Chapter One
“Alright, Noah, this is it.”
I looked up at my dad from my spot in the back seat of his Toyota Corolla. His eyes were positively beaming at me through the rearview mirror.
“Dad...” I warned. He was acting like I was going off to some expensive private school that costed millions of dollars and not a public school that was near our new house.
“Don’t worry, son. If you listen to your teachers and do your work, everything will be fine.” Dad said, turning around in his seat a bit to face me. I let out a shaky breath and looked down at my feet.
“Do I have to do this?” I asked him.
“Yes. This is one of the only schools around here and I want you to get a good education and go to a good college.” Dad told me. I didn’t say anything and fiddled with one of the zippers on my backpack.
“Noah, you’re acting like dad is sending you off to one of those military camps where the instructors yell at people a lot.” my older sister Charlotte scoffed. I glared at her.
Lucky, Charlotte I thought to myself. She doesn’t have to go to a stupid school where you don’t know anybody and get stared at all the time...
“You better get going, Noah or you’ll be late on your first day of school.” Dad said, interrupting my thoughts. I bit my lip and shrugged on my backpack, before opening the car door.
“Wait, Noah.”
I stopped and looked at Dad, who was giving me a serious look.
“Try and make some friends this year. If you do, school will be much more fun and will go by much faster for you.”
“Dad, you know how I am around people I hardly even know.”
“At least try to talk to people, okay?” Dad told me. “It’s very important to try and come out of your shell a bit and do things that you’re not comfortable with. It’ll benefit you in the long run, trust me on this.”
“I’ll try.” I muttered. “Bye, Dad. Bye Charlotte.”
With that, I made my way towards the entrance of the school, dreading the long day ahead of me.
~~~~~
The second I made my way into the school, I felt like I had stepped into a concert. People were everywhere, talking loudly to their friends, chasing each other, some even screaming their heads off. I tightened my grip on my backpack strap, glancing around, hoping to find some sort of help. Finally, I spotted a door near the entrance with a small sign that said “front office” next to it. I made my way towards the door and put my hand on the handle. Taking a deep breath in, I pushed it open.
A word I could use to describe the office was “quiet”. The only sound I could hear was the tapping as a lady who was sitting behind the front desk typed on her keyboard.
“Excuse me?” I muttered to the lady. She stopped typing and looked up at me over her glasses.
“Yes?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
“I-I’m new here and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do and where I’m supposed to go.”
“Ah, I see. Mr. O’Keeffe mentioned something about a new student.” the lady said, suddenly interested.
I watched as she grabbed two pieces of paper and what looked like a card on a lanyard from the desk behind her and placed them on the desk in front of her.
“This is your ID card.” she said mentioning to the card on the lanyard, which I now noticed had my first and last name on it, the picture that I took in 9th grade at my old school and a barcode. “You have to have it on you at all times throughout the school day. You can use it to check out books, pay for lunch, and go to the bathroom.”
" And this is your schedule.” she explained, mentioning to the smaller piece of paper. “It will show you what classes you have, who your teachers are, and what classroom you have you to go to. The other piece of paper is a map of the school, so you know where each classroom is located.” I just nodded and took the lanyard and the two pieces of paper. I shoved the lanyard in the back pocket of my pants and clutched the pieces of paper in my hand.
“Speaking of classrooms and teachers, I’m pretty sure you have to get your textbooks.” the lady continued.
“Where do we get them?” I asked.
“You can get them from the library, of course. When you leave, just go straight until you get to the stairs, and turn left. Ask Mrs. Long for some textbooks and she’ll give them to you.”
I nodded, thanked her and opened the door. Following the lady’s directions, I found the library. I made my way up to the desk where Mrs. Long, a lady with curly brown hair, was scanning some books using a scanner. She looked up as soon as she noticed me.
“Hello, how may I help you?” she asked.
“Um, the lady at the front office said I need some textbooks.” I explained, taking off my backpack.
“I see. Are you new?” Mrs. Long asked.
“Yes...”
“Okay then. Wait here while I grab some textbooks for you.”
She went into a room behind her that - from what I could see - probably held some school textbooks. A few seconds later, she returned carrying three textbooks.
“Do you have your lD?” she asked. I pulled my ID out of my back pocket and handed it to her. She scanned it and then scanned the textbooks.
“Thank you.” I said, taking my lD and textbooks.
“You’re welcome. Good luck on your first day.” Mrs. Long smiled.
I muttered another thanks as I put my lanyard back in my pants pocket and put the textbooks in my backpack. When I put my backpack on again, I winced at the weight it added to my sort of fragile shoulders.
When I exited the library, a nasally bell rang throughout the school. I watched as people walked to their first period classrooms. Happy to get an excuse to take off my backpack, I sat down on a bench outside the library and looked at my schedule to see what I had for my first period class. As my eyes scanned the paper, I felt like my heart plummeted down to my feet.
Physical Education with Mr. Greene
This is going to go well. I thought.
