Chapter 2

I wake up with the TV still on. I must’ve left it on overnight. I turn it off and look at the time. 11:34am. I quickly get in the shower and think about my new life here. It's already started badly... 

When I get out, I change into some shorts and floral shirt. I blow dry my wavy, brown hair that comes down to my hips. I straighten it and put it in a high pony tail. I put on a bit of make-up and make my way downstairs, following the smell of bacon.

I get in the kitchen and see Mum putting bacon in the middle of two slices of bread. I sit down on the stool and Mum pushes the bacon balm towards me.

“Thanks” I smile and she nods as if to say ‘no problem’.

 “Do you like it here then?” she asks me.

I sigh, “It’s decent”

“Once you make friends, you’ll love it here. The beach is practically five minutes away and there are lots of local parks, swimming baths, and cinemas. Not to forget Brighton Pier. Your Dad and I went for a walk while you were asleep last night and saw lots of great stuff. You should take a look around sometime” she smiles. I return the smile and finish my plate.

“I think I’ll do that now” I nod and go upstairs to brush my teeth.

I put on my white converse and head out of the front door. I walk down the street, pass the shop and see a park full of teenagers that I choose to ignore. I put my head down and walk down the park until I see some teenagers run towards me, shouting something I can’t work out. I mentally start saying my goodbyes to all my family and friends, until the group of boys stop running. They look familiar.

“You’re the girl from the shop yesterday yeah?” the black haired boy asks. I look up at him and think about saying ‘no’, but I nod my head, remembering who these boys are. Why can’t they just leave me alone?

“What did you say your name was?” the blonde asks.

“I didn’t” I snap and begin to walk away. I hear all the boys laughing at the blonde boy and I start smirking.

“Wait!” she shouts. A girl? I turn around looking confused and I see her walking towards me. All the boys are walking away at this point. “Sorry about them, they’re so immature. I’m Lois” she smiles, putting her hand out for me to shake it. She was smaller than me and had long blonde hair that came down to her waist. She seemed nice.

“Lucy” I return the smile and shake her hand.

“Are you new here?”

“Yeah I moved here from Cheshire yesterday”

“Oh right! Why don’t you come and stay with us for a bit?” she asks, nodding over to the huge group of people on the park.

“I-I’m alright thanks”

I really did not want to go over there and I think she could tell.

“Well, um, I guess I’ll see you around” she smiles, and walks onto the park again. I continue on my travels until I get back home and decide to prepare myself for school tomorrow.

I hang my uniform on the outside of my wardrobe and put a pen in the blazer. The uniform wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I put my shoulder bag next to my bed and leave it empty. I have nothing to put in it...

I put the telly on for a bit until Dad shouts me down for tea. We sit at the table, talking about Brighton and the things we could do. I wasn’t really paying attention to most stuff. I just nodded my head and smiled at the appropriate times. Once I’d finished, I went back upstairs into my room and watched TV again. It got to 7pm and I was pretty tired so I brushed my teeth and went to sleep.

I wake up by my alarm clock at 7am. I’m trying to be as prepared as possible with the alarm and everything but I know this won’t last long. It’s the first day back after the summer holidays, I can tell this is going to be a very long day.

I get out of bed and get in the shower. I blow dry my hair, curl it and brush the curls out to make it wavy. This was my daily routine in Cheshire. I put more make up on than usual because I feel like I need to make a good first impression. I get the school uniform off the wardrobe and start getting undressed.

I button up the white shirt and put my skirt on, rolling it up a few times to make it shorter, halfway up my thigh. I untuck my shirt and put on the maroon blazer. I decide against it and just put the blazer in my bag because it’s way too hot. I put my black socks on halfway up my shin and finish it with my black dolly shoes that we have to wear. I quite like the bow on the front of the shoes.

I brush my teeth and look at the time, 8am. I can’t be bothered waiting any longer to go to school so I decide to go to the shop for a bit. I pick up some skittles, which reminded me of that blonde boy.

“Lucy?” I hear someone ask. I turn around and see Lois stood there shocked.

“Oh, hey Lois” I smile.

“Oh my god, we go to the same school” she gasps, looking down at our uniform.

