Chapter Text
Binders: Check
Notebooks: Check
Pencils: Check
Backpack: Check
Cute Locker Magnets: Check
Gigantic Bag of Assorted Art Supplies: Check
Andi went over the list of everything she needed for her first day of SAVA fifty times in her head, but she still felt like she was forgetting something. She had bought all her school supplies a month ago, packed it all into her bag a week ago, and had spent the last few days freaking out that this was actually happening. She was actually going to SAVA in—she looked at her clock—two hours. She hadn't been able to sleep all night because the first day of school was finally almost here. She laid in bed going through her checklist for a few more minutes before deciding that it was probably a reasonable enough time for her to get up and start getting ready. She had spent all summer agonizing over what her first day of school outfit should be. Of course, she had to wear something flashy. She usually did that anyway, but now that she was in art school that was only more of a reason to be even flashier. She also didn't want to stand out too much as a new kid though. It had taken her months but she had finally figured out the perfect outfit—a pink overall dress over a polka dot shirt with matching shoes. She thought it was just enough to stand out without going overboard. No outfit that had overalls could be considered overboard, right? Just to be sure, she snapped a photo of the look in her mirror and sent it to the GHC group chat:
Andi (5:14am): (One Image Attached) This isn't too much right. Should I just wear normal colored overalls? Are overalls even a thing still? The more I look at the word “overalls” the faker it becomes. Help.
Cyrus (5:15am): No, it looks great! I already told you that though.
Buffy (5:15am): ?????? Why are you two awake???? Go back to sleep!
Cyrus (5:15am): Sorry! I'm just so excited for our first day of high school that I can't sleep.
Andi (5:15am): Me too
Buffy (5:16am): Well, please be excited somewhere other than this group chat. Andi, your school doesn’t start until 7:30, and Cyrus ours doesn’t start until 7:45 so why are we up at 5:15??????? I was planning on stumbling out of bed at 7.
Andi rolled her eyes and put down her phone. She couldn’t be like Buffy and somehow look flawless within 15 minutes. She needed a lot more time than that every morning to pull herself together. She had recently gotten her hair cut so there wasn't a whole lot she could do with it. When she had gotten her hair cut a week ago she had thought that keeping it super short was a good idea because then there was less of a chance for her to get paint all over her hair. Now though, she wished that she had kept it long enough for it to still be braidable. She figured that it was fine. She would just wow everyone with her makeup skills instead.
She was looking around for the perfect shade of eyeshadow when she heard a knock on her door. "Come in," she said.
Her door opened and a very tired looking Bex walked in. "Hey... Why are you awake at-", she looked at her phone, "5:56? We don't have to leave until 7:15."
Andi looked away sheepishly. "Uh, sorry. I just wanted to have enough time to get ready. I didn't wake you guys right?"
Bex smirked. "No, you didn't, but the sounds of the drawers on your makeup organizer opening and closing a hundred times did."
Andi winced. "Sorry. I just had a hard time finding the right shade of eyeshadow. I had this really specific light pink shade in mind but I can't remember which pallet it’s in and-"
"Hey," Bex sat down on Andi's bed and motioned for her to come over. "It's okay. Come over and chill with me for a second."
Andi sat down next to Bex.
“I want you to take a deep breath in and out. Can you do that?”
Andi nodded. She took a long breath in, and as she breathed out she released a huge amount of tension that she hadn’t even realized she was holding from her body.
“Better?”
“Yeah. I’m just really nervous. What if-”
“Hey,” Bex grabbed Andi’s wrist and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry about ‘what-ifs’. Just focus on what is happening right now in the present. The present is pretty good, right? Your outfit looks really nice and we’re laying on your comfy bed. Actually, your bed is really comfy. I think we should just take a nap until it’s time to leave.” Bex closed her eyes and started to lay back on Andi’s bed, but Andi stood up quickly causing the entire bed to shake.
“We still need to find my missing eye shadow!” Andi said as she frantically started rummaging through her makeup supplies.
Bex sighed. “Okay, but after we find it then can we lay down for a few minutes? Everything is going to be okay, I promise."
