Okay, so, I know I said that this one was on permanent hiatus but it was calling for me! I might be sketchy on a few things (I haven't even seen this story for a long time) so please be tolerant. This won't be a regular; more like a side project so don't expect any weekly updates.

I Beg to Differ

The school was bustling with hundreds of students in spite of what Andy had originally said. There were girls in the bathrooms, spraying floral deodorant and freshening up eyeliner. There were jocks flaunting their muscles in front of skinny, blonde cheerleaders and all the while, I stood in front of the admin, staring at it. Usually, I would have been confident, striding up to the door and flinging it open but now that time. Well, okay, I lie; I did feel like my confident self but all of the students milling around me was kind of putting my brain off whack.

"You okay?" said someone from behind me.

I whirled around to see who it was; alas, the albino chick. She had on this half amused expression and was hugging her binder to her chest.

"A little lost but I'll be okay," I told her and didn't keep eye contact.

Now, I consider myself a fairly rational, non discriminatory person; I'm not racist and I don't judge by gender but in a new school with a bunch of new kids everywhere, you're ethics can often strain a little. So, it was then that I looked away, hoping she would get the message and go away. It wasn't that I thought she was mean or ugly or anything; I just didn't want to get caught up in the wrong crowd.

In fact, she was probably a really nice person but you know, social suicide and everything. A girl's got to do what a girl's go to do. This was actually what I repeated to myself in my head over and over again as I heard her walk away with a little disgusted snort from her.

Soon, the bell rang, a high nasal sound, and I knew I had to inform the admin of my arrival and get my timetable and whatnot. So, with a little glance around at the now almost empty school yard, I traipsed off into the building and pushed the door open. To the right was a high desk with a grey haired woman manning the desk. A phone was ringing irritatingly and I had the urge to shout at the woman to answer it. There were a few chairs opposite the desk and two or three school plaques above them.

"Hi, I'm Susannah Simon. I transferred here from Brooklyn," I said to the lady who had her head down, scribbling into a note pad and glancing at a list of phone numbers and names thumb tacked to a little notice board.

"Oh! I didn't see you there, sweetie. Susannah Simon, did you say?"

I nodded.

"Rightio then. Here's your timetable and a map of the school. Your first class is Trig in Room 15. Here's a note for being late to class," she said and scribbled something down onto a torn scrap of paper.

She then handed it to me in her grey, marbled hand.

"Thanks a lot."

I found my class all right; unfortunately, it was in a building half way across the school so I still got a verbal thrashing for being later than what it said on my note the woman had written for me. Trig was my elective and by God, had I regretted it.

"Your homework will be the Chapter One practice pages. I want all of those questions complete with full working out on my desk on Thursday. You are dismissed."

My trig teacher was a young, perfectly figured… vixen, if you will. She had a sharp tongue, shiny black hair and an impeccable taste of fashion, if I may say so myself. I have to admit that I was a tad terrified of her but I also looked up to her straight away.

"Well, that was a bogus lesson," I heard someone say.
"The teacher's pretty hot though. I could do with some teacher, student relations," someone else replied.

I felt like groaning by the general stupidity of some of my classmates but refrained from doing so. The hallway was once again full of bustling students so I quickly rushed to my locker and shoved my books in. The rest of my day was fairly free; I had French after break and then a double of Government and a single of English.

This was the time I had been dreading for the previous day; break, recess; whatever you want to call it. You've seen Mean Girls and you've probably experienced that thudding in your heart on your first day. I went to the tuck-shop faced with hordes of students mingling, lining up and a group of skater dudes, in the corner, smoking some pot probably. At the Juniperra Serra Mission, there is no cafeteria. Everyone eats outside in the courtyard so I guess that took some of the load off my shoulders; cafeterias freak me out. You know, all that cheese and mac under the benches, jocks throwing raspberry ice cream at floundering freshmen. Kind of overrides my delicate mind.

"You look lost. I'm Lydia and these are my friends Debbie and Kelly," said a pretty girl who had just strode up to me.

She was wearing a crochet sweater and tight fitting jeans, clutching a Prada purse with Kate Spade pumps on her feet. If there's any word to describe Carmel, it's lavish. Their houses, or mansions I should say, their departmental stores, their people; they're all rich and expensively furnished/stocked/dressed. I could feel myself melting under her gaze from her perfect blue eyes and eyelashes coated with clear mascara. But on that topic; three inches of foundation much?

