Chapter Two: First Impressions

As it turns out, moving to a new school wasn't exactly like it is in the movies, go figure. I wasn't immediately introduced to most popular and obnoxious girl in school who showed her immediate dislike for me. I also wasn't then rushed into safety by the artsy social outcast who would become my best friend. I also didn't find my soul mate, who I would pursue throughout the rest of the year until I either saw his true colors or managed to make him love me.

Instead, I went to homeroom and got my schedule. When I walked into the classroom everyone was seated together, but in small groups of friends. I didn't notice anyone take notice of me as I sat down in a seat with my name on it. In fact, nothing all that significant happened at all for the hour that we sat there.

The teacher introduced himself as Mr. Clarksby and the Latin teacher here at Summerton High. He read us the basic rules of the school and then spent a good deal of time talking about his dog.

I looked around the classroom as he spoke. It seemed like your everyday run of the mill high school classroom. So far, nothing seemed extremely out of the ordinary. I guess this should have come as a relief, but I was still waiting to discover the terrible or amazing secrets that Summerton High held. There had to be something about this school that was worth being interested in.

The first bell rang; cutting off Mr. Clarksby as he told everyone what type of dog food he fed his little cockapoo. No, I don't remember what kind it was.

Everyone shuffled into the crowded hallway and began their slow walk towards their first class. I looked down at my schedule. First period, room 212, Drama level three. I had never taken a Drama class in my life and to wonder why they had put me in the third level. Maybe they just felt bad that I was a senior, and so brought me up that level. I really hoped this wasn't like upper level Spanish where you had to speak the language for the entire class period. I was in no way fluent in Shakespeare.

It took me six and a half out of the seven minutes between classes to get to class. It wasn't all because of my terrible sense of direction. The hallways were so crowded here that if you were going the wrong direction and wanted to turn around, you would have to spend three minutes pushing your way through the crowd of people going in the opposite direction before you reached the right side of the traffic flow.

When I stepped into the room I had to admit surprise was the first thing I had felt. This was not a normal classroom. Gigantic puppets hung from the ceiling, and the walls were covered with everything you could imagine, and I mean everything. The chairs and desks themselves were arranged in a circle. All of the other students were already here and were chatting at maximum volume.

Great, everyone knew each other. Maybe it would be hard to fit in. This thought evaporated as one of the guys looked up from his conversation and smiled at me. No, it wasn't one of those smiles where I melted… but it was definitely a nice smile, belonging to a very cute boy. Already my view of this school had gone from okay to good.

He looked like he was about to say something when the teacher walked in. I sat down at the desk nearest to me and flashed a smile at the girl who had turned to examine me.

"Good morning class!" the teacher said in an enormous voice. I was sure people on the other side of school could hear him.

"Good morning," a few students muttered back and the teacher stopped and lowered his head, shaking it sadly.

"I'm sorry, but what was that besides pathetic?" he questioned and everyone replied with more oomph.

"GOOD MORNING."

"Much better. Next time I expect to have to replace that glass over there," he signaled to the door behind him. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Simon Wade. Please call me Wade. If you call me Mr. Wade, you get detention." A couple students chuckled, but he looked at us as if he was dead serious. "For those of you who have taken drama, hopefully this is all of you since you're in a level three class, you're probably wondering why Mrs. Scarborough is no longer here. I do not have the slightest idea, but if she wanted you to know I'm sure she would have told you." I raised my hand, and he stopped and looked at me momentarily like I was an alien. Had I done something wrong?
"Yes Miss…" he trailed off.

"Trina, sir. Trina Bandit," the girl next to me snickered slightly as I announced my name. I was used to it.

"You have a question? Trina?"

"Uh, yeah… I've never taken a Drama class before. Is this a problem?"

"Only if you make it one," he replied and then lapsed back into what we could expect throughout the year. I had no clue what his response meant, and when I glanced around the room I could tell that every one else thought he was a little wacky too. Good, I was not the only one who had forgotten their ticket for the crazy train.

Class ended earlier than I expected it to. Classes back home had been an hour and a half long. They were only forty-five minutes here. I walked out into the hallway and heard someone yell.

"Wait up." I turned and realized it was the cute boy. "Hey," he smiled, once he had caught up to me. "Have we met before?" My first instinct was to say no, but then a jolt of recognition shot through me.

