There's Something About Alex.

The Night Before

"I seriously don't know what you're worrying about. I mean, it's not like you had any friends at your old school anyway!" Crystal snorted.
"Now come on Crys, that wasn't very nice was it?" Dad was trying his hardest not to crack a smile as he chastised her. Even Lily let out a small chuckle. They all seemed to love making jokes about my social life, or lack thereof.
"Don't act like you're not scared, Crys, I heard you on the phone to Adam last night," I fired back, "and anyway, I did have friends at my old school, so there!!"
"How many times Charlie, talking to the lunch lady doesn't constitute a friendship!"
Her final comment hit the nail directly on the head and I sank further down in my chair, feeling my cheeks heat up drastically. In my defense, Janet the lunch lady was absolutely lovely, and she'd always save the biggest piece of pizza for me. Now that, in my eyes, was a real friendship!!

After that, dinner was silent, except from when Lily would babble nonsense or throw her food into her mouth like a heathen, and we would all simultaneously giggle and shake our heads in amusement. She was now at the stage, however, where she understood that we found it funny, and so she continued to do it until it became more messy than amusing. Eventually, Dad decided he'd had enough so I quickly excused myself to dart to the bathroom, locking myself in. I wasn't getting roped into cleaning her up!

To tell the truth, I was scared about making friends. At my old school, all of the girls seemed to dislike me, purely because I answered questions in class and decided not to spend my weekends drinking and smoking goodness knows what on empty fields. And don't even mention the boys! They refused to go anywhere near me, always simply stating that I was 'just a weirdo.'

Probably true, but still... how rude!!

For a while when I was younger, I had a theory that they were all simply jealous of how smart and unique I was, but I soon learned my place in society and accepted that I was destined to live the rest of my high school life hiding in the girls' bathroom.
I was hoping this new school would be better, but knowing my look it would be the complete opposite; everybody would already know each other and there would already be established cliques. Nobody wants to be friends with the girl who arrives four years late to the party, do they?

I'll answer that for you: no, they do not.

After spending a while in the bathroom practicing multiple hairstyles, I settled for boring plaits as usual and sighed at myself in the mirror. There would be no point in trying to put makeup on tomorrow; it would just go horribly wrong. I would end up looking like a panda, stressing myself out, and being late for school. There was absolutely no way in hell I was walking in late on my first day!
I sighed once again at my appearance and trudged back into my new bedroom, flopping onto the mattress that was lay on the floor until I could get a bed. Right now, my room was dark and dull, unpacked boxes scattered on the old carpet. I hadn't even began to think about how I was going to decorate it yet! I frowned when I realized just how dark is actually was, pushing myself up and reaching into the box labeled "Fairy Lights". Carefully, I climbed onto my windowsill and draped the string of warm white lights over the curtain pole. There. At least my room looked just a smidgen like my old one now. That would have to do until decorating day.
To some people, a bedroom may not seem like such a big deal, but it was my safe haven. I used to have the most beautiful pale blue walls, fairy lights draped everywhere you could see, and my bed had so many pillows that you could literally sink into it!! I could go there whenever I was feeling lonely - which was often - and camp out on my window seat for hours, the waves from the sea relaxing me and laughing along with all the families playing in the sand.

I was definitely a people watcher.

It was only 8:46pm but I decided it would probably be wise to get some sleep before tomorrow. It was going to be bad enough, without being cream-crackered aswell!
I can't remember when exactly I drifted off to sleep, but I eventually slipped away, dreaming of new buildings, new faces, and what would quickly become the scariest day of my life.