Chapter: 4

The next day, I woke up to my alarm ringing loudly. I was really tired because I didn’t sleep well at night. I don’t know what it was, and why it was following me around. The fear of that creature stopped me from sleeping, and even when I fell asleep, my brain was on full alert mode. I don’t know what is happening to me and why it is happening, but I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it because today was the first day of my school and I had to get ready, or I will be late. 

The worst thing about this town is that it’s surrounded by forest, and that is the reason that the creature followed me, my room is facing the forest. I can’t do anything about the location of the house, but I can be careful. With that thought in mind, I started getting ready for school. After getting ready, I looked at myself in the mirror, in front of me was standing a tired girl with grey/green eyes and long brown hair. I considered myself beautiful and wasn’t insecure about myself (most of the time). 

Today I decided to wear blue jeans, a crop top, black boots, and a jacket because it was cold outside. I liked the weather here; it was neither too cold nor too warm (mostly never warm). I just hoped that the amount of rainfall is less here because I hate it with a passion, it leaves everything wet, and there are a lot of insects around. At the thought of insects, I shuddered.

My mom called me down to have breakfast, and I quickly went down taking my things with me. I only had fifteen minutes, so I had to eat quickly. I said, “good morning” to my parents and they replied back with the same. I hurriedly ate my breakfast and then went outside to get in my car. My parents told me to have a good day, I just nodded and said, “you too” with a smile and a wave.

The school was not far away from my home, but I still had to go there early to get my schedule and find my classes. I arrived at the school, and it was quite a big school with two buildings and a huge ground. I parked my car and got out. I saw that the people in the parking lot were looking at me with a strange expression like I was an alien coming to kill them or something.

I just shrugged and thought maybe they were not used to seeing new students. I mean it was a small town after all. There were some people who indeed there own business, but the majority was looking at me as if waiting for me to pull out a gun. It was strange. They were not being rude, but nor were they being friendly.

I went inside one of the buildings, ignoring everyone because it was the same scene as outside. After looking around, I found the office and saw a nice woman sitting in the reception area.  

I said, “Excuse me?” In a polite voice looking around, it was a nice place with peach-colored walls and benches for people waiting.

She looked up, smiled, and asked, “Yes, how may I help you?” She had warm brown eyes and black hair pulled up in a bun. 

I replied, “I’m a new student here. I came to get my schedule” with the same polite voice looking at her nervously. 

She said, “Oh yes, welcome! I will give you the schedule, please wait” smiling, I nodded my head and smiled back. She started typing on her computer. After waiting for some time, she printed a sheet of paper and handed it to me.

She said, “Here you go, if you ever need any help, then you can tell me” looking at me with those warm eyes.

I nodded my head and said, “Thank you” smiling at her.

I came outside and looked down at my schedule. I already had a map of the school, so I hope I will get to my class on time without asking for help from anyone. My first period was English. After looking around for some time I finally found my locker (The locker code and number was given to me with the map.) I dumped all my books in it and took everything I needed for English out. 

I still had five minutes left to find my class, so I went around looking for my class. The map made it easy to locate my class but I was looking like a fool running around trying to find my class which was embarrassing. After two minutes I finally found it and sighed with relief. I opened the door and everyone in the classroom turned around to face me. My face turned red, I don’t know if it was anger or embarrassment, maybe both. 

I just wanted to scream at them and asked them to stop looking at me like that but instead, I ignored them and looked around for a seat. I found one at the back of the classroom besides a girl. She was the only one not looking at me intensely, only looked at me for a moment then averted her eyes, I was thankful for that. 

She was looking at her phone, I went and sat beside her. She looked up and smiled at me, I smiled back. She kept her phone aside and said, “Hi, my name is Angelina Smith and you are?” grinning with friendly, welcoming eyes.

I smiled and replied, “Hey, it’s nice to meet you, my name is Lily Johnson.” I could tell that she had a bubbly, energetic personality. I know we can be good friends.

Before she could say anything else our teacher arrived. We could not say anything now so sat straight again facing the teacher. She said, “Good morning class, as you all know or if you don’t then let me introduce myself, my name is Miranda Cooper and you will call me Mrs. Copper.” smiling at us looking around. She was an old lady with nearly gray hair and a wrinkled face.

She looked at me and said, “So, we have a new student this year, which is a rare sight in our school. Please come forward and introduce yourself.” softly still smiling encouragingly towards me.

I stood up and went in front of the class standing beside Mrs. Cooper. I took a deep breath and said, “Hello everyone, my name is Lily Johnson, I am from new york and my hobbies are reading, drawing, writing, etc.” 

When I said I am from new york everyone started murmuring, I could understand their confusion, why a girl of a big city doing in this small town?

Mrs. Cooper asked all the students to keep quiet and asked me to sit down. I sat down and found Angelina smiling at me, “That was nice” she said. I thanked her and then Mrs. Cooper said, “Alright students lets start the class.”