The other kids seemed to be all ears to the conversation. Oliver was getting more uncomfortable, he knew he had to leave real quick.
"Come on, tell us how your parents died," said Drake with a demanding tone.
"I don't want to talk about it," muttered Oliver, as he got up at once in an attempt to leave.
"Hay, is it something I said?" asked Drake.
"What's the problem?" asked Max
"Sorry, I can't sit here," whispered Oliver.
"Why?" asked Max.
"Too many people," replied Oliver.
He left there and returned to his previous table, but it was already occupied by another boy. He was putting on a pair of glasses, and he ate his food with some sort of seriousness.
Oliver looked around him and observed that there were no more free sits on the other tables. He had to sit with him whether or not he liked it.
As she sat down, he looked far ahead, and spotted Drake and the rest of the kids, laughing and pointing their fingers in his direction. It was obvious they were talking about him.
"He's got himself stuck with the weirdo," he heard clearly from afar. It sounded like Drake.
"Great, now I've become a public display of mockery and ridicule," he mumbled to himself.
He thought of leaving since the boy sitting next to him was the whip of this new school. Oliver didn't want to continue with his past identity. He thought there was a chance to stop being bullied and called a weirdo for the first time in his life, and sitting next to another like him would only make history repeat itself. As he stood up, a thought came across his mind, making him change his mind.
"There's no point," he muttered.
He thought that isolating himself from this boy wouldn't make him any different from the bullies.
"Hi, I'm Jasper," greeted the boy, with a mouth full of food. He extended an arm to him for a handshake.
"I'm Oliver," he replied, taking his handshake.
Retrieving his hand, he saw that it was wet, smeared with the contents of his food. Slowly taking it close to his nose, he sniffed it. He could clearly perceive the smell of the sauce, and It felt so irritating, almost making him feel sick.
"You're new here?" asked Jasper, but Oliver wasn't paying attention.
"It looks like you dislike that gathering of jerks," he said.
Oliver didn't utter any other word to him again, he just managed to eat a little more of the food. He went away from the hall, to the lavatory. As he pushed the door, he stumbled into the girls' room, where he bumped into a bunch of girls, busy outlining their lips. It looked fake as hell.
He was so surprised to have entered the wrong room but more surprised at the way they all froze, staring at him. At his former school, they would scream and toss paper rolls at him.
"Sorry," he muttered, quietly closing the door.
He took the opposite door now and bumped into a number of boys. They were all from higher grades. Some were by the corner handling a weaker boy, and others were at the sink, blowing furiously on the soft papers.
The sight disgusted Oliver, he quickly reached for the nearest stall, which he entered, and threw up on the toilet seat. He felt relieved now.
He wanted a little privacy. There were so many people outside, so he waited a little longer for them to clear.
After a while, Oliver peeked through a small opening in the door and saw that the place was already empty. He quietly came out and went to a sink. He pumped out some liquid soap, scrubbing his palm vigorously, as the images of Jasper's hand, replayed repeatedly in his head. He rinsed his palms thoroughly, till they tingled.
When Oliver came out of the restroom, he met only a few people loitering about. They had all gone to classes. He raced to the notice board with his small notepad and took down his subject timetable. He looked down at his watch and saw that he was already some minutes late to trig class, so he hurried up to find the locker room so that he could grab a few books needed.
Oliver went everywhere he could go, but he didn't seem to find the locker room.
"Excuse me, I'm kind of new around here, and I can't find the locker room anywhere. Do you mind showing me?" he asked a girl he saw passing along the hallway.
"Sure," answered the girl, "I'll show you".
Oliver walked with the girl, who led the way. The girl was his age, but she was a little bit taller than he was. She had golden brown hair which was tied up in a ponytail behind her head, and she was wearing a white turtle neck and black jean pants.
"I'm Felicity Fergus," she said, after a long moment of silence.
"Oliver Logan," replied Oliver.
"What class?" asked Felicity.
"Er... seventh grade," answered Oliver.
"Wow, me too! What a coincidence," exclaimed Felicity.
"And wait, that explains it, you're the new kid that they've all been talking about. Sorry about your parents" she said.
Oliver couldn't believe it. He hadn't been to his class yet, but he was already starting to get famous. This sounded challenging to him, but at the same time, cool.
"Who knows me? I mean, how come they're talking about me already? I'm new here," asked Oliver after a short while.
"You'll see what I mean soon," answered Felicity.
They approached the locker room. There was a girl in there, with a pile of books in her hand, shuffling on the opened locker opposite her.
