Chapter 1: A New Life
"Eleanor, would you hurry up? Your going to be late!" I heard my mother scream from downstairs. "Okay, I'm coming!" I yelled back as I raced downstairs. I grabbed some toast and picked up my backpack just as the bus was pulling up. "Hey Ellie", my Dad said as I was leaving. "Don't forget your lunch money." "Thanks Dad," I said. "Eleanor, will you hurry up!" my mother yelled from the den. No doubt she'd been drinking again. I raced out the door and hopped on the bus. There were so many new faces staring at me. It was scary. I don't know if it was whether I was the new kid or if it was the way I was dressed. I wasn't dressed up as a clown or anything but it didn't look as though there were any people with a punk-goth dress sense. I picked an empty seat at the back of the bus and pulled out my discman from my backpack. I put on my headphones and started listening to Sum 41. Sometimes its good to rock out to your favourite band when your nervous. Like I was when when the bus pulled up for the final time. I turned off my discman, shoved it into my backpack and got off the bus. I stared up at my new school and suddenly felt even more nervous then I already was. Everybody seemed to be in a group already. Nobody was left out. But no matter how nervous I was inside, I just held up my head and walked on in. People were still staring, but I didn't care. I dove into my backpack and pulled out my locker number. 198-West Wing. Great. My locker is right next to an abnormally large number of people staring. I just went up to my locker and worked out my combination without making eye-contact. I shoved my texts into my locker and got out my timetable. Period 1- Media Studies. Maybe I could get there early. As I gathered up my now-very-light backpack I heard a remark."Hey, I didn't know freaks were allowed in school!" "Yeah, whatever", I replied. "Hey, I don't think I've seen you before. Just so you know, nobody messes with Paige Michalchuck." "Yeah well, I have."
I walked into class and sat down just as the room was filling up. My teacher, Mr. Simpson, walked into class. "Morning class. I see we have a new student." He looked at something, then continued."This is Eleanor Nash and I hope you can all show her some respect on her first day." "Um, Sir, my names Ellie," I corrected. "Sorry Ellie, my mistake." Just then Paige and her friend Hazel walked in. "Ah Miss Michalchuck, Miss Aden I'm glad you could join us," said Mr. Simpson. "Please take a seat." Paige walked up to the empty seat beside me. "Um, hey, Ellie isnt it?" "Yeah." "You see that seat over there?" "Yeah." "Do you think you could um, you know-" "You want me to move right"
"Yeah, well could you hon"
"Miss Michalchuck, please sit down!" Mr Simpson suddenly yelled." Fine. Sorry Hazel," said Paige. "Hey don't let Paige get you down, she she can be a real drama queen at times. By the way, my name's Marco," said the guy next to me. "Ellie," I replied. I could feel my face get hot when I spoke. I kept to myself mostly for the lesson, but only because I was getting emails saying "freak" and "vampire". As class ended I thought to myself that maybe this year isn't gong to be so bad.