Zoey stepped into the classroom, two heavy biology books in her clutch. The classroom was already filled with students, each in their own little worlds. The redhead girl sighed, scoping out an empty seat near the window. She swiftly made her way to the vacant seat and sat quietly. Each student was either on their phones, talking to the others, or staring in front of them. Zoey opened up her book and indulged herself in the reading.
"Good morning, class," a peppy voice called to the class. His aggravating voice boomed throughout the room. Zoey's head shot up to see where the source of the voice was.
"Good morning, Mr. McLean," some of the students replied back to him in monotonous voices.
"Take your seats, take your seats," he demanded, grabbing a piece of chalk and scribbling down his name on the blackboard behind him. She watched as his hand made loops and twirls across the board.
"Hey, red," the boy next to her whispered. Zoey turned her attention to him, praying that Mr. McLean didn't catch her already causing trouble on her first day. "You're new, right?"
She nodded.
"I'm Duncan. Your hair was drawing me in. Has anybody ever told you that?"
She shakes her head.
"Well, nice to meet you."
"Duncan, stop flirting with the new girl," the girl in front of him said, glaring at her. Her long, blonde hair draped down her shoulders and shone under the classroom lights. She turned around to avoid getting in trouble.
"Don't be such a hard ass, Dakota, turn around and pay attention."
"Duncan, pay attention," Mr. McLean said. Dakota smiled to herself while Duncan sighed and turned around. Zoey looked ahead, her heart thumping in her chest. "I don't want a problem with you this year, Duncan," he went on, "you got held back one year. Let's not make it two."
"Hey, let's not bring that up, McLean," Duncan replied. A bright pink blush appeared on his cheeks. Some of the girls in the back, Dakota included, giggled. Zoey couldn't help but giggle, too.
"Anyways, all that aside, welcome to Biology. In this class, you will learn about .kingdoms, bacteria, evolution, and everything in between. This class will be hard, but it will be worth it in the end. I promise you that."
Duncan rolled his eyes.
"But, before we start, we have a new student here with us. Can Zoey stand up?"
This was the moment Zoey has been dreading since she moved in. She stood up, legs trembling, heart pounding, and stepped to the front of the classroom. Mr. McLean moved over to give her the stage.
"Um, hello, I'm Zoey. I'm new here."
"Hello, Zoey," some of the class said to her. She blushed nervously.
"Where are you from?" Dakota asked.
"I'm from Kansas. It's in the United States."
"Do you miss home?" One of the girls in the back asked. Zoey nodded.
"Thank you, Zoey," Mr. McLean said, putting his hand on Zoey's shoulder. She scurried hurriedly back to her seat, quickly getting out of the spotlight. Mr. McLean took it right back, stepping back to where Zoey was previously standing.
"Please give Zoey a warm welcome. Welcome to Wawanaka High. You'll like it here."
Duncan turned to Zoey once Mr. McLean turned his attention to beginning a lesson on the syllabus. "Kansas, huh? Why did you come to this shithole school?"
Zoey shrugged. She wished Duncan could leave her alone.
"Eh, it's senior year. You'll live. You can go home when you're done here."
"Duncan, again, pay attention," Mr. McLean annoyingly grunted. Duncan rolled his eyes and turned forward. Zoey gave a silent sigh of relief.
The class dragged on for the whole hour. Zoey attentively listened to the teacher, though, somewhat interested in what he had to say. Duncan sat restlessly, playing with Dakota's hair while she blew bubblegum bubbles and popped them loudly. Zoey already wanted to go home.
Once the bell rang, the class got up and practically ran out of the room. All except Zoey, who took her time packing up her bag and walking out. On her way out, she noticed Dakota and another girl, standing by the lockers across the hall. The other girl gave off intimidating vibes; Zoey was hoping she was nice enough to talk to. Dakota locked onto her gaze, then called her over. Zoey nervously walked over to the two girls and smiled upon entering the conversation.
"Hey, don't talk to that fuckboy Duncan. He's a sleazeball," Dakota said with a laugh. The girl next to her laughed, too.
"I could tell," she said with a laugh.
"By the way, this is Anne Maria. She's my best friend."
Anne Maria smiled and waved. "Hey, boo," she said. She had a thick New Jersey accent that was as prominent as the pouffe on her head.
