Norman's heart was beating a mile a minute. If he didn't know any better, he would've sworn the girl who had just plopped into his lap could hear it. He wasn't used to this kind of physical closeness to anyone but his mother. He didn't resist as she plucked his phone from his hand and proceeded to put her number into it and snap a quick selfie. "Bradley Martin," she stated, handing him back his phone, "If you have any questions at school, you call me."
Now he had a name to go with the pretty face he was looking at. The driver, apparently one of the girls' friends, began to speed off down the road away from the bus stop by the motel. Music blared from the speakers and the wind whipped all their hair around as they drove off to school. The girls talked animatedly to each other as Norman just quietly observed. Bradley attempted to get him engaged in their conversations but often times his quiet voice was drowned out by a combination of the wind, music, and other girls.
It was when they finally got to school that Norman was introduced to another one of their friends. A cobalt Ford Mustang GT slipped into the parking spot right beside them. "Jesus Alice, you got that shit cranked up loud enough?" Hayley, the blonde girl who had driven, shouted.
What Hayley had been referring to was the music pumping out of the Mustang. The door popped open, cutting off the music, and out stepped another girl. Norman, ever the observant person, immediately took the girl's appearance in. She was quite short, most likely only around 5'4" with fair skin and an hourglass shape. She dressed in a grey top with a denim jacket, leggings, and a pair of black Converse. Black sunglasses were perched on her nose effectively hiding her eyes from everyone and a black hat with a floppy brim sat on top of dark red waves that ended at her shoulders. She moved her head slightly and Norman caught the shimmer of a small diamond in her nose. "Just cause you can't appreciate some Three Days Grace doesn't mean it's shit, Hales," the girl retorted.
"Tch, whatevs. We'd better head in before we're late," Hayley said, turning to head into the school.
The girl opened the backdoor to her car and grabbed a purple backpack. She fell into place with Bradley and Norman while the other four girls walked ahead of them. "Alice, this is Norman Bates. He's new here!" Bradley said, "And Norman, this is Alice McCormick. She's in our grade too."
"Hi Norman! It's nice to meet you!" Alice said, flashing a smiling to the boy.
"H-hello," Norman quietly replied, momentarily stunned by the bright smile sent his way.
The three engaged in small talk, mostly consisting of Bradley and Alice, as they approached the school. When they got inside Alice finally took off her dark sunglass and Norman was able to see her eyes for the first time as she turned to face her companions completely. They were a deep, rich brown color that from a distance would have looked black. Her makeup had been done so precisely that they stood out intensely against the black eyeliner. For the second time that day, Norman felt his heart rate increase as her intense gaze locked onto his.
Alice found herself unable to break eye contact with the boy in front of her. She found herself intrigued by Norman Bates. It wasn't often that people moved into White Pine Bay. It was a fairly sheltered community and for good reason considering the local business that kept the majority of its citizens afloat. Plus she couldn't exactly deny the small thrill she got with his blue eyes looking so intently into hers.
"What's your schedule look like Norman? You might have some classes with us!"
Bradley's smooth voice broke the staring contest between the two teens. Norman began digging through his bag to find the schedule his mother had picked up for him the day before. Bradley quickly snatched it out of his hands, and she began to look over it with Alice coming closer to peer over her shoulder.
"Well looks like you've got history and biology with Alice for first and fourth period. Oh, and lunch with her too. Bummer, we don't have any classes together. It's okay though, Alice should take good care of you!"
Bradley folded up the schedule and handed it back to him with a kind smile on her face. "Guess we'd better get going then, Norman, class starts in about five minutes," Alice said, glancing at the time on her phone.
After saying goodbye to Bradley (with Alice giving the girl a hug), the two headed off to their history class on the second floor. "You probably already told Bradley and the other girls, but what brings you to White Pine Bay?" Alice asked, tired of the silence between them.
"Oh, uh, my mother bought the motel out by the highway," Norman replied.
"The Seafairer? Well that's pretty neat. Maybe she'll be able to actually do some good to that place," she said, knowing anyone running that place would be better than Keith Summers.
"Have you always lived here?"
"Yeah, unfortunately. I want nothing more than to graduate and to get the hell out of here," Alice replied a small frown forming.
"Where do you want to go?" Norman slightly pried.
"Anywhere really," she stated with a small shrug.
Norman learned a lot about Alice on their walk to class. He first learned about her love for music. From classical to rap, the girl could listen to everything. "Except maybe bluegrass," she had said after some thought, "Little too much twang in that for my tastes."