"Hi, I'm Suze."

It was all I could to not choke under her watchful eyes; her cronies weren't so scary. All right, the one called Kelly was; she was glaring at me like she was willing her eyesight to burn a hole through my head. I could only guess she didn't like my pants or something…

"Nice to meet you. We're part of the student council here and just wanted to welcome you. Do you want to sit with us today?" she immediately said after I replied.

"Sure," I choked out after not having very long to consider the invitation.

So that's how I managed to get in with the A-Clique at Carmel-by-the-sea. Okay, I kid; I didn't get in with them. After the first day, they kind of ditched me at every break and lunchtime but it didn't really worry me.

"Okay, Suze; its okay if I call you Suze, right? Anyway, I'm Lydia Barklem, that's my boyf, Sam. Over there's Claire and her sister Elisa…" Lydia was introducing me to the rest of the A-clique but only after a few names, I had already spaced out completely. Listening to a list of boring, perky cheerleader or thick jock names were really my favorite pastime.

"Anyway, tell us a bit about yourself, Suze," Lydia said and snapped me out of my day dreaming of subways and chocolate thick shakes in true New Yorker style.

"Um, well, I'm from Brooklyn. My mom and I moved here a few days ago because she just got married. So yeah, that's about it. Oh, my favorite shops the Gap, by the way."

I only added the last part because I though mentioning some sort of shopping complex would save me from getting interrogated by the more than curious bunch around me. How wrong I was.

"The GAP? Are you joking me? Oh God, they sell the worst stuff."

That was Debbie voicing her rather air headed opinions which was certainly not out of character, as I'd learnt earlier after a brief conversation with her which consisted of some kind of topic on leather corsets (this after spotting my own corset, thank fully not of the leather material).

"They're… uh, okay… I guess… uh," I stumbled over a reply.

"You shop at the Gap? Ew."

I was completely and utterly humiliated but managed to survive through the rest of break, slurping on my lemonade, trying to block out the rest of the conversation. Bell rang soon though, thank God for that otherwise I would have had to sit through duller chit chat about Anthropologie, and I ran off to French happily, humming show tunes to myself.

A Rose by Any Other Name

I watched her stumble through the hallways to her class, holding a shockingly thin text book easily in her hand. Among the other students, I could easily see her. I'd watched her for the earlier part of the day; leaning against the window in her mathematics class, or watching over her shoulder while she worked in her book. It was all so fascinating because for the first time, there was someone there who intrigued me, who surprised me with her every move and decision.

"Sorry I'm – Oh, I'm the first one here! Hah," she said to her French teacher with a little chuckle before sitting herself down by the window.

Studiously, she flipped open her book and mouthed some of the words to herself. Her mouth was like a perfect rosebud in the middle of winter, so vivacious in color yet so delicate at the same time, victim to the vicious gusts of wind. However, I could not immerse myself in her for very long as soon, the rest of the class trailed in, impeding my vision and concentration.

The only reason for my inability to connect with another human in the 150 years I have been on this Earth is that I am no different to the day I died yet all these people around me are like aliens, people I am so unused to; their habits, the things they do everyday stun me but push me away. So even though Susannah was no different, she contrasted against them at the same time. Her aura was one that I would find from one of the girls I would have known in my younger years; a spirit of purity. Unlike the other girls in her time, she was not so interested in fashion or shopping or boys and for this reason, I was almost possessed by her.

"Welcome… Susannah Simon to our class. My name's Madame Louis and I will be your French teacher for the rest of this semester," the teacher said from the head of the classroom whilst some students were still settling themselves and bringing out books from bags and the like.

"Quiet!" she shouted once the noise had still not ceased after speaking.

Susannah's knee was jumping up and down under her desk and she looked visibly shaken from the somewhat violent outburst from what appeared to be nothing more than a petite woman.

"Thank you. Now, Susannah, I hope you have fun this semester and learn a lot. Open up chapter five, please," she said loudly with a slight growl in her voice.

Susannah found the correct page rapidly and returned her gaze to her teacher's head. In an unthinkable and rather vulgar action, I leaned forward from behind her chair, smelling her cinnamon scented hair deliriously. It was so easy to be caught in the moment with Susannah. It was so easy to be lost in her eyes and forget my place in her world for she was not even aware of my presence; I was no one to her.