I'm using these first two chapters as, like, a pilot I guess. You know on tv where they show an episode and if it gets a good response they'll continue the show? Yeah, like that. So if you like this so far and want more, please let me know!
{Avery's POV}
I've always hated being the new girl. This wasn't the first time. No, I was actually pretty used to being the new girl. I was in junior year now, and I'd already been to at least five schools. I always tried to not get too close to people. It's not like I completely shut out anyone who tried to be my friend, I just tried not to get invested in them. My parents were like modern hippies. They were a part of a travelling eco-friendly campaign. A lot of the people in the campaign had been in it their entire lives. For example, there's one lady who joined with her parents when she was six. She's now fifty-four. The whole 'save the planet' thing has never really been for me. My parents knew that, and that was why they decided to move us back to Lima.
When they told me we were moving back here, they said it like it was the greatest moment of my life. I was born in Lima, but my parents joined the campaign when I was only two, so I don't actually remember anything about this place. Besides, it's been nearly fifteen years since I've been here, so it has obviously changed. To me this wasn't 'home'. It was to mum and dad, they were both born and raised here. I'm sure they had a lot of old friends in this dump, but to me it was yet another foreign place. I would have to meet new people and make new friends and join new clubs and overcome the 'hippie' label and find a place where I fit in all over again.
I would've been happy if I could've just stayed in Kentucky. It was the place we'd been in the longest and I had friends there, I had a life, hell, there was even a boy (isn't there always). He doesn't really count as a reason to stay there anymore, since he moved nearly two months ago. I don't know where he went and he never gave me a number to call him on. It made me feel kinda shitty, actually. It was like he didn't want me to contact him. Nothing much I can do about it now, though. I guess he just didn't like me as much as he said he did. Oh well, I just had to move on. So, maybe this will be good for me. A fresh start, away from the memories of the first boy I let into my heart. Then again, I'm pretty over 'fresh starts', God knows I've had enough of them. I'd just like to settle down somewhere and have a real life.
So that led me to where I am now; walking down the bustling halls of William McKinley High School as I tried to find the principal's office. I had a map, but I failed geography so it really wasn't much help. I looked up at the rooms around me. A plaque on one of the door's read 'Emma Pillsbury, Guidance Counsellor'.
I looked inside the small office and saw a lady there that looked too young to be a guidance counsellor. She had short red hair and was wearing a polka-dotted dress that looked like it was from the sixties. She looked nice, so I knocked on the door. I didn't want my first encounter here to be with a horrible teacher.
She looked up at me with a small smile on her face.
"Hello um…," she trailed off upon realising she didn't know my name, "I'm not sure I've met you before."
"Oh, I'm new here. My name is Avery Martin," I returned the smile.
"It's nice to meet you. Welcome to William McKinley. Come in, sit down," she gestured to the chair in front her desk.
"Oh, no, it's alright I'm not here for guidance," I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. "Well, I am, but in the directional sense, not in the counselling sense,"
Her smile turned slightly confused. "Okay…"
"Could you please show me the way to-" I looked down my transfer forms to find the name of the principle, "-Mr Figgins' office, please?"
"Sure," she smiled brightly again, "you just go down to the end of the hall and turn left,"
"Okay, thanks," I turned to leave, but her voice stopped me. I faced her again and she handed me a pamphlet that read 'So You're The New Kid' and had a picture of a boy being excluded from some games.
"I know being new can be tough, so if you ever need to talk you know where my office is," she said, smile never leaving her face.
I'd moved so many times I was way past the guidance counselling stage, but she looked too innocent for me to tell her. Instead, I just said thanks and headed down the hallway, turning left like Ms Pillsbury said to, and there it was. The lady at the reception desk told me to head in.
Principle Figgins was a short, Indian man and I had to force myself not to gag because his whole office smelt like week-old curry.
"You must be the new student, Avery Martin," he said with an accent so strong I could barely tell what he was saying, "please, take a seat,"
I sat down hesitantly and handed him my transfer forms. He said nothing more as he read the transcripts. Wordlessly, he ushered in the lady at the reception desk. He handed her the papers and she handed me a timetable.
"This is your class schedule. Ah, and here is Brittany S. Pierce," he announced her arrival happily, like it was some great honour. "Thank you for coming, Brittany. This is our new student Avery Martin,"
"Hi, Avery Martin, I'm Brittany S. Pierce, otherwise known as Brittney Spears. I'm your Senior Class President and I'll be showing you around McKinley high," she said cheerily.
She was tall, blonde and wearing a red and white cheerleading uniform. It figures that a cheerleader would be Senior Class President. Like all schools, this one is obviously run by the cliques and if you aren't popular, you're nobody.
"Hi, Brittany S. Pierce," I replied with a small wave and followed her out of the room.
She showed me the classrooms first, stopping to tell me something about each one; like how she was always afraid that the loud voice of the science teacher would scare the tiny Martians that lived on the model of the solar system that hung from the roof. Next we walked out to the football field and she told me the story of when the football team and the Glee Club banded together to perform a mash-up of Thriller and Heads Will Roll while dressed as zombies for the half-time show. And then there was the cafeteria where the Glee Club performed a Go-Go's song and started a huge food fight. Then the gym that held two sex riots, both caused by the glee club. This really made me question what kind of school I was going to.
"It's lunch time now," Brittany said, "and since you don't have any friends, you can sit with me,"
"Uh, thanks for the offer but I don't think I'd be welcome at the cheerleader table," I said a little nervously. I didn't have a very good track record with cheerleaders. Apparently they don't like opinions. Who knew?
"Oh, I don't sit with the cheerleaders," she told me, looking at me as if I was stupid.
"Then who do you sit with?"
"The Glee Club," she said with a bright smile. For some reason I was even more nervous but since this move was permanent, I couldn't exactly afford to turn down potential friends.
"Okay, um, sure," I smiled back at her.
"Great!" she cheered and led me back to the cafeteria.
We sat down at one of the long tables. There were already at least twelve other people there. It was daunting, to say the least. There were a mixture of races and styles at the table. If you didn't see it firsthand, you never would've thought that this group of people would be in the same club, let alone friends that even sit together at lunch.
As we neared the table, I heard a voice that I hadn't heard in, hell, two months. I would know that bad Sean Connery impression anywhere. I looked across the table and saw the familiar blonde hair. He looked up from the person he was talking to and his eyes locked on mine. I could see that he was surprised to see me too and I tried to slow my heartbeat when the edges of his mouth tugged upwards in a barely-there smile – the same smile that made me notice him in the first place. It was like a thousand feelings all came back to me in one glance. Here he was; the guy I'd fallen so hard and fast for. The guy that left without a word. The guy that I never thought I'd ever see again.
Sam Evans.