I looked in the mirror for about the hundredth time that morning. I was shaking slightly with nerves, worrying about little things like how straight my hair was.
"Calm down," I told myself. "It's gonna be fine."
I knew it would probably be okay, it's not like I had anything to be scared about.
I was worried. Worried that people wouldn't like me. I was starting halfway through term at a new school, in a new town, far away from anyone I used to know. And I was being sent to a really high-achieving school, which would make me look even dumber than I already was.
I turned away from the mirror, hearing someone shout my name. I flattened my cardigan, took a deep breath, grabbed my satchel and ran down the stairs into the open arms of my older brother.
"I don't wanna go," I mumbled into his shirt.
"No offense, Bee," he said, using his nickname for me, "but it is kind of your fault we're here."
I pulled back, looking up at him. "No, Ry. It's their fault for expecting so much of me. I'm the dumb one, remember?" I giggled.
"No, I'm just the incredibly smart, good looking one," he replied, pulling a funny pouting face, which made me giggle even more. "Come on, I'll drive you to school."
"BYE," I shouted, before following Ryan to his car. I heard my mum and dad shout a mixture of "good luck"s and "have fun"s back. Yeah, like I was going to have fun here.
The place looked nice enough but every time I saw someone my age they were surrounded by friends. It seemed that everybody already had their friends group sorted. I wondered where I'd fit in. I wondered if I'd fit in…
The journey to school was silent, with only the noise of the quiet radio. When we pulled up to the school I decided that it didn't look too bad. It was an old building, made completely of big brown-ish bricks. There was only one building, where-as in my last school there had been several different buildings all set around the small courtyard. And, as for the kids, they all seemed welcoming enough; smiling at me, as I stepped out of Ryan's car and sent him a small shaky wave.
I walked towards the building, almost getting knocked over by a bunch of rowdy boys. I managed to find the reception as it was quite near the front of the school. Once I had my timetable and a map of the school, I tried to find my registration class. I finally found it, after twenty minutes of walking around aimlessly, on the second floor almost directly above the reception.
I took a deep breath before pushing the door open and stepping inside. The room was fairly big, there wasn't very many people in it yet, even though there was only ten minutes left until registration started. I took a seat near the back of the class, underneath one of the large windows, and placed my bag on the desk in front of me. From the looks of the posters hanging on the walls and the shelves of books, it was an English classroom.
The teacher wasn't there yet either, so I pulled my mobile out of my bag and typed a few quick texts to people. One to Ryan, saying that I was in the right place, one to my cousin who had texted earlier wishing me luck, and one to my best friend, Hannah, saying that the school seemed nice but I missed her loads.
By the time I was done, I realised that the class was a lot fuller now. There were people in the seats behind and in front of me. I hadn't even noticed them coming in because I was so busy texting.
I put my phone in my pocket and sat back in my seat, casting my eyes over everyone that was now in the room. There were three girls at the very back of the room applying make-up, even though they already had what looked like half of Boots on their faces and VERY low cut tops; then there was a group of boys sitting in front of them, some turning round to talk, or more likely to flirt, with the girls behind them, some pushing each other around- they might have been the ones that pushed me earlier? Then there were the nerdy kids at the very front of the class, all talking about test marks and homework and even throwing in the odd (bad) joke. Then there was the group in front of me. I couldn't work out what their clique was. There were five of them; three boys and two girls. I couldn't see what they all looked like because most of them had their backs to me.
I got bored of playing 'Guess the Clique' so I ended up looking out of the window, staring out at the weak Autumn sun casting beautiful light on the half bare tree's.
I heard someone clear their throat behind me. I swivelled my body around and nearly jumped out of my seat. I hadn't even noticed the little blonde boy from the group in front occupy the seat next to me.
"Hey," he said, "I'm Niall." He held out his hand for me to shake, which I found sweet.
"Beth," I replied, placing my hand in his.
"You're not from around here are you?" he asked, which confused me. How did he know? He seemed to sense my confusion. "Your accent's different." He explained.
"Oh, right. No, I'm from Dublin," I informed him.
"That's cool, I love Dublin," he grinned.
"Yeah, so do I," I grimaced.
At that moment the bell rang, signalling the start of registration. The teacher stumbled in, looking flustered.
"Who's that?" I asked Niall, who was still sitting next to me.
"That's Mr Wilson. He's always running late, but he's cool," he smiled.
Once Mr Wilson had called out the register, he noticed me and called me up to the front of the class. "Would you like to say a few words to the class?"
It seemed that I didn't have a choice so I just nodded. I cleared my throat to get the attention of the class, although I didn't need to because all eyes were already on me. I didn't really know what to say so I started with, "Hey, I'm Beth." One of the boys at the back wolf-whistled and Mr Wilson shushed him.
"I moved here from Dublin because, basically, my parents are idiots," that earned a couple of laughs. I was starting to get my confidence back as I continued. "I like music, my favourite band is All Time Low, art and food." I couldn't think of anything else to say so I finished with, "And that's about it," then returned to my seat beside Niall.
Once I had sat down one of the girls in front of me turned round to face me and said, "I love All Time Low. They're amazing!" She was beaming at me, her eyes crinkled at the side. Her hair was bright red. She must have dyed it that colour because no-one's hair is that red. I smiled back at her.
Before I could comment back the blonde girl next to her said, "She's actually obsessed with them. You should see her room- you literally can't see the walls anymore 'cause she has so many posters!" Her accent was different. It didn't sound Irish at all.
At that point Niall realised I still didn't know who anyone was. "Oh, sorry," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "This is Caitlin," he pointed to the one with the red hair, "Ally," the one next to her, "Sean," he motioned to the boy with short-ish brown hair, he nodded at me, "and Scott," the only other one there.
"Hello there," I smiled. "As you already know I'm Beth."
At that moment the bell went for the start of class. Niall turned to me.
"What have you got first?"
I pulled out my timetable. "Erm… Hospitality."
"Same," he grinned. "I'll walk you."
