New Girl

'It'll be fun,' she said. 'You'll love your new school,' she said. Well, my mom was wrong.

After she had gotten the job offer in Roseville, Ohio that was 'too good to refuse,' the two of us had packed up our entire lives into three small suitcases, hopped into our rustic minivan, and hit the road. Seven straight hours of country music was enough to make anyone bone-weary and exhausted, let alone a teenager who's teeth gritted and blood curdled at the sound of a twangy guitar. The move hadn't been easy, on either of us. But the whole spur of events that had led to it were even worse. First when my mom found out that my dad had cheated on her, followed shortly by their divorce. The three month span of time that encompassed that whole mess had seemed like an eternity, with all the laywers and phone calls and fighting.

Mom had left most of our stuff at our old house or had sold it, saying that she wanted to be rid of the painful reminders of that life, and I didn't blame her. It hadn't been so hot for me, either, and now that I was here I had no desire to revisit those painful points in my life. Even the one friend that I had wasn't that big of a deal compared to the new, hopefully painless life I would lead.

How little I had known, as I went on the road thinking all my troubles would be left behind. How little I had known. Because Roseville was a town with a population of 1,872 people, (1,874 now,) which meant that there was one tiny high school filled with students who had known each other their entire lives. And if I knew anything about those kinds of kids from the countless novels I had spent my entire childhood immersed in, they didn't take kindly to strangers, not in the slightest.

I walked into my first day of school wary and more than a little scared, halfway into first semester, and heard the whispers as soon as I crossed the threshold. "Who is that?"

"New girl."

"Look at the new girl."

"She looks like she'll be eaten alive. Cute, though."

I kept my chin up and walked through the hallways, ignoring them. They could say what they wanted, I was used to it by now.

I didn't need to look at my schedule to figure out what room number I was headed to, I had spent the last week in my room memorizing every detail of the thin piece of paper that described my life at Rose High School, and walked into homeroom, room 120, with confidence.

It was immediately apparant that while there was no offical seating chart, there was an unoffical one created by the students. The desks were arranged into tables, and all except for one had been claimed by various cliques. The girls with long blonde hair, acrylic nails, and shorts so short that my gramma would be rolling in her grave sat in a cluster on the right side of the room, whispering in urgent tones, probably sharing the latest gossip and news. In a group behind them sat the boys who I had to assume made up the football team, all swaggar and toxic masculinity.

The row on the left was home to a smaller group, and if I had to guess I would wager they were the nerds of the room. I didn't know where to sit but I couldn't keep standing in the door gazing around like an idiot, so I chose a seat in the back left, far away from everyone else. A minute before the bell rang, a tall boy with black hair and blue eyes sat at the table across from me, giving me a faint smile before pulling a book out of his backpack. Shy and loves books? I liked where this was headed.

A sharp brrrriiing sounded from overhead and a man I could only assume to be the teacher waltzed out of an office in the back of the room, a smile lighting his aging face. The nice way to put it was that his hair was on vacation, travelling from the top of his head to the bushy beard that he had on his chin, and he looked like he enjoyed more than a few snacks in his time a lot more than he enjoyed exercise. I knew from my schedule that his name was Mr. Keddicut.

The rambunctious class chattered away, despite the portly man standing at the front of the room, paying him little to no attention. Even the boy across from me kept his head buried in his book, oblivious to his surroundings.

"Class, class, attention please!" Mr. Keddicut announced, and the students quieted slowly until the only noise that could be heard was the overly loud hum of the air conditioner. "We have a new student, today!" he exclaimed, and I heard excitement alight in his voice. "Everyone, please welcome Ms. Mallory Roe!" he pointed to me, and the class swiveled their heads as one to look at me.

"Tell us a little about yourself, Mallory! And tell us your superpower!" Mr. Keddicut enthused, and I sighed. I hated this part, and anyone who didn't had to be Satan himself.

"Hi everyone," I gave a little wave. "I'm Mallory, I moved from Tennessee," I heard a few students chuckle at my accent and drew in a deep breath, determined to shake them off. "I guess that my superpower is... I can pick out a four leaf clover in any clover patch in less than two minutes," I stated truthfully. It was tried and true, and my mom had exclaimed over it more than once.

"Well, we're all glad to meet you, Mallory. Now, class, to welcome our new student, let's do some icebreakers. I'm thinking.... two truths and a lie?" As one, the class shared a groan. I suddenly felt self concious, as they all knew each other and I didn't. We pushed the chairs into a circle, and began the icebreakers. There were only about 15 kids in the class, due to the small school size and tiny town, so I was grateful for that, at least. I sat in the small, purple, plastic chair, careful not to let myself slouch. Once again, the boy from earlier came and sat next to me.

"Sally, you can start," Mr, Keddicut said, and the girl on his left rolled her eyes.

"I've been to California, I have two dogs, and my dad is currently in the army," she said.

Instantly, half the class shouted out "California!" and Sally nodded, wryly. Next it was Christopher's turn.

"I was named after a famous author, I don't like french fries, and I travelled to Spain," Christopher said.

"French fries," the girl sitting next to him said, and punched him lightly in the arm. I watched fearfully as it moved around the circle until it was my turn.

"I've lived in 5 different houses, I used to own a horse and competed in horse riding tournaments, and my favorite flower is a daisy," I said, feeling the dryness in my throat. There was silence for a moment.

"Guesses, anyone?" Mr. Keddicut asked, smiling warmly at the class.

"5 houses?" one of the popular girls asked. I remembered her name to be Rosey, from when Mr. Keddicut had called on her earlier. I nodded slightly. "Score," she said with a grin in my direction. The game finished shortly, and before Mr. Keddicut could make us do anything else, the bell rang and the room emptied out faster than if someone had pulled the fire alarm. That hadn't been so bad, and while I still felt eyes on me and heard whispers, I felt that it was going to be okay.