He also learned how she loved reading and of her secret love for playing video games. Alice couldn't explain why it was so easy to tell things to Norman. She didn't think even Bradley knew about her playing video games and they had been friends since elementary school. In return, Alice was able to learn a little more about Norman himself. From what he was telling her from his love of old movies and music as well as literature, he was definitely an old soul. It was something she could appreciate, especially when he mentioned one of his favorite books was Jane Eyre, which just so happened to be one of her favorites as well.
History was infinitely more interesting with Norman there. Mr. Alves, their teacher, had seen them come in together and allowed Norman to have the seat behind Alice. They spent the entire period passing notes back and forth between taking actual class notes. Alice apologized profusely for distracting him during class but he assured her she was the only reason he was able to stay awake. Norman was slightly upset about having to leave her for second and third period but brightened up when she promised to meet up with him during lunch. Before parting ways, Alice pulled a Bradley by swiping his phone from him and putting her contact information in. "Shoot me a text when you're on your way to the cafeteria and I'll tell you where to meet me," she explained.
Norman nodded his head and was getting ready to turn down another hallway when he felt arms wrap around them. He looked down and saw Alice hugging him. He stood there frozen, unsure of what to do, and was about to return the hug when she stepped away from him. "Sorry! I'm kind of a hugger! Didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, I just usually hug all my friends when I leave them…" A small blush was beginning to form on her cheeks.
"N-no, it's fine! I just wasn't expecting it." His own cheeks beginning to turn red.
"Well, see you later, Norman!" she said, turning to walk away.
She didn't take two steps before Norman stopped her with a hug of his own. It was slightly awkward but Alice appreciated the effort. "See you at lunch," he said, pulling away from her rather quickly.
After waving to him, Alice began to make her way to her math class. Yes, Norman Bates you are an interesting one indeed… She mused.
As always, the cafeteria was a madhouse. Hungry teenagers were a force to be reckoned with. Luckily, Norman had done as Alice had instructed and texted her while he was making his way to the cafeteria so they were able to easily find each other. They found a table to eat at and Norman started in on his own bagged lunch while Alice made a trip through the line, returning with a salad and a small bag of grapes. "Hey, let me get a look at your schedule again," Alice said after swallowing a bite of her salad.
Norman pulled out his schedule again and passed it off to her. Alice continued to munch on her salad while she looked things over. "Oh, so you have Miss Watson for Language Arts," she commented, her fork pausing midway.
"Yeah, is she mean or something?" Norman asked, wondering why her eyes had suddenly darkened as she stared at the teacher's name.
"No, no. She's quite nice and she doesn't make her homework overly difficult. You'll probably love her Norman, everyone does," she replied with a tight-lipped smile.
"You don't seem particularly keen on her," he commented after swallowing a bite of the ham sandwich his mother had prepared.
"Let's just say our personalities clash," she said before taking a rather large bite of her salad, effectively ending the conversation.
They sat in silence for a few moments; Norman watching her almost viciously stab at her salad with her fork. He didn't mean to anger her. Now all he wanted was to see her smile again and the warmth return to her eyes. He was beginning to eat the strawberries out of his bag when he caught her eyeing the fruit. He proceeded to offer her one and smiled slightly when she took it from him, rewarding him with the bright smile he had wanted to see again.
The rest of lunch was spent generally chitchatting about anything that came to mind. Norman was careful to steer clear of anything having to do with Language Arts or Miss Watson, not wanting to see Alice upset again. However, it didn't mean that he wasn't curious as to why she seemed to have such a dislike towards the teacher. Maybe he would see why when he went to her class for his last period.
From lunch they went to biology together where, again, the teacher allowed Norman to sit near her. Their class was once again spent passing small notes to each other. When they went to part ways after class, Norman was prepared for Alice's hug. Although he still felt somewhat awkward, he managed to wrap his arms around her waist without making a fool out of himself. Her hair slightly tickled his nose and he caught the slightest hint of coconut coming from the strands. He decided that this 'hugging goodbye thing' was something he could definitely get used to.
"Do you think you can give Norman a ride home? Hayley wants to go shopping, and I doubt he wants to come and I would feel bad making him take the bus." Alice quickly read over the text message as discreetly as possible during her music class.
"Yeah, no problem! I wouldn't let him ride the bus either; he may not make it back home alive with how that driver drives!" She hit the send button and tucked her phone back into her jacket pocket before her teacher noticed. A few minutes later she felt her phone vibrate.
