It was never easy being the new student to a school. In fact, it was horrifying. Once you leave everything you know, everything you love behind, it's like going into a different universe, into a different way of life. Even if you had only moved across state.
April Jeanette Mendez was a quiet girl. She didn't have many friends but not that that mattered now, she was starting from the very bottom again, walking into a new high school with new faces, teachers and classes. She lived with her mother and baby sister alone. Things were hard for them, her mother didn't exactly have the greatest pay in jobs, but they managed to save up enough to move house, away from her father.
She liked school, when she wasn't getting picked on. She didn't know what it was… Was it her glasses, her height, or was she just an easy target. She was hoping this school year would be different, and maybe her new school would deliver some new friends her way. She could only hope.
"Good luck,sweetheart. I know you'll be just fine." AJ's mother, Sandra said, standing at the door to see her daughter off to her first day of school.
"Thanks, mom." AJ smiled, wrapping her arms around her mother, taking a deep breath and heading for the gate that closed their house in, walking out and onto the pavement as she set on her tracks for her first day of school.
She had all kinds of nerves, and not good nerves. She was scared that she wouldn't fit in with anyone. She'd already gone through a year of hell last year with her father practically going to war with her mother, now she just wanted to settle down into a nice school, have a few nice friends, and enjoy her right to education.
It wasn't a long walk to the school, hints to why she never got the school bus. She stood outside of the gates, her back slung over her shoulder and through her body. It would have been so easy to just walk away and sit in a diner for the majority of the day like she began to do in her old school towards the end of the year, but she had to face this, or else she never would.
She could see that there were the obvious cliques in the school. The pretty cheerleaders, the jocks, chess club, guys who think they're cool enough to be in a band, eco friendly geeks, emos and pretty much every other category you could put teenagers in. She didn't really fit into any of they categories, which was what bothered her and scared her the most.
She didn't want to spend her full day with a uneasy stomach and a dreading feeling, she wanted to at least pretend she was feeling ok about her first day. She was good at hiding her feelings. She just hoped she wouldn't make a fool of herself and that someone would be so kind to show her around and acknowledge that she was new.
"Ok, class… I'd like you to meet our new student, all the way from the north side of Chicago. April." Her sociology teacher said as the class just mumbled like the unenthusiastic seventeen year olds they were.
AJ couldn't wait to just sit down, she hated going into every class and having to stand up in front of everyone to be introduced. Especially when have the kids didn't even give a damn if she was new or not.
Her classes were pretty basic. She had English, maths, sociology, chemistry, spanish, art and history. So far it was going rather well, until lunch came around the corner and she found herself in an ugly situation of having nowhere to sit. The only places to sit were at tables where people were already sitting at. She couldn't stand about all day, she knew she had to pluck up some courage and ask someone if she could sit beside them, they didn't have to talk to her, she just needed a seat.
She looked around and picked the easiest table to ask, a few guys and girls.
"Hey, this seat is taken." A boy looked up at AJ as she stood up straight and nodded, she knew fine well the seat wasn't taken. She was practically the only one standing up in the full cafeteria.
"Oh… Ok. Sorry." AJ said as the boy looked at her tray of food.
"Can I have your apple?" He asked as AJ tilted her head with confusion. Was it a joke, or was he being serious.
"S-Sure." She said, ignoring the fact that she was actually looking forward to eating her apple, watching the boy grab it from her tray and start throwing it around the group to his friends. She rolled her eyes and turned her back, taking the packed sandwich from her tray and throwing the rest of the food in the trash along with the tray, heading out of the cafeteria, and the school building for example.
She found a quiet spot round the side of the building, sitting down on the grass with her legs in a basket, leaning against the bricked wall as she opened her sandwich. She didn't know why she even thought she would be able to fit in with anyone, or even be able to talk to anyone. She just felt invisible.
She woke up with such a positive feeling about this year and now she just felt like everything was already falling apart. It was beginning to make her lose her appetite.
She took her phone out, rolling her eyes at all the good luck and reassuring text messages from her mother, throwing her phone back in her bag and running her hands through her hair. She couldn't wait to go home to her mom and just cry about how much she hated this place already.
"Who are you?" A sudden voice came from above her as she looked up at the young boy standing looking down at her. He had long blonde hair from her viewing, that was tied back and hidden under a cubs hat.
"I'm April." AJ said at the abrupt question.
"Well, April… you're sorta sitting on my spot." The boy said with an inconvenient smile.
AJ looked around the opened spaces beside her where the boys could have sat and nodded to herself, "Of course." She smiled, beginning to put her things in her bag, ready to move. She couldn't believe she was even getting moved from sitting outside.
"You don't have to go anywhere." The boy laughed, "I just hope you don't mind me sitting next to you." The boy said as he sat down beside her, keeping his distance but still close enough to make her feel accompanied.
"I don't." AJ smiled, nice to actually speak to someone for the first time since she got here.