"Brent!?" Wait a second, how on earth was this the guy that used to pick on me in elementary school? He had been a little tubby back then and a whole lot of cruel. Now here he was minus the tub, and seemed to have a better attitude. People really do change.

"I knew it was you! Well, that and I've never met anyone else by the name of Trina Bandit. Did you just move here?"

"Yeah, on Friday actually."

"Wow, of all the people, I never expected to see you in town," the way he said that made it sound like only the lucky arrive here. Had my parents auditioned for this place without me knowing it? Thankfully he noticed my puzzled expression and replied, "You have a lot more class than this place, as I'm sure you'll come to find."

"I didn't realize I was a classy ten year old when you knew me…"

"Oh the classiest," he smiled and I had to laugh. "No really though, I can tell, you're definitely above this place."

"Oh really, and how can you tell?"

"I just can," he replied, glancing down his green eyes meeting mine. I looked away, knowing there was a good chance my eyes could get lost in his.

"That line might have worked in a movie, but it's not a good enough explanation for me," I said and he smirked.

"Then I guess I'm just going to have to leave you unsatisfied. Just be happy I paid you a compliment." I opened my mouth to protest, but he changed the subject. "What class do you have next?" It took me a moment to pull the bright blue schedule out of my bag.

"Biology, Room 109."

"You're taking Biology?" He looked at me, confused.

"Yes… why do you ask?"

"No reason, I just thought you were smarter. I took bio my freshman year." I hit him playfully.

"You're still a jerk! I've already taken academic Bio. I'm taking Advanced Placement Biology this year."

"See, you are above this place!"

"What does that even mean?" I asked, slightly exasperated that he kept repeating himself.

"You will find out soon enough, believe me. Want me to walk you to your next class?"

"I'd like that," anything to keep me from being late to class. Plus, it didn't hurt that he was something familiar I could latch on to.

"Don't worry, you'll learn how to get around here," as he spoke, he reached out and grabbed my elbow. "Room 109, right here."

"Oh, sorry. I guess I should pay attention more…" he chuckled at how oblivious I was to where we were.

"Or maybe you should stop concentrating on my good looks and more on where you're walking. I'm not always going to be here to lead you in the right direction." He smiled, before looking directly into my eyes, his hand still on my elbow, and saying, "be careful". Before I could ask him what he meant, he was walking down the hallway. With a shrug, I walked into my classroom. Despite the extremely odd reunion, I still had to go and study life.

Lunches here were divided into sections and each of those sections was assigned a letter. Having missed breakfast, I was incredibly relieved to find out that I had "A" lunch. This meant that before attending third period, I could grab something to eat.

The atmosphere of the cafeteria was refreshing. The sections had perfectly divided up the school and so the giant room was, thankfully, nothing like the hallways. The air was filled with choruses of "hey" and "how was your summer?" I looked around for a familiar face. No one had been extremely friendly in biology, so I didn't have an automatic lunch buddy. Maybe Brent had A lunch too… That's when I saw him; it was the gorgeous guy I had run into on Friday. I had planned on only glancing at him, but he happened to look up and catch me staring. My cheeks flushed red immediately, and I hoped he would go back to whatever he had been doing.

Instead, he said something to his friends and then stood up. Whatever he had said had turned all of their glances my way. I was tempted to curse, but utilized the smidgen of self-control I have. Muttering to yourself is never a way to make friends. Turning, I headed for the lunch line. Maybe he had seen someone he knew behind me and was heading towards them. I knew I was wrong even before I felt a hand tap me on the shoulder.

"Hey, new girl, why are you always running away from me?" I turned and looked up. Mind you, he wasn't extremely tall, but he was standing so close to me that if I didn't tilt my head, I would be staring at his chest. His very muscular, attractive- Wait a second, concentrate.

"Er… sorry about that. I don't really know why I ran on Friday, I guess I was just embarrassed… Although now, I have a perfectly good excuse."

"What?"

"I'm getting lunch," I said raising an eyebrow and pointing to the lunch line I had been about to step into.

"Oh, right," I was surprised to see him blush slightly. It also made me feel a little better. Even though he's absolutely gorgeous, he's still human like I am. "Well, when you're done getting done you should come chill at our table…" he trailed off waiting for my name.

"Trina."

"Trina," he said and smiled. His smile was different from Brent's. This guy had a smile that made me melt inside. "Well, Trina, you should come sit with us."