Everything was not okay. Cyrus was freaking out. Should he text the GHC group chat again? No, Andi was having a freakout of her own and she didn’t need to deal with his stress too, and he knew Buffy would kill him if he woke her up twice in one morning. Should he text TJ? He looked at his clock. It was 6:56am. School started at 7:45am which meant that TJ was probably up, right? Or he was at least about to get up? What if he wasn't though? He had been wearing less hair gel lately so it probably wouldn't take him long to get ready. Cyrus decided that he should wait to text him. He laid on his bed for five seconds before deciding that actually TJ was probably up so he should just text him. They needed to talk about something anyway. Well, they had already talked about it, but they should probably talk about it again. Just one more time so everything was clear. Yeah, he was going to text TJ:
Cyrus (6:57am): Hey
Exactly 12 seconds later he got a reply:
Teej <3 (6:57am): Hey are you freaking out?
Cyrus (6:57am): Yes... sometimes I think you know me too well. Were you asleep? Sorry.
Teej <3 (6:57am): I was about to wake up
Teej <3 (6:57am): Wassup?
Cyrus (6:58am): Okay, so I know we already talked about this but as the saying goes "communication is key", and I don't think we can ever have too much communication so this is me communicating...
Teej <3 (6:58am): I think I know what this is about
Cyrus (6:58am): If you think this is about our relationship status and if we want people to know what it is then yes… that is what this is about. Are you sure that you're okay if I tell people?
Teej <3 (6:59am): Yeah Cy
Teej <3 (6:59am): If any of my basketball friends ask if we're dating I'm just gonna tell them the truth and you can tell your school friends too, but idk if I'm cool with like going around telling everyone. Not yet at least.
Cyrus (7:00am): That's fine! We don't have to be public until you’re ready. Honestly, I'm not 100% ready either. Maybe if we were still in Jefferson but Grant is a whole new ballpark with upperclassmen who are intimidating and can drive and everything.
Teej <3 (7:00am): I'm sure all the upperclassmen will be really nice
Teej <3 (7:00am): You like me even though I'm intimidating and can drive
Cyrus (7:01am): Driving golf carts doesn't count, and you're not intimidating. It's just your face.
Teej <3 (7:01am): My face is intimidating?
Cyrus (7:01am): No, ah! Sorry, ignore everything I say. It’s 7am. Your face is fine. I like your face. Just, like, your resting face is intimidating.
Teej <3 (7:01am): So I should just never let my face rest ever again?
Cyrus (7:01am): Yes, keep smiling forever.
Teej <3 (7:01am): I think that might hurt after a while
Cyrus (7:02am): But your smile is cute :((((
Teej <3 (7:02am): Yours is cuter ;)
Teej <3 (7:02am): As much as I want to keep laying in bed texting you, my alarm went off two minutes ago so I gotta start getting ready
Teej <3 (7:02am): See you soon <3
Cyrus (7:02am): <3
Cyrus couldn't keep the smile off his face as he put down his phone. Even after three months of dating TJ, sometimes he still couldn't believe that it was real. That he could call a boy cute and that boy would call him cute back.
His relationship with TJ wasn't always easy though. Well, actually being with TJ was easy. Every time they hung out, their conversations flowed so naturally that they barely even noticed when hours had passed, and Cyrus didn't think he would ever get tired of holding TJ's hand. That was when they were in their own personal bubble though. Things got complicated when it came to deciding who would know about their bubble. TJ told his mom the day after the party, and a few days later he told Cyrus that it was okay if he told the Good Hair Crew. Over the summer as they had group hangouts at the spoon, they had eventually told Jonah and Marty that they were together as well. Cyrus hadn't told any of his parents that he and TJ were together though, or even that he was gay. He had thought about telling his mom several times, but he wanted all four of his parents to be together so he could just get it over with once. Unfortunately, it was rare that they were all in the same room. He and TJ had talked a few times over the summer about how they wanted to present their relationship at school. TJ thought of the time that he played "Born This Way" in front of half their grade at Andi's party as his 'coming out', and didn't really want to go back in the closet. Cyrus felt the same way. They had agreed that they weren't necessarily going to hide that they were together, but they also weren't going to be overly affectionate while at school. If anyone they were friendly with like TJ's basketball team or the Space Otters asked if they were together, they would be open about it.
