Hey, guys, sorry for the delay; life's just been really hectic, so I've barely been able to get onto my laptop over the last week. But it's here now.
Also, I have a confession to make. Remember how I said before that I don't have any more major exams that would get in the way of my writing? Well, I may have told a teeny, tiny... quite big lie. I've got about a month's worth of exams coming up in about ten weeks. These are my GCSEs, and they are as major as major can get. They're not for another couple of months, but I have to start revising for them soon, so updates will end up being few and far between. Just giving you a quick warning.
Thanks to those who left reviews for my last chapter; glad you liked the bonding between Grace and Jodie. Anyways, on with the story. Enjoy :D
That following Monday, Danny parked the Camaro outside Kalani High School, and he and Jodie walked up the steps to the double doors, Jodie walking faster and ahead of him.
"Danny, seriously, you don't have to come with me to the administration office," she protested for the umpteenth time that morning. "I'm pretty sure I can find it by myself."
"I'm sure you can, but I'm still coming in anyway," Danny countered, following her through the doors.
"But why?"
"Because it'll make me feel better, knowing that you know where you need to be and you'll be all right for today," he replied.
Jodie sighed. "Alright, fine. But only to the administration office," she added, holding a finger up in warning. "No following me to my first class, no talking to my teacher and asking him or her to keep an eye on me until I settle down. They're going to do that anyway."
Danny only stared at her as she spoke. "Do you really think I'd embarrass you like that?"
"I don't know, but Grace told me that you sometimes go a little but over the top when you enter over-protective mode," Jodie retorted.
Danny huffed out a laugh. "Don't worry, I'm not that cruel. Now, come on; let's go."
A couple of minutes later, they entered the administration office. A small, mousy-haired woman was sat behind the desk, and she looked up when the door opened.
"Can I help you?"
Jodie walked over to the desk, while Danny hung back by the door. "I'm Jodie Knelson; I'm starting here today."
The woman turned to a pile of papers on the desk next to her and starting flipping through pages. "Ah, yes, I was given a memo this morning," she said distractedly as she shuffled through the mess. "Aha! Yes, here we go." She looked back at Jodie with a friendly smile as she handed her two pages. "Here is your timetable. There are six lessons a day - two before break, two before lunch and the last two after lunch. You've also got a map of the school. It's fairly easy to follow, but if you want, you can ask me or a member of staff to show you around the school and help you get your bearings."
Jodie smiled at the woman. "I think I'll figure it out quite quickly, but thank you for the offer."
She smiled and stood up. "Alright, then, honey. Right, lessons start in about five minutes, so there's not much point taking you to homeroom. You're in Mrs Marshall's form, by the way. Your first lesson is... English, with Mr Pitter. I'll walk you there."
"Alright." She and Jodie walked back over to the door and left, Danny following behind them. "I'll see you later, Danny."
"Yep, I'll pick you up after school. Lessons finish at 3:40, right?" Danny added, looking at the lady, who nodded.
"Uh-huh, 3:40."
"Okay, I'll see you then," he said, looking back at Jodie. "Gimme a hug." He pulled her into a quick hug and smiled down at her. "Alright, you have a good day. I'll see you later."
Jodie nodded. "Yep. Bye, Danny." With one final smile and a quick wave, Danny headed back down the corridor. Jodie watched him until he disappeared out of sight.
"Okay, shall we get going, Jodie?" the lady asked. Jodie turned and nodded, and the two of them started walking down the corridor. "My name's Mrs Crane, by the way. I just realised I didn't introduce myself."
Jodie smiled at her, already liking the woman. "That's alright; I wasn't really too focussed on whether or not you introduced yourself."
"Ah, you worrying about your first day?" Mrs Crane hit the nail right on the head, and Jodie bit her lip slightly.
"Yeah, kind of," she admitted. "I'm just worried about how quickly I'll fit in, how hard it's going to be, you know?"
"Don't worry about any of that; it'll all be fine today," Mrs Crane reassured her. "You seem like a lovely girl; you'll fit in just fine here."
"You think so?"
"I know so, sweetheart."
The two of them headed down several corridors, Mrs Crane talking to Jodie about high school and assuaging her fears, and a few minutes later, they stopped outside a classroom.
"Don't you worry about nothing, Jodie. It'll be a good day; you'll see," she said as she knocked on the door and opened it, poking her head round. She spoke with the teacher inside for a couple of seconds before opening the door fully. "Jodie, this is Mr Pitter, your English teacher."
Mr Pitter stood up as they came in. As she took in his appearance, Jodie felt more than a little nervous; Mr Pitter was fairly tall - just a little shorter than Steve - with light brown, rather spiky hair and stubble, and he had what looked like a permanent scowl on his face. But once he saw Jodie, his features immediately softened up and he smiled at her.
"Thanks, Anna," he said, and Mrs Crane smiled and left the room. "Hello, Jodie. Welcome to Kalani High School."
Jodie smiled nervously at him. "Hi."