"Alright, thanks," I said and he walked away. While I was putting an apple on my tray I realized I hadn't asked him what his name was.

When I came over to the table, I was offered a seat directly across from the gorgeous guy. This put me in between a girl with bright dyed red hair and a nose piercing and a guy wearing a high school football jersey.

"Everyone, this is Trina," Gorgeous guy said, and then started pointing to other people, "the guy listening to music at the end of the table is Josh, you're sitting next to Jennifer, and Rex. The cheerleaders down there are Jazz, Marci, and George." I'll admit I was surprised to see a male cheerleader. In the school I came from that would have been suicide, social or otherwise. "Oh, and here comes Brent."

I looked away from Gorgeous guy's eyes to look at the guy I had gone to elementary school with.

"Hey Trina," Brent said, as he took a seat next to Gorgeous guy.

"…and I see you've already been introduced?"

"Yeah Derek, Trina and I go way back," he smirked, and for a moment Derek's eyes narrowed. What was that about? In an instant his smile was back, and I thought maybe I had imagined his expression. When I looked back to Brent I realized I saw something that looked like concern in his eyes, but it was gone as soon as my eyes met his. What was with these guys and their weird facial ticks? I had to admit, I was glad that I could now put a name to Gorgeous guy's face. It would have been really embarrassing to accidentally call him Gorgeous guy.

"So Derek, are you a senior?" I asked, and he seemed pleased that I had turned the conversation towards himself.

"Yeah, hard to believe high school is almost over. Are you a senior too? Where did you move from?"

"Yeah, I'm a senior… and I am from such an obscure and tiny town that it's not even worth mentioning. Brent can vouch for me on that one."

"Oh yeah, so how do you guys know each other?" Derek asked, directing his question at me.

"Oh, Brent used to bully me in elementary school."

"I did not!" Brent said through his mouthful of teriyaki chicken.

"Oh yes you did. I cried many a times because of you."

"Brent, a bully?" Jennifer, the girl with nose ring, snorted with laughter. "No way."

"Hey, I was a tough little kid. Besides I believe my nickname was something along the lines of Tubby, so I had an excuse for being defensive."

"Tubby?" Jennifer burst into laughter, excessive laughter if you ask me.

"In his defense, he is a lot nicer now," I said, trying to stick up for him.

"And attractive, don't forget more attractive," his smirk came back, and I rolled my eyes.

"Derek, are we still going to the pier today?" Rex asked, his deep voice cutting easily through the rest of the conversations going on around the table. Everyone looked at the table looked to see Derek's answer. It was a little weird. Even Josh took his attention away from his music.

"Yeah," Derek said and then his eyes found mine, "You should come with us Trina."

"Nah, she'll probably think it's boring," Brent interjected.

"No she won't. I can tell she'll like it," Derek said.

"Yeah," Jennifer agreed, "You'll love it. There's nobody that doesn't like the pier."

"Wait, there's a body of water around here?" I tried to remember if there was a lake or a river nearby.

"Well, yes, there is a river and lake near here but The Pier isn't an actual pier," Jennifer said before taking a swig of chocolate milk.

"It's a bar/restaurant that we like to hang out at. Josh's parents own it so we get free food and a place to hang out," Derek explained.

"Sounds cool to me," I shrugged and wondered why Brent looked disappointed. Why was everyone acting so weird? Maybe I was just missing out on some big inside joke.

"Great, then you can catch a ride with me," Derek grinned and I sighed internally.

"Whoa, since when did you car get out of the shop?" Rex spoke up, and Derek and him lapsed into a conversation about cars. The bell rang long after we had finished our lunches and everyone shuffled towards the door, tossing their Styrofoam trays into the garbage cans.

Turns out Josh had his next class with me, and so Derek put him in control of taking me to class. I'll admit I was relieved that I had found a group of people to hang out with. Still, Brent's demeanor still bugged me.

"Hey," I said, tapping him on the arm as we made our way out to the hallway, "why didn't you want me to go to The Pier?"

"No reason," he said at first without hesitation. Then he got second thoughts and said, "listen, Derek isn't someone you want to start hanging out with while you're here. In fact, you might want to avoid this whole crowd."

"You're going the wrong direction," Josh spoke before I could reply to Brent, and so I let the conversation drop. Still, it didn't make any sense to me. Why would Brent want me to avoid his own friends?