Morning Of August 3, 2023

First day of school, yay?

My mom had told me that someone would be helping me around the school, but I was still nervous about everything.

My first day of high school. Who knew that it would be like this? I would have never guessed that my first year as a freshman would be after two years of homeschooling, and three years of being socially awkward, after my father's death.

I put on my favorite dark teal, worn, NASA sweatshirt, and flipped my long, wavy, brown hair, which reached over my shoulders by an inch, over the hoodie. I slipped my phone into my small jean shorts pocket, and sat down on the bed to put on my black Converse.

I sighed while I brushed my hair in front of the large mirror in my room.

I put in my earrings, and slipped on my silver ring. I put my dad's favorite ballpoint pen in my jacket pocket for good luck, and walked out the door.

It was actually going to be my first time riding the bus to school too, because we never had them at my old school.

"Pancakes?" my mom said, holding up a plate.

"Sure" I responded tiredly, sitting down at the table.

I began to eat my pancakes, when my mom said, "So, apparently your guide is supposed to meet you at the front of the school."

"What do you mean, I thought you were taking me." I asked, with a mouthful of pancakes.

"I have work today, and I have to get there early for a meeting with a client."

My mom worked as a travel agent now, and sometimes left to go on business trips. My siblings and I would have to spend the time at my cousins' house, and work there.

I gave her a smile, but secretly was very unhappy.

Well, no. It wasn't a secret.

"I only have time to take your sister to her school. I'm really sorry." my mother apologized.

"It's okay." I said, "I'll manage."

I finished up my pancakes and set the dish on the counter.

"Lauren?" my mother said, seriously.

"Yes?" I interjected, turning around as she addressed me.

"I want you to know, that you're protected.

You're loved.

And you're important."

"Thanks, Mom." I said awkwardly, fidgeting with my peach colored fingers.

"No, Lauren. I mean it." my mother said, "You're more special than you'll ever know. And despite what's happened in these past 3 years, I'm proud of you, and always will be."

I smiled, "Thank you, I needed that. I'll see you later." I said, grabbing my black leather backpack.

"Okay, sweetheart! I'll see you after school. Have a great first day!" my mom said, as I walked out the door.

I have to say, the cactus that I almost ran into was kind of annoying. But other than that, I safely walked over to the bus stop, and waited for the bus.

I stood next to 3 other random girls that I didn't know, and tried to stay quiet while they talked.

Soon enough, the bus pulled up, and I carefully walked into it and sat down by myself.

Every single seat in the bus was filled, except for the seat next to me, and I was overjoyed.

Yay for no human interaction!

The doors were about to close, when a boy, who was my age, sprinted to the bus and screamed, "WAIT!"

Oh no I thought to myself.

The doors reopened, and the boy sprinted into the bus, and stopped by the driver and said embarrassedly, "Sorry."

The rest of the bus laughed, and then went back to their conversations.

The boy, with no other place to sit, sat next to me.

Just a first interaction with another human in a couple years.

No biggie.

I can do this I can do this I can do this I can do this

He stayed quiet for a moment, then, when the bus started to move, he looked at me and said, "Hi, I'm Parker."

I can't do this I can't do this I can't do this I can't do this

He had dirty blonde, messy hair, an olive complexion, and soft amber eyes. He smiled widely, and slung his grey backpack to the side of him. He wore a black Nike T-shirt, denim shorts, and light blue Nike tennis shoes.

I stayed quiet and smiled a little at him.

"Not a talker?" he asked, after acknowledging the fact that I was staring at him.

Great. Now he thinks I'm weird. But can I disagree with that anyway?

"No, no, no. Uh, I'm Lauren. Sorry, I'm not great with conversation." I responded awkwardly, averting his gaze at every point I could.

He kept trying to make eye contact with me, but his eyes made me feel trapped. As did most, because I contact made me feel awkward. Like most things other people did.

"It's okay. You new here?" Parker asked, looking into my eyes.

Great now I HAVE to respond.

"Yeah." I mumbled quickly, trying as hard as I could to not say something embarrassing.

"I just moved here too." Parker said, smiling widely at me.

Great. Now he has the wrong idea. No no no. It's not that hard to explain, Lauren.

"Oh no, I've lived here for three years now, I just have been homeschooled." I said, with an awkward smile.

"That's cool. I'm here from Denver, Colorado."

"That's cool, I've actually never been to Colorado." I said, unsure of anything to respond with.

WOOOOOOOW. Great job there.

"Where are you from? You said you've only lived here for three years."

"Oh, I'm from Cincinnati, Ohio."

