Alderhaven
The first thing Sara noticed about her new school was how loud it was.
Not loud in the way her old school had been, where the noise usually came from the same familiar groups of people who had known each other for years. This was different. Voices overlapped everywhere—laughter spilling through open doors, lockers slamming shut, shoes squeaking against the polished floor, someone calling a name from halfway across the hallway.
Everyone seemed to know exactly where they were going.
Everyone except her.
Sara tightened her fingers around the strap of her bag and stared at the piece of paper in her hand for what had to be the fifth time.
Room 214.
It should have been simple.
Second floor. Room 214.
Except she was currently standing beside a staircase that somehow seemed to lead in three different directions, surrounded by students who moved around her as if she were an inconvenient piece of furniture.
Perfect.
Her first day at a new school.
Her last year of high school.
And she was already going to be late.
Sara exhaled slowly and tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear.
Starting over in senior year had never been part of the plan.
She had imagined spending her final year surrounded by familiar faces, complaining about exams with people she had known since middle school and pretending graduation wasn’t approaching faster than any of them wanted to admit.
Instead, her family had moved, and now she was here.
New town- Alderhaven
New school- Oakridge High
and no friends
Exactly the kind of situation Sara hated.
She looked down at the paper again.
Maybe if she stared at it long enough, Room 214 would magically appear.
“You’re definitely lost.”
Sara froze.
The voice came from somewhere behind her.
When she turned around, she found two boys standing a few feet away.
One of them was grinning at her.
He had an easy, mischievous expression, like he had already decided that whatever was happening was entertaining.
The other boy stood beside him with his hands in the pockets of his jacket.
Dark hair fell loosely across his forehead, slightly messy in a way that somehow looked intentional even if it probably wasn’t.
Sara’s gaze stopped on him for half a second too long.
He smiled.
Just a small smile.
But it was warm.
Her brain immediately forgot how words worked.
The first boy tilted his head.
“Definitely lost,” he repeated.
Sara looked down at the paper in her hand.
“I... I’m looking for...”
She cleared her throat.
“Room 214.”
The boy with the grin glanced at his friend dramatically.
“Michael, we’ve got a serious emergency.”
Michael.
Sara stored the name away without meaning to.
The dark-haired boy laughed quietly.
“It’s upstairs,” Michael said.
His voice was calm.
Sara nodded.
“Okay. Thank you.”
She turned toward the stairs.
“Wrong stairs,” the other boy said.
Sara stopped.
Of course.
She slowly turned back around.
The boy was trying very hard not to laugh.
Michael gave him a look.
“John.”
“What?” John said innocently. “I’m helping.”
Michael looked back at Sara.
“Room 214 is in the other building. The numbers here start with three.”
“Oh.”
Sara felt heat climbing into her cheeks.
She glanced at the giant number painted on the wall beside her.
300–340.
How had she missed that?
“I knew that,” she murmured.
John’s grin widened.
“Obviously.”
Michael nudged him with his shoulder.
“Ignore him.”
“I am extremely helpful.”
“You’re extremely annoying.”
“That’s basically the same thing.”
For the first time that morning, Sara almost smiled.
Almost.
John noticed anyway.
“There we go,” he said. “She can smile. I was starting to think we scared her.”
Sara immediately looked down.
Michael laughed softly.
“Come on. We’re going that way.”
Sara blinked.
“You are?”
“Yeah,” John said. “Unless Michael has secretly changed schools in the last thirty seconds.”
Michael shook his head.
“Our class is in 214.”
Sara stared at him.
“Your class?”
“Unfortunately,” John answered.
Michael looked at him.
“Unfortunately?”
“I’m thinking about your suffering, not mine.”
Sara followed them before they could continue arguing.
John walked slightly ahead, talking enough for all three of them.
“So, new girl—”
“Sara,” she said quietly.
He looked over his shoulder.
“Sara. Good. Much better than calling you new girl all year.”
Sara wasn’t entirely convinced he wouldn’t do exactly that.
“I’m John,” he continued. “Professional guide, occasional academic genius, full-time victim of Michael’s terrible personality.”
Michael glanced at Sara.
“None of that is true.”
“The guide part is true.”
“You almost sent her up the wrong staircase.”
“I stopped her.”
“After she started walking.”
“Details.”
Sara lowered her head, hiding another smile.
She wasn’t used to people speaking to her so easily.
At her old school, she had friends, but even there she had never been the person who walked into a room and immediately started conversations. She preferred listening.
Watching.
Learning people quietly before deciding what she wanted them to know about her.
John clearly had the opposite philosophy.
“So,” he continued, walking backward now, “where’d you transfer from?”
Sara told him.
“That’s far.”
She nodded.
“Parents?”
Another nod.
“You’re going to have to use actual sentences eventually,” John said.
“Leave her alone,” Michael said.
John turned toward him.
“I’m being friendly.”
“You’re interrogating her.”
“I’m gathering information.”
Sara looked toward Michael.
He smiled at her again.
It was strange.
There was nothing particularly dramatic about it.
He wasn’t trying to impress her.
He just seemed... kind.
Like smiling at someone was the easiest thing in the world.
