"Hey, where were you at lunch?" Embry asked as he walked up to his locker beside me and opened it.
"Oh, um, I was in the cafeteria," I said hoping he would be satisfied by the answer.
"Really? I didn't see you in there!" he said smiling largely. "You have snuck in and to another table when I wasn't looking."
"Um, yeah, probably," I responded glad he wasn't reading much into my answer.
"Tomorrow you should definitely sit by me though," he said as we both closed our lockers and began making our way through the halls. It seemed he was assuming that I had the same class as him and I went with it, not really knowing where we were going.
"Maybe," I responded quietly looking at my schedule and finding I had gym next, immediately feeling anxious.
"I'm in your gym class," Embry said suddenly, startling. "I saw your schedule earlier today, we are headed to the gym right now." I nodded in response and continued following him through the hallways, consumed by my thoughts. I was really nervous for my first day in gym. I didn't want something like yesterday to happen again. The shower incident had really shaken me up and it was hard for me to see the shower this morning. I felt like someone was going to push me and I was going to hit my head again and die. It scared the crap out of me.
We got to the gym and I talked to the teacher who handed me a uniform and a lock and told me to change. I noticed the uniform was sweatpants and a t-shirt but I needed to keep a sweatshirt on. Not only to keep me warm but also because I needed to make sure no one saw the gauze on my arm. I walked into the locker room and all eyes were on me. I began to panic, needing to get away from everyone and practically ran into one of the stalls. I leaned against the wall, taking deep breaths and trying to calm my erratic heartbeat.
I forced myself to change into the uniform and walked back out into the locker area. Many of the other girls were still there and I tried to avoid them as I picked a locker and put my things in it. I slowly made my way out into the gym where the other kids were gathered in small groups. Many people looked at me and I automatically looked for a place to stand where I would be ignored. I started heading towards the outside edge of all the groups to stand by the wall but was intercepted by Embry.
"Hey Kim! You should come meet my other friends!" he said happily, gesturing for me to come with him. I shook my head, my eyes wide, it was hard enough to talk to him.
"C'mon, I'm not going to let you stand here all by yourself," he said gently taking my hand and gently dragging me with him. There was a lot of pointing and whispering and I realized I was making a scene so I gave up and walked with him. He smiled down at me triumphantly and I scowled at him in response. I laughed and I realized he was leading me to a group of extremely tall, buff guys away from everyone else. In that group there was the tall guy from calculus and two other large guys. The guy from calculus caught me looking at him and I couldn't look away. He had warm brown eyes that made me feel funny when he looked at me.
"Guys, this is Kim. Kim, this is Jacob, Quil, Paul, and Jared," Embry said, causing me to quickly look away from the guy, whose name I now knew was Jared. I shyly waved to the others, not meeting their eyes. Just then the teacher blew his whistle, and I was very thankful for the distraction. They all turned to look at him and I did the same.
"Okay kids! As you could probably tell by the nets, we are doing badminton again. Partner up and then come to me to get your rackets and birdies as well as another pair to play!" he yelled, and then everyone began to move.
"Partner?" Embry asked right away, and I nodded, not knowing who else I would even be partners with if I said no. He smiled widely and we walked over to the teacher to get our stuff.
"Why hello. You must be the new kid. Kim right?" he asked right away. I nodded, taking the rackets he offered me.
"Okay, you two will go against Sara and Kaiden right over there," he pointed and Embry nodded, having me follow him over to the court.
Gym class went by pretty quick. Embry did most of the work and turned out to be really good at badminton. Hitting the birdie really hurt my arm so I didn't even really try to go after it, just standing in the corner and only hitting it when I needed to. After gym it was just Social Studies and Latin, which also went by really quick and I ended up sitting by Embry in both of those also.
I was relieved to be done with my first day, but I definitely wasn't looking forward to walking home. THe walk was actually kind of relaxing, it was just where I was headed that I wasn't looking forward to. I was surprised when I got home to an empty house though and was very thankful when he didn't show up at all that night. I didn't know what that meant or where he was but it meant I could eat dinner and get my homework done on time to go to bed at a reasonable time for once.