See? Wasn't that easy?

"Then, how come you don't have an accent?"

"Uh, I've never heard of a Cincinnati accent." I responded.

Oh no. We have a code 152746. A joker. That makes it even HARDER to respond with something logical!

"Oh, neither have I." he said bluntly.

I laughed a little and said, "Well, there used to be a farm about 10 minutes from my house, if you were ever wondering about a country accent."

Whew. Found a way to save it.

"Cool." Parker said.

We stayed silent for a couple minutes, but he seemed pretty nice, a little eager, but nice.

Maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all.

"So, have any friends here?" Parker asked.

"No, not really." I responded, a bit distracted by the music I was listening to through my headphones.

"What's your favorite color?" Parker asked.

"Uh, orange." I responded, still playing the unpausing and pausing the music on my phone.

"Favorite food?"

"Parma rosa." I said, a little annoyed.

"What's that?" Parker asked.

"A sauce that you put on pasta." I said bluntly.

"Do you eat bread with it?" Parker asked.

I JUST WANT TO LISTEN TO HAMILTON!

Jeez, would this dude give up? He wouldn't stop talking to me for the rest of the bus ride.

When we pulled into the school, he said with a smirk on his face, "I cannot help but get the feeling that you despise me right now."

Oh boy. Was it that obvious that I don't know how to hold up a conversation?

"Well..." I said.

"No need to lie about it. It's fine, homeschool. It's not like I didn't try to annoy you at some point there."

Phew. He understands.

I rolled my eyes and said, "Well, maybe I ignored you on purpose."

Wow. Great comeback.

"It's not ignoring if you respond."

I knew he was going to say that.

"Well, maybe in my world it is."

WOOOOOOOW. Really, Lauren? Really?

"Oooh, great comeback. Maybe you can teach me how you think of these things." Parker said sarcastically.

I should've guessed he'd say that too.

"I'd be happy to. You don't seem so smart, so maybe I can teach you some other things too." I said with an annoyed look.

Nice save. Keep the banter going.

"Ouch..." he laughed, "I'll see you around, homeschool."

Good, it's done!

He got up from the seat and grabbed his backpack, and walked off the bus.

I didn't even know if I could consider what just happened good or bad, but it was a start.

I hopped off the bus, and walked to the doors.

Weird, Mom said that my guide would be here. I thought to myself.

"Hello? Are you Lauren?" a girl next to me said.

The girl had long wispy light blonde hair, that some people might think is white. She had striking grey-violet eyes, pale skin, and was 6 inches taller than me. She looked nice, but she probably often intimidated people with her serious expression, and her height.

"Yes, are you my guide?" I said as politely as I could.

"Yep, I'm Isla." she said, holding out her hand.

"How do you spell that?" I said, not knowing what to say.

Another GREAT start to an awkward conversation...

"I-S-L-A. But it's pronounced like Eyela." she said, confused.

"Oh okay. Sorry, I didn't know what else to say, really. You're very tall." I said quickly.

You did it again.

"Uh, thanks. And it's no big deal, everyone is awkward on their first day." Isla said.

"Thanks, I don't know how I would get through the day if people didn't excuse me for my own words." I said.

She laughed and said, "Well, you don't seem all that bad, so people will have to forgive you."

"I hope I don't make people forgive me." I responded.

"It's just a joke. But they'll want to anyway."

"I hope so..."

Isla and I walked into the building and stood in the large swarm of students who were trying to find their classroom. I was overwhelmed by the amount of people crowding the area, as I'd never been in a school so large. It felt so weird to be back with people anyway.

Dang human herds.

Isla grabbed my hand and dragged me over to a hallway.

Why is she holding my hand?

I wasn't exactly comfortable with the contact, but I knew I'd have to deal with it anyway.

"Okay, it looks like your in..." Isla looked at the sheet of paper in her hand, "Room 41...?"

Isla had a blank stare on her face, as if she were trying to comprehend something. I was confused and almost scared by it.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing. It just looks like you're in this one classroom until the end of the day." she said, "Well, good thing I'm in that class too."

"Oh, thank goodness. I thought I was going to have to introduce myself." I said.

"I don't think you would have any problem with that, Lauren." Isla said with a smile.

"Why am I in that one class until the end of the day?" I asked her.

"Beats me..." Isla said under her breath.

"What?" I said, "I couldn't hear you."

Very suspicious...

"Oh nothing, I don't know." she said, obviously distracted.

"Where is it?" I asked, "We don't want to be late."

"Follow me." Isla said, beginning to walk, and then grabbing my hand.

