Chapter 2

End of May or

"Kris! Are you okay?" I heard a voice say

"They seems to have passed out." A voice I recognized as Lilly said.

"Ughhhh..." I groaned. It seemed I had passed out. I was just a little too afraid to admit it.

"I guess my nickname's Kris now," I said feeling really off.

"I don't think they're okay girls," Louise told the others.

"They weren't too open before so I think something may have happened," Lilly said.

"I think we should get them to the nurse," Payton said.

Later

I woke up in the nurse's office feeling very confused. I didn't even know how I had gotten to the nurse's office or what had happened. Then it all came back to me, the girls/non-binaries, my blackout and everything. A few minutes later they came into the room and Louise asked me,

"Are you alright? You kinda just randomly passed out."

"Yeah, I think I'm okay... it was probably because I thought about my past..." I thought for a second then continued "experiences at my old school."

They looked really worried about me. I wasn't used to it.

But they were generally confused about how I had fainted. The nurse said that it was because my mind was overworked with emotions and I happened to pass out.

When the nurse finally said we could leave it was lunchtime. We went into the lunch room and everyone immediately looked at us. My first instinct was to hide away and look small, which I did. Louise noticed and asked

"Are you alright? You look scared." she thought for a moment then continued "Wait. Do you have social anxiety?"

I looked at her surprised. she turned and said

"What just because I'm popular doesn't mean I'm not smart. I mean look at Lilly!"

"What did you say about Lil?" Payton whispered aggressively.

"Payton chill. We just said she was smart and popular," Louise said.

"Alright. Just makin' sure," Payton said as they eyed us suspiciously.

"What just happened?" I asked Louise when we were sure Payton wouldn't hear.

"Payton has a crush on her. Like a really big crush." Louise informed me then wriggled her eyebrows. I ended up laughing with my real laugh. Only the really important people in my life have ever heard my real laughs so my first thought was that she'd be important. Everyone in this world has a certain thing that they can only show to the people that are going to be important in their lives. My one was my real laugh. I wonder what Louise's is.

Once we got to what must be their regular lunch I had

one of the best lunches I've had in my life. We all cracked jokes, well mostly Payton and Louise, but every once in a while Lilly or I would crack a joke. I was pretty upset when lunch ended but Louise assured me that they don't do anything during the first week. I was very surprised because at my old school the day you arrived you had classes.

"Wait so we really don't have any real classes this entire week?" I said very surprised.

"Of course?! How was it at your old school?" Louise asked me genuinely perplexed.

"We started with classes the first day we got to school," I said.

"YOU DID WHAT?" She took a breathe then continued, "You had to do school work... on the first... day of school...?"

"Yup. I hated it so much. So what happens here?" I questioned.

"Well, first we have a 'Getting to know you week', then we have a school trip that lasts a few days. I believe it's four nights five days, right Lilly?" Louise said.

"Yes, that is correct," Lilly responded. I probably looked really surprised because they all laughed. I blushed then said,

"What? I'm not used to this. We didn't have any overnight trips at my old school."

"Really? That makes no sense I thought all schools had overnight trips," Payton said clearly confused.

"Payton that's not how it is. We are privileged to be able to have overnight trips," Lilly told Payton. But it seemed She had said it with a little less stability than she normally does.

Was it because she was talking to Payton and happened to have a crush on them? I looked toward Louise and wriggled my eyebrows. she laughed really hard and I laughed along with her. The other two looked at us confused, I told them it was nothing. The next period we had a game where we go around and say our name, how old we are, and who was the first person we met at this school. So we went around and it finally got to Lilly's turn and she said

"My name is Lilly Hone, I am 14 years old and the first person I met was Payton."

Then was Payton.

"My name is Payton Osborne, I am 13 years old and the first person I met was Lilly."

After Payton was Louise.

"My name is Louise Young, I am 13 years old and the first people I met were Payton and Lilly. I met them at the same time."

At last, it was my turn. I don't really like talking in front of others so I kind

of started quietly.

"My name is-" I was interrupted by the teacher who said "Excuse me could you please talk a little louder otherwise no one can hear you"

So then I decided to start again, but louder this time.

"My name is Kristine King," I looked toward Payton then

continued with a smile, "Kris for short" I heard a squeak come from their direction, "I am 13 years old and the first person I met was Louise."

The teacher then introduced herself.

"My name is Sandra Mandler A.K.A. Mrs. Mandler, I am 28 years old and the first person I met here was Principal O'Malley."

We played a couple more games through the day and I was lucky enough to be in all the same classes, except for electives, as the others. My electives were Creative Writing and The Play, Payton chose Cooking and Art, Lilly chose Advanced Algebra and Biochemistry, and Louise chose Extra Theatre and The Play. This Friday will be the try-outs for the play. We were doing Wicked this year and I hoped I could get Elphaba, or the Wicked Witch of the West as she is more commonly known.

