A few weeks later Rebecca and Annette were fully settled in the city, Anne had already started working at the city hospital and Rebecca was starting high school today. It was her first day at the school and if being the new girl wasn't enough, she was the new foreign girl and Rebeca could feel the eyes of all the students on her as she walked around looking for her biology class. When she got to her classroom, she could notice how everyone was looking at her and even whispering, the teacher had not arrived yet so Rebecca hurried to look for a free seat but mysteriously everyone she saw immediately was not available until a blonde girl called out to her.
-You can sit here, if you want-, said the blonde.
-Thank you-, said Rebecca.
-I'm Ashley by the way, Ashley Fliehr.
-So you're the new girl, where are you from?
-From Dublin, Ireland.
-Ah, hey don't pay too much attention to the guys, they're stupid here, except for a few guys who get out all the rest are jerks.
-Thanks for the advice, I guess.
The teacher arrived and the class started as usual, the whole time the class lasted Ashley and her remained silent, Rebecca was a little surprised, so was a very pretty girl, tall, blonde and blue eyed, she was the prototype of popular girl, someone who would never talk to her but there she was sitting next to her, Of all the people she was going to sit with, she was the only one who had not rejected her, she had offered to sit with her and although at first she thought it could be some trick to play a joke on her, the blonde's smile had given her peace of mind, she saw her sincere and something in her told her that Ashley was a good person. When the class finished they both separated and Rebecca went to her next class, after a lot of searching she finally found the math classroom where classes had already started, Rebeca hesitated for a moment whether to go in or not, she didn't want to be stared at again, but on the other hand she had promised her mother to improve her grades and that's what she was going to do, she knocked on the door and went in.
-I'm sorry I'm late, I just couldn't find the classroom-, said Rebeca shyly.
-Don't worry, you must be Rebecca, right, come in and sit down.
As Rebecca had already predicted, they all stared at her and Rebecca quickly went to sit in an empty seat at the end of the class, unlike in biology, here the desks were individual and Rebecca had no problem finding one to sit at. The class was going normally until Rebecca noticed a pair of eyes that kept staring at her, but far from making her uncomfortable like all the stares she had felt throughout the morning, she liked it because the eyes that looked at her were a beautiful brown color and came from a dark-haired boy who was sitting a few desks down from her.
The boy in question was Colby Lopez a young man who was born and raised there in Davenport. He was the son of Holly and Ron, the owners of a sporting goods store in town. Colby had an older brother Brandon, 19, and a twin sister Pamela. Colby had a crush on Rebecca, she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, her long sweet red hair, her beautiful green eyes and that gorgeous smile had captivated him and from the moment she had walked into the classroom he couldn't take his eyes off her, until the bell rang and Colby woke up from his reverie.
Rebecca continued with her day without being able to avoid thinking about that boy in math class who kept staring at her during class, it was time for lunch and Rebecca went to the school cafeteria and grabbed something to eat, she was sitting alone eating her salad when she noticed someone tapping her shoulder.
-Why don't you come with us-, Ashley asked her, gesturing to the table where she was sitting with her group of friends.
-Okay-, Rebecca accepted the offer after glancing around the table, they seemed like nice people and Ashley's smile gave her confidence.
When they arrived at the table she introduced her friends to Rebecca.
-This is Rebecca, today is her first day here-, she said to the others.
-Hi-,Rebecca said shyly.
-Rebeca these are my best friends Mercedes and Pamela, you can just call them Mercy and Pam, we all call them that, this handsome guy here is Joe my boyfriend and the thing that sits next to him is Jon Mercy's boyfriend.
-Hey, I protest, I'm a person.
-Hahaha-, Ashley scoffed.
-And this is Fergal, my boyfriend-, said Pam.
-Fergal is Irish like you Rebecca-, said Ashley.
-Are you Irish? from where?- Fergal asked.
-Yes, I'm from Dublín- Rebecca replied.
-Really? I'm from Dublin too, specifically Bray, what part of Dublin are you from?
Rebecca was about to speak when two boys sat down at their table with them, one of them was that dark boy who had not stopped looking at her during her math class, those unmistakable beautiful brown eyes.
-Rebecca, this is Colby and Claudio, they are also friends, Colby is Pam's twin brother-, said Ashley.
-Hello-, shyly greeted Rebecca.
-Guys, this is Rebecca, she just moved here from Dublín-, Ashley said again.
-Welcome to the city-, said Claudio Rebeca with a smile.
-Thank you-, said Rebecca.
-And how long have you been here-, asked Colby.
-My mother and I moved here from Baldoyle three weeks ago, she is a nurse and was offered a position at the hospital, so here we are.
-What about your father?- Asked Fergal.
-He and my mother are divorced, he's a history teacher.
-Wow, it must be hard that your parents are separated and that you had to move so far away from home-, Ashley told her.
-Well, at first when they split up it was really hard, but now I'm used to it. Moving here was my mom's idea and I wasn't happy about it, but she's the one in charge, so I have to put up with it-, said Rebecca.
-Don't you like Davenport? But she's beautiful-, said Pam.
-It's not that, it's just that in Dublin I had my life and my friends, and here I'm the new foreign girl and everyone looks at me funny.
-You don't even listen, the guys here are usually pretty stupid-, said Ashley.
-Except us-, said Jon
-Well, the rest of us aren't, but you sure are a bit of a jerk-, Ashley said and everyone laughed.
The rest of the lunch continued with jokes and laughter among the group of friends and for the first time since she had moved Rebecca thought that maybe Davenport wouldn't be so bad.
