Chapter Ten

The bus came a little late at 6:39, but I guess no one's perfect, right?

On board, however, it was loud and rowdy and smelled like my dad's sweaty socks. But when I passed the group of guys who were throwing paper balls and playing dirty songs off their phones, they were silenced, as was the entire bus, Just..staring at me. I felt a little claustrophobic.

Whistles aroused form the guys, and murmurs of sexist things I do not want to repeat were heard all throughout the bus. People thought I was hot?

I sat down next to James, plugging in my buds and listening to Every Time We Touch, the slow version of course. I bought it off of iTunes on Friday.

While I was looking through my menu for the repeat option, a girl with thick, dark hair tapped my shoulder. I took my ear bud out and faced her. Ugh. Pink and brown plaid skirt, brown sweater vest, and a white, crisp cuffed long sleeved shirt. Did I mention how much I hate pink? She reminded me of the girl on the cover of Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter.

"Hi!" She said cheerfully. "I'm Tammi Nelson! Either I haven't noticed you before or your new, but either way, it's really good to meet you!"

"Sam Jerald," I said. "Yeah, I'm new," Why was I lying about my name, you ask? Well, you're never sure of the people you can trust.

One of the guys who were still gawking at me nudged his friend. "Her name is Sam!" he whispered.

"Guy name? So hot!" Another one said. I rolled my eyes again.

"So, if you need any help finding your way around school, call me! I memorized the layout of the school, so I have no problem finding classes! It's a good thing you're a freshman, or else you would have to go through all sixteen buildings to find one class. Freshman start with eight." Tammi said, getting perkier and perkier by the minute. So perky, in fact, it was getting kind of creepy.

I had a feeling she was the only person on the Pep Squad. She handed me a small, pink card that had her name, number, and e-mail on it.

You tell me, dose a high-schooler really need a business card?

"Ah, I see you've met Twinkly Tammi," James said, looking at the card. "Don't worry, though. I'm pretty sure the office will let you choose who you get to Shadow." I blinked. "We have this thing called the Shadowing Plan, and it's basically you get to follow someone around for two days to see what kind of classes you would want to take."

"Oh," I said, nodding. "I guess that makes sense,"

"You guess?"

"Yes, I said I guess because, honestly, it doesn't make sense."

He snorted. "It makes sense when you go to Perkins High."

"Okay, then," I said, crossing my arms.

"Speaking of school, turn around."

I did so, and I saw literally sixteen different buildings, just like Tammi described. I couldn't even tell where the gym was.

But it was everything I saw on T.V, read in books. Perkins High was big, scary, and... well, I guess the way high school is supposed to be.

"Don't worry, you'll be just fine." James whispered. I looked at him and nodded, hoping that I was better at lying about my emotions then the rest of my life. "As long as you Shadow me."

"Who said I was gonna Shadow you?" I said, smiling jokingly. "Just for that, I think I'll go with Twinkly over there." I gestured to Tammi, who smiled and gave me a quick wave. Just to be nice, I waved back.

"Seriously? You've known me for almost a week and you're thinking of Shadowing Tammi Nelson instead of me?" James asked.

"Oh, stop your whining. I'm only kidding." I said, punching his arm as lightly as I could so I wouldn't hurt him. Yes, I found out that my friendly punches can hurt James, as big and built as he is. Well, he wasn't like a football player who looked like he was hyped up on steroids, but more so that his muscles looked natural.

Again, what was I thinking?

"Okay, okay!" he laughed, getting off the bus. I followed him. "I'll take you to the front office, if you want me to." He offered.

"Sure, why not?" I said, taking his hand so I could hold it, and he didn't stop me from doing so.

I couldn't really tell just yet if it was going to be sunny or not, since the sun hadn't come up just yet, but I could still see the students who littered the school's lawn.

From what I could tell, there were the preps, which pretty much consisted of Tammi and her similarly dressed friends, the jocks, some of which were the guys hooting at me on the bus, (again, I rolled my eyes) the cheerleaders, who were all wearing baggy sweat pants and boots, the group of idiots, which mainly consisted of guys who were gathered around a Diet Coke bottle and someone putting a Mentos into the bottle (It blew up), the goths, the nerds, the really weird people... I could keep going on and on, but, sadly, I don't have enough room.

And then there was James' friends. They looked perfectly normal, three guys and a girl.

"Hey, guys," James said casually, not as if he had a new girlfriend at his side. The girl looked at me, as if she was trying to examine my personality from my outside. I looked back, and I could tell one thing from her mind: she liked James, too.

"Uh, James?" she asked. "Do you wanna introduce us to you friend?" Even though the girl was talking to James, she kept staring at me.

"Oh, yeah, everyone, this is Sam Jerald. Sam, this is Meagyn, Luke, Alex, and Nick." James said, putting his arm around my shoulder.

"Hi," I smiled, waving. A flash of something came at me, and I could tell it was from... Nick, right?

"Hey," they all muttered, as if they didn't mind having me there, but they really didn't want me to be a part of their group.

After an awkward silence, James piped up, "Well, I gotta take S to the front office so she can get a Shadow."

"Okay, see ya, James." Meagyn said, and it looked like she was really the only who cared where he went with me.

I had a really bad feeling that she wasn't going to be my BFF.

And, trust me, when I get bad feelings about stuff, they normally come true in the end.