Chapter 2: New Kids

The halls were filled with students still trying to find their way to their classes, others socializing excessively, and others just spacing out. Sure regular high school shit, nothing different.

I walked up to my locker, #168, it's been my locker for the past two years. The things it has seen, all the tears that I've cried into it to prevent others from seeing my mascara drip. As I stuffed the unessential books into my locker, while grabbing the necessary ones, a female aura walked up to me, and leaned on the locker to the left of mine.

"Agnes. Hey!" She smiled brightly, looking as happy as she could be on a Monday morning. Like it was the best thing that could've happened to her.

"Ella, hey." I smiled slightly, while quickly busying myself to look like I was fixing my locker, when I already have everything I needed.

"I was wondering if you were willing to tutor me in chemistry after school today?" She put her hands together and slightly swayed from side to side.

"I would be okay with it, I guess." I shrugged.

"Thanks! I appreciate it a lot. My grades are in serious trouble and since you're probably the smartest in our grade, it means a lot that you're willing to help me," She sighed as she continued to lean back.

"Isn't Daniel taking that class as well?" I asked, looking over at her.

"Yeah he is," She said with her smile faltering a bit as she heard his name.

"Why don't you ask Daniel then? He's also getting really good grades in that class I bet,"

"Well he's going through a lot right now so I don't want to bother him." She then paused and pushed some of her brunette hair back into her ear, "I mean- this is some hard shit. Everyone thought they were the perfect family but," She said quietly towards the end.

"I- I'm sorry. What are you talking about?" I asked genuinely confused.

'He's my best friend, he's supposed to tell me everything, right? Or at least things worrying him. How did she know these types of things, before I did?' I quickly thought out.

"You don't know?" She raised her eyebrow at me surprised.

"Obviously, so what is it?" I said getting tired of playing the telephone game with her.

"He decided to quit soccer, his parents are kind of bothering him. Their divorce is being processed so," Immediately it clicked for me, what exactly she was talking about.

Daniel is a very quiet person when it comes to personal matters, he doesn't want to feel like a burden to anyone. He rarely talks about his family as they were overbearing, though his parents do all the talking that he doesn't.

"Yeah. I'll get back to you about the tutoring today. I have to go or else I'll be late, but um- talk to you later."

"See ya-" her voice quickly faded as I walked faster and faster away.

I walked quickly across the halls making a sharp right as I headed for my homeroom class, alone. We all got split this year, and I didn't have very many classes with my friends. I sat in the far back, deep in thought.

'How could he not tell me?' was all that was on my mind for the next 50 minutes.

~

The bell rang out indicating that school was out, and I calmly walked out of the room shortly hearing my name being called out by an all familiar voice.

"Agnes, Anges, Nes, Nessa, Aggie-" I turned around pointing my finger directly at his face.

"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" I muttered slightly annoyed,

"All too many times," He smirked.

"Then why bother?" I huffed and turned to walk away.

"Woah, woah, woah," he gently grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop, facing his concerned face. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't know. Is there something wrong?" I asked quite annoyed.

"Did someone score higher than you on an exam or what-"

"Were you ever planning on telling me that they're officially getting a divorce?"

"What-" his eyes falter seeing that he's in some serious trouble.

"Were you ever going to tell me that you're going to quit the soccer team as well?" I asked my tone breaking slightly, becoming less annoyed but more concerned.

"Who told you?" he squinted his eyebrows in a huff.

"Your girlfriend. Next time I'd like to hear from anyone but her." I turned to walk away as he stood by my side following me.

"I was going to tell you-"

"When? When you're depressed at some bar, shit faced, and barf all over me again?" He stopped me once again and held me by the shoulders.

"Of course not. I was going to tell you after tonight."

"Tonight?" I asked genuinely confused

"The dinner. With our families. With Corbyn and Jonah?" I shook my head in realization as I had almost forgotten the annual Moran, Hudson, Herrera, Espinosa family dinner. The one our parents threw every year to get more ideas on how to get more money into their business, and companies to make the annual quota higher than it seemed.

"Oh yeah. The dinner." I shrugged at him, "Still you had so many opportunities to tell me. But fine it's your business and I shouldn't intrude." I smiled. The type of smile that you'd have on when you've wasted your time on something stupid, that smile.

"It's wasn't-"

"It's fine. Let's go to class or else we'll be late." I shrugged and walked to our English class, and sat next to Jonah.

