A/N This is based off my middle school experience in the UK. I've researched the US school system a bit but couldn't find everything so if things are a bit off, it's just the way British schools are structured and separated into classes. – Elizabeth.


PART 2

The first day of middle school was pretty damn overwhelming, but it wasn't as scary as I'd expected.

Lucky for us, our middle school was pretty much right next to our elementary one, so there was no adjusting our routes or anything like that. Christian, Kate, Jose and I had all decided however that we were taking the bus now that we were older. We all lived pretty close, so it was no big deal. Our parents had dropped us before, but Elliot told us that all the cool kids got the bus so of course, we did.

When the bus got to my stop, my heart was racing a bit. Upon entering, I scoured it straight away for my friends. Mine was the last stop before school; they'd all gotten on before because they lived in the far part of town. Christian beckoned me over to him. He was sat with Kate and Jose and Elliot. Elliot was with a group of his boy-friends and they were throwing strawberry laces into each other's mouths.

"Hi Ana," Elliot grinned. "Come and sit down."

He introduced me to his friends and one of them whispered to Elliot that I was pretty. I blushed and sat down next to Christian.

Kate and I were in our matching tops and she grinned over at me as she asked Elliot for a strawberry lace. He obliged and all his friends made kissy faces at him which made him go red.

By the way, Kate was Elliot's mystery girlfriend that Mia had told me about. None of our parents knew because they'd stop them from hanging out. We all had to keep it a secret which we did. Even Mia.

"You look nice," Christian told me.

I felt the heat rise to my cheeks at his gaze on my clothe.

"You look nice too," I told him, and he did. He was wearing similar clothes to Elliot and he'd had a bit of a haircut. We were all tanned and golden from summer. It bought out the green in his eyes.

At school, we headed to the assembly for our orientation. Elliot and his friends headed off to their own and he wished us luck. They were in eighth grade and next year would be going to high school.

Kate's brother, Ethan, would be starting high school today. He was a year older than Elliot, but he went to a different school. A private one, Kate had told me. She said that her parents had wanted to send her to Elliot's middle school instead, but she refused to be separated from us. I thanked god that her parents were cool and didn't make her.

In orientation, Principle Hilton welcomed us all and made jokes about how middle school wasn't really that bad and how high school was much worse. Nobody laughed. He then told us about all the classes we'd be taking; the compulsory ones which all sounded boring. The electives were much better, and we could all choose one to start off with. Our grades would determine whether we could pick multiple later on.

After lunch, we were put into our form groups. There would be ten form groups, each named after our personal tutor and it was within those groups that we would take our classes together. This was the part where my stomach lurched. My mom had assured me I'd be with Christian but as I looked around, I had a hard time believing it. What if they hadn't listened to her? There were so many sixth graders. Our names were all called out and our personal tutors waited for us at the front. Kate was put into form Alba with a pretty blonde personal tutor. I prayed we'd be in that one too, but we weren't. Neither was Jose. He was in form Smith. When Christian's name was called, he was in form Devan and I felt my stomach clench as he walked away from me nervously over to a small plump brown woman who smiled at him kindly.

Eventually, my name was called, and I too was in form Devan. I grabbed hold of Christian's hand tightly and finally breathed a long-awaited sigh of relief. But when I looked over to Kate, for the first time ever, she had tears in her eyes.

At home, I told mom that whilst Christian and I had been placed together, Kate and Jose were by themselves. She patted my shoulder.

"I know pet. But we couldn't have asked for you all to be together; they can't play favourites like that."

"But she's alone," I said quietly, her sad face coming back to mind. Kate never cried.

"She'll make friends honey," mom assured me. "And besides, it's not like you'll never see her. You'll have lunch together and physical education. Plus, you could all pick the same elective?"

I nodded and stabbed at a carrot with my fork. It wouldn't be the same. In elementary school, I'd been with Kate in every single class. Now I would only see her sporadically.

The next day on the bus, Kate was quiet. Elliot kept trying to cheer her up with silly jokes, but she wasn't in the mood.

"We'll all meet up at lunch," I said to her, hoping to relieve her of some fears. "And Jose."

He nodded.

"It'll be alright Kate," Jose said, leaning over toward her. "I'm on my own too."

But Kate didn't acknowledge him. Instead, she turned to me with an icy glare.

"I don't get how you two are in the same form," she said. "That's not fair. You two always get to be together."

"It's not their fault," Jose said. "It's just random."

But Kate still held my gaze and I looked away. No, it wasn't random. Christian and I had made our parents request to be placed together.

That was the second time I'd ever felt guilty.


The first week moved slowly but after that, we fell into a comfortable rhythm. There was a lot to learn and the classes were complicated but thankfully all of our teachers were really nice. Well, except for the math teacher Mrs Morrison. She always called on the kids that didn't put their hand up and she gave us twice as much homework as the other teachers.

After a few frosty days, Kate calmed down and we were once friends again. She'd made this new friend in her class, Holly, and she sat with us at lunch in addition to Jose's two new friends, Brody and Adam. As for me, I hadn't really made any other friends and neither had Christian. The kids in our class were pleasant enough but we had each-other and so we didn't really talk to them that much.

When I told mom that over dinner, I saw Ray give her a pointed, I told you so, look.

She sighed and put down her fork. "Honey, I know you've got Christian, but it might be best if you try and talk to some of the other children in your class. I want you to have more friends."

I wrinkled my nose at her in annoyance. "I have plenty of friends," I snapped, and it was true. I didn't just have Christian. I had Kate and Jose and I suppose even Elliot was a friend. He and his friends sometimes sat with us at lunch when they weren't busy.

"I know, but you've got an opportunity to branch out now," Ray butted in. "Make new friends other than the ones you had in elementary school. Kate and Jose have made new friends. You can too. Ana, you can't solely be reliant on Christian," he said in a no-nonsense tone.

Instead of replying, I pushed my dinner away and went to my room.

Later that night, dad came to my room. I pretended to be asleep, but he just chuckled and sat down on the end of the bed next to me.

"Sorry for getting a bit grumpy earlier," he said.

I didn't answer him, and he sighed.

"It's just, you're so young honey. You love Christian and I know that, but boys change. I'm not saying Christian won't still be your friend but soon he's going to want to hang around more boys. He'll be interested in girls and he'll see you differently. You won't be just a friend to him anymore and things will get complicated."

I absorbed his words. He carried on talking.

"I know you might think I'm mean but I know these things. I used to be a young boy. I want you to socialise a bit more, make friends with other people. I just don't want to see you get hurt."

He gave me a kiss to the temple and left then. I was wide awake and thought about the words he'd said all night long.

In the morning I decided that he didn't know everything.

He was wrong.