Senior Year

Chapter 1

~*Hanna*~

Well, here I am. The last year. I thought as I opened the all too familiar front door of my school. The smell of cleaning products filled my head as I walked in with the rest of my classmates. I found my locker easily since senior lockers were always in the same spot. 12-27-40; I had already memorized the combination because our school schedule and locker information had been released 2 weeks ago. I had placed everything neatly into it and turned around. Just as I did, May came strolling down the hall. "May!" I yelled excited. She smiled and lightly waved.

"Hi Hanna. How was your summer?" She asked. I frowned.

"Without you, boring. Very boring. How was Italy?" I retorted.

"It was amazing! I'll show you pictures ASAP!" She exclaimed flailing her arms around. May had spent the entire summer in Italy visiting some relatives. I smiled.

"So what's your schedule look like?" I asked. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a tightly folded up piece of paper which she started to unfold with care. I shook my head. "May, May, May." She looked at me innocently.

"What? So it went through the wash 2 or 3 times, it's still usable!" She shrugged. Finally getting it successfully opened up, she squinted. "Uhhh…" I grabbed the sheet and looked at it. The ink was so faded that any words on the page were barely readable.

"Why don't you go to the office and ask for another copy?" I suggested.

"Ok." May said grinning. I waved to her and she headed towards the offices. I don't know about that girl sometimes. Shaking my head I walked slowly towards my first class. A few times I smiled and waved to familiar faces, but kept going. Finally reaching Mrs. Manson's room, I strolled in and sat in the front row. I was in advanced math, a college course. It was my favorite subject, numbers and formulas came easy to me. Looking around, I saw about 10 kids. Is this really our whole class? I thought. Apparently so, because Mrs. Manson had stood up. Her look hadn't changed a bit from last year. She was tall and slender. Her hair was up in her usual messy bun, and she wore a blouse and a knee length skirt.

Typical math teacher.

She counted aloud, to 11. "Alright, that's everyone!" She said sitting back down to do attendance. 11? I looked around again. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10… where was 11? I turned completely around in my seat and saw a boy that I didn't recognize sitting in the desk that was closest to the corner. His hair was black as night, and shoulder length, half of it hung in his face, covering his right eye. He was very thin, not anorexic thin, but extremely slim. It seemed like he blended into the black chair, which is probably why I didn't see him the first time. His head was down and his arms were crossed. Almost like he was asleep, but he looked up and we locked eyes. I turned fast, slightly embarrassed that I was staring. Thank goodness Mrs. Manson started class; I gave her my full attention all period. Even though it was all review, I still enjoyed it. We didn't get assigned anything, even our books weren't in yet. Only having about 5 minutes left, Mrs. Manson let us talk the rest of the class. I turned and smiled at Mandy. She was a girl I had met last year. We were friends, but we weren't terribly close.

"Hi Hanna!" She said loudly.

"Hello Mandy, You know, you don't need to shout." I grinned as she looked at me confused.

"What do you mean? I'm not yelling." She said. Mandy never really understood that she was a loud person who didn't have the ability to whisper. I laughed.

"You haven't changed a bit!" I stated. She smiled.

"You wouldn't have me any other way!" She had me there. The bell rang signaling the end of class. I walked out with Mandy, and headed toward study hall, glancing back at the mystery boy, before running into the side of the door. "Klutz, what are you looking at?" Mandy giggled. I turned red and hurried down the hall.

"Bye Mandy, see you later." I said quickly.

*~Jade~*

I walked through the doors and glanced at my locker number. This was my first time in the school as a senior. Sure it was my third year at this school since I moved, but I still felt invisible.

I liked it.

Well, to an extent anyway. It was nice to fade into the background, to not be noticed. But it does get lonely once in a while I guess. I sulked down the hall, wanting nothing more than to go back home and sleep. Kids bumped into me, but never gave me a second glance. I did the same to them, so I didn't care. After a few minutes, I found my locker and opened it half heartedly. It was bad enough that it was the first day back, but on top of that, I had been persuaded to take advanced math. I hated math with a passion, but Mom had told me that it would look good on collage applications. I was only taking the class to please her. I knew I would squeak by in there, but it was going to be rough. At least I have it first so that it would be done and over with early. Glancing down the hall I saw the brothers walking around. The one with short light brown hair was Lane; I never talked to him much. Lane was very social. He talked a lot to lots of people. But the other brother, the one with longer dark brown hair, I did have the occasional conversation with. Danny was a nice kid; only saying what needed to be said. Nothing more, nothing less. Those two couldn't be more different, even though they were Irish twins, born 11 months apart, to the day. Danny saw me and gave me a small wave. I returned it with a single nod. I shut my locker and trudged off to math class. Guess I'm a bit early. I thought as I walked into the room and no one was there. Taking the opportunity, I sat in the desk that was closest to the corner in the back. People slowly started arriving. I laid my head down and folded my arms. I heard the teacher whose name I couldn't remember, count for attendance. I glanced up to make sure she counted me. She did, and then I put my head back down. Suddenly, I felt like someone was watching me. I looked up and saw a girl sitting in the front row looking directly at me. I saw that her eyes were light blue, and then she whipped herself back around. I studied what I could see of her. She had straight, black hair that went to her mid back, and that was all I could see. Why was she looking at me? I wondered. The teacher stood up and began talking. I opened my sketch book and started drawing. Once in a while, I looked up to see what the lady was talking about. The x and b with multiplying 17 and 3 quantity squared… my head started to hurt. Numbers and I didn't mesh well. I returned my attention to my drawing. It was looking good so far, I had finished the structure of the dragon. The pose was good; it was standing upright, tall and proud. For a moment, I wished that I could be a human form of it, confident and strong. Yeah, like that could ever happen. The teacher broke my train of thought by saying that we could have the rest of the class to talk, and that we had no homework due to the fact we had no books yet. At least something good happened today.

"Hi Hanna!" I heard someone yell. Good grief. Looking up I saw a girl with asymmetrical light brown hair standing in front of the girl who had been looking at me earlier. Oh, her, that, uh, Mandy girl. I rolled my eyes. So annoying. I didn't hear what the girl Hanna said, but I heard the entire conversation from Mandy's end. I was thankful when the bell rang. I took a deep breath. Thank God that's over. I suddenly heard a thunk. Looking up I realized that the Hanna girl had run into the door. I smirked thinking it was mildly hilarious. "Klutz, what are you looking at?" Mandy laughed. She quickly left the room blushing. People are strange. I thought as I stood up and walked out of the room. I looked around and decided which way I was going to go to get to my next class.