“Sorry about him,” Michael said.
“It’s okay.”
Those were the first two words she had managed to say to him without almost forgetting how to breathe.
Progress.
John suddenly stopped in front of a door.
“And here we are.”
Sara looked above it.
Relief washed through her.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Michael said.
John opened the door and made an exaggerated gesture.
“Your kingdom awaits.”
Sara hesitated before walking inside.
The classroom was already half full.
Students were gathered around desks, talking in little groups. A girl by the window was fixing her makeup using her phone camera. Someone in the back was throwing a folded piece of paper at his friend.
Sara’s stomach tightened again.
This was the part she hated.
Walking into a room where everyone already belonged.
Michael and John moved toward the back without hesitation.
Sara stood near the door for a moment too long.
Then she spotted an empty desk near the middle of the room.
She sat down quickly.
A second later, she heard chairs moving behind her.
John’s voice followed.
“Michael, move.”
“No.”
“You took my seat.”
“There are no assigned seats.”
“This has been my seat since sophomore year.”
“Then maybe it’s time for personal growth.”
Sara stared at the notebook on her desk.
They were sitting directly behind her.
She didn’t know why that knowledge made her suddenly very aware of her posture.
She sat a little straighter.
Ridiculous.
A girl dropped into the chair beside her.
“Please tell me you’re new.”
Sara turned.
The girl had dark blonde hair pulled into a loose ponytail and bright eyes that made her seem immediately approachable.
Sara nodded.
The girl exhaled dramatically.
“Thank God.”
Sara blinked.
“What?”
“I’m Juliet.”
“Sara.”
Juliet smiled.
“I know.”
Sara frowned slightly.
Juliet pointed toward the back.
“John announced your name to half the hallway.”
Sara’s eyes widened.
“He did?”
“I’m exaggerating.”
A pause.
“Probably.”
Sara laughed before she could stop herself.
Juliet grinned.
“Okay. I like you.”
That simple sentence caught Sara completely off guard.
“You don’t know me.”
“True. You could secretly be terrible.”
“I’m not.”
“Good enough for me.”
The teacher walked into the room before Sara could answer.
Everyone slowly settled down.
Sara opened her notebook.
The teacher began talking about senior year, expectations, assignments, deadlines, university applications, attendance—the usual first-day speech that Sara had heard some version of every year.
But her attention kept drifting.
Not intentionally.
At least, that was what she told herself.
She could hear John whispering behind her every few minutes.
Most of the time, Michael responded with a quiet laugh or told him to shut up.
Once, Sara heard her name.
Her pencil stopped moving.
“Do you think she’s always that quiet?” John whispered.
“John.”
“What?”
“Leave her alone.”
“I’m just asking.”
Sara stared very seriously at the sentence she had written.
It made absolutely no sense.
Beside her, Juliet leaned closer.
“Don’t worry about them.”
Sara glanced at her.
“About who?”
Juliet gave her a knowing look.
“You know exactly who.”
Sara’s face warmed.
“I don’t.”
“Sure.”
Sara lowered her voice.
“Are they always like this?”
“John? Yes. He physically cannot stop talking.”
Sara smiled.
“And Michael?”
Juliet glanced behind them briefly.
Sara tried not to do the same.
“Michael’s nice.”
That was all she said.
Sara waited.
Juliet raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You expected more.”
“No.”
“You definitely expected more.”
Sara looked back at her notebook.
Juliet smiled to herself.
“He’s just... Michael. Everyone likes him.”
For some reason, Sara didn’t particularly like hearing that.
She didn’t understand why.
She had known him for approximately twelve minutes.
Juliet continued.
“He’s friends with basically everyone. Teachers like him. Freshmen like him. My grandmother would probably like him, and they’ve never met.”
Sara laughed quietly.
“John too?”
“John thinks everyone likes him.”
From behind them came a whisper.
“They do.”
Juliet turned around.
“Were you listening?”
John leaned forward between their desks.
“No. You were just talking loudly about me.”
“We weren’t.”
“I heard my name.”
“That doesn’t mean the conversation was about you.”
“It usually is.”
Michael pulled John backward by the collar of his shirt.
“You’re going to get us kicked out on the first day.”
John sat back.
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
The teacher looked toward them.
“Mr. Carter?”
John immediately sat straight.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Would you like to teach the class?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Then perhaps you’d like to stop talking.”
“Absolutely.”
A few students laughed.
Sara covered her mouth.
When she glanced back without thinking, Michael was already looking at her.
Their eyes met.
For one second.
Maybe two.
Then he smiled.
Sara immediately turned around.
Her heart was beating embarrassingly fast.
Juliet noticed.
Of course she did.
But, thankfully, she didn’t say anything.
Sara glanced back at Michael once more. He was smiling at something John had said, easy and warm in the way he seemed to be with everyone.
That was the strange thing about him.
Michael was kind. Friendly. The sort of person who made people feel comfortable without even trying.
And yet, there was something distant about him too.
He could talk to anyone, laugh with anyone, make everyone feel noticed—but somehow, Sara had the feeling that very few people actually knew him.
And for reasons she couldn’t explain, that only made her want to know more.
