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1
Sophie
As Sophie Foster pushed open the big metal doors to her new high school, she actually felt as if she was descending into a different realm. School in Seattle, Washington's huge public school was completely foreign compared to the tiny little town of Larkhall, Scotland, her family had moved from just a month ago.
Inhaling deeply, Sophie yanked down the top of her plaid sweater-vest, pulled her tall socks back up over her knees, adjusted the braid holding her bright-blonde hair away from her face, and started hiking down the steps leading to the East section of this giant school where her locker had said could be found. She devoured her surroundings, almost in shock of how huge and full of different types of students just this one section of the school was. As she looked to her right, her eyes skimmed two boys who looked as if they had a giant sign constantly floating over both their heads screaming, "TROUBLE!" The brown-haired boy out of the two of them turned his head right as her eyes landed on his and she was taken aback by how turquoise and bright his eyes were.
Feeling uneasy, Sophie pushed herself faster, eventually reaching the East Section and claiming her locker, which was conveniently at the end of the row, so she would only have to deal with one person, and that would be on her left side. Already feeling queasy, Sophie shakily raised her hands to her locker, opened it, and started to put all of her books in, knowing it would be unorganized in a week.
As she was finishing up putting all her books away, she heard a perky voice open the locker next to hers and couldn't help but hear the conversation.
"No, Dex, for the love of all the gods out there, I am not going to your geek nerd-fest back to school party," Sophie heard the locker door slam shut as she is righting one of her books it knocked over. "Besides, whenever I attempt to talk to any of those AV nerd friends of yours they always freak out and get all weird. Nothing against you, of course!" The perky voice added at the end. Sophie knit her brows and looked down, but was shook out of her eavesdropping when the warning bell went off. Reluctantly, still feeling very queasy, Sophie slowly shut the door to her locker and found herself face-to-face with a brunette whose dark brown hair was loose down in bouncy ringlets to her collarbone and face was stunning.
"Hey, aren't you that new international student?" The guy who the brunette had been speaking to early asked, his cheeks reddening just a tad as Sophie tilted her head and nodded. "Cool. I'm Dex, and this here is Biana," he continued, motioning to the brunette, "we're sophomores here." He smiles and held out his hand. Sophie looked down cautiously before shaking the boy – Dex's – hand.
"Sophie," she started, "Sophie Foster. And yeah, I just moved in from Scotland around a month ago. I guess I'm a sophomore too? Still don't really get the American school system." She added, tilting her head in confusion at both of their smiling faces and Dex and Biana shared a look. "Sorry, did I offend you?" She questioned, and they both smiled wider.
"No, not at all," Biana, as Dex had introduced her, said, her smile genuine. "We just aren't used to accents like yours around here. It's very nice." She finished, patting Sophie on the shoulder. Sophie glanced at the clock and then looked back down at her schedule, sighing.
"Come on," Dex said, pushing both Sophie and Biana ahead into a walk. "Looks like you've got English first, just like me. I'll lead you there." He then pushed Biana in the other direction. "You've got gym first, B. I'll see you at break!" He said, and they gave each other secret wave that just confused Sophie even more.
"Do all American teenagers say goodbye like that?" Sophie asked, unable to help herself.
"No," Dex laughed, as he led Sophie down the dense hallway full of different students rushing to get to different classes, Sophie assumed. "B and I have been best friends since first grade, so we've got a bunch of different inside things between us. Did you have a lot of friends where you were from?" He asked, seeming genuinely curious.
"A few," Sophie states, trying to ignore letting out the history of how a few was the only amount of people in the school. "I do feel that this environment will take a while to get used to." She added, looking down at her books.
"Oh don't worry, you'll fit right in. Besides, I'll stick with you!" Dex said enthusiastically, stopping so abruptly Sophie almost tripped as he turned towards a door. "Here we are, 10th grade English. After you." Dex said, gesturing her into the classroom.
Sophie breathed in deeply and smiled the best she could. How hard could this be, anyways?