Ah, the first day of a new school. It's always the hardest day. No friends, no knowledge. It's like being a new puppy in a big new house. All these people scurrying around and you have no idea what's going on. It looks like everyone knows what they're doing while you just stare. It's like you don't exist, I mean sure, some people glance at you but they aren't really looking at you, are they?

I look down at my uniform. These pants, this shirt. Ugh. It seems as though everyone has put their own touch to their uniforms though. It's not as clean cut as I thought. Maybe I'll try something out tomorrow. For now, I best head on to the office.

As soon as I walk into the office, Principal Simpson is there, like he's waiting. Before I even say a word, he gets a head start.
"Ah, you must be Airele, the new student?" he asks me.
"um. Yes. That would be me, sir, principal, sir." I'm super nervous.
"Well, Airele. Welcome to Degrassi." He shows me a welcoming smile, shakes my hand and gives me a piece of paper with two sets of numbers written on it.
"Um, what is this?" I ask him.
"The first number is your locker number. The second number is your locker combination."
"Oh, uh, thanks."

I just stand staring at the paper. Principal Simpson pats me on the back and walks me out of the office where a girl wearing the same red shirt as I am is waiting for us. She seems perky and excited. Is she waiting for me?

"Hi!" she bubbles up and down as talks. She bugs me already and I don't even know who she is.

I look up quickly, wide eyed, because her perky voice kind of scares me.
"uh, hey." I'm confused.
"I'm Marisol!" She shoots me this ridiculous grin. "And you're Airele. You're new!"
As if I didn't know that already. "Okay …" She's confused me really badly now. What does she want?
"I'm supposed to show you where you locker is!" She takes my hand and starts to drag me away. I resist. "Oh, come on, it'll be fun!" She yelps.

She drags me along and half skips all the way to my locker.

We stop at number 3356. She hugs me and says "Here's your new home! Let's eat lunch sometime!" and perkily, she slips away. I shake my head, stare up at my locker number, look at the piece of paper and attempt to open it up.

I don't get it after the first try. Or the second. Or the third. I furiously shake the lock, let out a great sigh and exclaim, "I can't do it, ugh!" I bang my head on my locker.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone approaching me, some girl with a blue shirt, short curly hair, and gorgeous eyes.

I attempt to make conversation with, "uh. Hi. I'm new." She laughs a bit. I wondered what was so funny.
"I can see that", she says as she smiles at me. "Do you need help with you lock?"

"Well, if you can help me with this great disaster, I would greatly appreciate it. It's like, trying to scale the Great Wall of China or something. Seriously." I pretended I was out of breath to go along with the joke.

This makes her smile. I'm glad and I smile back at her. She was super cute.
"I guess I should give you my locker combination, right?" I said hesitantly. She nodded. I gave her the piece of paper. She quickly glances at it and goes right to the lock. She whips her fingers around like they're a bunch of small wands or something. And my locker flies open.

"My god, are you a wizard?" I ask her in shock.
"No, I'm Clare. Clare Edwards." She hands me the paper back.
"Well, Clare Edwards, I might need to keep you around so you can do that for me all the time." I laugh a little. She heartily nods. We stand in silence for a bit, until I realize I haven't told her my name.
"I'm Airele by the way! Should have told you that sooner, my bad, haha."
"Ahh, okay. Well, I'll see you around, I guess, right?"
"I go here, so you most likely will see me almost every day." I give her a friendly wink and she walks away.

I wipe my forehead. That went smoother than expected. I take my binders out of my backpack and stuff them into my locker. As I put the last binder in, the bell rings and kids pile up to their lockers. I'm not really paying attention to anyone because I'm reaching in my backpack and bringing out my schedule. I don't even know what class I have first.

I read it out loud to myself, not knowing that anybody would actually be listening.

"Media Immersion with Mrs. Oh. That's first. Okay. Let's get this over with and figure out the rest later."

I take out one of my binders and as soon as I begin to walk away I hear a voice that says, "I'll go with you, if that's cool?"

I turn around and see him. "uhh. Um. Why would you want to do that?" I stutter. Who are you? Why are you talking to me?

He nods. "Sure. I have that class next, my locker is right here. And I overheard you talking to yourself." He smiles a bit at that last part.

"Well, that's awkward." I mumble and look down at the ground as we walk to class.