Cyrus's phone vibrated:
Andi (7:10am): Leaving my house now for my first day of SAVA!!!! Only 20 minutes until I'm officially officially a student there!!!
Buffy (7:10am): Good luck!
Cyrus sent back a quick reply:
Cyrus (7:11am): You got this!
He then got up and started getting ready for his own school day.
After her conversation with Bex, Andi was feeling a lot better. They had managed to find the eye shadow she had been looking for, and she had actually gotten her eyeliner to be almost completely even for once. Now, she was sitting in Bex’s passenger seat listening to calming indie music. She hadn’t memorized the route to SAVA from their house yet, but she knew that they were getting close. To try and pass the time she scrolled through her phone and reread all the encouraging texts that she had gotten from her friends that morning on top of the ones from the GHC:
Jonah (7:05am): Good luck at your new school Andiman! I know you’re gonna make some great art.
Ambs (7:12am): Have an amazing first day at SAVA Bambi! I know you’re gonna kill it!
She was a bit surprised that she even got texts from Marty and TJ, but she had spent a good amount of time with them over the summer by extension since they were both usually with Buffy and Cyrus:
Marty (from the Party) (7:17am): Good luck at your new school!
TJ (7:19am): Hey I hope you have a great first day at your new art school
“We’re here”, Bex announced. Andi looked up and out the window. It was so weird seeing SAVA again but not as a place she was going to tour but as a place where she was going to learn. She was going to be there all day, and then all day the next day, and the next. Every day except weekends, unless she found a cool club to join then maybe she would be there even more. She couldn’t wait!
The car came to a stop outside of the main entrance. Andi watched as different groups of students entered the building. She saw a girl wearing a bright yellow crop top with matching yellow crocs and it made her feel a lot better about her own outfit not coming off as too much.
“Have a great first day. I love you. I’ll be back to pick you up at 3.”
“Bye, mom. Love you!”
Andi took a deep breath and walked towards the front doors.
“Hey, you don’t look great,” Buffy heard her boyfriend say from behind her. She was standing outside of Grant High School checking her schedule one last time before heading inside.
“That’s a great way to greet your girlfriend,” she said sarcastically.
Marty gave her a nervous smile. “Sorry, it’s just that you look more like you do during our ‘chill on the couch’ dates then you do on our like ‘fancy go out dates’, and I thought you would be dressed like a ‘fancy go out date’ today.”
Buffy raised an eyebrow. “This isn’t a date. We’re at school.”
“I know! I just, look, you look great. You always look great. I just wasn’t expecting you to be wearing sweatpants, but you’re rocking them.”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t planning on wearing sweatpants today but Andi and Cyrus started texting me at 5am and I couldn’t fall back asleep. When my alarm went off, I didn’t have the energy to get up so I laid in my bed for 15 extra minutes then rolled out with just enough time to catch the bus.”
“Oh, that sucks. Just a warning, I’m pretty sure Grant does class photos on the first day so maybe try to clean the ketchup stain off your hoodie before then.”
Buffy looked down and noticed for the first time that yes, the hoodie she had thrown on as she rushed out of her room that morning did, in fact, have a giant ketchup stain. She shrugged. “I’m pretty tall so they usually put me in the back anyway. Plus, the first day of classes always has so much happening with attendance and syllabuses and everything that no one remembers who anyone is. I’ll dress nice tomorrow.”
“Sounds good,” Marty said as he gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Sorry, I should have done that earlier instead of insulting you.”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Just walk me to my first class, Martin.”
Andi’s first class of the day was Intro to Painting. She couldn’t help but look around at all the amazing art in the room as her teacher began to call attendance.
“Fate Lindenberg,” her teacher called from the front of the room.
“Here.”
All around her were paintings that had been created by former students. There were some that were black and white and others that had been created with bright colors.
“Richard Mable”
“Here. I go by Rich.”
