Principal Sofer was a nice looking woman, with her brown hair in a tight high bun on the back of her hair and serious brown eyes under glasses. She was a little older than Dina's parents, maybe, though she had no apparent white hair. She always wore a skirt and a formal blouse, and right now she was looking at Dina over a file in her office. It made her feel weird, like she had let her down, or like she was in trouble.
"I called you in Dina," it didn't help she was also from the synagogue and knew her since she was a baby, "because we have this new transfer student coming, and she seems to be the rebellious kind," there was a pointed look to the file and back up, "so I'm assigning you to escort her this first day. Show her the school. Get a feeling if she's all the problem I've heard, please."
"Sure, principal Sofer," she waited for the woman to dismiss her, subtly checking the time on her watch.
"She must be waiting outside, can you please send her in?," Dina stood up when she nodded her out with a smile. "Have a good day. Shalom."
"Shalom."
She stepped out of the office, closing the thick wooden door to see the principal's assistant giving the stink eye to a girl slouched on a chair. She had reddish-brown hair, barely touching her shoulders, the top tied in a tiny ponytail. The girl had her backpack over her knees, and earbuds on.
"Hello," she smiled brightly at the girl, pointing at the door behind her. "the principal wants to see you."
The girl gave her a tentative, thin-lipped smile, nodding and murmuring a thanks before entering the office. Dina sat at the chair beside the now empty one, stretching her legs and taking her phone out.
'where are you?', she read the message from Jesse, immediately unblocking and typing an answer.
'Principal's office. We have a new student!'
'transfer student? she looks cool?', she could sense his curiosity through the phone.
Dina stopped, thinking for a second. 'Hard to say. She looks shy.'
'cool. also, i need help with math :(,' he said, and she could almost see his sad face in front of her.
She chuckled, and heard the doorknob twisting, quickly typing away a 'I'll help you at lunch. GTG'
The girl opened the door, her green flannel open over a white t-shirt and lines on her forehead.
"Uh- hello," her voice was a little raspy and she looked over her shoulder in time to see Sofer closing the door. "You showing me the school?"
"Yes," she smiled again, extending her hand towards her, "I'm Dina."
The girl was a bit taller then her, and narrowed her eyes with curiosity before shaking her hand, "Ellie."
Ellie's hand was cold, and she was quick to retrieve it and scratch the back of her neck.
"So, can I see your timetable?" she asked, leading her out of the anteroom. Ellie took a folded paper off her pocket and silently handed it over.
Dina squickly canned it, checking how far her next class was from hers and then the map on the other paper. She explained the names of the buildings, how the numbers signaled the floor and the rooms while she walked Ellie to her History class.
"Be careful with Ms. Simmons," she said in a conspiratory voice, making Ellie tilt her body towards her, "she can be really boring. And evil," she smiled again, walking back at waving, "Follow the horde, I'll come back to walk you to Geography!"
She stared long enough to see the new girl look half-puzzled, half-amused before entering the classroom.
And then she ran to get to French before the bell rang.
"You're late," Bonnie whispered, surprised. Dina had perfect attendance since day one from their first year, but she rolled her eyes.
"I wasn't really late. And I don't think they'll mind this week; Sofer wants me to show the school to the new girl."
"New girl? But school started like, two months ago?" Dina shrugged, copying the exercise.
"Maybe her parents just moved recently," she kept working, only half of her mind on the conversation.
"Right. Could be," Bonnie started to copy stuff on her sheet and then turned to her, "Or maybe-"
"Maybe you can copy your exercise, Bonnie," Ms. Gavalda said in French, and Bonnie's ears became almost as red as her hair.
"Oui, Ms. Gavalda," she said, voice down and begrudgingly picking up the pencil. "I hate French! I wish I had taken Spanish!" she whispered, and Dina chuckled.
"Then you'd meet Ellie," she smiled at Bonnie, now moving on to actually answering the questions. "And you could ask her what she's doing here."
Bonnie only mumbled something under her breath, regretting her past life choices that led her to French. The girl had this bright red hair always french-braided down her back, which sounded kinda ironic to Dina after her hate towards the language. She had clean blue eyes, now sad while she looked at the blackboard.
Dina and Bonnie were friends since the beginning of high school, when Dina saw her walking to school and just started walking with her. And then they grew closer over track training. They were now in their third year, having survived with a lot of coffee and leg stretches.
The bell rang and they quickly exited the room. Bonnie and her parted, and she hastily walked towards the building Ellie was in, nodding and waved at a lot of students as she passed them in the halls. The girl was waiting for her at the front, hands on the pockets of her black skinny jeans, looking around.
"Hey," Dina greeted her, always smiling. Ellie nodded and fell beside her. "Did you sleep?"
Ellie frowned slightly, a small smile tugging at her lips. "It was hard, but no."
"You're stronger than I am, Ellie," she said while they climbed the stairs. They had to walk fast not to be late, and she saw Ellie had no problem keeping up with her. "Her voice is better than ASMR" She stopped briefly at the top of the first flight. "Up one more floor, to the left. If you reach the bathroom you walked too much."
