Ch. 1: A New Beginning

I walked into the front doors of the high school. Great, I thought. New school. New teachers. New people to make fun of me. The High School looked pretty nice. Big, I though. And clean. My last school was not pleasant with cleanliness.

I go though the doors to the office and sit down in the waiting chair. I look around and spot a computer. I glance out the office window and see nobody coming. I get up slowly and walk over to the desk. I lean over to see through the window again. Still no sign of anybody. I look back to the computer and see that the screen is black.

I look around and see a shelf that slides in and out underneath the desk. I sit down and pull it out. Theres the keyboard and the mouse. I give the mouse a little shake and a blue screen pops up on the screen with a sign in box. The user-name is already filled in. JthornsenSLHS. I sit back and think. If I'm going to hack into this computer, I'm going to need the secretary's password.

I sit there thinking when a girl walks in. She has long, curly brown hair and bright blue eyes. She looks a little taller than me and seems more of the athletic type. She looks at me and stares. I scramble out of the seat. "Hi." I say. She doesn't seem to notice I said anything. "Um... hello?" I ask.

"Sorry. I just didn't think that Ms. Thornsen was replaced last year. And I didn't think that the replacement would be so young." She said. She was clutching a book in her hand.

"Oh, I'm not the secretary. I think Ms. Thornsen is still here." I said. I walked back to the seat I was sitting at before. I sat down and looked up to the girl. "What book is that?" I ask.

"Oh," she said. She glanced down at her book. "Just a fiction novel, Eragon. What were you doing in the secretary's chair?"

"Oh, um... I was just, you know... um, a-admiring her computer." Glancing over, I quickly stated, "It's an Alienware X51 desktop. They're pretty rare around here."

"Uh huh," She says, rolling her eyes. "By the way, the password's jennifer. Just in case you wanted to know."

I look straight at her and she winks. She starts walking out the door. "Wait!" I yell. She looks back to me. "Sorry, I just never got your name."

She smiles. "Gwen. My name is Gwen."

I smile back. "Nice to meet you Gwen. My name is Julia."

"Hi, Julia." She glanced at the clock. "Oh my God. I'm so late for my studying in homeroom." She looked over at me. "Need some help with your classes?"

"I haven't even got them yet." I say. "I came in here to get them."

"Oh, well if you ever have any trouble in the future with your classes, just come and find me." Gwen said.

I thank her and she heads out the door. Now, you know who I am. My name is Julia and I just moved to Spring Lake this year. I'm in my sophomore year of High School and I had just met my first friend. I make others, but they don't show up in this story much. Oh, and another thing, things are about to get really strange for Gwen and I. All thanks to a rock that I found earlier while walking to school.

I walked down the school hallway. The secretary came in just as Gwen left. She handed me my schedule which also had my locker and the combination. Great. I thought, Combinations. I do not have a good experience with combination locks. In fifth grade, I got a lock to put on my locker from the school. Around the middle of the year, I accidentally put the lock on backwards. Lets just say that the school was not happy with the results.

I find my locker and get the lock open on the first try. Don't get cocky Julia, You still need to memorize it. I open the locker and hull my backpack that I've been lugging around. I finally let my shoulders relax. 20 minutes of continuous stress on my shoulders is not good. I look down at my schedule:

D. VanDike, Julia

10th Grade

Locker: 771

Combination: 12, 0, 32

First Trimester:

1st hour Mr. Jones Science Room 4

2nd hour Mrs. Peterson Math Room 7

3rd hour Mrs. Jill English Room 20

(Lunch)

4th hour Mr. Lang Social Studies Room 9

5th hour Mrs. Taylor Computer Tech. Room 16

6th hour Mr. Truskowski Band Band Room

Thank God. I think. They let me into band. I grab the books out of my bag for science and hurry to room 4 for science.