"Who is that?" I asked with my eyes almost popping out of head. She looked at my expression.
"That is Andrew. Also known as my boyfriend..." I was more in shock of that statement than anything else that's happened lately. "HA! I'm just kidding! Oh my gosh, did you see your face? Priceless!" She must have noticed my deviating glare. "Sorry... but yeah, that's Andrew Collins. He's the captain of the football and volleyball teams. He's in AP classes just like us. He's a Junior, a musician, and very quiet. All the girls pretty much drool over him, but he doesn't really seem to make much notice of it."
"Oh." I was disappointed, but also relieved. He has bright blue eyes, Sandy blonde hair, and a tall and slim, but masculine figure. I realized she wasn't joking when she said that all the girls drool all over him. Everyone asked how his football game was Friday night. It must have been an away game. He just smiled at the questions, not saying much in return. He seemed shy, which is strange for a captain. I guess they won the game 23-7. I understand football more than my mom thinks I should. My dad is obsessed with it, and having only girls as children, I decided to make an interest in it myself. I played flag football back home, but have always been more into baseball. I play volleyball, so maybe I'll get the chance to to know him. Or maybe not at all.
"Good morning class! How was everyone's weekend? I hear we bested the Falcons this past Friday night, huh Andrew?" Everyone started clapping and cheering. A few guys sitting behind Andrew, slapped his back and started barking like dogs, bull dogs. I studied the teacher. She was a bit older, maybe 50 or 60. She wore a navy blue dress, hair pulled up in a high ponytail, and black shiny slip on shoes that didn't seem to match her outfit. She was kind in the eyes. A wrinkled smile, and an uneven stance. "I see we have a new student here with us today. How about you come up here and introduce yourself, where you're from, and three interesting things about yourself?"
Oh god... my worst nightmare. I felt like I was in a movie. I didn't think people actually did that in real life. "Can I just sit here? Please?" I pleaded, turning red in the face.
"Very well. Go on then." She smiled, while everyone else stared at me. I could notice a few smirks around the room. I looked back and noticed Andrew Collins looking at me, studying me, and smiling at me. Oh my goodness, I think I might faint. This is completely and totally absurd.
"Umm... well my name is Victoria, but people call me Tori. I moved here about two weeks ago from Phoenix. My dad works for the CDC, which is why we moved here. I dance, play the piano, guitar and drums. I play volleyball, cheer, and I do gymnastics. Or I used to anyway. I'm taking college courses, obviously. I'm 15, and I guess that's about it-"
"You're 15?" Bec asked in astonishment.
"Umm yeah. I'll be 16 in July." I said in embarrassment. Everyone seemed to be in shock at that statement. I guess I was really young for my grade.
"How did you become a junior at such a young age, Tori?" Ms. B asked with an interested smile on her face.
"In Arizona, we had stage testing that brought us through to each grade. When I was going into first grade, I tested for second instead. I went half a year of first grade then the second half was second. I was just turning six when I went from first grade to second." I said embarrassed.
"Wow! That's very interesting and amazing. Welcome aboard, Tori. I'm excited to see what you have to bring to my classroom. Moving on, today we're going to go over-"
"Why does Arizona have state testing?" Bec asked, cutting off the teacher.
"I don't know, it was just a thing they did back then I guess." I whispered back to her.
"Yeah, that doesn't happen in Pennsylvania." It never really hit me how far away I was from home. Arizona to Pennsylvania is a little intimidating. And cold. It was November here.
School would normally be letting out for semester break in just a couple more weeks. I was so mad at my dad for leaving so early in the school year. I begged to just finish off the semester in Phoenix, but he didn't want me or Hannah to get the virus. No one was sure how it spreads. Phoenix is now in government quarantine, and luckily, my family got out before the curtain came down.
Calculus was over before I knew it. The dismissal bell was excruciatingly annoying and loud. Rebecca walked me down three frights of stairs to the basement for my next class, woodshop.
"This is your next class. Sorry for you, I will not be joining. The last time I was in this class, I screamed at the loud machine." She seemed to shiver at the memory. "But the teacher is pretty cool. His name is Mr. Laugherty. We all call him laughy because he's a total sweetheart and jolly pretty much all the time." She said her goodbyes, told me she'll take me to my next class then left. It's a good thing my grandmother liked to do some wood working. She's shown me a few things. so this shouldn't be too hard for me.
The first part of my day seemed to go on forever. Every teacher wanted to me to introduce myself to the class. It was annoying since the lot of them were in the same classes as me all morning long. After wood shop, my next class was gym. I started to feel a little strange, so the coach sent me to the infirmary. And she enlisted none other than Andrew Murrin to assist me. I walked in, introduced myself to the nurse, and then Andrew told her I almost passed out in gym. She had me lay down on the bed. She took my temperature, blood pressure, and pulse. She told me my temperature was normal but my blood pressure was pretty low and pulse was a little elevated. She asked if I had eaten anything yet today. I told her lunch was next on my schedule, but I have hypoglycemia and it can be a challenge to keep up with it when I'm in classes all day. Especially when teachers don't allow students to have food or drink in their classrooms. She wrote me a note to give to all of my teachers excusing me to have a snack or drink when I need it.
Rebecca saw me leave the nurse's room and asked me what was going on. She led me to an open. large cafeteria filled with all different kinds of students. She sat down with a group of girls who seemed to match her aesthetic.
"You must be Victoria. Bec told us so much about you!" A girl stood to greet me. "I'm Jess. The captain of the cheer team. Bec told me you also cheer."
