"That’s your school,” said Megan from the passenger seat. Peter was driving the sedan and I was on the backseat.
Peter and Megan were headed to the university and decided to drop me to school on the way. I stared at the five storied building, getting out of the car. I strapped the backpack on my back.
“Have a good day, Rose,” Megan waved as Peter hit the gas pedal. Slowly he pulled away from the school gate.
My felt my heart racing. It was after all, a new school. A change after so many years. I walked through the main gate and passed the crowdy lawn. I needed to go to the office and get my time table.
I had no trouble in finding the office. It was right in the main building. There were more five buildings, scattered here and there of the lawn, each one for different subjects. I climbed the stairs of the main building, looking around me. There were many students gathered in groups all over the lawn. Some sitting down and studying, some writing, some gossiping and some teasing each other.
I entered in the office, pushing the glass door. An old woman sat behind the desk, eyes on the computer screen. I scanned the office. It was a small cabin which was painted blue; pots of plants were kept near the door. Sunlight pouring in the room through a window which was at the side of the desk. Stacks of papers, files and more papers were gathered around on the desk.
I cleared my throat.
“How can I help you?” the woman, finally noticed me and smiled.
“I’m Rosanna Valdez”, I said, “Today is my first day here”.
“Oh”, she frowned and took some paper out of the piles and studied them thoroughly.
“Yeah”, she said, keeping her eyes on the papers, “You are already registered. Here is your time table”. She handed me a folded paper.
“Thanks”, I grinned as I walked out of the office.
According to the time table. My first class was English in building C. It was nearest building to the canteen. I walked slowly towards it. I still had time before the class started.
“Hey”, someone tapped my shoulder. I spun around to find a pretty brunette girl, wearing jeans and a floral top, smiling at me.
“Are you new here”, she asked.
“Yeah”, I held my hand out, “I’m Rosanna”.
“I’m Erika Richards”, she took my hand and shook it gently, “Which class do you have right now?”
“English”, I replied.
“Oh”, she grinned, “Even I have that. Let’s go”.
When we reached the class, it was filled with students. Erika went to sit with another girl and I had to sit on the vacant last seat. Everyone looked at me as if I’ve murdered someone. New students are always looked at like new toys.
A tall, lean man came in the class. He was Mr. Benson, the English teacher. He didn’t waste time in introducing me to the rest of the class and started teaching the first chapter. It was the same thing which I have already learnt back at North Carolina. Romeo Juliet, Chaucer, William Shakespeare… It’s gonna be boring, I thought.
The next class was Algebra. I sucked at Mathematics. The teacher was Mr. Thompson, a stern looking aged man. He was the one who introduced me to the whole class. I blushed while saying my name and almost tripped over the bench while walking back to my seat. I met a guy named Jack Stewart in Algebra who was quite fun loving.
I went to three more classes: History, Biology and PE. The last one made me nervous like hell. I was never a sporty person since my childhood and had no intention to change my ‘couch potato’ image. I almost knocked off two girls on my own team during volleyball.
At lunch, I sat with Jack and Erika with their big group of friends. I forgot their names as soon as I heard them. But I recognized some of their faces who were with me in the class. Everyone asked me about North Carolina and gave the same ‘wow’ expressions like Peter and Megan, hearing about rain.
After school, I stood outside the gate, waiting for someone to pick me up. After standing for at least ten minutes, Peter pulled in front of me. I couldn’t see Megan in the car. I got in the passenger seat.
“Where’s Megan?”, I asked.
“She is in her ballet studio. I dropped her awhile ago”, Peter answered.
“She does ballet?” I was curious.
“Yeah, she does”, his said, pulling away, “How was your day?”
“It was a typical first day”, I said, yawning.
“Cool”, he smiled.
We passed through the driveways, as Peter turned on the stereo. It was a romantic ballad by Leona Lewis.
I looked at his perfect face, his big blue eyes…he reminded me of Prince Charming from fairytale.
“Made any friends?” he inquired, staring at the road ahead.
“Yeah,” I looked away, realizing that I was mesmerized by his looks, “A few”.
The rest of the drive was silent.
That evening, I did my Algebra homework and went through a few pages of English textbook. Megan came back from ballet studio pretty late and Peter was busy in his studies. We met at dinner downstairs. James and Veronica were already on the table. They asked three of us about how our day was. We had some animated conversation.
After dinner, everyone went in their respective bedrooms, except Megan. It was her turn to wash the dishes that night. It was a rule of Hoffman family. Each of us will have to wash dishes, clean rooms turn by turn.
I went through my Algebra homework for another fifteen minutes before I went to bed. Megan had promised to show me how the calculations worked if I had a problem. After I had finished checking the sums, I placed the books in my backpack and stood near the window which faced the front garden and the driveway.
I stared outside, at the dark driveway. I saw not a single person down there and was about to pull the curtains down when suddenly, a flash of movement caught my eye. I looked carefully and saw a flick of blonde hair on the footpath. It was none other than Peter. He walked away through footpath and suddenly he was out of sight. Where did he go so fast? He was right near the house a second ago and now he was gone. How is that possible?
I stood there for a minute, and pulled the curtains back and went to bed. Another new day was waiting for me the next morning.