The Next Day

Today we would be having a chill day. We could go anywhere in the school and meet all the other people around. Louise, Lilly, Payton, and I all went to the Art room and hung out there. Every once and in while Lilly would go to the library to find more books. None of us could understand how fast she could read her books. I noticed Payton staring at her quite a bit and vice versa. I felt like I had already gotten closer to them, even though this was only my second day here.

"Hey, Kris what are you drawing?" I jumped at the

sound of Louise's voice. I heard a laugh from behind me

"Did I scare you?" Louise said, a smile clear from her words. I blushed hard then said to her.

"Yes! I was very focused and you scared me!"

"Well, I wanted to come over to see what you were

drawing. I also just saw Payton and Lilly leave together,"

"Oh, this will be fun," I said while rubbing my hands together.

"Oh my gods, you are absolutely hilarious! But yeah, that's true. This will be so much fun."

"Are you ready to tease them for the rest of their lives?"

"Am I ready?! I was BORN ready!"

The bell rang and we ran to the dining hall for lunch. Today was breakfast for lunch day. I must have looked very pleasured because Louise said,

"You look like your having an-" Her mouth was covered by Lilly's hand before she finished her sentence.

"Payton," Lilly said while pointing with her other hand toward the green-eyed girl. I wondered where they had come from because we had just been alone.

"Where did you come from?!" I asked them.

"We got here a few seconds after you did!" Payton said happily.

"Well… That's nice! Are we ready to go to the table so we stop blocking everyone?" I asked. They all looked around then Louise nodded. We walked to the table chatting altogether. Once we got to our table I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned in that direction then my face

turned white. There was no way, he wasn't smart enough to come here. It- it wasn't possible. I turned back with a

look of fear on my face. The others looked really worried.

"What is it, Kris? You look really worried," Louise asked. I turned around to look for a second and I saw him giving me a scary grin.

"He-He's here. He shouldn't be-be here," I stuttered to the others.

"Who's he- oh. Oh no that is not good," Louise said.

"How come you didn't tell me it was my half brother?!" She said after.

"He's your… half-brother?" I stared at her for a second then continued, "But how…? Your so much nicer and way less creepy than he is…" I finished.

"Well, he got the bad half of our family. My dad broke up with his mom because she was really mean to him. So he then got a girlfriend and accidentally got her pregnant with me. When I was 6 they got married. I got to be the flower girl and I was very happy. Denis stayed with his mom and I didn't know much about him. All I knew was that he was mean and a really big bully. Every year for Christmas all the family had to be reunited. That meant Denis and his mom had to come to. Denis would always be making fun of me," Louise paused for a second and she looked like she wanted to cry. I felt really angry with Denis. I mean I was a stranger to him the first time we met, but this was his half-sister. It was so much worse than someone you don't know. Louise then continued,

"He would call me all sorts of things-" I cut her off by

standing up and yelling across the room

"DENIS YOUNG! YOU ARE DEAD!"

I saw him turn around and go red he then stood up and told me,

"Awww. What are you going to do? Fight me?"

"If I have to I might do just that."

"Well then. Square up we're going to fight."

"Wait! Kristine! Catch!" A familiar voice called out to me. I turned to see who it was and saw Annabelle throw an SD card towards me. I caught it then turned back to Denis.

"We might not even have to fight. Thanks to my friend over there we have this," I said holding up the SD card.

"HA! What do you think that's gonna do. It's got nothing on it anyway!" Denis shouted back. I saw the teachers coming closer to see what was going on. I ran towards the projector that was in the back and put the SD into it. The projector turned on and started playing the audio. In it you could hear Denis shouting things at me. You could hear me crying and the sound of skin hitting skin when Denis' cronies started punching and kicking me. I tensed up then turned to look at him and his face was white. He turned to Annabelle who I now realized had actually come out of nowhere and said,

"You- you lied to me! You told me everything on there had been deleted!"

"Well, you are clearly not the brightest so I believed I could fool you. Guess what? I was right. The one I showed you was a backup I have," Annabelle responded. Denis then came stalking towards me or at least tried to. The

teachers blocked his path and the P.E. teacher picked him up and brought him to the principal's office. That day he

was expelled from our school, Willow Creek Middle school. It was an amazing day all in all, I had Annabelle come and join our lunch table. Louise was in tears with the others trying to comfort her, then she saw me jumped up and hugged me so hard I thought my bones would be crushed. I introduced them to Annabelle, my first and only friend until this year, they accepted her as part of the group. After lunch we continued on with the rest of the day but more people came up to me and said thanks. It turns out they were from my old school. Every time somebody thanked me I'd blush from embarrassment and I'd see Louise looking a bit annoyed. I thought little of it. To be honest it was probably because people kept stopping us.