“I guess so!” I laugh and pay for the sweets. I open the bag and walk with Lois out of the shop. "Want one?" I put the bag of skittles in front of her slightly.

"Ooo, go on then" she smiles, picking one out of the bag. “So are you always going to be walking to school and back?” She asks.

“Yeah, I only live five minutes away from it”

“We should start walking together then”

I nod, agreeing with her. I’m so glad I’ve made a friend outside of school. Well, I guess I could call her my friend. She’s nice to me...

“So how do you know Alex and everyone?” she asks, breaking the silence.

“Um, who?”

“The boys you were talking to yesterday. Outside the park..?”

“Oh god. I don’t know them. They followed me around the shop, then they saw me passing the park and came to annoy me again”

She just laughed. “You’ll get used to it”

What did she mean by that? I don’t want to get used to it. I don’t want to see them again. All they do is stress me out.

In about 15 minutes, we arrived at school. Lois introduced me to 3 of her friends, Leila, Charlotte and Olivia. Leila had light blonde hair and green eyes. Charlotte had short brown hair and a big fringe. She was pretty but was a little bit quiet, she probably wasn’t used to me. She was definitely the quiet one out of the group. Olivia had really curly hair that was quite long. It was in perfect ringlets and I couldn’t help but touch it and say “wow”, making her laugh for about 2 minutes none stop. She looks like she doesn’t take things too seriously, so I knew straight away that we’d get along. Lois was like, the Mum of the group. She seemed to take care of everyone but also knew how to have a laugh.

I walk into registration class on my own, none of my friends we’re in the same one as me. As I walk in, a boy starts walking out of the door and I bump into his chest.

“Sorry” I gasp, stumbling backwards. I look up to see the blonde boy from the group.

You have got to be kidding me. They must all go to the same school as me. This is hell.

I realise I’m staring at him with my mouth wide open so I cough and look down at my feet in embarrassment.

He almost growls, “Look where you’re going next time”

What the fuck? He’s so rude. I give him a glare and walk off onto a table full of girls. They greet me nicely and welcome me to the group. We begin talking until I hear the boys shouting from the other side of the room.

“Lucy!” the blonde boy shouts. “Come sit with us”

How does he know my name?

“I’m fine here” I sigh.

“Come on, we’ll be nice” the other boy pouts. I sigh and get up out of my seat. I knew they weren’t going to stop asking so I’ll just sit with them for 5 minutes to shut them up. “I’m sorry about this” I apologise to the girls. They give me a look to say ‘it’s fine’ and I just smile. I walk over to the 2 boys and sit down in the empty seat next to them.

“Hey Lucy!”

“How do you know my name?” I snap.

“Lois told us. I’m Alex by the way”

So I’m guessing Lois knows these boys. I smile and shake Alex’s hand. The other boy coughs.

“Yeah I’m Conor” he says and looks down at the table. I just sigh and let out a small laugh at how awkward Conor is being.

“So um...” Alex starts before the tutor comes over to us and hands me my timetable. I thank him and he walks off. I can feel Alex staring.

“Yes?” I ask.

“Well let’s see it” he smirks, so I hand him the piece of paper showing all my classes. “We have the same classes” he laughs. "Looks like you’re stuck with us now”

Us? Meaning him and Conor? Great...

“Great” Conor says my thoughts, still not making eye contact with me.

“Ignore him” Alex rolls his eyes, giving me back my timetable. I just smile and we start talking about me moving here from Cheshire.

Alex is actually really nice. He even apologised for the time him and his friends ‘were rude to me’ in the shop.  He kept making me laugh and I noticed how Conor didn’t say a word. The bell rang interrupting mine and Alex’s conversation.

I walk with Alex and Conor to our first class, Music. I got a few stares from people, obviously because I’m new, but I didn’t make anything of it. I spotted Lois and Leila in the same class so I walked over to them and started making conversation. Everyone started getting out loads of instruments from the cupboard and was making so much noise. Leila picked up the cymbals and started crashing them together. Alex sat on the drums and started making a beat, and I sat next to him and hit the cymbals on the drums to the beat. I saw Lois hitting 2 wooden blocks together trying to make a loud noise but was failing, which made me laugh, until I saw Conor with a giant saxophone in his arms. He was running round the room playing the saxophone while bumping into everyone, making the loudest noise possible and I just burst out laughing at him uncontrollably. He saw me laughing and just smirked, then continued to play the instrument more stably. We did this for about 2 hours and no teacher showed up. We swapped instruments every now and then until the bell rang signalling the end of the lesson. That was my first lesson and I thought it was the best I’ve ever had in my life. It was great and I didn’t stop smiling the whole time. I even socialised with everyone in that class which is a bonus.

