Chapter Text
Howls of wind and noise surround me as I step into the forest. The rich earthy smell of the rain that's unrelentingly pouring down right around me; hits my nose with full force. My clothes are soaked, and my shoes squelch awfully beneath my feet as they make contact with the muddy ground. I can't linger on it though. It doesn't matter about the weather, I have to do this. Everything I've come to depend on relies on me now.
"You're not welcome here." A voice says, echoing over and over in my ears, the words shaking me to my core. My blood runs cold, this wasn't what was supposed to happen. They can't say that already, I haven't even had the chance to open my mouth.
I start to hear what sounds like something moving from behind me. Cautiously, I spin around to find that I'm in fact surrounded by hundreds of luminescent eyes. They are watching me, yet I can't attach them to anything; human or otherwise. I take a deep breath; I can handle them. For them I have to.
"I'm like you." I say, my voice pleading. Though they were seeming less and less like me the more I looked at them, "Please, listen to me."
"No."
Before I can continue my protest, the eyes come towards me, and I'm engulfed in their shadows.
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"Your Luke right, the new student?" The frizzy haired office lady asks as she stares at me from under her horned rim glasses. Her fingers circle the keyboard aimlessly as she waits for my response.
"Sure am." I say with a sigh. Straight away she starts shuffling around the mess of files on the desk. Well here goes nothing. 'New year, new school' had been my motto for my entire schooling life. Today was my first day at yet another new school and I was hopeful that maybe things would work out better this time and perhaps I wouldn't need to move away.
You see my family moves around a lot, so I've never really stayed in a town for more than a year. They did consider home-schooling me at one point but then decided the need for me to have social interaction with people my own age outweighed that. Honestly sometimes I just feel like telling them to give up on that dream, it's hard to make 'long lasting' friendships when your only in a place for a short time.
Sure, I've had loads of friends in all my previous schools, but it's hard to maintain them knowing that in six to twelve months I was probably never going to see any of them again. My phone had been buzzing all weekend with texts from my friends from my last school, but I knew they'd all die down eventually.
At least changing school about once or twice each year, also meant a fresh start. It was always nice to find yourself in a position where nobody had expectations of you to be a certain person. You could be whoever you wanted, the past no longer mattered.
"Welcome to Rosetta Park High, we hope you'll enjoy your time here with us over the next few years." She spoke again this time with a cheery smile as if I'd won an award for being forced to attend here.
My six to twelve months here was more likely the way my parents made us move about. I didn't say that though, maybe this time things would be different; but I doubted it. Despite my protests some years, I'd never been allowed to stay behind at any of the schools I'd been to. In my family, the only one who had was my older brother who stayed behind at the school before last so that he could finish off the last year there. Then he'd moved onto university, so I still didn't see him much.
"Everything seems in order, so Calum here will show you around now." She said, her head turned to something beside me. I followed her gaze to find a guy my age standing beside me, I'd barely noticed his presence until that moment. He had dark brown almost black hair, his eyes staring at me like poison darts. He looked kind of angry at me for some reason. His arms were crossed firmly across his chest. My stomach tightened, he didn't seem like the friendly type. Was this really who they expected to show me around this place? Was everyone here like this?
"This is Luke." She said to him as if I was incapable of introducing myself.
He nods, but the whole time he continues to glare at me as if I had green skin. I really wished he would stop. Whatever, surely everyone here wouldn't be like this.
"Alright, so you're going to show me around now huh?" I ask him.
"Yeah." He mutters, already turning on his heel, "Follow me."
I take one glance back at the office lady who shrugs, almost as if she can't understand why he's being like this. It's not like I'd said anything bad either. Well nobody said I'd have to hang around with him, so if I just made it through this then I could be on my way.
Still I followed him through the various buildings of the school. All of which I was probably going to forget the names of and get lost in anyway. I noticed that this school was a lot smaller than my last one, it had been a private school, so things had been a little different and a lot bigger. It had been the only one of its kind that I'd attended, and I guess it kind of made you forget a little what it was like to go to a regular pubic school.
Except for one or two words about where we were he barely said anything else. It was a massive change to my other schools where if someone had shown me around like this they seemed to want to know everything about me. I wasn't quite sure which I preferred.
"So, uh-did you grow up around here?" I asked, in attempt to make conversation.
