Chapter 1 ~ New Girl
As I roamed the halls of my brand-new boarding school, completely lost as I try to find my locker, I bumped into someone, stumbled back before I completely fell on my butt. I internally cursed at myself for doing the exact thing I told myself I wasn't going to do: to humiliate myself. I braced myself for a ton of laughs and fingers pointed in my direction but when I looked up, I'm met with a sense of comfort as a male with kind green eyes looking into my ocean blue eyes. "Are you okay," he asked as he offered me his hand to help me up, "You took quite a tumble there." I nodded as I grabbed his hand, and he helped me to my feet.
"I haven't seen you around here before, are you new?" He then said. I nodded again and replied shyly, "Yea...umm... I'm new... I just transferred." He smiled gently and said, "Nice to meet you, I'm Makoa, What's your name?" I smiled a bit back and replied, "Lucia...um... Nice to meet you too." He asked me with a gentle tone, "Did you need help with something because you looked lost?" I then nodded and said while fidgeting with my long black curly hair, "Umm.... my locker... I.... uhhh... can't seem to find it."
He smiled and replied, "What's your locker number? Maybe I can help."
I slowly showed him the piece of paper that had my classes, my lunch number, and my locker number, as well as what dorm I'm in. His face lit up like he just realized something. "Your locker is close to mine!" He said excitedly. I nodded and smiled at his excitement as he then gestured for me to follow him. As he started walking off, I followed behind him through the semi-crowded hallway.
After a couple minutes of maneuvering through people, he stops at an empty part of the hallway by a row of lockers. He points to locker "248" and said, "Here's your locker!" I nodded and replied, "Umm... Thank you Makoa." He replied with a smile, "You're very welcome, Lucia!" I smiled, unlocked my locker and put an extra binder in it. I then closed it and locked it as I turned towards him.
I asked, "So umm... Where's your locker? You... umm... did say it was close to mine. Sorry... umm... if I say um a lot."
"It's totally fine, I understand that being in a new environment can be nerve-wracking, especially scary too," he replied calmly. He then said, "Follow me and I'll show you." I nodded and followed him a couple steps until he stopped and pointed to locker "242" while he smiled. "It is close," I responded quietly and smiled back. He gasped and said happily, "Hey! You didn't stutter that time!"
I nodded and said, "I only do that if I'm...umm... really, really nervous or... umm... anxious and even though it might have... umm... been the right thing to do, being in a... umm... new place does make my anxiety spike." He looked confused for a moment and asked, "What do you mean by "it might have been the right thing to do?" I hesitated for a moment, contemplating if I should tell him the honest truth, considering I just met him or lie. He noticed my hesitation then said, "It's okay, you can trust me but if you don't feel comfortable, that's okay as well." It was at that moment that I decided to half-lie, I mean there's no harm in doing that, right?
"My parents decided... umm... to send me here to... umm... give me more freedom," I said as normal as possible.
"Oh, that's actually sweet! You being more independent is definitely a good thing!" He said cheerfully with a smile. I internally sighed of relief as he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. I replied, "Yea, it is... umm... a good thing." He smiled back, checked the time on his phone, and then asked, "You wanna go get breakfast? I think the cafe is still open." I nodded and replied, "Sure, I don't really know where anything is yet so."
"Well, let's change that, shall we? Come on, follow me!" He said eagerly as he gestured for me to follow him. I smiled and replied softly, "Okay, I will." He started walking away and I slowly followed behind him but then I started keeping up with him as he pointed out where certain things were; different classes I'm in, bathrooms, even the library, etc. After the short tour, we finally made it to the cafe. The many scents that I smelt in there when I first stepped in was astonishing as it engulfed me.
"So, what do you feel like eating for breakfast?" He asked curiously. I looked around the cafe for a moment and asked softly, "Do they have bagels?" He nodded and then replied with a smile, "They have a lot here, half the time, I don't know how they can keep up. Anyway, bagels they have are regular bagels for if you want cream cheese on it or they also have bagel sandwiches like a bacon, egg, and cheese one or a sausage, egg, and cheese one." My face must have lit up when he said the second option because he started busting out laughing. "I'm gonna guess the sausage, egg, and cheese one is the one you want, right?" He asked while he smiled.
I smiled excitedly and nodded as I then asked, "Do they have those... umm... little potato discs?" He nodded and replied, "Yes, they do! Do you like smoothies?" I nodded happily as we started walking towards the bagel line. "What kind is your favorite?" He asked curiously. I thought for a moment before I had replied, "Maybe... umm... a mango, pineapple one or a strawberry banana one with more bananas than strawberries because I don't really like my smoothies sour so."