Some paintings were abstract while others looked like photographs.
“Lauren Miller”
“Here.”
Her favorite piece of artwork was a small painting of colorful paper cranes that was hanging next to her teacher’s desk.
“Hannah Newtown.”
Andi stopped looking at the paintings and looked back at her teacher. She was confused. Why hadn’t her name been called with the other ‘M’s? Maybe the new students were at the end of attendance? Everyone had been in alphabetical order so far though, and this was an introductory class so she was sure that most students were probably freshmen like her. Had her teacher accidentally skipped over her name or was she not on the list at all?
Cyrus Goodman had taken approximately 2 1/2 steps into Grant High School for the first time before TJ Kippen's arm was slung over his shoulder.
"Hey, Underdog. What's up?"
"Oh, ya know. Gas prices, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, and my stress level since it's my first day of high school and I don't think I was built to handle this."
TJ smiled and Cyrus instantly became a bit more relaxed. "I'm sure that you'll be fine. I bet that high school is gonna be pretty much just like middle school. Yeah, you'll have some upperclassmen in your elective probably, but most of your classes will be with other freshmen like us who are also nervous."
"My elective this marking period is ceramics seventh period. What if I have to sit next to a senior and they crush my bowl or whatever it is that I have to make?" Cyrus stopped in front of Room 203. "This is my homeroom. You're in 205 right?"
"Yeah, but back to what you said about bowls being destroyed or whatever. Do you seriously think that's gonna happen?"
"No... but to be on the safe side can you walk me there? I know we both have lunch sixth and you have piano seventh and I looked up a map of the school and the music and art classes are-"
"Cyrus, I'll walk you. That's what-" he glanced around the hallway to see if anyone was close enough to hear what he was gonna say next, "That's what boyfriends are for, right? To make sure you get to your class?" he said with a smile.
"Yeah." Cyrus smiled back. "See you at lunch?"
"Wouldn't miss it, and I can't miss it actually since ya know that would be cutting and I don't want to get in trouble on my first day."
“For skipping lunch?"
"What can I say? You know I like to live on the edge."
Cyrus rolled his eyes before reaching down and giving TJ's hand a gentle squeeze. "See you later," he said softly.
"Yeah, see ya."
The second that the bell ending first period rang, Andi shot up and made her way over to her teacher's desk. She had barely been able to pay attention all period because she was so worried about why her name hadn't been called for attendance.
"Hello, Mrs. Peters."
Mrs. Peters smiled at her. "Yes, can I help you?"
"Yeah, um, I'm not sure if you just missed it, but I didn't hear my name called during attendance."
Mrs. Peters looked around for a second before finding the attendance list and holding it up. "What's your name, dear?"
"Andi Mack."
Mr. Peters looked up and down the list a few times with a frown on her face. "I'm sorry Andi, but I don't see your name. Are you sure that you're in the right class?"
Andi's stomach dropped. "Yes, I think so. Intro to Painting in room 104A?"
"Yes, that's correct." Mr. Peters picked up a sticky note and scribbled something down onto it before handing it to Andi. "Here, this is the name and room number of the guidance counselor. Go talk to her and I'm sure she'll help you sort this out."
Andi sighed. The next class on her schedule was 3D Art and she was excited to find out what projects they were going to do in that class. Instead, she was going to have to miss it and go to the guidance counselor's office instead. How long was this going to take? Was she going to miss the whole class period? What if there was a problem and she wasn't in the system at all? Was her acceptance letter a mistake? Surely not since she had gotten a schedule and everything, right? She tried to calm herself down as she made her way to the room number on the sticky note.
"Hey Cy Guy. We're sitting together right?" Jonah said as he joined Cyrus on his walk to the cafeteria for lunch.
"Yeah, sounds good. TJ, Marty, and Buffy also have sixth-period lunch. I don't know how that happened but I'm not gonna question it. I think that the universe just knew how anxious and sad I would be if one of us was in a different lunch and decided to go easy on me."
Jonah's smile shifted a bit, but Cyrus didn't notice. "Oh, yeah. That's cool. I mean it's great that you and Buffy both get to be with your significant others."
