𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞, Jalen Green

iv. first day flutters

August 26, 2019.

THE ONE THING YOU CAN'T REALLY PREDICT when you move cross state was the people you meet. Sure, you'll get a rough idea, but you can never make a perfect prediction. You're always slightly off or not even close. Aira had to learn this the hard way, twice.

The first being in New York, where she'd been absolutely clueless about anything relating to the east-side state. All she knew was the state's capital was Albany and that a bunch of her maternal uncles and aunts lived here, and that was pretty much it.

Her aunts, or titas, had told her and her older sister about all the New York horror stories; the busy traffic, the cold winters, and the less-than-stellar people... all those stores scared Aira. She was not ready to let go of summer whenever and her friends from year's pasts.

And leading up to the moment she touched New York soil, she was deathly afraid of almost everything.

That fear was quickly reversed when the first day of classes rolled around, and everything was not like she'd been told. They were feisty, yes, but they were also nice. She also grew to love the weather and the snow, and the traffic wasn't that bad. New York was the place Aira didn't even know she was dreaming about.

But the second time around she learned that lesson? That was right now.

As she steps out of Joshua's red car, the glances and glares of the students of Springfield Heights High sets upon the two; the glares mostly being in the direction of Aira. The feeling of unease washes over Aira as every single person looked over her and her neighbour.

Every. Single. Person.

"Dude, why is everyone looking at us like that?" Aira whispers. "It's like they've never seen an Asian person before," she jokes, earning a snicker from the boy.

"Well, people see, people talk, Iris," he shrugged off like it was normal. "Especially when you're ranked third in the country."

"Wait, what?"

"You heard me."

"I definitely missed that at dinner last night," she admits. The duo step into the halls of the school. Despite classes not starting for another thirty minutes, the halls were still quite crowded, as they are for any high school. The halls were squished with mostly freshmen, sprawling to find their classes already.

"Ouch, that lowkey hurt," he feigned hurt in his voice, causing Aira to roll her eyes. "You really didn't hear my ma talk about all my offers? Duke, Kentucky, Oregon," he lists.

"I think I was too busy admiring and eating your mom's fajitas." She leans against the lockers that were theirs: 311 and 312. She figured since it was the first day, she wouldn't need to bring much aside from her breathing body and a couple pens and notebooks.

"Don't blame you, honestly. They were my sister's and I's favourite thing growing up," he says as his hands work to decode the lock. He flings the door open, stuffing in his shoes and change of clothes for what Aira assumed was either for basketball or gym.

The two continue their chatter, discussing their schedules and finding out what classes they shared. Out of the six periods in the day, they figured that they had two classes together: second period for English and fifth period for biology.

He told her horror stories about a few teachers she had that he'd heard from his friends, but that honestly didn't scare at all.

Aira couldn't help but notice the multiple people who would wave or nod whenever they passed or saw Joshua. Back in New York, she never found herself to around the popular crowd. Sure, a couple of her friends were considered popular, but Aira thought of herself to be... regular; average. Despite being the co-captain on the volleyball team, she never really stood with the popular crowd. Those little things made her realize right away that Joshua was popular, and even then that felt like an understatement.