Chapter 1
The first day of school has always been a pain for mom's everywhere. But this year was different. Tyler was finally in Preschool, Peter was excited about going into the first grade, Lulu was nervous about entering the seventh grade, and Seth, as usual wasn't thrilled about another year of teachers thinking up ways to torture their students with work. Zoe had graduated high school the previous year, and was going to a community college, which didn't start for another week.
"C'mon you guys we gotta go!" Julie yelled from the kitchen. She was getting Peter's backpack ready as well as getting Tyler ready for breakfast. "I said let's go!" She yelled once more.
Lulu strolled down the stairs into the kitchen. She was wearing a new skirt and top with her hair down. "I don't wanna go to school." She said gloomily, slumping into her seat.
Julie tried to get Tyler to eat his cereal. "Why not honey, you'll do fine."
"Why couldn't I just stay in elementary school?" She asked, not really searching for an answer.
"Oh, you'll love it." Julie smiled. "Seth! Let's go!" She screamed, and soon enough a tall, blond boy came down the stairs.
Julie made Lulu and Seth a bowl of cereal. "So, you ready for your junior year?" She asked him, setting his bowl in front of him.
Seth looked at his mom and back down to his bowl. "Am I ever ready for school?" He mumbled.
"Seth, maybe if you thought positively about school, it'd go better." Julie said, Zoe then came downstairs, still in her night clothes.
"Or maybe if you stopped wearing all those weird clothes, people would like you more." Zoe commented, going into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee.
Seth was wearing dark blue jeans, a solid black t-shirt, with a black zipper down jacket over that. His black and white All-Star Converse shoes peaked out from the bottom of his jeans, his blond hair hiding underneath a grey beanie, and you could see his headphones wrapped around his neck.
Julie looked at Zoe. "Zoe, don't start." She said, going back to cleaning up Tyler.
"What's wrong with the way I dress huh?" Seth questioned.
"Because-" Zoe was cut off by her mother, staring at her again.
"Okay guys, let's go." She said, as everyone rushed to eat their breakfast and headed out to the van.
Julie took Tyler and Peter's hand. "Now Zoe, can you wash the dishes?" She asked, Zoe nodded. "And vacuum the living room?"
"Yes mom." Zoe answered, a bit annoyed.
"Okay, okay, we're going." Julie said, and hustled everyone into the van. "Bye sweetie." She said to Zoe, getting into the driver's seat.
"Bye mom. Bye guys, have fun at school." She said, waving goodbye to Tyler and Peter. "You'll do fine Lulu."
Lulu smiled. "Bye Zoe."
Zoe looked to Seth, who stared back. "And well…"
"Yeah, I know. See ya." He said to her, and the van pulled out of the driveway, leaving Zoe there alone.
"Bye Lulu! You'll do fine!" Julie called from the van.
"Bye mom! Bye Seth!" She got out of the car first and waved to the two of them, Seth starting to unbuckle himself. She turned around and looked at all the students gathering on the school lawn. She'd just been there a few months ago, but now she was in seventh grade, a completely different world. "Well, here goes nothing." She said to herself, then headed into the school building to find her locker.
"Now Seth, you come straight home after school, okay?" Julie said as Seth got out of the car.
"Mom, I have nowhere else to go." He told her.
Julie sighed. "Well, just have a good day, okay Seth." She tried to sound encouraging.
"Bye mom." He waved goodbye and turned around and started walking away from the van. Julie watched Seth walk off, then went to park the van to take Peter to his class.
Seth made his way into the school building and went to look for his locker.
"355." He said to himself, and took out his combination lock from his pocket. He took off his backpack and found a folder with pictures and stickers he put in them. "Yes." He started putting up his pictures and stickers in his locker, when it was suddenly shut closed by someone.
"Hey Creeper." It was Troy, now a senior, and captain of the football and wrestling team.
Seth rolled his eyes and put his things in his bag. "What do you want?" He muttered, putting his lock on the locker.
"Nothin'. Just patrolling the halls, getting rid of some trash we find along the way." He smirked.
"Yeah, man," Sean, Troy's dummy chimed in. "So that means you gotta leave!" He laughed, Troy smirking some more.
Seth sighed. "Whatever." He turned to walk away, but Troy grabbed his shoulder.
"Don't get in my way this year Creeper, ya hear me." He growled. Seth looked at Troy and pulled his shoulder out of his grasp and walked off.
"So, Shane and I will be here if you need anything." Claire said. A young, averaged height girl with dark brown, practically black hair sat in the chair across from Claire.
"So if you're in any trouble, or you find anything, just let us know Mahea." Shane nodded.
"Okay, got it." Mahea answered. She sat there, sitting up straight, trying to smile. "I think I'll do okay." She got up to leave.
On her way to her homeroom, she turned a corner and bumped into someone. "Oh, I'm so sorry." She said immediately, taking a few steps back from the impact.
"No, I wasn't looking, sorry." She heard a voice say back to her.
Mahea rubbed her shoulder, and looked up, to see a pleasant looking boy rubbing his arm, staring at her. "Sorry." She said again.
Seth took a few seconds to look at her. He noticed she was wearing the same shoes he was, along with loose khaki capri's and a dark blue t-shirt that read "Sorry, I stopped listening days ago…" on it. Her hair was pulled back into a half up half down style, making her face look clean and pretty.
"I'm Seth." He said, letting go of his arm.
"My name's Mahea." She smiled.
Seth, still being uncomfortable around girls, not that he's ever really been around girls, had no idea what to say. So he just stood there, looking at her.
Mahea looked around the halls and saw that most people were already heading off to their homeroom. "Well, I better go. I don't wanna be late to homeroom my first day." She chuckled. "Maybe I'll see ya around." She smiled, and started to walk off.
Seth nodded, "Yeah." He watched her walk away and smiled to himself, then remembered what he was doing in the first place.
"Hi Seth." Claire said as Seth walked into her office.
"Shouldn't drama teachers be in the drama room once school starts?" Seth asked Shane, grinning.
Shane raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't students be in homeroom when school starts?" He retorted.
Seth smiled. "Yeah I know. But I wanted to know if you chose which productions we're gonna do this year." He said, looking at Shane.
Shane shook his head. "Not yet." He answered, as Seth dropped his shoulders, disappointed. "But I have a while to pick which ones. Don't worry, you'll get first dibs on roles." He smiled, playfully punching Seth's arm.
"Cool. See you guys later." Seth said, reaching for the doorknob. "Good luck this year." He said, looking at both Claire and Shane.
"Thanks." They answered in unison, then Seth stepped out of the room and headed off to his homeroom.