Cyrus smiled. "I still love hearing people say that word about us. 'Buffy and Cyrus and their significant others' has a nice ring to it. Okay, it's a little long, but I still like hearing it."
Jonah couldn't help but notice the tightness forming in his chest. He wasn't sure why it was happening though. He wasn't jealous of Buffy and Cyrus for being in relationships. He had actually enjoyed spending the entire summer being single after spending the better part of two years having one drama-filled relationship after another. Plus, he liked TJ and Marty. He liked hanging out with them a lot actually. It was just that the thought of fifth wheeling the two couples at lunch every day seemed like a lot. He tried to calm himself down as he and Cyrus entered the cafeteria. Having a panic attack in front of everyone in the cafeteria was not how he wanted to start high school.
"Hey, Jonah. Are you okay?" Cyrus asked quietly as he gently grabbed onto Jonah's arm.
"Yeah, I'm good." Jonah spotted Buffy and Marty sitting at a table a few feet away. He motioned towards them. "Looks like they already found us a table."
As they sat down, Marty turned to them. "Oh, hey guys. We were just talking about basketball. Tryouts are a month away but one of the guys who was on the team at Jefferson was in my second-period class, and it got me all excited because I’m pretty sure that I’m good enough to make the team this year."
"You're definitely gonna make the team," Buffy told him reassuringly. "Trust me, I wouldn't lie to you if I thought you weren't skilled enough. Your practice this summer has really paid off."
"Buffy, are you going to start a girl's team here? I haven't heard you talk about it,” Cyrus asked as he sat down.
Buffy looked a bit stressed all of a sudden. "I'm not sure... I'm still figuring out the logistics of it. I'll let you know later."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up a bad topic."
"It's fine."
"Hey, wassup guys?" TJ said as he took the seat next to Cyrus that Jonah was just planning on sitting down at. The only open seat left was next to Marty. Jonah would have preferred being next to Cyrus or Buffy since he knew them better, but he didn't want to make a scene so he sat down next to Marty.
Buffy looked thankful that TJ’s appearance meant that she had an excuse to change the topic back to Marty. "Hey TJ," she said. "Please reassure Marty that he's good enough to make the team this year."
TJ nodded. "Yeah, me and some of the other guys from the team played a few games with him over the summer and he's improved a lot."
"Wait," Buffy said as she turned towards Marty. "You never told me that you and TJ hang out without me."
Marty shrugged. "Yeah, it's usually not just the two of us though. I mean, we did have one or two one-on-one games but TJ kept kicking my butt so it wasn't very fun."
Buffy turned towards Cyrus, "Did you know about this?"
Cyrus looked confused. "That our boyfriends have sports time together? Yeah, TJ sent me a few snapchats of Marty completely missing the basket a few times, and then Marty stole his phone and sent me snapchats of TJ missing some as well as revenge, so yeah."
"Hey," TJ interjected. "That's not true. I never miss."
Marty couldn't help but let out a laugh. "Are you sure about that?" He took out his phone. "Because I have one video saved where the ball flies like 5 feet past-"
"Nope!" TJ reached over and pushed down Marty's hand that was holding the phone. "Okay, I admit that I miss once in a while, but no need to show Buffy."
Buffy sent Marty a glance that Jonah could tell meant that she was going to definitely get Marty to show her the video later.
"Do you guys wanna meet up somewhere before the class photo so we can all stand near each other?" Cyrus asked as he pulled a dinosaur lunchbox out of his backpack.
"Yeah," said Buffy. "The photo is being taken in the gym so we can meet by the trophy case outside of it. Do you guys all know where it is?"
Everyone nodded.
"Sounds good," Jonah said right as he noticed a familiar blonde head out of the corner of his eye. On the other side of the cafeteria, Amber and Iris were sitting by themselves. He was glad that they seemed to be good friends again after a few months of things being off between them. He didn't know why they were sitting alone though.
"Hey guys," Jonah said, bringing their small talk to a halt. "Should I text Amber and see if she and Iris want to sit with us?"
