I hear the roar of the car's engine as my mother drives home. "This is it," I think as I stare at the school in awe, wisps of my blonde hair blowing into my face. "This is what you've been waiting for. There's no backing out now." I slowly climb the steps to the front door, pushing it open with a creek. The main hall is deserted. "They all must still be in class," I think as I walk in the direction of the principal's office, my backpack slung lazily over one shoulder. "After all, I am pretty late."
The woman at the office looks up at me from her work. "Name?" she says in a monotone voice.
I try to display as much confidence as I can without sounding too proud. "Lizzie Matthews," that sounded okay.
I see a flash of recognition in the old woman's eyes. "Ah yes," she says. She points me in the direction of the principal's office and tells me not to scuff up the floor too much with my black Converses.
I swing the door open and see principal Eisner sitting at his desk. He looks up from his work and motions for me to sit down. I take a seat opposite him as the principal begins to talk about the school.
"Getting a scholarship to this school is one of the highest honours anyone with any hopes of making it in the business you pursue can achieve," he says proudly, "so I expect only the highest integrity and best behaviour. When you represent our school, you represent it with honour."
I listen intently and nod whenever he asks me a question. I've been waiting to get into this school since I set up my channel. Although I'm still unsure why they let me in now, I haven't even made a single video.
Mr Eisner looks at me from across the table, and I realise that I haven't said a single word since setting foot in the school.
"Would you like me to find someone to help you around the school?" He asks.
"Yes please," I say, nodding my head. The principal lifts a microphone to his mouth.
"Phillip DeFranco, report to the principal's office immediately." I hear his voice in the office and booming through the sound system. While we wait he talks to me about my last school, how life is going to change, and what is expected of me as far as classes and behaviour goes, until another student bounds in the door. He is quite a stout boy, about fifteen. Average build, spiky black hair and small brown eyes. He's wearing sneakers and a vintage tee-shirt.
"Alright sir," he says, smiling, not yet having taken notice of me, "it is thirteen and a half minutes into the school year. What have I done this time?" He seems to slightly revel in getting into trouble.
"DeFranco," Eisner says, motioning to me, "this is Lizzie Matthews." the boy looks at me and gives a small wave, as I wave in the same style and give a small smile back, remember trying to stay confident.
"I'd like you to show her around, introduce her, and get her use to life around here." The boy looks at me and nods with a smile. I look to Mr Eisner, who motions for me to go with him. I rise from my seat and cross the room, Phillip holding out a hand for me to shake.
"Nice to meet you, Lindy. My name's Phil." I give a smile back.
"Nice to meet you, too."
I walk out of the office with Phil, who asks to see my school schedule. I pass it over, and he glances at my class number, with a nod.
"You're in my class, Y.9B," he said. "It's just down this hall and to the left, follow me." I walk next to Phil down the hall, and to a door labelled 'Y.9B' with black tape letters. When he opens the door, the scene inside surprises me. There are barely any kids in the classroom, almost all of them with cameras. A group of boys and gorgeous girls film at the back of the room, sharing a smartphone between them and taking turns talking about their summer to it. Two boys stand in the middle of the room, singing as one of their friend's filming, and another boy stands in the corner, playing on a Nintendo DS. Two other boys spot me and Phil and dash towards us. One of them has brown hair, swept across from one side of his head to the other, with hazel eyes and a broad, cheesy smile. The other boy is slightly shorter than the other two, with brown eyes and spikes slightly more intense than Phil's, as well as glasses. They both give him a high-five each.
"Hey, PhillyD!" The shorter one cheers, "We didn't see you this morning."
"Yeah, we thought you'd been murdered!" the brown-haired boy says, sounding cheerful as he speaks.
"Yeah, sorry about that, guys," Phil chuckles. He motions to me. "I was asked to look after the new girl. Shane, Ray, I'd like to introduce you guys to Lizzie." Shane sighs.
"Dammit, we've got too many pretty faces in this school already without another one!" He says, mock anger in his voice. Ray holds out a hand for me to shake.
"Ray William Johnson," he says as I take it. But instead of shaking my hand, he lifts it to his lips and kisses it softly.
"Pleasure to meet you," he gives wink. I smile and pull my hand away slowly, feeling my cheeks heat up. I can't tell if these guys are hitting on me, or if that's just how they do things around here. Either way, we catch the teacher's attention. He's a balding man with a slight beard and glasses.
He also holds out a hand for me to shake. I take it hoping he doesn't do the same as Ray. That would just be weird.
"Nice to meet you, Lizzie," he says, smiling, "I'm mister Stevens. I'll be your homeroom and science teacher."
"But everyone just calls him Michael," Shane said. I give my new teacher a small smile.
"Nice to meet you too, 'Michael'." I've never called a teacher by their first name. Most schools would give a kid a detention for doing so.
Michael walks to the front of the class, and calls for everyone to be quiet.
"Now, I know some of the people in this class are off visiting their friends in other classrooms, but while most of you are here, I'd like to introduce you to our newest class member. Everyone, this is Lizzie." A joyful chorus of 'Hi Lizzie' erupts in the room, as Phil, Ray and Shane make it their duty to introduce me to everyone in the class. The two singers introduce themselves as Rhett and Link and continue with their video. If everyone has names as interesting as this, they won't be hard to remember. The boy with the DS shakes my hand and gives me an awkward smile.
"My name's Dan," he says with a British accent, "I'm just waiting for my friend Phil to get here."
The large group at the back seem slightly more... friendly than the others I've already met.
