Chapter Two

Living Life on the Sidelines

As she walked through the door, she was overwhelmed by the amount of students already inside. There was still twenty more minutes before the bell rang and she was surprised this many people were so punctual.

When she registered for this school a few weeks back, she was told that she would be given her schedule in Homeroom, and that you could find your homeroom on a list of names on the wall near the office.

Her concern now was finding her way to that list, as she for the life of her couldn't remember where the office was. After a few minutes of racking her brain to remember and pushing through teenagers that just wouldn't seem to move, she found a group of people huddled near the wall.

Assuming that this was it she pushed through another herd of people she made it to the wall only to hit another obstacle. The wall was filled with at least 30 sheets of paper. "Why cant they just give us our timetable in the mail like they did at my old school" she asked herself.

Five minutes and 17 homeroom lists later, she found one with her name on it. English with Mrs. Jenkins in room 211.

As she repeated that in her head as if it were a mantra, she moved her way back out of the crowd of people. She followed the numbers on the doors until she found 211. She walked in to find it with only a few people.

"At least I can get my seat" she told herself.

She went for the same seat she always aimed for. Second from the back by the window. The window would be her entertainment during a boring lecture. And the location would benefit her, as it would keep her out of the teacher's line of fire when she was looking for volunteers. Or so experience had shown her at her old school.

After she had taken her seat she watched the door to see who would be in her class. No one that interesting had walked through the door yet, and no one had sat beside her, or approached her at all. She didn't mind all that much though. She hated being the center of attention. The entire week before school had started she had had nightmares about the teacher making her get up infront of the class and introduce herself.

Minutes later, the final bell rang. At this point the teacher got up from behind her desk and began to introduce herself to the class. She was an older lady, probably in her mid-forties, with short graying brown hair and small glasses.

"Hello All, for those of you who don't know, I'm Mrs. Jenkins" she said in her thick English accent.

As if on que, the door opened again, and a very tall and handsome dark haired boy walked in. "Well he's not bad" she thought to herself.

"Nathan Scott, how nice of you to join us" Said Mrs. Jenkins, interrupting her thoughts.

'Nathan Scott' she thought as she repeated the name in her head 'has a nice ring to it'

"Im sorry Mrs. J., Basketball meeting ran late, can't you cut me some slack, it's the first day!" he replied.

'Basketball meeting, Probably like every other jock I know... a cocky self-centered ass.' She thought to herself. 'He's still not hard on the eyes though'.

"I'll let you off today, but you know how I feel about tardiness. Do not let it happen again." Mrs. Jenkins lectured.

"Thanks Mrs. J. "replied Nathan as he took a seat next to the girl seated in front of Emma. She didn't remember seeing that girl come in. She was very pretty.

As she watched Nathan, Mrs. Jenkins got started on a lecture about the importance of punctuality. 'Nathan and this girl must be together' she thought as she watched him shift his chair next to hers and take her hand in hers.

'Probably some stupid cheerleader' she presumed.

About 10 minutes later, Mrs. Jenkins was finished discussing the rules of the class and began to discuss the first assignment. Surprising as it was to Emma, this pretty girl seated in front of her seemed to know what she was talking about. She seemed to have the answers to any question she was asked.

Soon enough the day was over, but it had felt like an eternity to Emma. Class after class she sat through listening to the teachers repeat the same 'rules of the classroom' over and over again. The pretty girl, whose name she had learned to be Haley James, was in two of her other classes. She was continually surprised by Haley's knowledge. She had certainly misjudged her.

After gathering her books from her locker, she let out a sigh of relief. Her first day was over and she had successfully managed to avoid being the center of attention. All she could hope for was that every day would be the same.

As she was heading out to leave for the day, and embark on her reversed sidewalk-crack counting, she lost her footing on the front step. All of her books flew from her hands and she fell forward landing on her knees. "Sht!" she cried out 'so much for not being noticed'.

'"Oh, are you okay?"

She looked up to see Haley James kneeling down beside her gathering up the books that had flown from her hands.

"Oh, yea I think I'll live" she answered as she took her books from Haley "Thanks"

"Oh no problem. Aren't you the new girl? From my English class?"

"Yea, just moved here, My names Emma"

"Im Haley"

"Well thanks for your help Haley," she said as she dusted herself off and tried to regain some composure. "I better be going"

"Of course. Well it was nice meeting you Emma, see you tomorrow"

"Bye"

"Bye

Emma turned and walked home; only this time she did not count the cracks. Her head remained up and for the first time since her mom died, she smiled.