him and everyone with him. Lord, was he hot!
"That's Micah," Courtney informed dryly. "He has the fashion sense of a ferret in an opium haze."
"An opium haze?" I repeated. I don't even know what that means.
Jade twitched her nose when she saw him. Was I looking at the wrong guy?
"I mean, what's the deal with the jacket? He's just trying to be different, but Miss Wick is going to kill him if she sees him like that," Courtney explained. "And we all know he fears her too."
My experience with boys in school was that they liked to act all tough with everyone, but as soon as they found themselves in a classroom with a teacher, they were as good as a scaredy-cat.
"He doesn't look like he cares," I noted, watching them sitting on the back, feet on the table.
"Give him time," she explained, before changing the subject. "So, where are you from?"
"Mm... I'm from here," I shrugged. "No fancy places. You?"
"The capital," she said. "Not so fancy still, I guess."
Fancy enough. I've lived here all my life in here, never travelled elsewhere. We never had money to go around and now that's just me and my dad, it's even harder. Mum is living the glorious life in the capital and she can't take me with her because dad and a thousand legal issues don't let her.
I was embarrassed that all of them came from distant places and I lived only a few streets away.
"Do you go home after school?" Jade asked. "I hate having to live here. I didn't want to come to a boarding school, but my parents needed me to be here. Not that living with them is much better"
I rose a brow. "Are you from there too?"
She shook her head. "Italian, born and raised."
Italy. Holy crap. I knew this school was prestigious and my parents were busting their butts to have me here, but Italy. That's a whole other level.
"Imagine the cool stuff you could do by living here," I say, thinking about nights spent hearing mum reading me about boarding schools from her books, "Secret suppers, parties in the dorm..."
My imagination was wild, and I kept rambling about everything I had known only on the paper.
Courtney was looking at me, amazed by every idea that came out of my mouth.
"Would you have the courage?" Jade asked.
"Maybe."
It didn't matter, I wouldn't be part of it. I lived a couple of streets away.
Before the conversation could carry on, a blonde woman in enormous heels walked in. The noise quieted as the clicking of the heels approached and everything was silent when she walked through the door.
Miss Wick. Just the name sounded like a red flag.
"Good morning. I'm Miss Wick and I'll be your Drama teacher this year," she stood in front of us "To all who came to this school because you think this is not a real school and it'll be easier than a regular one, you better start thinking about transferring to somewhere else," She was an uptight person and that scared me. "Nova's Academy of Art is a very serious school and if you haven't checked your classes yet, you should know that you will have all the same classes as any other school with the addition of the vocational ones, in your case, Drama. If you thought it was easier, let me correct you, it's harder."
After finishing her quite scary speech, she handed us a bunch of papers to fill with our personal information.
They were all simple questions, and I finished in seconds, except...
Will the student use the school's living conditions?
My dad had already answered that question when he signed me in this school, but my conversation with Courtney just didn't stop replaying in my head.
I called the teacher's attention and told her my problem. She told me I could change it with my father's permission and sent me off to the office to call him.
Miss Wick kindly pointed me the directions, and I left the room to find my way through the hallways.
I asked the lady in charge to use the phone and dialled my dad's number.
"Avery? What happened?" his voice sounded worried on the other side.
Regret takes over me. I didn't want to leave my dad. I couldn't leave him alone in the house. He'd go crazy. But then again, this was an opportunity I didn't have many times, and he rarely spent much time at home. I was the one alone for hours until he came back from work.
"So, I was thinking... if I could like... spend the year living in the school?" I asked. "Obviously, I would still go home on weekends and you don't have to pay more than you already have. I wouldn't be snooping in your projects like you always complain about."
"God, Avery, I thought you had hurt yourself or something!" he sighed. "Of course you can."
I smiled and passed the phone to the office lady so she and my dad could work things out whilst I walked around in the room.
I ended up sitting in one of the blue chairs in the room, legs dangling off. I could only reach the floor on my tiptoes.
The door opened and Reed walked in with a bunch of papers in hand and an annoyed look. I waved at him and he stopped, looking at me as if he was trying to place my face. It's been an hour. Glad to know I'm that memorable.
"AJ! What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I'm moving in next week." I shrugged, trying not to look as excited as I was.
He left the papers with another lady in the office and turned back to me.
"Cool. I'm staying here too. My aunt is a teacher."
The lady hung up and told me it was done, and I said goodbye to him.
"Can I walk you to class?" he asked.
Oh my god! A guy wants to walk me to class!
"Yeah, sure, whatever," I shrugged again.
The doors were made of glass, so he saw my teacher and snorted, "You got the devil herself. Good luck with her."
"You had her before?"
"God no!" he exclaimed, terrified with the idea. "She's my aunt."
That's better?
I walked in, all eyes on me, because they saw Reed going away.
With a smile plastered on my face, I sat beside Courtney and told them the news.
"That's awesome!" she beamed.
"I know."
☕☕☕
Hey, peeps over there!
Did you keep on reading? Cool, I really like you.
So here it is, the first chapter of Sunrise. What did you think?
Don't forget this part is narrated by twelve years old Avery when she went to NAA for the first time. It is in some sort of way her backstory, it doesn't connect itself completely with Sunset but they're two sides of the same coin and in the end, it all makes a lot more sense
Thank you for reading xx