Suddenly Cyrus looked a bit uncomfortable. "I don't know Jonah. I love Amber but I wouldn't want her to leave Iris by herself and Iris and I have a... history together that maybe I should finally talk to her about one-on-one before we are in a group together."
Jonah tried to hide his embarrassment over suggesting something no one else was on board with. "Yeah, I get it." For a second he wondered if maybe he should go sit with Iris and Amber rather than being in his current seat where he was an awkward fifth wheel. His friendship was Amber was still a bit shakey though after their breakup and he didn't want to be the jerk who ditched his friends on the first day of school. Instead, he just spent most of the lunch period sitting there silently as everyone else had conversations that he felt like he had nothing to contribute too. Most of them were about dates or basketball and he couldn't relate to either. Towards the end of the lunch period he pulled out his phone and decided to text Andi:
Jonah (12:27pm): Hey Andi :) How's your day going?
Andi was having a bad day. She had waited for an hour and a half to see the guidance counselor since apparently a few other kids were not having a good first day either and there was a huge line. Then, she had given up and decided to go to her third period class (Algebra. Unfortunately she did have to take some "normal" classes too even though it was an art school), but her name hadn't been on that class list either so she had to go back to the guidance counselor’s office and get at the end of the line again. It was almost lunchtime by the time she finally got called in to talk to the counselor. She felt her phone vibrate right as her name was called, but she ignored it. She had been waiting all day for this meeting and she wasn't going to let herself get distracted. She nervously walked into a small office and was greeted by a short lady with large purple glasses. "Hello, I'm Mrs. Hartman. How can I help you?"
"Hi, my name is Andi Mack. My name isn't on the attendance sheet for any of my classes."
Mrs. Hartman looked down at her computer and typed for a few seconds before smiling and looking up at Andi. "Sorry about that Andi, but I fixed the problem. You should be good to go."
Andi stood looking at her with her mouth open in shock. "That's it?" She had wasted almost four hours being stressed over a problem that was fixed in under a minute.
Mrs. Hartman nodded. "Your name had been put on hold because you didn't send back the computer policy form that we sent you over the summer. I don't want you to miss any classes though so I overrode it. Tell your parents to send it back ASAP though. Actually, I have more forms here if you need an extra one."
Andi nodded. "Yeah, I should take another one just in case." Andi took the form and left the office still in shock. She had been so excited about every piece of mail that SAVA had sent her over the summer. How did she miss something? She looked down at the form and thought about if it looked familiar but it didn't. Also, she couldn't believe that they had taken her name out of the system for something so small and hadn't told her. Mrs. Hartmen had mentioned the form as an afterthought too. What if she hadn't asked "that's it?" and had just left? Would her name have been taken out of the system again tomorrow or next week? This felt like something that might have happened at Jefferson but not SAVA. SAVA was supposed to be better than Jefferson. It was her dream school, but they had screwed her over in a way that made her stressed all morning and caused her to miss half her classes. She looked at the time on her phone. Her lunch period was almost halfway over. She didn't even know where she would sit if she went to the cafeteria anyway. She hadn't gotten the chance to meet anyone new since she had been in the guidance counselor's office all morning. She was debating on going back to the guidance counselor's waiting room just to have somewhere to sit until her next class when she heard a familiar voice call out to her.
"Hey, Andi! I didn't know you were a student here!" She looked over and saw Walker coming towards her.
Cyrus glanced down nervously at his apple watch then back up to the hallway.
"Maybe she's already in there," TJ said.
Cyrus shook his head. "We all agreed on meeting at the trophy case and everyone else is here. Why would she go straight to the gym?"
Jonah shrugged. "I don't know, but we're gonna miss the photo if we don't go in now without her. I hear the photographer already telling people where to stand."
Sure enough, Cyrus faintly heard a man say, "Ladies, you're short so you can be in the front. Stand over here towards the left."
Marty rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I don't want to be the bad boyfriend who ditches his girlfriend, but I spent a lot of extra time on my hair this morning and I don't want to be stuck in the back where no one will see it."
"Ugh," Cyrus said reluctantly. "If she gets mad though then I'm not the one facing her wrath. That's on you guys."
