I slept peacefully through the rest of the night until Amanda's phone went off in the morning blasting Hold On by the Jonas Brothers. Amanda quickly turned off the wake up alarm, stretched, and walked over to her closet. She scratched her head and then started throwing clothes out in every direction. "Grace, come on you have to get up! It's your first day and we still have no idea what you're wearing."
I sat up slowly and answered, "I have some stuff in my bag that I can wear."
She laughed quietly to herself, "Grace, you have been wearing those for who knows how long. You look about my size, you can borrow some of my stuff." She picked up two pairs of pants off her bed and asked, "So what do you want to wear?"
"Jeans and a t-shirt would be good for me."
She then walked back to her closet and threw a pair of jeans and a Hollister top over to me. She grabbed her clothes off the bed and when she started to walk out of the room she said, "We only have forty-five minutes until we have to leave, and you'd better hurry."
As we drove to school, in Amanda's Pontiac Solstice, I nervously ran my fingers through my hair and constantly checked my appearance in the mirror. "Grace, don't worry, everyone will love you, calm down."
I sighed, "I've lived in my old town, Springdale, my whole life. I've never actually been the new girl before. I'm really scared."
"Don't worry I know you'll be fine. And of course you have me."
I then took one last glance in the mirror and then starred out the window until we were finally pulling into the school parking lot. We parked, got out of the car, and headed toward the huge building along with tons of other students getting ready to start another normal day of school.
The school was huge to me, without Amanda I would've gotten lost in a matter of seconds. Every hallway led us past hundreds of students and tons of classrooms, but after about of five minutes Amanda led us to a group of friends laughing and hanging out by a row of gray lockers. As soon as they saw us turn into the hallway they came hurrying towards us. A girl with black hair pulled back into a ponytail was the first one to speak up. "Hey, you must be Grace, we've herd so much about you. I'm Shelby Meadows, let me be the first to welcome you to Rock Bridge High." The second girl in the group was shorter than everyone else by a foot and her wavy brown hair fell down her petite body. "Hey I'm Kristen Blaine." Next was a blonde headed boy who's hair slightly flipped up at the end, had the most amazing tan looked like a pro surfer. "I'm Ray Cohen." Finally, my attention came to this really hot guy. He had brown, skater hair that fell over his tan face and when he smiled at me it was enough to put every-single guy in the school to shame. "Hey Grace, I'm Adam Curtis." I smiled shyly and said "Hey." Kristen looked toward Amanda and asked, "Are you and Grace going to hang out with us before we go to class?"
"I'd love to but I have to take Grace to the office to get her schedule." Amanda sighed.
Adam then stepped forward, "No, you go ahead. I'll take Grace to the office."
"Are you sure?"
"I'd love to." Adam rested his hand behind my shoulder, which sent off the butterflies in my stomach. "Come on Grace, I'll show you the way."
He led me down many hallways and passed many crowds of people until we finally reached the office door. Adam and I both walked into the dull white office and Adam walked right up to the lady at the desk and said, "Good morning Mrs. Morgan." She looked up from all the papers that were crowding her desk, "Good Morning Mr. Curtis. What could I do to help you?"
"I'm here to pick up Grace Hamrick's schedule."
She quickly shuffled through multiple stacks of papers until she finally pulled out a white sheet of paper and handed it to me. "Here it is, Welcome to Rock Bridge High, Grace."
We walked out of the office and looked down at my schedule. I had English, Science, P.E., and then Art. Adam curiously looked down my schedule, "Cool, we have English, Science, and Art together."
"Really? That's so great! At least I will know one person."
He smiled and then took my schedule from my hands and looked at the little slip of paper that was stapled to the bottom. "Ah, here's your locker number and your combination. Would you like me to help you find it?"
"You read my mind." Adam gave me this very charming, warm, smile and then swiftly led me through the building talking about classes, teachers, and for once, after I had left the Amsworths' mansion, I didn't feel so alone and hopeless.
"Ah-ha here it is, locker 569." He pointed down to the end of the hallway. "Mine is at the end of the next hallway to your left, locker 708…" He was suddenly interrupted when this bouncy blond came up behind Adam, put her hand lightly on his shoulder, and in a flirty way said, "Hey Adam, who's your friend."
He took her hand, lifted it off his shoulder, and let it fall down beside her. "This is Grace, she's new to Rock Bridge."
She gave me a smug grin, "Hey. So Adam are you going to be in Science today?"
