Oh, Brother!

Chapter 12

First day of school – the day that Riley scared the most of. She wasn't sure she wants to go to school and meet Amanda and her gang, she was afraid that there are more students like her.

She barely was watched in public during the last two weeks. She was mostly at home with her mother or with Sportacus in the theatre hall but that's it. She didn't want to show her face in case that Amanda saw her.

She didn't want to go to school. But eventually she did.

She walked with her mother until the two had to go to separate ways – Clarice to her job at the elementary school, and Riley to her first day in the 9th grade.

Walking down the hall of the 9th grade, she lowered her head and looked at the floor, hoping no one will notice her, but in the corner of her eyes she saw some for her new mates for school looking and whispering. Now she just hope they won't notice her Band-Aids, 3 on each wrist. She heard a group of guys from the 10th grade who were passing there whispering and calling her "cute", "good looking" and she even could hear one of them calling her "hot". That really made her smile and blush. Guys? From the 10th grade? Interested in her? She thought for a minute she went crazy! She didn't know why they were calling her like this. She didn't wear anything sexy or any make up, she just dressed in her casual style – Her known white flowers bow, a purple t-shirt with the text "Geek Chic", black shorts, black All-star shoes and she had a black sweatshirt tied around her waist. What attracted them to her?

Now she raised her head again, since she had to look for her locker. Then she found it, locker number 218. She opened the locker and began to put her things from her school bag in there, when the locker beside her got opened too. It was a blonde girl who her hair was tied in a high ponytail and bangs that went to the right. She wore long black jeans and a red t-shirt. Riley noticed that they had the same patterns on their school bags but in different colours. The blonde girl caught Riley staring at her bag, so she decided to talk.

"Oh, yeah, we almost have the same bags." She smiled at Riley.

Riley made an eye contact with her and didn't know what to say, so she just said "Yeah" and went back to her locker. She began to decorate it with some magnets, pictures and her class schedule.

"Hi, I'm Carolina." The blonde girl, Carolina, smiled at her, while she was still organizing her locker.

"Oh, hi... I'm Riley..." Riley told her quietly.

"Oh wait, you're the new girl!" Carolina realised.

"Oh, so you already heard about me..." Riley said and lowered her head, thinking she might her for her brother, like Amanda did.

"Yes, I did. From my brother, actually. Ziggy, if you know him." Carolina told her.

"Oh, so you're Ziggy's sister. Yes, I met him." Riley told her.

"Hey, don't worry, I'm not going to tease you about your brother. Robbie's not really trying to hurt the kids, just to scare them, so they really don't like him. The adults don't like him because he's scaring the children, but us the adolescents, we don't scare easily and he's actually pretty boring to us, and most of the times he's just funny for trying to make everyone lazy and then fail. So don't worry, you'll be safe with me." Carolina explained to her. Then she noticed the Band-Aids on Riley's wrists. She wanted to ask her about them but knew it wasn't the right time since they just met.

"Hey, Caro!" They both heard a voice behind them.

"Hi Nathan!" Carolina greeted her friend, who rushed to her.

"Where's your locker?" She asked.

"Right across yours." He said, pointing at locker number 215.

"Hey, Nathan, um, this is Riley, the new girl in our school." Carolina told him.