Of Love and Lanterns || 5SOS

- 4 - N o r a - A Not-So-Warm Welcome

- 4 - N o r a - 

Today is Monday, my first day of school. Which, unfortunately, is the building I'm currently standing in front of. To say I'm nervous is an understatement. My biggest fear is seeing Ashton again. I know I have to face him sooner or later, but if I have a choice, I choose later. I guess I'm gonna find out. I took a deep breath and walked through the front doors and over to the front office.

"HI honey, how can I help you?" The lady behind the front desk asked.

"Hi, umm. I'm new. My name's Nora McLeod."

"OH! Nora! I was wondering if you'd be coming today or tomorrow. Here's your schedule when you get to your first period class, Mrs. Rader will assign a student to show you around. I'll walk you to your locker and homeroom, but let's wait until the hallways have cleared a little. My name is Mrs. Crowley by the way."

Mrs. Crowley handed me a piece of paper and walked around the desk. The halls were already starting to clear, and the first period bell rang just as Mrs. Crowley got to my side. The two of us stood at the office window and watched the crowd thin. When the last of the stragglers were opening  the doors to their classes, we walked out. Mrs.Crowley walked me down the hall, talking about the school as we walked.

"There's only about 120 students here at Redwood High, and the mascot is a falcon.We like to have the students design the mascot picture each year so you may be interested in helping with that. These are the empty lockers, take your pick. Putting a lock on it or not is your choice. If you have something valuable in there, you may want to put on a lock, but if it's just extra school work, you don't really need one. Which one would you like?" I choose locker 93. "Great! Put in what you want and I'll show you to your Geometry class. It's just around the corner." I put most of my things in and turned to Mrs. Crowley who had been watching me. "All ready?" I nodded. "Alright! Follow me!" She led me to the end of the corridor and pointed to where an old lady was standing. 'That's Mrs. Rader. She's your first period teacher. Go introduce yourself, and she'll walk into the class with you." Mrs. Crowley smiled at me and walked back to the office. I guess she isn't too fond of Mrs. Rader, and just from looks, I got the feeling I wasn't going to like the lady either.

I walked up to her and introduced my self. "Hi. My name's Nora. I'm new-"

"I know. Follow me." The grey-hair lady cut me off.

Her voice was loud, almost like she was yelling but she didn't know. Maybe she's partially deaf? Her voice had a mean tone and I scowled for a second before putting a smile on my face as we entered the classroom.

I could hear low chatter while I was talking to Mrs. Rader, but the moment we walked in, the room went silent. I'm not kidding, it was so quiet that if I closed my eyes, I would feel like I was the only living thing in the room. I looked at the faces of my new classmates and figured that Mrs. Rader was that teacher. The "Detention-For-Breathing-Too-Loudly" teacher. Fantastic. Note the sarcasm. I kept scanning the faces while Mrs. Rader introduced me, and found the only table with empty seats at the back of the room. I examined the four faces seated there, only three of which were paying attention.  I recognized the first boy. He was the boy from yesterday morning, Michael. The second one had blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and light skin, while a tan-skinned, dark-haired, dark-eyed boy sat next to him.  The fourth boy was zoned out but I recognized the curly hair and light tan from when I was talking with Michael yesterday. Ashton. Of course. Just my luck to have first period with the one person I was trying to avoid. I hid my fear, and listened to Mrs. Rader, who was finishing her speech about classroom rules and expectations. I started paying attention just in time to catch my seat.