He chuckled for a moment then replied, "Yea, I don't blame you." I smiled and nodded as we reached the line. I then grabbed a tray then grabbed a sausage, egg, and cheese bagel when we see them. I noticed he grabbed a bacon one instead then I grabbed a tray of potato discs. He grabbed two trays of the potato discs then we made our way toward the end of the line where I had put my lunch number in and gave the lunch lady a twenty-dollar bill. "Can I... umm... have a smoothie please?" I asked.
She nodded and replied, "Mango, Pineapple good with you?" I nodded back, smiling. She makes the smoothie and comes back, giving it to me. "Thank you, hope you have... umm... a wonderful morning." I said as I started walking out of the line and waited off to the side for Makoa to finish up. He finished and then we walked around the cafe to see if we can find an empty table to sit at.
As we walked, I kept hearing murmurs and people looking at us. We finally sat down at the farthest table in the cafe. "Soo... umm... what's the deal with all the stares?" I asked curiously. He looked around the cafe for a moment, waved his hand like it was no big deal and replied, "Pfft... don't worry too much about that, they're probably just jealous of how pretty you are." I smiled a little bit, wondering if I actually did look pretty or if he was lying.
I hesitantly replied, "Umm... Thank you. Nobody has ever said I was pretty before." He then gasped and said, "You are pretty Lucia." I nodded and replied again, "Well... umm... Thank you for the compliment, Makoa." He smiled and said, "You're very welcome!" I smiled back as I unwrapped my bagel sandwich and took a bite. "Oh my gosh, this is delicious!" I said, surprised.
He chuckled and said, "What? Did you expect it to taste bad?" I looked at him a little dumbfounded and said, "Well... umm... Yea, all my schools had horrible tasting school lunches." He replied, "Well... I don't know where exactly you went to school before here, but this school has amazing food and if they didn't, the students would go hungry, they would probably get sued by a lot of angry parents and possibly shut down." I nodded and said, "That's true, that would be... umm... really bad." He nodded and chuckled.
We continued eating and chatting until we were done with our food then I got up and threw my garbage away, still having my half drank smoothie in my hand as we walked. "So hey, I couldn't help noticing your dorm room on your schedule," he randomly said. I nodded and replied, "Umm... yea, what about it?" He chuckled and said, "Well... this school has co-ed dorm rooms so that means that sometimes boys' and girls' room together." I choked a bit on my smoothie hearing that.
"They allow that here?" I asked once I calmed myself.
He chuckled and nodded then replied, "As long as we're cordial and not have you know... sexual ideations then they are pretty much the most chill about rules." I nodded and smiled a little. "Well, that's... umm... pretty interesting," I said while I finished my smoothie and threw it away in a nearby trashcan. He nodded and then replied, "Yea it is and a bit shocking that staff trusts us that much." I nodded and asked, "Soooo... why did you bring up... umm... the dorm rooms?"
He got excited and replied with a smile, "We're roommates, that's why!" I stopped walking and asked, "Really?" He looked at me then reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a key with a blue circular tag attached to it. He showed me the tag and it read, "262" on it. I gasped with excitement and said, "Wow, that's so cool! We're going to be roommates!"
He chuckled at my reaction and said, "You seem pretty happy that we are roommates." I nodded and replied, "Well... umm... you are my first friend here so." He nodded and said with a smile, "That's true, but I'm sure you'll find more friends!" I hesitantly nodded and replied, "I hope so." He nodded and said, "Don't lose hope! It is only your first day and you're really sweet so I'm positive you're going to make more friends."
I shuffled a bit on my feet and nodded then replied, "Thank you so much for all the nice things you say." He chuckled and said with a hint of gleam, "Honestly, I'm just being me but you're so welcome!" I smiled at what he said as we continued walking. After a bit, I asked curiously, "Speaking of dorms... umm... where do we go to get the room keys?" He looked at me, confused and asked, "You still haven't gotten your key?"
I shook my head and replied, "No... umm... I haven't yet, I slept in a hotel room last night." He checked the time on his phone and said, "Well, classes are about to start but maybe around lunch, we can possibly go get your key. If not lunch, then maybe at break time or even after school." I nodded and replied, "Do we... umm... even have the same break or lunch times?" He pulled out his schedule from his messenger bag to check as I held mine next to his. After a moment, he replied, "mm... it looks like we do have the same lunch times but not break but that doesn't mean I won't come check on you during break sometimes."
I chuckled at his response and smiled. I said, "You don't have to... umm... do that Makoa, I'm sure I'll be fine. After school sounds perfect though as I still need to check out of my hotel room." He nodded and replied while smiling, "That does sound perfect and maybe I could take you out to dinner. I could show you the best restaurants to go to and show you the best hangout spots. How does that sound?" I smiled when hearing that and nodded with excitement. He chuckled and said, "I'll meet you in the library then after school." I smiled happily and said, "Perfect." We walked off to our classes as the bell had rung, excited for later.
