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Piper

After the three-hour hike, Piper was exhausted. Everyone was, except Coach Hedge and that guy who kept flashing cute smiles at her. (She had eventually begun to notice. And what she hated was how cute he actually was.)

Coach Hedge... she didn't know what to make of him. He was so... weird. He kept sniffing the air like he smelled something bad, but never said anything as if still determining where the smell was coming from so that he could yell at the right person. But Piper didn't smell anything, and neither could any of the other kids.

When they got to the school, Piper's first thought was: holy, this place is huge. It was composed of two main buildings—the actual school and the dormitories, which were on the left. In the dormitory building the ground floor was one large common room; anyone gender could go there. After that the building was split in two down the middle—boys and girls—and they each had four levels. One floor for each year.

Behind the school there were two outdoor pools, and then more fields and hills. Piper would later learn that two kilometres down there was lake the school used for larger water activities like canoeing.

"Well, cupcakes," said Coach Hedge, stopping in front of the dormitory building. "Looks like we're the first to arrive. We'll go into this building behind me, drop off your stuff, and if you're new you'll take an exclusive tour with me!"

There were only seven new kids in Coach Hedge's exclusive tour, including Leo and Piper. In those seven, there was that annoying guy, two of his friends, and this girl that wore so much makeup it was hilarious.

After a quick tour they got back to the dormitories. Piper found a bed in a small, quiet corner of a large and spacious room and decided to make her home there.

The next day was a free day. The teachers would hand out timetables and list homerooms, and then the rest of their time was for exploring. Piper met up with Leo in the common lounge.

"Whadya gonna do for the rest of the day?" he asked. Piper shrugged.

"It doesn't really matter to me," she decided.

So they just walked along the school premises, talking about whatever. Leo mentioned that he had ADHD, and Piper admitted that she was Cherokee.

The day passed by so quickly, Piper noticed. When she and Leo finally returned to their dormitories near the end of the day, Piper found a teacher had come in and left a timetable for her on her bed. Piper hoped that someone had accidentally left the door unlocked and not that the teachers had the key to enter every room (though it probably was the latter).

Piper took out an agenda she had bought for herself and jotted down her schedule on the last page, just in case she lost her original copy. She organized all the textbooks that she would need for the next day and set them at the foot of her bed. Then she left the room to see what Leo got.

Well, Piper was disappointed to find she only had two classes with him—English and gym—but figuring how freakishly large the student body was, Piper guessed that that was super lucky.

Homeroom was History with a teacher Piper figured was nice at first glance, Mrs. Mann. Instead of working on the first day, she gave the class a tour of the classroom, (which was really boring but killed a lot of time), and let them do whatever they wanted for the rest of the class.

"But," she had said, "almost everyone here knows each other from last year except for one of the new students, Piper McLean. Piper, tell us three interesting things about yourself."

Three? Piper knew the teacher was only doing her job and not meaning to hurt her in any way, but really? She looked around the classroom to find everyone had his or her eyes trained on her.

"Well, go on," Mrs. Mann encouraged.

Piper bit her lip. "Well, I surf," she said.

"Oh, really now?" asked Mrs. Mann to be polite.

"Yeah. And I also, um…"

"What does your Mum do?" asked Mrs. Mann.

"My… Mum?" choked Piper. Okay, Mrs. Mann was terrible at being helpful. "Well, I don't really have a Mum," said Piper slowly. Mrs. Mann's expression turned sympathetic.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said. "What happened to her?"

"What happened?" Piper squeaked. "Well… uh…" She had two choices: tell and have it be really awkward, or not tell and seem rude. "…I sort of don't know," she decided.

"You don't know," repeated Mrs. Mann dumbly.

"Look, she sort of ditched my dad when I was born and may we please change the subject?" Piper asked. She heard a few girls snicker behind her back. Mrs. Mann didn't notice.

"Of course, you poor dear," she said. "One more thing. Just one more."

Piper hesitated. The girls who had been snickering before started to giggle.

"Hey!" snapped Mrs. Mann at them. They both shut up. The teacher turned back to Piper. "What about your background?"

"Oh, that's easy," said Piper. "I'm Cherokee."

The two girls couldn't take it and burst out laughing. Some classmates rolled their eyes. Most started to laugh with them. A few just ignored them, 'few' meaning the teacher.

"Cherokee? How wonderful!" Mrs. Mann said brightly.

Piper shot a sideways glance at the girls and considered making a rude gesture at them, but Mrs. Mann was right there. So instead she was forced to ignore them, pull out a book and pretend to read.

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