Ellie nodded, going up a few steps before Dina called after her, "And don't sit at the front!"
"What?" she looked so confused Dina had to laugh.
"Just trust me," and she waved before running to her Chemistry class.
She snickered to herself as she sat down beside Jesse, really hoping Ellie wouldn't sit at the front, or else she was going to be showered in Mr. Boulos spit. He was an older man, looked a lot like the grandpa from "Up!" and had an awful habit of spitting while he lectured.
"What are you laughing about?" Jesse asked beside her, smiling at her. He was still growing his hair out, his tanned skin reminding her of their summer playing around in pools before he went to California.
The bell rang and he slowly moved to take his notebook out as Dina opened her binder.
"The new girl, Ellie?" He nodded, dark eyes focused on her, "She's having Geography with Boulos now."
He made a disgusted face, laughing afterwards. "Oh no, did you tell her to sit in the back?"
"I did! I hope it still had seats far from him."
He looked uncertain, both knowing well enough Boulos was one of the few teachers that managed to have all the class in time because everyone just tried to outrun the others so they wouldn't have to sit at the front.
Mrs. Aebischer dressed like a hippie, and let her long dark hair fall down her back as she explained chemistry concepts, how to balance equations and calculate mols. She was too serious, though, and it was one of the few classes practically no one ever spoke during.
Dina had again, only half of her attention on the class. She couldn't really stop thinking about Ellie. Why did she start attending after the official start of the semester? Did her parents move, like she told Bonnie? Was she really a trouble-maker like Principal Sofer said? But she didn't look like a trouble-maker. Ellie was cute. That stopped her train of thought: what would a trouble-maker even look like?
She thought about Ellie, of her guarded face, her awkwardness. And then the way she walked with squared shoulders and confident steps. Who was she really?
"I don't get anything she's writing right now," Jesse murmured, the panic in his voice bringing her back. "I can't fail Chemistry too, it's hard enough with Math alone!"
"You'll be okay, just like last year," she reassured him, smiling. "We'll help you, don't worry."
"Thank you, because I'll need it."
Ellie looked pissed when they met her at the staircase.
"I take there were no seats left at the back," Dina asked, touching her arm trying to comfort her. Ellie just shook her head.
"They should've warned me I needed to bring a fucking umbrella," her green eyes flashed annoyance and she was as stiff as a board until Dina and Jesse busted out laughing, remaining tense, but somewhat less tense.
"Ellie, this is Jesse," she said, introducing them and walking down the stairs to her next class.
"'Sup, man?" Jesse said with a smile and Ellie nodded at him, still kinda pissed at the teacher. "You gotta be fast for Boulos or you better bring a raincoat."
"I think I'll bring both to be sure," her voice was hard and grumpy, but she had a miniscule smile on her lips.
"So, what do you have now?" Dina asked when they arrived at the ground floor.
"Actually, I think I'll manage on my own," Ellie scratched the back of her neck, not looking at her.
"Are you sure you won't get lost?" But Ellie only rolled her eyes
"It's a school, for fucks sake." Then she took the folded paper from her pocket, looked at it and walked away with a quick goodbye.
"Okay, I'll see you at break then," Jesse said, turning his attention from the space between the students where Ellie had vanished to her. "At least now you can keep your perfect attendance."
He winked and she punched his shoulder, walking towards her Math class while Jesse took another corridor to get out of the building.
There was a green flannel girl sitting at her desk.
"Oh, I should've remembered I saw you had Math two with me!" she smiled at the girl as she sat beside her, opening her binder. Ellie looked surprised to see her, eyes wide and pink cheeks.
"I- Yes." She brushed her nose with the back of hand, turning towards her closed notebook.
She wasn't one to speak a lot it seemed, and Dina watched as she spun a pencil over her hand, looking at the blackboard, sometimes at her with the corner of her eye. The bell rang and Ms. Junod came inside, blond hair in a pixie cut and kind eyes behind thick-framed glasses.
"You wanna eat with us at the fifteen-minute break?" she asked Ellie, but she shook her head.
"I gotta do a thing," was her simple answer, and Dina frowned. She wanted to know what thing, but she didn't want to push, so she just stretched her legs.
"Well, we're gonna have lunch at the cafeteria," she said, somehow always smiling. "You should come sit with us."
Junod started to explain the topic, all excited and writing formulas and exercises on the board with the chalk. It seemed like Ellie was somehow lucky they were starting a new subject, so at least in Math she wouldn't have to worry about catching the material in the middle.
She watched Ellie, her round handwriting as she copied the exercises on her notebook and hummed at her as an answer. They both worked in silence solving the expressions, and Dina saw Ellie's brow furrowed in concentration. Concentration, not confusion, like she was used to seeing on Jesse's or Bonnie's.
She tried to focus on her algebra, it all unfolding neatly in the paper in front of her. Math was all about finding the pattern and repeating it where it applied. It was repetitive, and it was almost relaxing. It was easy to see what she needed to do once she found the type of problem it was. Easy to figure it out.
She glanced at Ellie.
Not so easy.