TJ shrugged. "I'm used to Buffy being mad at me."
Cyrus lightly elbowed his side. "That's a lie. She hasn't been like, actually mad at you in over a year."
Marty snorted. "I don't know. She was pretty mad a few weeks ago when TJ spilled his milkshake all over her pants during our double date."
TJ motioned his hands towards Marty. "See Underdog, your best friend is constantly mad at me. It's just something I've come to accept."
Cyrus sighed as they all walked into the gym.
They were among the last of the freshmen to be sorted and were placed towards the middle of the group. Marty was a bit upset since he wanted to be in the front, but none of the other boys really cared. They all had figured that Buffy was somewhere in the crowd of freshmen in the bleachers around them, but just as the last people were being told where to stand, she came running into the gym.
"Sorry!" she called out to the photographer while sounding slightly out of breath. "I had all my books with me and I didn't want to be holding them in the photo, but I couldn't get my locker to open."
The photographer smiled at her. "It's okay. Look, there's a spot right in the front row that you can fill."
Buffy looked down at the giant ketchup stain that was still on her hoodie. "I'm not sure if the front is the best place for me."
The photographer waved her off. "Nonsense, I'm sure you have a great smile."
Buffy looked up at all of her classmates staring back at her from the bleachers. They were all waiting for her. She didn't want to make a scene on the first day so she reluctantly walked into the spot in the front row.
A few seconds later the photographer yelled, "Smile!"
Buffy tried to force a smile.
Andi and Walker were sitting next to each other on steps outside of the cafeteria. Walker handed her a bag of pretzels. "Here, my mom packed these for me in my lunch because she still doesn't think I'm old enough to make it myself. I'm not a big pretzel guy so you can have them."
Andi smiled. "Thanks. I can't believe that you also missed out on lunch because the stupid line for the guidance counselor was so long."
"Yeah," Walker chuckled. "I'm pretty sure half the school is in that waiting room right now. I still can't believe they put a classroom on my schedule that doesn't exist. You definitely got more screwed over though. I only had one messed up class. All of your classes were messed up though since you weren't on the list for any of them."
Andi sighed as she ripped open the bag of pretzels. "I can't really believe that this happened. In my mind SAVA was perfect, but I haven't even been here for a full school day and it's not living up to my expectations at all."
"Yeah," Walker agreed. "I also thought it was going to be like the greatest school ever. It still could be though. First days of school are always crazy. We should give it a second chance."
Andi nodded as she wiped pretzel crumbs off of her overalls. "I guess. I still can't believe that we both had no idea that each other were going here."
"Yeah... I mean we haven't exactly talked a lot though. I think the last time we texted was like January."
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. A lot of things happened really quickly. There was this whole thing where my friends and I got arrested and then my parents got married and-"
"Woah, wait, what?" Walker cut in. "You're gonna have to fill me in on some stuff."
Suddenly the bell signaling the end of lunch rang and they heard the shuffle of students starting to make their way out of the cafeteria.
Walker stood up and held his hand out to Andi. She grabbed on and let him pull her up onto her feet. "Yeah, we need to catch up. Like, actually catch up. I'm not just saying that to make things less awkward."
"Yeah, maybe tomorrow we can sit together at lunch at an actual lunch table and you can tell me about all the crazy stuff that apparently has happened to you."
"I'm sure that some interesting things have happened to you too since the last time we hung out."
"Yeah." Walker smiled as a herd of students filed out of the cafeteria and pushed past them.
"Where's your next class?" Andi asked.
"Room 114. You?"
"116."
"Walk with me?"
"Sure."
Buffy spent the entirety of her last class staring at the clock. She just wanted this day to be over. The second that the bell rang, she was out the door. She didn't make it very far though before Marty was behind her.
"Hey," he said with a wave. "I've decided to do my daily boyfriend duty of walking you to your locker."
"You don't actually have to do that," Buffy said in a snappier tone than she had intended. She hadn't wanted to take her frustration out on Marty but he had appeared out of nowhere and she couldn't hold it in.
