Chapter 1

Elementary.

I'm not thrilled that I have to transfer to another school. Every school has started the semester in early January and moving to this school in the middle of the year doesn't seem ideal to me. The teachers in my previous school have gotten so much lazier and those that actually make an effort to teach have either quit or retired. That's why I'm here.

Standing here outside the classroom that I'm supposed to be studying in from now on, all I'm feeling is nervousness and twisters forming in my stomach. I'm leaving my ex-classmates and friends behind as here I am, about to enter a new life. Both socially and academically. But I'm not feeling the least excited about this.

I mean, what if they don't like me? What if I trip right when I enter the class and embarrass myself in front of my new classmates?

I hold my mother's hand in mine tightly as she talks to the woman who I have a feeling is going to be my new teacher. She seems nice, and she's pretty as well. She has a long silky, brunette hair and she's also slim.

I look into the classroom by the door and I see some of the students my age talking while some of them are staring at me and whispering into each other's ears. It makes the uncomfiness in the pit of my stomach worse since it's obvious that they're talking about me. I look up to my mother and she's still talking to Ms. Andrews, which she tells me to call her. I hear her saying that I'm in her hands from now on.

"Hello, Jennifer," Ms. Andrews greets as she swifts her attention to me and smiles. "Welcome to Wellington's."

I try to smile back at her but I don't feel like it at all. I can hardly calm myself from my fast beating heart.

"Jenny.." My mother squeezes my hand. "Don't worry. Ms. Andrews here will take care of you."

I stare up at her. No, I'm not ready to adapt myself in a new environment and meet new people yet.

She releases my hand and presses my cheeks. "You'll be fine," she promises and glances at Ms. Andrews before giving me a warm smile. "Ms. Andrews said that your new classmates are nice."

"Come on, Jennifer." Ms. Andrews put her arm over my shoulders before adding, "Let's go in."

I give my mother one last look as she waves at me.

"Pay attention in class, okay?"

I nod and follow Ms. Andrews as she leads me into the classroom. The noise in the classroom slowly fades and it immediately gets silent. I can feel so many eyes on me but I try to keep my composure, making sure that I'm breathing properly.

"Morning, class. We have a new student here," Ms. Andrews voices to the class and gestures to me. "This is Jennifer Casslink. I would like everyone to treat her well, okay?"

"Hello, Jennifer!" I hear the students shout. Some of them giggle and some start whispering again.

"Why is she here in middle of the year?"

I turn my head towards the source of the annoyed tone of voice and I notice a boy. He has short brunette hair and the blue in his eyes is very noticeable.

"Lucas, what are you doing?" The girls ask.

"Mr. Kennedy, do you want me to put her beside you?" Ms. Andrews jokes with her arms crossed.

The boy, I figure his name is Lucas Kennedy, shuts his mouth and furrows his eyes at me.

What is up with him? Does he hate me for disrupting the class? I know his question is harmless but the way he said it did not sound like it was out of curiosity. This isn't helping the butterflies in my stomach at all.

Ms. Andrews leads me to an empty seat on the second column of the first row. "Jennifer, you'll be sitting here starting from today," she informs.

I sit down on the chair and carefully releases my backpack from my shoulders.

"Hello, nice to meet you!" The girl with short brunette hair beside me exclaims. "I'm Hillary," she adds with a big grin on her face. She seems friendly and nice.

I smile. "Hi, Hillary. I'm Jennifer."

"I know," she replies.

Oh, right. Ms. Andrews introduced me to them just a minute ago. I laugh awkwardly. "Yeah.."

We turn our attention back to Ms. Andrews as she hits a long wooden ruler on the table a few times. "I'll be taking the attendance now. Say 'here' when I call out your names," she instructs.

She starts taking everyone's attendance and as she does that, I turn my head to each of the person that she calls out. She soon reaches the name of the students that starts with the letter 'L' in the class. "Lucy Grandy!"

"Here!"

"Larrie Funnev!"

"Here, Ms. Andrews!"

"Lucas Kennedy!"

"Here!"

I turn to where he is sitting. I don't know if it's just my imagination but it seems like our eyes just met. He's talking to Karen now, the girl who sits beside him. I know that's her name because she responded when Ms. Andrews called out her name just now. He's laughing and smiling. His expression is totally different from the one he gave me when I first walked into the class.

As the day goes on, Hillary brings me to the others and helps to initiate conversations between us. By the end of the day, I feel a whole lot better. Most of them are friendly towards me. Despite that, I also notice Lucas Kennedy glaring at me on the other side of the classroom the whole time. In other words, it's a known fact that I'm uncomfortable around him by now.