"Yeah, did you finish the worksheet that we worked on in class for homework?"
"O.M.G. I totally forgot! I have to go finish it, but I'll talk to you later."
As she bounced down the hallway I leaded over to Adam and whispered, "Is that your girlfriend?"
He laughed, "Erika? No, well I mean we did but I broke up with her."
"Why? She really seemed to like you."
"Well her fathers like a millionaire, and not being mean but she's a snobby brat. Let me advise you, not the person who you should be looking to become friends with. She's okay without her little clique but normally they're inseparable."
I smiled, "Okay, I'll remember that."
Finally, after Adam had showed me where my locker was and some around the school, the bell rang and he quickly led me to first block, which was English. Since we were the first people in the class Adam led me into the front of the class and introduced me to the teacher. "Mrs. Lee, I want you to meet my new friend, Grace Hamrick, she's new to Rock Bridge High." Mrs. Lee had the appearance of a mushroom.
She was short, plump, and had tan hair that was cut down to her chin. "Hello Grace, I'm Mrs. Lee and I will be your English teacher." She looked around the room and said, "For right now I want you to sit at the end of the middle row to the right." Adam looked over and shot me a look that I knew he was upset since he went and sat on the far other side of the room. As more kids started coming in I felt the awkward stare and whispers from the other students. Then once again I felt unwelcome and alone.
The next class I had was Science, and luckily there were people I knew like, Adam, Amanda, Kristen, and the preppy Erika who was now surrounded by a group of friends. As I entered the class Adam came up behind me and whispered in my ear, "Leave it all up to me." Adam walked up to the teacher. I almost started to crack up when I saw the teacher, he was tall, had little round glasses, was going bald, and had spandex shorts that came up to his bellybutton. Adam walked back to me smiling, "All set, come on, you get to sit by me." Adam and I went and sat all the in the back of the class.
After we sat down I leaned over and asked him, "What did you say to him?"
"I insisted that you should sit by me so that I can catch you up on the field of science."
I smiled. "Nice…"
"I know it is, Mr. Hale is blind and deaf practically so I usually sit here in the back and listen to my ipod or talk to Amanda and Kristen."
I glanced over to the table beside us to find Amanda both glaring into mirrors applying a fresh coat of make-up. "And, with you sitting here now, Erika won't come back and hit on me the whole class."
"I thought you broke up with her."
"I did but apparently she still loves me."
Who wouldn't? I thought in my mind.
Amanda leaded over to our table and whispered to me, "Hey Grace! How's your first day going?"
"Great. With Adam's help I think I'm getting used to everything."
"That's good. I felt really bad that I hadn't helped you find your first class but I guess I don't have to worry thanks to Adam."
He slightly beamed, "No thanks necessary. Grace is a fun person to hang around, I don't mind it at all." Then he gave me another warm smile, which made my stomach flutter with happiness.
The week past by so fast that before I knew it, it was already Friday. After school on Friday I flopped down onto Amanda's bed and sighed. "School isn't that bad here."
Amanda laughed, "I'd like to hear you say that in two weeks from now."
"Everyone is so nice here considering I'm new. I didn't think that it was going to be this easy to start off at a new school."
"Yeah I saw that you and Adam have become good friends this week."
I smiled, "He's really nice, but tell me, didn't he date Erika for a while?"
"That bitch, yeah he did. They went out for two months he really liked her but they broke up after a while cause he found out that she was cheating on him. Although it really didn't surprise me cause she's slept with about every guy on the football team." Just then we herd Mrs. Hamrick from downstairs, "Amanda, I think the mail came. Could you please go get it for me?"
"I hate her days off." She rolled her eyes and slowly walked out of the room to get the mail. I continued to lie on the bed and stare at the ceiling thinking about the week and Adam until she came back and threw a sealed letter onto the bed. "It's for you Grace."
I took the letter into my hands and asked, "Who's it from?"
"I don't know, why don't you open it and find out."
I slowly ripped the envelope open and unfolded the crisp, white sheet of paper.
Grace,
I know right now, I'm probably the last person you want to talk to. I just wanted to write and say how very sorry I am for acting like a jerk. If you aren't too mad at me then come to my house Saturday just as the sun is setting.
-Oliver
I smiled as I slowly set the note down. I was shocked to have received a letter from him. I had rarely thought about him since the first day of school when I met Adam.
"Who was that from?" asked Amanda.
"Oh no one."