The Beauty Of It

3|The Crew

We walk into the cafeteria and Hazel joins the lunch line. I look at all the food available. Pasta, salad, pizza and a bunch of other dishes. Not bad for a high school. But as much as I want to pile a bit of everything on my tray, I end up just grabbing an apple. I can skip lunch today.

I follow Hazel to a table near the corner of the cafeteria, where a group of kids are already seated. She slides into an open chair while I awkwardly stand behind het with my apple. Do I sit? She looks up at me standing there and gasps.
"Oh shit sorry, I forgot to introduce you" She turns to the rest of the group, "Guys, this is Willow. She's the new girl. Willow, meet the crew." They all smile warmly at me.

"So you're Ezra's sister?" The girl sitting next to Hazel asks. How does she already know who he is? This was one of the reasons why I was so nervous about starting school here. In LA I was never Willow Lavigne. I have always been Ezra Lavigne's little sister. I was hoping that switching svhools would change that. That switching towns would change that. I guess I was wrong

"Yeah, I am" I answer as I slide into the open chair next to Hazel. The conversation then shifts away from me for a while and I have to say that I'm grateful.

"So Willow, where are you from?" The girl across from me asks, after introducing herself as Ivy. She has tan skin with dark curly hair and big brown eyes. She has a few freckles covering her nose and cheeks.

"I'm from Los Angeles. We moved here about two weeks ago." I take a bite out of my apple.

"I've always wanted to go to LA. My cousin goes there almost every summer and she send me pictures of all the hot guys she hangs out with. You must have loved it there, being surrounded by all that potential. I just know that if I lived there my jaw would constantly be on the floor" The girl next to Ivy, Cora says with a light laugh. I don't really know how to respond to that so I just send her a smile with a small laugh.

Hazel suddenly turns to me, "What's you next class?" I pull up my schedule "Calculus." I answer, putting my phone away. "Perfect! So do I. Let's just swing by our lockers real quick then we can head to class." She gets up from her chair and slings her bag over her shoulder. "Thats great! Atleast I now know someone in one of my classes. I'm still struggling to find all of my classes. This place is huge." I follow her out of the cafeteria.

"It really is. I remember running around this place at the start of freshman year, trying to find my classes." We stop at her locker first and then head to mine, that's just a few lockers down the hall from hers.

I close my locker after grabbing everything I need. I turn to Hazel "Lead the way." I say and she starts walking us down the long hallway. Just before we enter the class she suddenly stops and turns around to face me. "Oh before I forget, we should exchange numbers." I nod and we hand each other our phones to type in the numbers.

~

I flop down on my bed, slowly rolling onto my back. Today has been pretty hectic. Who knew that running around a school trying to look for classes could be that exhausting? I'm really glad that I met Hazel today, she really was a lifesaver. I guess her asshole brother almost knocking me over was actually a blessing.

Ezra headed out to meet up with a few of his new friends after dropping me off, so I'm home alone for now. My parents usually get home late.

I grab my notebook and pen from my nightstand and open it on a new page.

Dear Stella

You're never going to believe this. I actually made a friend!

Her name is Hazel, and we actually met after I bumped into her brother , who by the way, is a total asshole. I tried to apologize but he just dismissed me like I was nothing but a huge inconvenience to him. Anyway, after that whole situation, she invited me to have lunce with her and some of her friends. You should see the food they serve there! I didn't have any of it though.

And you don't have to say it, I know. I need to stop. Its just......hard.

Moving on... Ezra obviously hit it off with the football guys immediately. He's hanging out with them right now. I'm happy that he found his place so fast. I know he misses the guys back home. They were like brothers to him.

I think I need to find a therapist here. Even if it's just to get my mom to stop hovering. I know she does it because she cares, but I hate that she fells like I'm some fragile doll that's going to break at any second. Hopefully the new office will keep her busy so she can forget about me for a while.

Ok, I think I'm stopping here. I still have a bunch of homework to do. Yeah, homework on the first day. Who gives homework on the first day?

XOXO

Willow

I close my notebook and and walk over to my desk. I sit down and pull my homework out of my bag. I open my phone to see that I have a few new messages. The first is from Ezra, telling me that he's not going to home for a couple of hours. I also have one from my mom saying that she and my dad are both working late. I sigh and start working on my homework. Just then, I get a new notification. It's a message from Hazel.

Hazel: Hey Willow! Ivy, Cora and I.                were thinking of seeing a movie after school tomorrow. We'd love it if you could join?

Me : Hey! Yeah I'd love to come with you guys

Hazel : Great! You can catch a ride with us after school and we'll drop you off at home afterwards.

Me: Sounds great. See you tomorrow.

I smile as I turn my phone off, focusing back on my homework. Maybe this place isn't too bad after all.