Reunited

Sera

(Anna's POV)

I sat in my car watching her walk into the building. Something stirred inside me that I could only imagine was a feeling similar to that of a parent sending their child off for their first day of preschool. I guess, in a way, this wasn't much different. I got a few looks from the students as I remained idle in the drop off zone for probably longer than necessary. Sighing, I put the car in drive and pulled out of the zone. As soon as I left the parking lot I called Brittany. She answered on the second ring.

"Just dropped her off?" she answered straight away.

"Yeah. It was a lot harder than I thought."

Her tongue clicked on the other line.

"You know," I continued. "Today will be longest I've been away from her since I got her."

"I know. Damn, Kendrick. If someone told me five years ago you were capable of being so motherly, I would have laughed in their face."

"Yeah, yeah." I laughed. "Wanna come over later? I haven't been alone in the house for a while."

"Of course," I could practically hear the smirk on her face. "Text me when you're home."

Rolling my eyes, I said goodbye and hung up.

Half an hour later, Brittany and I were sitting on my patio drinking some pretty foul coffee. Not being a big caffeine drinker myself I had no coffee whatsoever in the cupboards at home. And knowing Brittany basically lived off coffee, I quickly stopped by the store on the way home to buy a tin of instant coffee.

"How's she settling in?" Brittany swivelled in her chair so she faced me.

"Really well. Really, really well." I felt the smile creep onto my face. "I'm proud of her." She had changed so much from the moody, distant girl I'd met all those months ago. She'd opened up to me so much. I knew about her passions for musical theatre and drama and basically anything to do with performing. I knew she had an obscene obsession with all things dogs. And I knew how much happier she was here. She has never really told me directly but I could tell from her constant grins, the way her eyes light up every morning and the brightness in her voice she was much happier than that first week I met her.

Brittany smiled. We watched her little dog, Billie run around with one of her chew toys for a few minutes before anyone spoke again.

(Alexa's POV)

All in all I'd say my first went pretty well. Registration was easy enough. I left the front office with a timetable, snapshot of a map of the school that was plastered on the counter and a padlock for locker number 102. Finding my locker wasn't that difficult – they were all in order. To make matters even easier for me, the locker was right beside my homeroom class. Naturally, I found myself at the back of the room ten minutes before the first bell was set to ring. I decided to just sit back and scroll through the many social media platforms I joined after Anna bought me my first smart phone for my birthday.

"Excuse me," a chirpy voice pierced my concentration on a particularly interesting article on some actor. "That's actually my seat."

I blinked up at a tall, blonde girl. Seriously? Assigned seats before the year even began? Jesus, maybe I wasn't cut out for high school. "Uh – ye – yeah, sure, um –"

"I'm totally just messing with you!" The girl interrupted my splutter and sat down on the seat next to mine. "I'm Sera."

I continued to blink at this girl for a few seconds before I managed to choke out my name.

"What's your day looking like, Alexa?" With that she reached over and snatched my timetable off my desk. I stared at her pondering over the piece of paper. Was this girl serious? "Oh cool. We have double French together. And biology. Cool."

She thrust it back with as much force as when she took it. Her mouth opened to say something else just as a middle-aged balding man walked into room, causing her to snap her mouth closed.

"Good morning," the man said. "Welcome to another school year. I'm Mr Graham."

Sera stuck with me throughout the remainder of the day. It was weird being with someone my age for a whole day who wasn't Ethan. Having a guy friend was a totally different story to a girl friend. By lunch I still wasn't sure how I felt about Sera. She was nice and all but so goddamn happy. All the time. We sat at a table by ourselves, her telling me all about growing up in Los Angeles her whole life and her family and then finally that she was neighbours with Jonah Hill. I audibly gasped at that and my mouth dropped open before I remembered that my mother was Anna-Freaking-Kendrick. 

By the end of the day, Sera had kind of grown on me. Sure, she was an over the top person but – hey – at least I had a friend, right?

Anna was waiting out the front as soon as the end of the day bell rang.

"How was it?" Anna blurted out when I opened the door. I proceeded to tell her all about my first day at a real high school while she drove home. She laughed when I told her about Sera and said she reminded her of someone.

When she pulled into the drive, I noticed Brittany's car parked on the curb.

"Oh yeah," Anna cut the engine. "Brittany's over."

Inside I said my hello's to Brittany and her adorable little dog and then excused myself to call Ethan. I promised him I'd call the second I got home.

"Hey, Al," God it's always a relief to hear his voice. "Was it just as we expected?"

I spent about half an hour recounting my day. I could hear Anna and Brittany laughing downstairs and figured I should probably go back down.

"Anyway, I should probably go now."

"Oh! Wait, wait!" Ethan's voice suddenly filled with excitement. "I've got good news. I'm coming to L.A!"