Marty stopped walking and grabbed her wrist, causing her to stop as well. "Is everything okay?"
Buffy sighed. She didn’t really want to talk about it so she quickly thought of a different reason of why she looked upset. "Why didn't you send me snapchats of you and TJ hanging out like TJ sent to Cyrus?"
Marty looked a bit taken aback. "Sorry. I just thought-I mean, just, TJ and Cyrus like never stop snapchatting or texting each other, like ever, and I didn't think we were that kind of couple. We can be! But you know that I don't really have that much data so if we snapchat a lot then it will run out in like two days." He paused for a second. "That isn't the real reason why you're mad though, is it?"
Buffy shook her head.
"You know that you can talk to me, right? Is it because of the photo?"
Buffy sighed. "Yes, but I know it's a dumb reason to be upset. We don't have to talk about it. I'm sure that I'll be over it by tomorrow."
"Do you wanna talk about it though?"
"No, yes, I don't know. It's just that sometimes I feel like I have to prove that I like being girly. That sounds so dumb and I know it's not a huge problem, but I like being an athlete and I also like being girly. I should be able to be both at the same time but for some reason, it's hard for people to see that I can be girly and tough simultaneously. Like, I feel like I always get a few weird stares on days when I do full makeup and wear a dress and it makes me feel uncomfortable. Things could have been different in high school though if people knew me right away as someone who dresses girly before they saw me kick butt during basketball season. Now that I'm gonna be in front on the first page of the yearbook dressed like a slob though, it's gonna be harder to convince people that I can be girly and pretty too."
Marty grabbed her hands. "I think you look pretty right now, and you always look girly because you're a girl, but like not in a bad way. I mean that I think you look pretty even when you're playing basketball. I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm saying, but I've always seen you as a pretty girl who can also kick butt and I know that other people will see you that way too. If they don't though then it doesn't matter."
Buffy smiled. "Thanks, Marty. I'm still upset but that makes me feel a bit bett-"
"UGH!" Marty and Buffy turn around to see who let out the sudden noise behind them. It was Cyrus. "Did you guys hear?" he asked.
"Hear what?"
"The dumb photographer didn't focus the camera right so now we have to retake our photos! I cannot believe this. I'm not a photographer but creating short films is practically the same thing and the first thing I do when I start filming a scene is check the focus because-"
"Cyrus," Buffy cut him off. "It's okay."
Cyrus sighed. "I know but TJ and I were both wearing green today and I thought it was cute that we were matching. I guess I could tell him to wear the same thing next week when the photographer comes back but it was cuter when I knew that we had matched accidentally."
Buffy rolled her eyes but Marty grinned.
"We could match too," he said. "You can wear that red dress you wore when we went to the mall last week and I can wear my red flannel."
Buffy scoffed and motioned between Marty and Cyrus. "You two are such hopeless romantics."
Cyrus smiled. "I know, right? Marty, we should plan more elaborate double dates."
"Yes! I was thinking that we should all go rollerblading sometime."
Cyrus's smile faltered. "Okay, maybe something else that doesn't require so much coordination, but you're on the right track."
Buffy grabbed both boys by the arm and started pulling them towards the door. "Guys, can we plan this later? I don't know about you, but my first day of high school was exhausting. I'm ready to go home and take a nap."
"Yeah, I'm with ya," Cyrus said as he pulled out his phone. "You guys go ahead though. I'm gonna text TJ. We were supposed to meet up before we left but I don't know where he is."
Marty and Buffy walked on without him as he sent a text to TJ:
Cyrus (3:03pm): Hey, where are you?
He stared at his phone waiting for a reply for a few seconds before locking it and continuing to walk towards the door. TJ usually responded to his texts almost instantly, but maybe his phone had died or something. Right as he was about to leave the building though, he got a text:
Teej <3 (3:06pm): Hey, sorry
Teej <3 (3:06pm): I know you wanted to talk for a bit after school but I had to talk to my math teacher
Teej <3 (3:06pm): I wanted to change class periods but I don't think I’ll be able to
Teej <3 (3:06pm): You won’t believe who is in my class