He glared at me, as if I'd asked something personal before muttering, "Yes."
Maybe something else then surely, he couldn't be this rude, "What's-"
He stopped and spun around to face me, stopping me in my tracks. He glared at me, before he yelled, his finger pointed at me, "I can see what you're doing you know. I know exactly what you are and if you dare lay one finger on my friends and I-"
I blink at him, slightly startled, who did he think I was? I shake my head, "I don't understand what you're talking about..."
"Yeah right, don't think I can't tell."
"Tell what?" I cross my arms across my chest, and stare back at him, "That I think you've been almost nothing but rude to me all morning."
Calum raises an eyebrow, as he glances at me in surprise, "You honestly don't know what I'm talking about?"
"No."
We stand there for a few more moments, neither of us saying a word. The buzzing of the school bell finally breaks the silence and causes me to jump a little.
Calum's shoulders relax, "Whatever, we better get going to homeroom. You're in the same one as me."
He takes off, remembering that I have no clue where I'm going I follow him. I can't help but feel like a little lost duck as he navigates through the sea of people. All of which probably know where they're going. As I follow, I can't help but wonder why he said what he did. I'd never had someone get so defensive at me like that in such a short time. Why did he hate me so much? It was almost like he thought I was going to hurt him. Considering it made me squirm to hurt a spider, I certainly wasn't going to hurt him or his friends. Besides, why would I want to hurt someone?
As we enter the classroom, I realize that there's only two vacant spots left in the room and they're right next to each other. It seems I can't get rid of this guy yet.
Wordlessly I take the seat beside him as the teacher goes through the roll. I glance around the room, there's some posters on the back wall encouraging students to continue studying maths and posters of old men in black and white photographs. All pretty boring. Calum doesn't talk to me again, until homeroom ends, and he mutters something about my next classroom being the last room at the end of the corridor to my right before getting up and leaving without another glance.
With a sigh, I leave my own seat and join the swarm of people. As I walk into the hallway I notice him stopped out the front of the classroom next to the one we'd just been in. A green haired boy walks out of it, and two of them fall into step with one another. They start to talk, and I see the green haired boy suddenly glance behind at me for a moment, his face showing no sign of why he would be. He turns back to Calum. Who nods at him.
They're not looking or talking about you. I try to tell myself. Honestly, it's hard not to think like that after what had happened this morning when he'd been showing me around. It was like Calum was telling him something about me. Considering we'd only said a few sentences to each other, and a lot of them had been him telling me I had it out for his friends. Ugh, I was being way too paranoid about this, they probably weren't even talking about me.
I try to fall back into the crowd behind them, so that I can't jump to any more conclusions on what they think of me.
Eventually I find the science classroom. Though I have to shield my eyes a little as I walk into find that the walls are painted in a bright sunshine yellow colour. There are black science benches lined up in two neat rows. Each has a tap and sink.
It occurs to me quickly that I'm possibly a few moments too late. The room is already crowded with people and I realise that I have a major problem on my hands. Because the tables in here are nested into groups of four; that means I'm going to have to pick somewhere to sit. In this room, I can't just sit in a spot alone and pretend like there's no one around me.
I hover around the room, scanning it for a group to sit with. Standing here is embarrassing as all hell, but it's better than trying to ask people if you can join their table when they're quite obviously filled. There's four to a desk, and most tables have four already. I glance around at this group of strangers, who was I going to sit with?
The click clack of high heels echoes on the linoleum floor before coming to a stop right behind me. I turn to find that a woman with messy blonde hair tied up in a ponytail is standing there. The teacher, I assume as she's holding a pile of papers. She looks displeased as she stares me down. Suddenly, her face softens, and it turns into a curved smile.
"I haven't seen you before. You must be the new student.... Luke?" I nod, everyone seemed to know who I was around here already. We'll need to assign you to a group...." Her eyes scan around the classroom, she points at something towards the back of it, "I know! That group needs an extra person, how about you go and sit over there, please."
My eyes follow where her finger is pointing, and I realize it's directed towards Calum and two other guys, one of them the boy with green hair. They're sitting at a bench right up in the back corner talking. I freeze up a little, I didn't really want to talk them, especially when I was almost a hundred percent certain that Calum didn't want to have much to do with me.
I don't want to cause a problem though, so I bite my lip and quickly nod back at her. I kind of doubt it but maybe things would work out.