"You're an angel, Alice! Ttyl!" Alice rolled her eyes with a small smile on her face. She put her phone back up and decided that she should actually focus on the lesson.
Before her last class of the day, she sent a quick text to Norman telling him not to leave so she could pick him up. A small groan of annoyance escaped her when she realized where she would have to go to pick him up. Miss Watson's classroom was the one classroom in the entire building that she had been avoiding like the plague for the past two years. Hopefully, Norman would be outside of the door and she wouldn't have to see the Language Arts teacher. With this wishful thought in mind, Alice made her way to the classroom.
Unfortunately, it looked like she would not be getting her wish. A wave of despair washed over her when she realized that Norman was not outside of the classroom. Don't tell me she's talking to him about something… She thought, a wave of annoyance rushing through her.
The door was open so she was able to look inside to see Norman sitting across from Miss Watson. Another wave of annoyance went through Alice when she saw the hand resting on top of his. "Know that you can come to me if you have any issues or questions about anything… I'm here for you," Alice heard the young teacher declare.
Before she could stop herself, Alice felt the words tumbling out of her mouth: "Maybe he doesn't want you to be there for him."
Both Norman and Miss Watson whipped their heads to the door at the sound of Alice's voice. When Norman saw who it was he bolted up from his chair and started making his way to her. Maybe it had to do with him knowing of her dislike towards the teacher, but Norman felt rather guilty about Alice catching them talking together and with her touching him. "Alice, this was a private conversation," Miss Watson stated, getting up from her chair as well, although with more grace.
"Then maybe you should have closed your classroom door," Alice retorted smugly. Norman noticed her eyes darkening once more. "I'm here to give Norman a ride home."
"I wasn't aware that you two had met," Miss Watson said, her sweet voice growing ever so slightly colder as she crossed her arms.
"You can thank Bradley Martin. She introduced us to each other this morning. Now, if you'll excuse us Miss Watson, we should probably get going." Alice lightly tugged on Norman's sleeve to get him moving.
"Well, I don't think you have to worry about giving him a ride. Norman's going to be trying out for the track team this afternoon." Those words stopped Alice in her tracks and made her turn to face the teacher once more.
"If that's the case then it looks like I'm heading down to the track field with him. After all, he's gonna need a ride after practice is done." With that said, Alice turned on her heel and started down the hall once more with Norman trailing behind.
The walk down to the track field was tense. Norman wanted to say something but he didn't know how to start a conversation with an angry teenage girl. He had a hard enough time trying to get his mother to talk when she was angry. It was when they made it outside and close to the track field that Alice let out a long sigh. "Sorry about that Norman…Didn't mean to get you caught in the middle of that." She was starting to rub her temples a bit to fight off the growing headache.
"I just wish I knew what was wrong with you both. She seems like a very nice woman…" Norman trailed off seeing the spark of fury pass through her features.
"We just don't get along," was the girl's clipped reply. Norman knew better than to push the subject any further.
"So, track, huh?" Alice asked, desperately trying to switch the subject.
"Uh, yeah. I'm not really good at any sports…So track's really my only option. Just trying to lay down some roots," Norman replied, respectfully changing topics.
"I understand. Coach Carpenter is a good guy. When I had to take P.E. he was my teacher. He always wanted me to join the girls team." Alice stated, happy that he wasn't trying to pry.
The two approached the track field where they met up with Coach Carpenter. The man was happy to see them both there. He got slightly deflated when Alice declined, once again, to join the girls team but was more than happy to let Norman try out. While Norman and Coach went to get him a uniform, Alice took a seat in the bleachers. She sprawled out on the bench and played on her phone while Coach put Norman through the paces. After a couple hours of practicing, Norman was officially granted a spot on the team.
"Hopefully my mother signs the permission form…" he said, hands gripping the piece of paper given to him as he sat in the passenger seat of Alice's Mustang.
"I don't see why not. You're really good. Plus you looked pretty good in those track shorts," Alice replied with a smile and a wink, shifting her car into park in front of the old motel.
Norman felt his cheeks begin to flush as he tried to come up with some sort of response. This caused Alice to burst into full blown laughter. "Aw, Norman you're adorable!" she got out through her laughter.
Once her laughter had died down, the two new friends said their goodbyes. Norman watched as she drove away, still trying to make the blush that had appeared from her comments. He walked up to the house with a smile on his face, happy with how his day had turned out. He met Bradley, then Alice, and joined the track team. To him, this was the best "fresh start" he's ever had. He couldn't wait to tell his mother how much he was actually enjoying it in White Pine Bay.