"Hey."

I flip my head around and discover Lucas standing there. I hesitate. "Hi.." I stare at him, feeling a little uncertain.

"Do you know you have a booger there?" He points to my right nostril.

I quickly cover up my nose with my hand. I can feel the heat emitting off my face as it burns up. I run to the washroom and check my nostrils in the mirror. I frown and sigh. I have a bad feeling about this Lucas boy.

***

"How was your first day, sweetie?" my mother asks as I walk towards her.

I don't look at her in the eyes when I answer, "It was okay." It started out fine but it ended up giving me a bad taste in my mouth. "But there's this boy who doesn't seem to like me," I continued.

My mom pauses right before we reach the car and looks at me in amusement. "Oh, really? Who is he?"

"His name's Lucas."

"What makes you think that he doesn't like you?" she questions.

I get in the car and place myself on the passenger seat. "The look on his face tells me that he doesn't want me here," I mutter.

I hear my mother laugh beside me. She starts up the engine. "Just try to talk to him."

"But what if he says mean things to me, Mommy?" I cry. He doesn't seem to like my presence at all. And, he embarrassed me right in front of the others. He must have did that on purpose. Why else would he do that?

"Jenny, sometimes people's actions don't really reflect their true feelings. And besides, you two are still young. You'll understand what I mean when you grow up."

I don't really get what she means but I'm pretty fixed on the idea that Lucas has a problem with me. I don't think we're ever going to be okay with each other.

***

A few days and soon a few months have passed. I've completely adapted to Wellington's and its education system. Everyone around me seems very much less intimidating than they did three months ago. I'm pretty much acquaintances with most of them now.

However, there's still one person who hasn't come around yet. During these few months, he has mocked me, teased me and insulted me. As a result of that, I've naturally come to dislike him. From what I know, I have done nothing to make him do all that he has done to me. He's known as the joker of the class because he makes everyone, except me, laugh and he also likes to argue with the teachers.

"What are you doing? Close your mouth."

Without even looking at the person, I already know who it is. I do what he said and scowl, while glaring at him. He's a few seats away from me, with the other boys surrounding him. I could feel my cheeks slightly burning and now I'm embarrassed for unconsciously having my mouth open. I tend to do that when I'm deep in thought, or when I daydream.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" he mocks, with his eyebrows raised. The others burst out laughing and he just smirks.

I take a deep breath and turn my head back to the notebook in front of me. It's better to ignore him. It's currently break time and I'm revising the topic that we just learned ten minutes ago. For some reason, I like learning and understanding new things.

"Look at her! She's such a nerd!" Lucas's voice booming from my left.

The laughter gets louder and I can feel the other students in the class stop to stare at us. I bite my bottom lip. My eyes start stinging from the hot tears that are creeping up.

"Aww. She's going to cry!"

Tears are threatening to fall off my eyes any second. I'm trying really hard to keep them in.

Hillary runs over to me. "Jenny, are you okay?" There is a look of concern on her face. "Ignore them. They've got nothing better to do," she says, before she twists her head towards them. "Stop it!"

The boys' laughter gets even louder and it doesn't fail to remind me that this Lucas boy hates me. What's worse is I don't even know the reason why. I'm beginning to dislike him even more, if that's possible.

I'm really glad that I didn't tear up right there and then. Last period has ended and I walk out of class with Jennifer. I see Lucas talking to his friends in front of us and he suddenly stops and faces me.

"Great job there. You would have looked so much uglier if you actually cried," he says, before walking off with his friends as they laugh.

So much uglier?

I stand there, horrified. I'm not sure if I should feel upset about this, but being called ugly does not sit well with me. I've never thought that I'm pretty but to actually be called ugly right in my face..

I slowly turn to Hillary. The look on her face mirrors mine.

She shakes her head. "Don't listen to him, Jenny," she shrieks. "You're not ugly at all!"

I know I shouldn't take what Lucas says seriously but he's a boy and as a girl, it's natural for a comment like that to affect me. And affect me, it did.

***

After what happened, I tend to avoid Lucas. I would make sure I don't lay my eyes on him, make sure that he's not in front, behind or beside me. It's gotten to the point where I have completely ignored him. No, it's not because I'm afraid he'll call me ugly again. But it's the fact that I can't look at his face without feeling angry anymore. My hatred for him has gotten worse and worse. I'm not sure if I'm just being overly sensitive but being mocked is not funny at all.