"Don't worry, there's nothing to be nervous about. Come closer; I don't bite," he joked. As Jodie came closer, he reached behind him and picked a book up off his desk, and turned round to hand it to her. It was a copy of Romeo and Juliet. "I'll fill you in later with what we've done this year, but for now, we've just started Romeo and Juliet. This is your copy to keep and make notes in. Have you ever read it?"
Jodie shook her head. "No, but I've seen the film. The one with Leonardo DiCaprio."
Mr Pitter nodded, looking happy. "Well, that's good; that's the film version we watch as well. Now, everyone will be arriving soon. I'm not going to make you stand up and introduce yourself to everyone; I'll let you do that in your own time. But if you want to take a seat here," he said, indicating a desk at the front far right corner of the classroom, "And just read through the Prologue quickly. I'll do a recap with the class of what we've done so far so you can make some preliminary notes, okay?" Jodie nodded and sat down at the desk, placing her bag underneath and opening the text.
No more than half a minute passed before the door banged open and a group of boys shoved their way in, laughing loud and annoyingly about something. Jodie ignored them and carried on reading the play. But apparently they had other ideas.
"Hello, beautiful." The "beautiful" was really drawn out and exaggerated, making Jodie roll her eyes before she looked up. The boy who'd spoken was leaning against her desk, looking down at her in what he must've thought was a smile, but looked more like a leer to Jodie. "You're new, ain't ya? I haven't seen you around before."
"Please get away from my desk," Jodie said politely, although she felt like being anything but. "You're creeping me out."
"Oh, come on, sugar," he continued, clearly not getting the message.
"Wow, you're pathetic, Chris," a new voice sounded. Four girls walked into the room then. The girl who'd spoken was rather short, with blue eyes that were welcoming, but didn't give much about her person away, and curly dark brown hair, twisted up behind her head and held in place by a jaw clip, and was wearing denim capris with a light brown strappy top and a pair of brown sandals. The second girl was a redhead; her auburn hair was curly like the first girl's. Like the first girl, she had blue eyes too, but hers were friendlier and more cheerful. She wore a dark blue dress with a light blue cardigan and blue trainers. The third girl that came in had more of an olive complexion than the other girls, with straight dark brown hair that curtained her face and her dark brown eyes. She wore a floral patterned T-shirt and brown shorts with flip-flops. The last girl who came in also had dark brown hair, but hers was by far the longest; despite it being held in a high ponytail, the ends of her hair still reached her lower back. She was dressed in a pair of jeans, a checked green shirt and trainers.
"You're looking fit, sweetcheeks," Chris drawled, switching his leer to the first girl, who just scoffed.
"Drop dead, Chris," the girl retorted. Chris huffed out a laugh, but he and the other boys all moved over to the other side of the classroom. "Ignore Chris; his libido overrides his common sense."
"Really?" Jodie asked, raising an eyebrow; she already liked this girl.
The girl nodded. "Yep. If it has boobs and a hoohah, Chris is all over it."
"So eloquent, Mads," one of the other girls, a redhead, said.
"Yeah, but that's hardly the worst you've heard from her," the third girl said, as she and the redhead put their bags down on the two desks in the front.
"I know, and you know how it annoys me."
The first girl groaned. "Stop trying to change me! To paraphrase Anthony Hopkins, I am what I am and I say what I say."
The redhead nodded emphatically. "Yeah, and don't I know it!"
The last girl, also with brown hair, just stood there, watching the banter flying between them all with an amused look on her face. Before the two girls could really get going, though, she stepped forward and intervened.
"How about we introduce ourselves to her first before you lot freak her out with your... whatever it is that makes you all so weird," she suggested before turning to Jodie. "Hi. What's your name?"
"I'm Jodie," she replied, still smiling and trying not to laugh at them.
"Well, nice to meet you, Jodie. I'm Sophie," she introduced herself. "These are Jenny and Abbie," she added, indicating first the redheaded girl, and the other girl. "And this crazy thing is Maddie."
The three of them gave a little wave as they were introduced. "So, where are you from?" Maddie asked, perching on one of the desks and leaning forwards. "Your accent sounds like it's from more sort of the easterly area of America."
Jodie nodded a little. "Close enough. I'm from Chicago, actually."
"Really? How long d'you live there for?" Jenny asked.
"14 years. I moved here last year, in October."
"So you've been here... 5 months now?" Maddie counted the months. Jodie nodded. "That's cool. What do you think of Hawaii so far?"
Jodie shrugged. "It's alright. Love the sun, but it was really weird having a sunny Christmas. I'm so used to it snowing in November and lasting until halfway through January."
"I don't particularly like the snow; I prefer warm weather," Sophie said.
"Oh yeah, your January blues?" Maddie teased. Sophie mock-glared at her. Before she or anyone else could say anything, Mr Pitter stood up at the front of the class.
"Alright, everyone sit down now!" he yelled out across the room. Everyone immediately complied. Jenny and Abbie sat on two of the desks in the front row, next to Jodie, while Maddie and Sophie moved over to the other side of the room.