Slowly I walk along the corridor between the benches and over to them. I can't help but notice the other students stare at me as I walk pass. I guess it was just because I was new and a stranger to all of them.
"Uh...the teacher said to join your group." I say, stopping in front of the bench the three guys were sitting at.
They don't answer but instead simply look between each other. As if they're weighing up my question. Now I'm almost certain Calum's said something awful to them about me already. They're about to say no for sure. Maybe I was better just keeping to myself at this school too.
You won't be here long, I remind myself.
"Yeah, sure of course you can." The light blondish brown-haired boy says, as he idly rolls around his pen on the desk top. He's the one sitting closest to where I'm standing. Calum and the other guy barely look up again, I sigh. I really had messed things up already with them it seemed. I wish I knew what I'd done to upset them already.
Well at least I had somewhere to sit now. Carefully, I take the vacant lab stool beside him. Not making eye contact with them again, I quickly grab out my pens and notebook and arrange them in an orderly fashion on my desk.
"Luke, right? I'm Ashton, this is Michael and I guess you've already met Calum." The guy beside me speaks again, earning glares from the other two guys. It was almost as if they didn't want him speaking to me at all. Just how did this Ashton guy know my name? He couldn't have possibly heard the teacher call me that from way over here. My only guess was that Calum must have told him before I'd gotten here, that was the only explanation. Damn, he must have been talking about me to them then. But why?
I nod, "Yeah, that's me."
Ashton opens his mouth to reply, but the teacher starts up before he can say anything. I sigh as she starts explaining what we'll be doing for the year, Planets, Biology, Chemistry all the usual aspects of science. Mindlessly, I scribble down a few notes as she talks. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice that Ashton keeps looking over at me, there's a hint of sympathy in his gaze. Neither Calum or Michael say a word to me or even seem to acknowledge my presence. It seems I'll be spending science with them though, because the teacher announces that we need to stay in the groups we're sitting in. I'm starting to wonder whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, if these guys aren't going to talk to me all year then maybe it's not the best seating arrangement to be stuck in. Then again, maybe I'll get my wish of being left alone after all.
She starts going on about how we can't slack off. I sigh, why are teachers always like this? We've only been here five minutes and already she has me frustrated. I wasn't exactly a bad student, but I wasn't an excellent one either. Science wasn't exactly a favourite subject of mine, I thought I'd love it with all the cool experiments, but the last few schools I'd been to it had been more about note-taking than the fun stuff.
"With today's lesson, we're going to start looking at a process called Photosynthesis." She says, "Can anyone explain to me what that is?"
All I could remember was it had something to do with plants. I don't want to answer though in case I was wrong. I look around and notice that a few students have raised their hands. She chooses one, a girl down the front with wavy auburn hair.
"Isn't it the process of how pictures develop?" The girl replies.
The teacher shakes her head, "Not quite, Angie."
The remaining students lower their hands; it seems that scared them off a little.
"No, Photosynthesis occurs in plants and other living organisms to utilize the energy from sunlight into chemical energy. That helps the plants to grow and perform processes essential to their survival." The teacher explains before putting up a picture on the projector.
Eventually, the bell rings, and the entire class packs up. The teacher frantically shouts to wait, but it's too late half the class is already barrelling out the door. She sighs, before returning to her desk. I take that as a sign to start packing up myself.
"Come on, hurry up. Let's go." I hear Calum say to the other two boys that are madly packing up their own gear.
"Later Luke." Ashton says, as he follows the other two boys.
"Bye." I nod, Honestly, I was surprised that he'd acknowledged my presence another time. Considering they'd all done a pretty good job of pretending like I wasn't here.
I start to go back to packing my things away, but I can still hear them talking as they head out the room.
"Ashton!" Calum says to him in a harsh whisper, as he pulls the other back towards him, "What did you do that for?"
"I'm being friendly." He shrugs.
"Not to him. You'll get yourself-" I don't hear what he says after that because they're suddenly too far away. I sigh, this sucked. Two out of three of my science group hated me for no apparent reason. What had I possibly done so wrong when he'd showed me around the school? Where was the harm in that?
Still I see Ashton glance behind him. His eyes fall straight on me and then quickly away, as he follows Calum out the door. I sigh, as I pick up my own bag to leave; seems I wasn't going to have a very good first day after all.