I walked with Lois, Leila, Conor and Alex onto the yard where everyone stayed at break. We walk around the corner of the yard where Olivia and Charlotte are waiting on their phones. Once they see us, they put their phones away and start walking towards us. All 7 of us start talking but I try to keep quiet so I get to know their personalities a bit more. 3 other boys walk around the corner to us and Conor immediately stands up and walks over to them. They all come over to us and they all looked at me.

“Lucy, right?” one of them asks.

“Um, yeah” I hesitantly reply.

“Hey, I’m Jack, Conor’s brother” he smiles, shaking my hand “and this is Ben and Mike”. I shook their hands and smiled. Well I wish Conor was more like his brother... nice. He’s hot too.

Everyone starts making their own conversation except me and Jack. I turn around and smile at him, awkwardly.

He awkwardly coughed, “So um... You’re new here right?” Jack asked me. What a stupid question. I’m sure he knew the answer but was just trying to make conversation.

“Yeah, I moved here from Cheshire”

“Oh cool. Do you live close?”

“About five minutes away from school”

“Same!” he gasps, making me laugh. “We live near that shop we followed you in. Sorry about that by the way, Conor’s idea”

So that’s who was following me, I knew it wasn’t just Alex and Conor.

I laugh, “It’s fine don’t worry about it”

“So you’re friends with my brother?”

“No way, he’s horrible to me” I laugh dryly.

“Yeah, that’s Conor” he says seriously. “It’s just because you’re new and he doesn’t really know you, it’ll be fine soon, don’t worry”

I smile, “So um, you’re not in my year, right?”

“No. Me, Ben and Mike are a year below but we’ll still chill with you guys everyday” he smiles.

“Oh good” I giggle.

I like this guy, he’s not done one bad thing since I met him. Well, except follow me, but he said that was Conor’s fault and he apologised. Conor hasn’t. Why did Conor want to follow me anyway?

“Why?” he asks, interrupting my thoughts.

“Why what?” I ask.

“Why is it good that I’ll be with you every day?”

“I don’t know, you’re nice” I say, making him laugh. “Why did Conor want to follow me in the shop?”

The words just roll off my tongue without thinking.

“He said you were hot” he laughs.

“I did not!” I hear Conor gasp and see him turn to face us. He must’ve been listening to our conversation. Well this isn’t embarrassing. Why did I even ask?

“Conor don’t lie. We all agreed with you. I think the whole school will agree with you so I don’t see why you’re so embarrassed” Jack says. I can feel my cheeks burning so I look down at my feet.

“I think she’s ugly” Conor says making my head snap up.

I can’t believe he said that right in front of me. He’s so rude. It’s a good job he walked off after he said that or I probably would’ve said something twice as bad back.

“Ok Conor” Jack says, leaving Conor to walk away. I just stare at Jack angrily. My first day here and I’ve already been called ugly by who seems like the populist boy in school. “Hey, are you ok?” he says, putting his hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah” I sigh. I feel like crying but that would show weakness. Conor's not even worth crying about.

“Please don’t let him get to you. I’m so sorry. He seriously doesn’t think before he says things. He only said it because he was embarrassed. He didn’t mean it I swear” Jack explains. He’s probably right so I give him a small smile. “It was only the other day when he was drooling over you, begging us to follow you in the shop” he laughs. I cover my face with my hands so Jack can’t see how embarrassed I am. He pulls me in for a hug, wrapping his arms around my waist so I put my arms around his neck, already feeling comfortable around him. “Don’t let him get to you” he whispers in my hair making me shiver.

“Thanks” I smile when he releases me from his hug.

“Anytime” he shugs. The bell rings signalling the end of break. “See you later Lucy”

“Bye Jack”