Phil POV

My eyes widened in amazement as I walked down the halls of my new school. The school I went to back in England was nowhere near this big. There better be some hidden portal to Narnia or something or I was going to be seriously pissed off. I read the yellow slip of paper that the school had mailed me, which was a map of the school, and found my way to the office, where I was supposed to check in, since it was my first day. The lady at the reception desk, a middle-aged blonde who dressed a bit too young, looked me over, taking in my appearance, from my Nyan Cat t-shirt to the black jeans I had thrown on. It was a little creepy, seeing her analyze me from head to toe. WHAT DID SHE WANT FROM ME?!

"Um," I said awkwardly, "I'm new. They told me I was supposed to report here on my first day?" She seemed taken aback by my British accent. I really hoped I wasn't going to get this reaction all day. But then again, America had this unusual obsession with the British that I'll never understand. Was it because Kinder eggs are actually legal in Britain?

"Yes, and what is your name?" she replied sharply, bringing me back to reality.

"Phil. Philip Lester."

"Ah, yes," she said as she rifled through a folder of papers. She handed me another yellow paper (seriously, what was with Americans and yellow paper?), which had my schedule on it. "You're here kind of early, so you can go sit in the cafeteria 'til the bell rings."

"Yeah, okay." I awkwardly walked out of the office and located the cafeteria on the school map. I missed Dan, my best friend. The new house felt really empty without his constant presence. Why did my dad have to get a new job here? Whatever. I sighed and sat down at a random table. I took out a book from my knapsack, Skulduggery Pleasant, and pretended to read.

"Hey." I looked up from my book to see a smiling chestnut-haired girl. "I'm Jenna. I haven't seen you around before and I wanted to ask you if you wanted to join me in the library with my friend." I nodded. She looked nice, so what was the harm? I got up and followed her down a hallway and into the library.

The library was divided up into two sections: the books section, and the section with tables and computers and stuff for studying and such. I started toward the tables, but surprisingly, Jenna was walking into the book section. Confused, I followed her into the very back corner. Another girl was sitting there, typing on a laptop. She looked up when she saw Jenna. She noticed me standing behind her, and moved her gaze from Jenna to me, taking in my appearance. Again, my face felt a bit warm, but it wasn't the same type of embarrassment that I felt when I talked to the lady in the office,

"Finally, Jenna," she said jokingly, "Moved on from Harrison?" She smiled. She had dark hair, in a sort of innocent emo type style, which now that I think about it, is quite contradictory. Her thoughtful brown eyes studied me, and I felt like I was melting.

"Shut up, Marly," Jenna replied, "This is Phil. He's new so I thought that maybe Alexxis and them hadn't corrupted him into hating us yet. And no, I have not moved on from Harrison yet, and I don't see it coming anytime soon. Harrison is the perfect boy for me, he just doesn't know it yet." Marly sniggered. "And I heard that," Jenna continued.

"Hi, Phil," said Marly, "So you're new? Well, I hope you realize that if you have any intention of being popular, you should run away now. In fact, I think any shred of a reputation you might have had with Alexxis and her people is probably up in flames." I pondered her word usage, "up in flames." It reminded me too much of Dan for some reason. Dan, who probably would've gotten both of us kicked out by now, if he was here. I imagined him talking back to the office lady. Surely, Dan would have given her several heart attacks, with his frequent usage of "tits" and "placenta." Suddenly, the bell rang and I looked up at the clock. 7:25. Five minutes before the start of school.

"What's your first period?" asked Jenna.

"Um, English, with Mr….Grayson."

"Huh, me too," said Marly, "Watch out. Today's the day he's supposed to assign us groups for our group projects. Come on, we can walk to class together." She closed her laptop and stood up.

Jenna smirked. "They look sort of perfect together," I thought I heard her mutter to herself. God, Marly was cute.