Cinder kept her head ducked, trying to to draw any attention to herself. But apparently, her friend Iko had other ideas.
"Cinder, isn't this amazing?" She gushed, snapping pictures on her phone and waving at everyone.
Cinder rolled her eyes. "Yeah, really amazing. Come on, let's find our class and get this over with."
When Iko didn't reply, she looked over at her friend, who was playing with her blue braided hair.
Cinder was about to turn into the classroom when Iko grabbed her.
"What?"she whispered.
Frowning, Iko looked Cinder over.
She was wearing baggy cargo pants and a t-shirt with grease stains all over it, and muddy sneakers.
"Stars, Cinder, this is school! Not a garage."
Cinder tucked a loose strand into her ponytail. "Better?"
"That literally did nothing, but whatever." Iko pushed her into homeroom.
A sneering teacher was taking attendance.
"We have Mr. Park? He's the worst!" Iko whispered.
He turned to them. "You're late. Have a seat. Scarlet Benoit?"
"Here," a redhead girl in the back said sharply.
"Bonjour, Scarlet," a boy sitting in the corner murmered, winking at her.
Scarlet glared at him. "Shut up."
"Jacin Clay?"
Cinder stopped paying attention to the teacher and began observing the kids around her, aimlessly poking her fingers through a hole in her shirt.
Finally, Mr. Park got to her. "Cinder Linh?"
"Here," she mumbled.
"Ah, you and Iko were the ones late today. Well, I will mark this down, and should it happen again-" he traced a line across his throat with his finger, his expression dead serious.
A dark haired Asian boy gave Cinder a small smile, like they were in on a secret. She felt her cheeks turn bright red from the unwanted attention, and turned towards Mr. Park as the bell shrieked loudly, startling them all.
"First period," said Mr. Park, "and hurry, you wouldn't want to be late." He glared pointedly at Iko and Cinder.
They quickly left. "Okay, let's see... We have math next. Oh yay! We're both in the advanced class!" Iko said happily.
Despite her carefree, bubbly attitude, Iko was actually very smart, and had a very good memory.
Suddenly, a petite blonde girl tapped Cinder's shoulder. She whirled around.
"Um... you guys are going to, um the... advanced math class right?" the girl stuttered.
"Yep! You're Crescent, right?" Iko replied, probably recalling the name from attendance.
The girl, Crescent, nodded. "But just call me Cress... anyway, could I um, maybe walk with you guys? I don't really know anybody-"
Another delicate voice cut her off. "Oh, well that's terrible!" A pretty girl from homeroom walked over, trailed by a grumpy-looking blonde boy. "I'm Winter. Your roommate, remember?" she said to Cress. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
Cinder rolled her eyes and sighed. "Great, now it's a party."
Iko elbowed her, then introduced them both to Winter before the blonde boy dragged her away, glaring at them all.
"Anyway, Cress, you can walk with us... I just don't really know where it is..." Iko muttered, looking around.
"Right here." Cinder grabbed her arm and pulled her into a classroom, Cress scurrying behind.
After a confusing, tedious math class, Cress's head was spinning. She followed the other two girls- Cinder and Iko - back into the hallway.
"Electives next. Cinder, you and I have Robotics-"
"I know," said Cinder sounding bored.
Cress opened her notebook, then blushed as she turned to the wrong page. That page. Stars, no. She snapped it shut, hoping no one had seen. "Well," she squeaked, her voice an octave too high, "I don't have robotics, so see you at lunch."
She shoved the notebook deep into her bag and ran away.
Stars, why that page? The page with Carswell Thorne's name written all over it. Even though he probably didn't know she existed. He was in her homeroom, but hadn't paid her any attention. She was the only girl he hadn't acknowledged during attendance.
As she walked to her Advanced Computer Programming elective, she tried to push all thoughts of Carswell Thorne far from her mind.
Scarlet was already bored. She'd only been to one class, but it was all pointless, useless information. She hated this school. It was only her first day, but already she missed the farm. She would have much rather been back home than sitting in a classroom, especially with that creepy, nasty teacher Mr. Park, and with that weird kid Carswell trying to flirt with her. Whatever. She'd already seen him do it to a million other girls, so she didn't care anymore.