"Yeah, I did in Arizona. I was first flyer on a competition cheer team." I stated to the tall and thin girl standing in front of me. She was very pretty. She had long strawberry blonde hair with green eyes, and almost six feet tall. Or maybe it looks that way because I'm only 5'1". She didn't need to wear the black heels she was wearing because she already seemed tall enough.
"She also told me that you're a gymnast-"
"Was... I was a gymnast." I looked off into the distance remembering the way my coach reacted when I told her I had to quit for good.
"Oh. Um sorry, I guess. But anyway, you should totally try out for the cheer team. I'm sure you'd be great! We have practice after school at three O'clock. Make a stop and see what you think." She sat back down. She was kind of intimidating. I noticed that her posture wasn't as statuesque as Rebecca's was. I assume that she must be a senior, being that she's the cheer captain.
As I sat down, three more girls introduced themselves to me. One girl, who was wearing a similar black leather skirt as Rebecca wore a green shirt, sheer black tights, and black thigh high boots, said her name was Alyssa Newberry. Another girl, wearing black pants, a purple shirt, and black boots, introduced herself as Heather McClaine. And the last girl said her name was Vanessa. She was a bit standoffish. She had long, red colored hair, and wore blue jeans with a low cut crop top. She was an interesting personality, but not my type of person. She was too much of a showy girl for my liking.
Alyssa led me through the lunch line and explained if I was a meat eater then go to the center island, but they usually go over to the salad bar. I just followed them through the line and acted like I knew what I was doing.
We sat back down and the girls continued to ask me a bunch of questions. Vanessa just seemed to sit there and roll her eyes at me the whole time. No matter what I said, she would just smirk and roll her eyes. I got up after a few minutes and dumped out my leftover food in the large garbage can. I came to the conclusion that I should just pack my own lunch.
Heather and Rebecca had their next class with me, so we walked over together. We were the first ones there since the classroom was right around the corner from the cafeteria.
"Hey Tori..." Heather said to me like she was sad or regretful. I just looked at her. "I'm sorry about Ness. She's a bit territorial. She'll get used to you though! Just giver her some time. If she gets over the top mean, it's just the way she is with new people." She explain with a small smile.
"I don't even know her. And she definitely doesn't know me. So she should act like she hates me just because of that. I don't waste my time on people like that. I didn't do anything to her, so she should be acting like I did."
"I know you didn't, sweetie. It's just that she is like that with every new person that enters the group. Heather moved her two years ago and Vanessa acted the same way toward her. Now Ness loves her!" Rebecca tried to explain things to me. But I still think it's a waste of my time and energy having this conversation.
"It's true; I promise! Oh my god, she was so brutal to me! She was so mean to me when we first met, she acted like I didn't exist. Then, just out of nowhere, after being here for like a month, she decided to take me and the girls out to dinner and movie. It was all her idea!"
I didn't really care that she didn't like me, but I don't like to be treated badly just because she doesn't know me. I will never understand people like that. It's ridiculous to me to think of myself being that rude to someone just because I didn't know them.
We learned about some psychologist guy in sociology. I wasn't really paying attention because I was too busy in my own world, thinking about how my friends are and what they're doing back home. I wondered how many more people were getting sick. I also wondered why my dad said I wasn't allowed to tell anyone here about it. Before I knew it, sociology was over.
Our classes are about an hour long each. My day starts with A. P. Calculus, Wood Shop, gym, then lunch, sociology, A. P. Writing and Composition, A. P. World Studies, and then I end my day with an optional study hall. My guidance counselor told me I could fill it with choir or band, go home early, join a club that met in that hour, or just stay in the study hall.
During my study hall, I decided to take a walk down to the main lobby to look at their activities board to see what clubs and sports this school has to offer. The school is kind of big for all the more students it has. It's divided into and East and West wing with three flights of stairs and a basement. I had to walk down two flights of stairs from my study hall to get to the main lobby. I looked at all the flyers and sign up sheets on the bulletin board. They have a French Club, Industry Club, Chess Club, Survivors Club, Mathletes Club, Debate Club, and photography club. Then they have boys basketball, wrestling, baseball, volleyball, and girls volleyball, softball, cheer leading, and basketball. They also had co-ed cheer leading, tennis, golf, swimming, track and field, and rugby. I signed my name under co-ed cheer, swim, and survivors club. As I was doing that Andrew walked by.
"Hey, Victoria right? He asked with an outstretched arm to shake my hand. He smiled a melting smile and took my hand in his. It felt like a bolt of electricity went through us as our hands touched. "Are you feeling any better from this morning?"
My face turns noticeably red. "Yeah, I am. Thanks again. You're Andrew right? Captain of the volleyball and football team?" I asked timidly. I had absolutely no idea why I had no control over my shaking voice. It was like somebody took over my ability to speak.
"I guess you did your homework! As did I Miss. Gymnastics team captain on her way to UCLA and volleyball starter, and first flyer of a competition cheer team back home. Wow! You're making quite a name for yourself around here."
Ah... yeah... how did you know all of that? Did you look me up or something?" I sounded as if I was accusing him, but I wasn't trying to. I was just confused how he knew all this stuff about me.
"Calm yourself, Becs told me about you in study hall. She thinks you and I have a lot of things in common. We're both musicians and athletes, and apparently introverted." He chuckled at himself. "So, I guess I just wanted to get to know you for myself." He smiled a dazzling smile that could make a girl weak in the knees. I felt like I could melt at the sound of his soothing voice.
"Oh! I guess it's better than knowing me as the girl you practically had to carry to the nurse during gym class on her first day." We both laughed. "Bec told me a little bit about you too. But I don't know anything past what I already told you. So, do you play any instruments, sing, or what makes you a musician?" My voice still seemed small, but a little more confident now.
"I play guitar and sing."