"That's Olivia Anderson," whispered Felicity, " She's the smartest kid in class".
"This is the place. If there happens to be any other thing that you'd like me to do, any problem at all, just try letting me know," said Felicity, turning round to leave.
"Thank you so much," said Oliver.
He took out his keys, to see the number on the tag. It was number thirty. He checked them one after the other, till he finally found his.
Olivia was still standing there, facing her opened locker.
Meanwhile, Oliver tried his key on the lock, but it didn't seem to fit. He tried and tried, but nothing happened. He seemed to have been handed the wrong key.
"It's not fitting," he mumbled to himself, as he struggled with the lock.
Right then, he felt a pat on his shoulder.
"Let me try," said Olivia.
Oliver was surprised to see the girl there, offering to help him. She gave Oliver the pile of books she was with and collected the key from him. He wanted to tell her it wasn't the right key, but for some reason, he remained quiet.
Oliver watched her in a manner that indicated apathy. He knew it wasn't fitting when she tried, but he just wanted Olivia to see for herself.
To his surprise, Olivia gave it a little switch, and the door of the locker crept open.
"Thanks," he said shortly, pretending not to be surprised about the lock.
"It's not rocket science," whispered Olivia to him in a sassy tone, with a smirk on her face.
She took her books from the already frozen Oliver and walked away sagely.
Oliver wondered why this girl was so full of herself just because of a mere faulty lock. He shrugged and took out the books that he needed. Then he locked up the locker and headed to class.
The class was so quiet when he got close. Most of the students were dozing away as the lesson went on. They were learning introductory trigonometry, a maths topic considered the most complex and problematic. The teacher, Mrs Caitlin, was standing before the class, writing on the chalkboard.
Olivia was so busy like a bee, with a notebook and calculator on the desk, scribing away on the sheets sprayed on her desk, raising her hand frequently to ask and answer questions.
Oliver took a deep breath and slowly walked straight into the classroom. He knew that he was already late, so he didn't want to interrupt the ongoing lesson. As he entered, Mrs Caitlin's Lasser-quick eyes caught sight of him, and she called out to him.
"You there," she said, "We don't entertain lateness to class here at Melrose, you know".
"I'm so sorry ma, I had a hard time finding my way to the locker room," replied Oliver.
The teacher beckoned for him to come and stand before the class. He slowly walked to the front of the class and stood there. He couldn't help but feel uneasy and shy, now he was in front of everyone.
"Now everyone listens up," said the teacher, calling on the attention of the students.
"This is your new classmate, he is going to be joining us for the year," she said, "So pay attention to him as he introduces himself".
Then turning to Oliver she said,
"Please tell us your name and where you're coming from".
Oliver was entirely nervous at this point. All eyes were on him.
"I...um... I'm Oliver Logan," he managed to splutter out.
"From?" asked Mrs. Caitlin, signaling to him with an expression, to continue.
"Coming from Knoxville Tennessee," he said, following with a sigh of relief.
"Wow, what an interesting place," exclaimed Mrs Caitlin.
"Do you know that Knoxville Tennessee has been named the third-best boating city in America? It's a lively city filled with exciting things to do and festivals year-round. It's located at the foothills of the mountains in Eastern Tennessee," explained the teacher.
Oliver was starting to feel so uncomfortable, just standing there facing the entire class. He prayed the teacher would just stop her relentless lecture about his hometown.
"You can go have your sit now darling, welcome to Melrose High School," she said at last to Oliver.
Oliver exhaled a sigh of relief as he went to a vacant seat in the last row, and sat there.
He saw Felicity, the girl who showed him the locker room, standing at the door. Now she walked into the class quickly and silently, obviously trying to avoid the attention of the teacher. But it turned out unsuccessful.
"Sneaking in and out of my class without my permission," said Mrs Caitlin, raising an eyebrow.
Felicity froze.
"Pardon my manners ma, I thought it'd be nice not to interrupt the ongoing lesson in a quest to get granted permission. So I...," said Felicity, but wasn't let to finish by an abrupt interruption by Mrs Caitlin.
"Or maybe you're not just interested in trig," said Mrs Caitlin.
"Seriously Felicity, you need to start taking studies more seriously. Consider emulating kids like Olivia over here," she added, with a tender pat on Olivia's back. Felicity rolled her eyes.
"Here we go again," muttered Felicity under her breath.
After standing before the class for over a minute, Felicity was finally allowed to go to her seat.