I hopelessly dragged behind her, as she basically sprinted through the crowds. I was confused at why she was so distracted all of the sudden. But I couldn't think about that, I had to focus on not ramming into people.

Before I knew it, we had sprinted across the whole school, and were twisting and turning at different corners. There wasn't anyone in these hallways, and Isla was still sprinting.

"Here we are." Isla said, stopping at a door, in the middle of an empty hallway.

I was out of breath, and was practically panting.

"Thanks" I took a deep breath, "Isla."

I heard a deep voice from inside the room, "Is someone out there?"

Well, here goes nothing.

Isla opened the door, and a dark skinned man, with little hair, and black eyes, walked out into the hallway.

"Are you Lauren Sdarson?" the man asked, saying my surname that I had heard so many times, long ago in my eye-opening dream.

"Yes, sir." I said, regaining my breath and ability to stand up straight.

Great way to make an impression...

Late, Lauren. Always late.

"I'm Mr. Furish." he said politely, "Would you like to come in and join the rest of the class?"

I nodded and he motioned to the door.

Isla stayed out in the hallway with him and talked.

"Ah, homeschool." a familiar voice said.

Dang it. Thought I wouldn't have to deal with that one again.

"Hello, Parker." I said.

He smirked at me from his seat in the back row.

I sat down in an empty seat next to a boy and a girl.

Everyone in the entire room was talking to someone else, except for me. We were all waiting for Mr. Furish and Isla to walk back into the room. I had no idea what they were talking about out in the hallway, and it only kept me all the more curious.

But alas, I wasn't able to figure out what they were talking about, because they both walked into the room a minute later.

"Hello, everyone." Mr. Furish said.

The class responded with a synchronized, "Hello."

"I'm Mr. Furish, as most of you know." Mr. Furish walked to a podium, "I have a question for you all."

He looked at all of our faces and said, "What do you all have in common?"

A girl, with bright orange hair, blue eyes, and freckles raised her hand and said, "We're teenagers?"

"This is true. But it's not what I was thinking of." Mr. Furish said.

Parker raised his hand and said, "We all wake up in the morning and wish we weren't going through puberty."

He really isn't wrong.

The class laughed, and Mr. Furish said, "Not exactly, I'm thinking of something else."

A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes raised his hand, "We're all human?"

"This is also true." Mr. Furish said, "The answer, is that all of you, but two of my students, Cam and Isla, are new."

"All of us?" I blurted out.

Dang it dang it dang it dang it dang it dang it dang it dang it

After I let the words slip from my mouth, I turned red, and felt my ears burn. But Mr. Furish responded kindly and said, "Yes, Lauren, all of you. Including you.  Because you said that, how about you share your story with the class first?"

Dang it dang it dang it dang it dang it dang it dang it dang it

I was flustered and red, and I awkwardly stood up from my chair and said, "I'm Lauren Sdarson. I was originally born in Cincinnati, Ohio. I moved here three years ago, and have been homeschooling ever since."

I quickly sat back down, and Mr. Furish said, "Thank you Lauren. We'll get to know more about you later. But I do have one question, Why did you move here?"

What should I say?

"My mom needed a job, and we had family out here." I said, quietly.

Well, I'm not going to be live that lie up.

"Okay." Mr. Furish said, "How about Isabelle?"

"It's pronounced Ee-sa-bel. Spelled like Isabel." a girl said sweetly from the seat to the right of me.

The girl stood up from her chair. She had brown chocolatey hair, deep brown eyes, and tan skin. She smiled widely and began, "I'm Isabel Avaling, and I moved to America just this year from Southern Mexico."

"Thank you, Isabel. Why did you move here?" Mr. Furish said.

"My family needed a new start. We wanted a change of scenery." Isabel said.

"Okay." Mr. Furish said, "How about you Luke?"

I almost stopped for a moment and tried to process what I had just heard. It couldn't be the same Luke could it?

No, it couldn't be.

Could it?

The boy in the chair to the left of me stood up.

It looked like Luke.

He had the same neat black hair, and the same light skin. He was still lanky and tall. And he still had the same unmistakable blue eyes, which weren't the same neon, but were now deep sky blue.

"I'm Luke Rogly, and I'm from Eastern Maine. This year I moved to Scottsdale to help my grandparents out." Luke said fluently.

I'm pretty sure he was the only person who spoke normally. Everyone else either had a way of saying things, or was quiet, or loud, or said it awkwardly.

I didn't know if Luke recognized me or not.

But for now, that didn't matter.

I needed to focus for the time of class.

Because I must have been able to foresee that I'd be dealing with bigger issues soon.