"You guys," Shane says, getting their attention, "this is Lizzie, the new kid." One of the girls in the group, who has wavy brown hair and brown eyes, envelopes me in a hug.
"It's so nice to meet you!" she squeals, "My name's Grace!"
"Give her some room to breathe," another girl says. She's wearing a plaid shirt over a vintage rock tee, and her hair is cut in a short bob that curls around her head. She holds out a hand for me to shake.
Hannah Hart, nice to meet you," she says, smiling. I give her a handshake before the rest of the group introduce themselves. A boy with bleached hair and glasses steps up next.
"Hi, I'm Tyler, it's great to meet you," he says cheerfully. He holds my one hand between both of his as we shake hands. I like this guy.
The next boy is quite tan, with brown hair and blue eyes. Even though it's late summer, he's wearing a jersey.
"Troye Sivan, nice to meet you, Lizzie," he says, giving a shy smile.
"Nice to meet you, too. That's a cool accent, where's it from?"
"Oh, I was born in South Africa and raised in Aussie," he says with a smile. He seems like a nice guy.
"So, where's everyone else?" I ask, looking around the near-empty classroom.
"They'll be in the other classrooms, probably catching up after summer," Hannah explains, lifting herself to sit on a desk.
Shane slings an arm over my shoulder and begins to explain to me. "It's sort of an unspoken tradition that on the first day back, everyone just spends it dicking around and catching up with their friends after summer, so there's a good chance you won't meet most of your class until tomorrow." I give a nod of understanding and decide to just spend the rest of the morning hanging out with the kids in the room. It's about half an hour later and, besides Phil starting on a fresh juice box, nothing changes, until a girl walks in. She has long blonde hair that reaches past her shoulders. She's greeted with a chorus throughout the room. "Jenna," they cry as she walks in. She puts on a creepy face and says "Hello, friends." I turn to Phil as she strolls to the group at the back of the room.
"Who is that?" I ask silently. Phil looks at me with a raised eyebrow, dumfounded.
"That's Jenna Marbles," he says, equally silent, "one of the most popular girls at school and on the school website." I look at him strangely.
"Wait, so, YouTube is the school website?" He gives a nod. Ray decides it's his turn to explain.
"So, when the school was founded, the website began as just a way for students to upload their video projects, because videos were the only way they accepted projects. But when they allowed anyone to upload content, things got bigger than they ever imagined, and when the staff realized that stars could be made out of it, the changed the school's curriculum to specialize in sketch comedy, speech and confidence classes, filming techniques, editing shortcuts and stuff like that. Only the best of the best get in. That reminds me, what type of videos do you do?"
I swallow the lump in my throat. "Um...I – haven't posted any videos yet." Shane gasps in shock and covers his mouth. Ray's jaw hits the floor and Phil squeezes his juice bow so hard that it spurts up, high enough to hit the ceiling and splash back down, causing a large puddle of fruit drink when it hits the floor.
"You're cleaning that up," Michael says, pointing at Phil. Phil gives a nervous nod and a smile, convincing Michael to turn back to his Physics book. The three then return to the topic of me not having any videos.
"How did you even GET into this school without any videos?!" Ray asks in shock. I give a confused shrug.
"I just set up my channel and then two days later a scholarship arrived in the mail," my sweet ignorance seems to have convinced them. Even I have no idea why I got in; all I know is that I would never pass up an opportunity like this.
"Y'know what, let's not argue, it's the first day, and we've all got some catching up to do." A look of surprise flashes on Shane's face.
"Oh shit, I haven't met up with Lisa yet!" He slides off of the desk he's sitting on and out the door, quickly waving goodbye to us remaining three. We give him a quick wave in return before he dashes down the hall towards the other classrooms. As the day progresses, quite a few more people come and go from the class. Rhett and Link leave, but their place is filled by Dan's friend Phil. The two of them begin swapping Pokémon tips. Dan looks to me and ushers me towards them. Unlike Dan, Phil has blue eyes, but they share the emo haircut. These guys seem nice; maybe I should hang out with them sometime. Beside him, two other boys enter the room. A ton of kids at this school have strange haircuts – one of these two has yet another emo cut, the other has a classic bowl.
"Yo, Smoshites," Ray calls to the two boys as they walk in. He puts a hand on my back.
"This is Lizzie. She's the new girl here," he tells them. The two approach us, the bowl haired one holding out a hand.
"Nice to meet you!" he says loudly, giving my hand a vigorous shake. His friend pulls him back by the shoulder.
"Dude, don't freak out the new kid," he says patronizingly. "Sorry about him. He's not used to talking to people, mainly because he has no friends." Bowl-hair pulls his shoulder from his friend.
"Sorry about HIM," he retorts, "he's not used to conducting himself around a lady, mainly because he's never had a girlfriend."
"You DonkWeed!"
"You're the DonkWeed!" A fight breaks out between the two. I can tell they're best friends.
"Guys, c'mon, simmer down!" Phil says, first softly, then yelling by the end of his sentence. The two pause, bowl hair with emo-hair in a headlock, and emo-hair digging his incisors into bowl-hair's wrist.
"Obviously neither of you know how to conduct yourselves in front of a lady!" At this, the two of them end their combat , dusting themselves off.
"Sorry about that," emo-hair says, looking at his shoes. "I'm Anthony, and this is Ian." I hold out a hand for both of them.
"Nice to meet you guys."
The rest of the morning is uneventful. I sit and talk with everyone in the class – Dan, Phil L, Phil D, Ray, Ian, Anthony, Grace, Hannah, Tyler and Troye, until the bell rings. They all inhale excitedly.
"Lunchtime!" they cheer.