Zoey introduced herself and shook Anne Maria's hand.
"Oh God, here comes trouble," Dakota mumbled, leaning her head into Anne Maria's ears. A tall boy with a blue football jersey strolled over.
"Anne Maria, how are you girl?" he said, putting his arm around Anne Maria's waist. She grinned.
"Leave me alone, dickhead," she said with a sly smile.
"Come on, you didn't say that last week," he said with a laugh. She punched him in the chest; it didn't seem to phase him.
"I'll see you later, baby girl."With a kiss on her cheek, he left to join some of the other football players. She wiped her cheek, disgusted.
"Fuck that," Anne Maria groaned. Dakota and Zoey both laughed.
"Whatever, at least he isn't Duncan," Dakota added.
Zoey went to the rest of her classes, having to introduce herself in each class. She dreaded each time, the anxiety never going away. At lunch, Dakota welcomed her to sit with her and some of her best friends. Zoey sat down at the lunch table with her little green lunchbox.
"So, this is Zoey," Dakota said, reaching her hand out to Zoey. Zoey smiled and waved at the girls at the table.
"I'm Amy," a blonde girl with a mole on her face said. She sat right next to Anne Maria and another girl.
"I'm Taylor," the girl on the opposite side of Zoey said. She had a chubby face and a curvy body.
"I'm Heather," the girl next to Anne Maria said, taking a sip of her milk, "this is Lindsay." Heather pointed to the blonde, busty girl sitting next to her. She was too busy stuffing macaroni down her face to notice what was going on. She waved to Zoey, mac and cheese dribbling down her face. Zoey laughed a bit and smiled at her.
"You know me," Anne Maria stated as she took a swig of the Sprite in front of her.
"Welcome to hell," Taylor said, "this school fucking sucks."
"We can show you around," Heather said with a sweet smile. Zoey felt at home with her new friends.
"That would be nice," Zoey said. She began to eat her ration of Mac and Cheese.
"How was your summers?" Dakota asked. She didn't have a lunch in front of her.
"Boring, all I did was get dragged by my ugly sister everywhere," Amy complained.
"All you do is fucking complain about Samey, Jesus fucking Christ," Anne Maria grunted.
"She's fucking annoying."
"I know, but still, we get it. You hate her."
"Who is she?" Zoey asked.
"She looks like me, but uglier," Amy replied.
"Oh."
"She's in our Bio class," Dakota pointed out. "She sits with Staci and Dawn."
"Yeah, those weirdos," Taylor added, laughing.
"Anyways, how was your summer?" Amy asked the Jersey girl, the scowl on her face turning to a soft smile.
"Nothing really happened, I tanned and went back to Jersey. I always do that though," she replied.
"I wanna go one day," Lindsay exclaimed as she cleaned her face off with a napkin.
"We can go this summer on a road trip or something," Heather suggested. The girls, except Zoey, nodded enthusiastically. The whole conversation shifted into that, and Zoey instantly felt left out again.
That night, Zoey went home, locked herself into her room, and pulled out her laptop from one of the boxes she has yet to unpack. She logged into FacePage to see a few new friend requests. One of them was Duncan.
"Hm," she muttered to herself before accepting his friend request. She opened a new FacePage tab and began to stalk his profile. Pictures of him at parties, tattoos he's gotten, him with girls and at parties, and many selfies were abundant on his profile. Every status he made had a swear in it. A part of her regretted accepting his friend request, but she figured she'd let him stick around and let him run his course on her timeline. She noticed a friend request from Dakota popped up, much to Zoey's surprise and delight. She quickly accepted it, then went to browse her profile. Photos of her and her best friends, whom she called the squad, were in albums and sorted neatly. Selfies of her in expensive dresses and makeup that costed more than Zoey's family's apartment were up there, too.
She had other friend requests sitting in her inbox from Anne Maria, Amy, and Lindsay. She accepted them, but her tiredness overtook her before she could stalk their profiles. She told herself she would do that later. She set her laptop on the floor next to her bed, then shut off the lamp next to her. She had no trouble going to sleep that night after a long day. She hoped tomorrow would be a normal day, just so she could have some normalcy in her new life. For now, though, she was just going to sleep.