Except for Me ~ JGL

II

I looked at myself in the mirror and smiled. My First Day of School look was complete.

A gray top with a knot tied in the middle and white hi-rise ripped jeans. I had on black old skool Vans, but the stripe on the side was a rosey-copper gold.

My hair was down and curled. My highlights were popped by the gold on my shoes. I only did natural makeup. A silver necklace with a small, round pendant which had the Sagittarius constellation on it was around my neck. Sagittarius is my zodiac sign.

I picked up my light blue backpack and headed to the kitchen.

"Hey Annie! Are you excited? It's your first day of real high school!" My mom asked.

"Yeah," I laughed and poured myself a bowl of cereal.

While we ate, mom talked to Hayley and I and vlogged a little bit. When we were done, we left and she drove us to school.

I walked into the building and headed to my locker. I put away the books I didn't need and kept my English textbook and notebook. I began to walk down the hallway and head to the stairs, but I spotted Jayden at her locker. I mentally noted that the number was 3102.

I tapped her shoulder and she turned around and smiled at me. She was wearing a red and white baseball tee and black skinny jeans with high-top white converse.

"Hi Annie! You're going to love our English teacher, she's great!" Jayden shut her locker.

"I hope I like her," I smiled.

I followed Jayden to room 206. Several students were chatting and the teacher was typing on her computer.

"Hi, Ms. Harding? I'm your new student Julianna, but I prefer Annie," I said to the teacher.

"Oh, hey! I was just about to put the new seating chart on the board. I had you sitting in the first row on the far right, but if you prefer to sit somewhere else, I'll switch them with you. Do you know anyone here yet?" She asked.

"Yeah, I know Jayden," I said.

"Great! I'll seat you on her right." She turned to the Microsoft Excel document open on her computer.

I walked over to Jay after speaking with the teacher. She was busy talking to someone.

"Hi Annie! This is Ruby," Jayden told me.

"Hi!" The bubbly blonde waved at me.

"Hey!" I said in response.

The teacher displayed the seating chart on the board.

"New seats!" She announced.

Everyone moved into their new seats. My seat was in the second row. There were an even number of desks in the row, and Jayden and I split center.

Ms. Harding walked to the front of the classroom and stood next to the smart board.

"Okay, let's start with a quick quiz on the story we read yesterday."

<<>>

I walked into the cafeteria. Jayden never said if we had lunch together, so I had no one definite to sit with. I got in line and purchased spaghetti, chips, a cookie, and a soda, then scanned the whole room for a place to sit.

"Hey, do you need somewhere to sit?" I heard behind me.

I turned around to see Ruby buying a fruit cup.

"Yeah. I don't see Jayden anywhere," I said.

"Oh, that's because she has Lunch B. You can sit with me," Ruby said.

I followed her to the back left corner of the cafeteria and I sat down next to her.

"Hey, this is Jay's friend Annie, she's new," Ruby announced to the table.

Everyone said some version of "hey" and introduced themselves.

Directly across from me, there was Riley. She looked pretty nice. Next to her was Anna, then Carson. On the side that Ruby wasn't next to me was Nadia, and next to Ruby were Mackenzie and her boyfriend Johnny.

Mackenzie looked a bit different than everyone else at the table. I thought she was very pretty, but she had a boyfriend. As I ate my spaghetti, I noticed she giggled at something Johnny said. Her smile lit up everything around her, but it wasn't even close to Jayden's. I felt something weird in my chest; it was almost sadness and a little bit of anger, like I was jealous. Weird.

"Annie?" I heard.

I quickly turned my head to the right, smacking Ruby in the face with my hair. She laughed.

"What class do you have next?" Nadia, who had been calling me, asked.

"I think I have Honors Algebra I," I said.

"Oh, cool! I'm in that class, and so is Anna. Do you know how to get there from here?" She asked.

"Yeah, but I'm going to my locker first," I said.

<<>>

After math, the bell rang, and almost everyone immediately stood up. I turned the corner to my locker. On the way to history, I passed Jayden's. She had just left.

"Jayden! Wait!" I called ahead.

I jogged up to her.

"Hey! How was math?" She asked.

"It was okay. The teacher was Mr. Colin. He seemed nice, but he wasn't a super good teacher," I said.

"He's really good at teaching about slopes and graphs, but not great at quadratic equations, if that's what you were learning," she said.

I nodded my head. We entered history class.

"Are you Miss Leblanc?" The teacher asked me.

"Yes, I am. Are you Mr. Rauer?" I asked.

"Yep! You can have the seat on the far right, in the third row, for now. I'll get you a permanent seat in the near future," he said.

I said thanks and sat where he told me to. Mackenzie walked in the room and sat behind me. My mind started to panic, but I had no clue why. Jayden took her seat on the complete other side of the room, which was great. Just great.

As more students I didn't know filled the room. My mind wandered. Someone tapped my shoulder, causing me to flinch slightly. I turned around.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to let you know that Mr. Rauer is a really good teacher, but if you don't take notes, you'll fail his tests. They're pretty hard," Mackenzie told me.

"Oh, thanks," I said awkwardly.

I turned back around.

"Gosh, why did I respond so weirdly? She probably thinks I'm really awkward now," I thought.

Wait, since when do I care what anyone thinks about me?

In that moment, I realized I had started to blush.