"You said we're good, why aren't we sitting together then?" He asked from the chair behind me.

"Because Ella is here and it would be rude to just ignore her like that." I glared and looked at Jonah who was spacing out. He slowly turned his head and met eyes with me, breaking out of his gaze.

"Hello buttercup." He smiled and side hugged me.

"That's a new one," I chuckled at the little nickname he gave me. He's the king of nicknames. It's just his thing, though they might be weird and cringe worthy they actually stuck around well enough to last.

"Corbyn told me about the other day," he whispered.

"Don't scold me too. I got an earful from him already." I sighed out.

"I know, and I won't. But whatever he said he's probably right." He smiled slightly.

"I know," I sighed quietly and pulled out my papers.

Suddenly two loud voices were heard running through the doorway and soon near us.

Zach and Jack the comedic duo who never learned how to shut up. It was beyond any of us, even themselves how they got to stay in this class, fully knowing that they were a few credits behind.

"Well if it isn't Ms.Moran, I mean Ms.Moody, sorry my memory is shot, as you all would know." Zach chuckled as I sent him a playful glare.

"How's it been Nes? We haven't heard much during the break?" Jack chuckled.

"Nothing new. Same old same old."

"Same dic-" Before he could even finish that sentence I had already punched Zach in the gut as harshly as I could. Which was pretty hard considering I've been taking boxing classes since I was 5.

"I'm sorry," he coughed out while clutching his stomach in clear pain.

"But for real, it was the same huh?" Jack laughed then quickly seeing my fist begin to raise he shuffled back a few feet away from me. "I'm kidding,"

"So I'm guessing Corbyn told everyone at this point huh?" I asked checking behind me to see Daniel preoccupied with his other peers on the other side of the classroom.

"He was just informing us on events that happened to two people that we care about deeply." Jonahs stated while continuing to read his Harry Potter book for like the 10th time.

"I- I don't know how to respond to that," Jack said, looking at him seriously questioning his existence.

"Okay class sit down! I have news" our favorite teacher, Mr.Santos, or rather we call him Miguel. He's very close to our age that's why he's so chill about everything, but he's very strict on us learning.

"What's the news?" Addison asked as she crossed her arms.

"We have new students joining us." He clapped his hands.

We've never had new students since freshman year, this was weird considering that the tuition is way higher each grade, no one would want to pay the $75,000 semester fees.

I looked over at the door seeing the three new students coming in.

"These are the new students please introduce yourselves!" Miguel said excitingly.

The first one that introduced himself was a handsome boy, a heartthrob if you will.

"Hello I am Emmanuel Hendrich Garcia, you can call me Manny, I came from New York, and am excited to meet you all!" He smiled and even winked at a few girls before sitting down in the middle. He looked back slightly winking at Christina, to which Corbyn had an issue with as anyone with eyes could see he gripped her hand tighter.

"I am Naomi Cabrera-Minx, and I came from Santa Cruz, but was raised in New York." She was a fairly tall, long brown-Auburn-ish hair. I immediately heard some comments from Addison and even Ella were heard as Miguel shushed them.

"And I am Gabe Cabrera-Minx and I am also from Santa Cruz, and was raised in the big apple." He had sleek black hair, completely different from Naomi. He stood brave in front of everyone. We made eye contact and I swear a tiny little smile made it past his lips, right before he must've realized and made a poker face again.

"You guys are twins?" Zach asked.

"Sadly," Naomi teased as she nudged Gabe.

"Okay. You may take a seat wherever you feel comfortable," Miguel sighed as he took out a piece of paper before continuing on, "I've also assigned you three guides for the week. Sit with them in the back to compare schedules." He shook the paper in his hand.

"Manny, you will be shown around by Christina!" A groan was heard from Corbyn.

"Naomi will be shown around by Ella," Ella scoffed a bit before turning to sit with the latter who looked as equally as disgusted.

"And Gabe will be shown around by Agnes," I smiled over at him and walked towards the back, catching a concerned looking Daniel.

We sat in one of the far away tables and he just stared at me for a while.

"What?" I asked as I chuckled awkwardly.

"You're gorgeous." He simply stated, no emotion crossed. Which made me think he was just joking.

"T-Thanks?" I grabbed his schedule, accidentally bumping hands.

"We have the same classes except for the last one, so it'll be easy to show you around." I smiled at him, as he looked emotionless still.

'This is gonna be interesting,' I thought to myself.