As she walked with her friend and roommate Emilie to study hall, she ranted about how boring and uneventful this all was.
She had no homework, so in study hall, all she was focused on was fixing the stuck zipper on her red hoodie. She sighed and blew a red curl out of her face, then pulled out her phone and put her earbuds in.
"Scarlet. Scarlet!" Emilie was jabbing her finger into Scarlet's side.
She yanked out her earbuds and looked up. A tall boy with green eyes was towering above her. He'd been in her homeroom, but she could not for the life of her remember his name. "Um, yeah?"
"Could you move your bag?" he muttered.
"Uh, sure..." Scarlet shoved her bag onto the floor, allowing the boy to sit.
Emilie's eyes were wide. She was sitting to the other side of Scarlet.
"Wow, those eyes..." she whispered, looking at the boy's emerald eyes.
Scarlet groaned, then grabbed her left earbud and stuck it back in, leaving the other ear open, then hissed at Emilie: "Stop staring,"
"I'm not," Emilie protested, still staring.
"Yeah, you're not staring and I'm the Queen of France," replied Scarlet sarcastically.
The boy made a sort of growling noise.
"Nice to meet you," Scarlet deadpanned, "I'm Scarlet. Like the hair, before you ask."
"I'm Emilie," Emilie said, twirling a blond curl around her finger.
The boy seemed oblivious to Emilie's flirting, and he frowned as Scarlet stuck her other earbud in and grabbed a pack of gum from her bag.
The boy reached over and snatched a piece.
"What do you think you're doing?" snapped Scarlet.
"Jeez, Ginger, I just wanted some gum." The boy growled again.
Scarlet jumped to her feet. "Give. It. Back. And never, ever call me Ginger."
"Fight me," replied the boy, cocking his head. He seemed more curious than angry.
Scarlet punched him.
In an instant, the teacher was pulling her away, and the boy was smiling. Smiling.
"I'm Wolf," he said, "And it was a pleasure to meet you too, Scarlet."
Winter tried to ignore the boys who kept coming over to her. She tried to ignore Jacin glaring at every one of them.
She was grateful he was there, of course, but was beginning to think that she'd never have any friends. She'd waved at the girls she'd met earlier, Iko and Cinder, when she'd passed them in the hallway, and also made it a point to talk to Cress, her roommate. Though Cress always stayed in the shadows, and barely spoke.
The school was absolutely amazing, every aspect of it. As she'd gazed around in wonder, Jacin had rolled her eyes beside her. She was happy he was there, because she could never have imagined going to boarding school without her best friend, but she felt bad that he always had to be near her.
Winter knew he'd hated the Sewing elective she'd took.
"Jacin, you can leave and go do what you want," she said to him, "here, they have a Medical Microbiology course, don't you want to take this?"
"I'm fine, Winter," he said, "I don't mind."
"Please, Jacin. I saw you in Sewing," she laughed, remembering how he'd sat in the corner, refusing to do anything.
Jacin sighed. "You'll be okay, right?"
"Of course, Sir Clay," Winter joked, stealing the title from the Princess and the Guard, a game they'd played so long ago.
"If you say so, Princess," Jacin cracked a small smile before walking away to Medical Microbiology.
Iko collapsed onto her bed in the dorm room she shared with Cinder, scrolling through texts on her phone.
"Carswell is having a party," she told Cinder.
"You're not going," Cinder replied.
Iko frowned. "Why? I bet Kai will be there," she tried.
"Who?" asked Cinder.
"Um, Kaito. The boy you were blushing at this morning."
"I was not," said Cinder, blushing as she spoke.
Iko rolled over on the bed, flipping her head so she was looking at Cinder upside-down.
"Anyway," Cinder continued, "we have homework."
Stars, she'd forgotten about homework. Iko pushed herself up, grabbed her bag, and dumped its contents onto her bed. "Ugh, why do we have so much?!"
Cinder flipped open a binder. "I wrote down all of our homework."
"Thank you, because I sure didn't." Iko replied, coming to look at the binder over Cinder's shoulder. The list of assignments was just so long.
"Well so much for that party. Or any party. Ever." She grumbled, grabbing her books. "We'd better get started."