"We'll talk later!" Maddie hissed over her shoulder as she walked away. Jodie hid a smirk by swishing her long black hair over her shoulder to hide her face. Maybe high school wouldn't be as bad as she'd feared.
The rest of the day passed quickly. Jodie had three more lessons before lunch, all of which were with the girls. Because she'd started late, Jodie had missed most of the work, but all of her teachers had said that they'd be happy to catch her up. Eventually, lunch came around and Jodie met up with Maddie, Abbie Jenny and Sophie, and they all headed towards the dining room.
"So, what do you think of high school so far, then, Jodie?" Sophie asked as they walked up a corridor.
"It's very different to middle school," she replied. "I mean, already the work seems harder - not too difficult, but you know what I mean. But it's been good so far, especially since you've all been really nice."
"That's alright, Jodie," Jenny said, smiling at her. "If you want, we can show you around the school later, and-"
"Wait, wait, once sec," Maddie interrupted then as they turned onto another corridor, and looked at Abbie. "Batons at the ready." She and Abbie reached into their pockets but brought nothing out, despite them having their fingers like they were holding something.
"What are they...?" Jodie asked Jenny and Sophie, looking confused.
Jenny sighed and rolled her eyes. "They're insane; ignore them."
"Who wants to go check if it's Darth Poleon?" Abbie asked, and Maddie moved up ahead and looked around a corner. She turned back and nodded, and she and Abbie started humming the Imperial March, and they walked out a side door.
"You know, you guys are just asking for trouble when you do that," Jenny said reprovingly.
"Yeah, but it's so satisfying to do it," Maddie replied. Jenny just rolled her eyes again, and Maddie looked at Jodie. "One of the teachers, Mr Murn, he's a right hard-ass. No-one likes him. For some reason, he's always on lunch duty and keeps an eye on the lunch queue. We reckon he's rigged it so he's always on duty. What he does is when people come up or down this corridor, he sends them back outside and forces us to go around the long way. Everyone hates him for that now."
"Anyways," Abbie took over, "We've come up with a new nickname for him: Darth Poleon. We were studying Animal Farm, and the baddie in that is a pig, of all things, called Napoleon. Plus, Mads wanted us to watch Star Wars, because none of us had seen it. She practically foamed at the mouth whenever one of us got didn't know something about Star Wars."
"Hey! I did not!" Maddie protested.
Ignoring her, Abbie continued, "So, I finally watched it, because my parents bought the films for my brother, and we were discussing the possibility of Mr Murn being a Sith Lord in disguise, and Darth Poleon was born."
"So whenever they see him, they start humming that tune," Jenny finished. "Which they shouldn't do!" she added disapprovingly. Maddie just stuck her tongue out at Jenny.
"Stop being a spoilsport," she said. They walked around the lunch building and entered the back door and joined the back of the queue. The queue steadily progressed until they were at the front, waiting to be allowed into the dining room. They watched Mr Murn, waiting for him to do something. They didn't have to wait long. Two students who looked a couple of years older than them walked down the corridor, but were stopped by Mr Murn.
"You need to go around," he said, giving them a very pointed look.
"But we just need to go to one of the classrooms to talk to Mr Hall," one of them protested, pointing to a classroom about halfway down the corridor.
"I don't care; you're not allowed to walk up here. Go back out and go around," Mr Murn ordered.
The two students huffed and turned around. As they walked, one could very distinctly be heard muttering to the other, "We're not allowed to walk up it or down it. What does he want us to do? Cartwheel and do handstands and circus tricks up it? Control freak hard-ass."
"Come back here!" he bellowed down the corridor, storming after them. As soon as he was out of earshot, Maddie and Abbie started humming the Imperial March again, laughing when Jenny elbowed them both.
"Stop it!" she hissed. Her warning was somewhat dampened by the fact that she was giggling as well.
Sophie and Jodie just giggled as well, watching the banter fly between them. Sophie leaned towards Jodie and whispered, "As long as you can do this level of weird, you'll fit in just fine." Jodie nodded, mentally taking note. She already thought this place was great, and she couldn't wait to see what else happened here.
At the end of the day, Jodie bade goodbye to the girls and practically bounded down the steps. As he'd said, Danny was waiting in the Camaro on the other side of the road, opposite the school. She looked both ways before running across the road towards the Camaro, opening the front passenger door, climbing in and shutting the door again.
"So, how was your day?" Danny asked, smiling at her. "I'm gonna guess by that smile on your face that it was good?"
Said smile grew larger as Jodie looked at him. "Yeah, it was. It was a good day."
So, how was that? I hope everyone liked that. I based the characters of Maddie, Abbie, Jenny and Sophie off myself and my best friends, and the school as well. Me and my friends have just been thinking of things we could include in this chapter.
Also, I've done another story; just a oneshot written with skyflower51 and yoyocrazy3. It's just a ridiculous moment of randomness, but check it out if you want to.
Anyways, hope you all liked this chapter. Drop me a review and let me know what you thought. Cheers