"How come I've never seen you around before?" The boy asked her, unpacking his sandwich with his mildly tattooed hands, watching as she picked the grass and smiled at the ground.
"I'm new." She told him, "I'm from across state. I tried to sit in the cafeteria but that didn't really work out for me." She said, "What's your name?" She asked politely, looking up at the young boy who she assumed was maybe a year or two older than her. She appreciated him being civil with her. No one else had.
"I'm Phil. But… just call me Punk." He smiled as she chuckled.
"Punk?" AJ chuckled a little.
"I don't know… the tattoo's, the music, the lip piercing." Punk shrugged as AJ smiled. He was sweet. She wouldn't class him as her type… not that she'd ever even been with a boy to know what her type was, but there was something about him that gave her a good feeling in her body.
"Don't you have… friends?" AJ wondered, not wanting that to come off as a cheeky question.
"No." Punk said, "Their heads are all up their ass in there." Punk pointed back to the school, "I don't even think people know I exist." Punk said, getting a kick out of the fact that he was very much a loner.
"I know how you feel." AJ smiled to him.
Punk loved how simple the young girl was. She was natural and pure and had the most sweetest smile he'd ever seen. She was perhaps the only person who had noticed him in his years of being at school.
"So why'd you move?" Punk asked curiously as AJ hugged her knees to her chest.
"My mom just thought it'd be best for me and my sister." AJ turned him. He was nice, but she didn't trust him just yet, not enough to tell him about everything that had happened.
"Parents huh? They suck." Punk said,
"No… fathers suck." AJ corrected Punk, "I don't know where I'd be without my mom." She admitted. Her mother was always there for her when she was upset, which was a lot. But who could blame her, after everything that gone on before they moved.
"So… what's your plans for tonight then?" Punk asked her as he finished his sandwich off and moved on to his chips in which he shared with AJ.
"I'm probably going to go home, moan to my mom about this place, put my pyjamas on and eat ice cream while watching Buffy the Vampire slayer." AJ said as Punk chuckled.
"Sounds awesome." He smiled to her, finding that his life wasn't all that different from this young girls. From what he heard, she hated her father… little bit like himself.
Soon enough after more small talking, the school bell rang to end lunch which saddened AJ. She was enjoying talking to Punk. It was nice to feel like someone actually cared about what she had to say and how she personally felt about joining a school. They parted their ways without saying much. She could only hope he would be there tomorrow, or else she would be pretty much alone.
Phillip Jack Brooks wasn't particularly a guy most people knew, in fact, he would almost bet his life that no one even knew his name in school, and he wasn't even a new student. But he liked it that way. No one really picked on him, he didn't know if it was just an impression he gave off for people to not interact with him, but he was glad, the last thing he needed in his life was bullies.
He lived a simple, if that's what'd you say, life at home with his parents and little brother. His relationship with his parents was awful. He couldn't remember the last time he had a conversation with either one of them without him shouting. To him, they were the perfect example of parents who didn't deserve the luxury of having kids. He pretty much looked after his younger brother by himself.
He pretended he was tough and strong, but sometimes he did have to acknowledge that he did have feelings, and that he could be sensitive and hurt at what was going on in his life. Especially when the only person he could talk to was his eight year old little brother.
"How was your first day back at school, Phil?" His little brother, Max, asked his older brother. Because they practically lived in a shack for a home, he still had to share a room with his brother.
"It was ok." Punk smiled to his little brother, "What about you?" Punk lay down on his bed that was half in tact, springs digging into his back, barely letting him sleep at night. He'd swapped his and Max's mattresses around so that Max could have the better one.
"It was good." Max swung his legs back and forth as he sat on the edge of his bed, "Mom is working and dad has gone out tonight, so you've to make dinner." Max told his brother the exact words his mom had told him when she left for work earlier.
"I think we can just order a pizza. Huh?" Punk said as Max nodded with excitement.
"I'm sure things weren't that bad." Sandra said to her daughter who was curled up against her on the couch in her pyjamas, letting out a few tears about her first day at school. She hated to see her daughter cry. It was so painful to watch.
"Everyone was just so mean." AJ sighed, knowing she should rephrase her words, "Well, not everybody." She said as Sandra looked down at her, playing with her hair soothingly.
"So you did make some friends?" Sandra asked.
"Not really… I ate my lunch outside and, some boy sat beside me." AJ shrugged.
"A boy." Sandra nodded with a smile as AJ rolled her eyes.
"Mom. Really?" She looked up at her mother.
"Well, at least he made the effort to talk to you." Sandra said as AJ nodded.
"Yeah. One person out of a full school actually noticed me." AJ sighed as Sandra just hugged her tightly.
"Things will get better, sweetheart. I promise." Sandra kissed her daughter's head.
And AJ believed her. Things would get better, she could only hope.
Well, there you go. First chapter to the new story. I seen the majority of you guys ask for a high school story, so I thought what the hell. Hope you guys enjoy and tell me what you guys think by leaving a review.
10 REVIEWS = New Chapter.