MY FIRST DAY AT AURORAL HIGH

The next day after a delicious breakfast, mum drove Isabel and I to the new school. She explained that the elementary school was located a couple of streets away. Nearing the school gate, I saw its name boldly carved on a stone arch. It read, "Auroral high".

We drove into the school premises. I came down after mum and Isabel had wished me good luck and goodbye. They rounded off the drive way just were the there gigantic water fountain stood and drove off.

I looked at the four story building standing in its magnificent form with two huge school flag standing by the side. The school compound was beautifully decorated with flowers, some of which I could recognize—the rose flower, sunflower, hibiscus, orchids, lily and lavender. I took in a long drag of the fragrance that filled the air, relishing in it.

Almost immediately, a dreadful thought ran through my head, how can I locate my classroom? But it quickly passed as I remembered the school brochure mum gave to me earlier at the home. I quickly pulled it out and glanced through it. At the back was a detailed diagram of the school building with directions looking just like a little map.

I headed towards the building and walked in pushing open the glass door. The inside was more breathtaking than the outside, from the well polished marbled floors to the intricately designed walls. This school was thrice bigger than my former school. The hallway was something designed not for this world, it was completely astonishing.

I stared at all the student as they moved about looking so busy. I must say, the uniform looked so elegant on them—from the dark blue blazers having a white and black patterned seam at the edges paired with white long sleeve shirt and red tie to the dark blue trousers for the males and pleated skirt for the females, coupled with long black socks with white designs at the tip matched to a pair of black shoes. Even if mum could afford this as the vice president of a big real estate company, it was just too much.

The scream from the female students jolted me out from my thought. They came rushing towards me. What the hell is going on? Just when I thought they would eat me alive, they screamed passed me, pushing me to a corner and also ruining my well polished shoes. I was too shocked and dazed to react.

I glared at the direction they all ran to and was surprised to see a boy majestically walking between the path they had cleared for him, all of them drooling over him. I was dumbstruck. Was the movie boys before flower playing out right in front of me?

"Who the heck is he?" I asked myself.

Suddenly, it hit me—his face, I have seen it somewhere before. Then it struck me like a lightening bolt, the mannerless jerk at church who was busy with his headphone while the preaching was going on. That same headohone was hung around his neck. I don't get—why is he so special?

I saw him taking long strides towards me. Why was he moving towards my direction? I'm guessing he must have recognized me too and I quickly turned my face to another direction, pretending not to see him coming.

He stopped right in front of me and asked, "what do you want?" I refused to answer and he continued, "do you want to confess your feelings to me or maybe do you have a gift for me?" He was obviously displeased.

I couldn't believe my ears. Confess? This guy must be so full of himself. I actually had lots of things on my mind to say to him and they were all far from a confession.

I scoffed before asking, "why should I do any of those?" I wanted to add, "you mannerless jerk" but I swallowed that part.

He looked surprised. Yeah! Get that into your thick skull, I'm not one of your dying fans.

I continued pridefully when he wasn't saying anything.

"Oh no! Someone really wanted something from me," I pouted, feigning a surprised face. My eyes shining with triumph.

Quickly getting over the initial shock, he said with disgust, "will you get out of my way then!"

I blinked a few times, not only was he mannerless but also rude. How can a human being have so many bad attributes. I'm not even standing in his way.

Before I could respond, he asked, "aren't you moving or are you deaf?"

The students, who had already gathered around us due to the little commotion, burst out laughing. What I didn't realize was that I was pushed to a door when the crazy female students where on a rampage earlier.

He continued, "well, let me help you out since you can't seem to hear a word I'm saying."

A smirk played on his face as he held me by my tie. Before I could protest at his hold, he pushed me out of the way and I slipped and fell flat on my face, my forehead hitting the floor. Everyone laughed uncontrollably and I felt really ashamed. I looked up at him, giving him a death glare.

He ignored it and crunched down bringing his face to mine. "I remember you now, the dumb fool at church."

After saying that, he got up and pushed the door open before walking in.

His words sent another wave of anger running through me. As I got up, I could feel my face turning into a deep shade of red. How dare he call me a dumb fool? I matched towards the door and I almost turned the door handle but the sign on the door post froze my movement, "Admin's office". I momentarily decided it wasn't wise start a fight inside an office on my first day. I took long, sharp breaths, trying to calm myself before I turned around. Thankfully, everyone had already dispersed earlier when the rude jerk entered the office. I also decided to let it go, since it was actually my fault that I unknowingly blocked his way.

I picked up the school brochure from the floor and continued the search of finding my classroom and finally, I did. The classroom was very spacious and elegant with floor to ceiling windows. The projector hung at a distinctive corner coupled with a smart board. There was also a large table with smooth surface paired with a comfy leather chair for the teacher, a whiteboard with carpet erasers, a digital transparent wall clock with its numbers calligraphed in black.

Each student had those chairs and desk attached together with their names boldly written in gold on a black plastic card screwed to the desk. Some students were already in the classroom engaged in some serious discussion or so. I found my seat and quietly sat down. Having nothing to do, I glanced through the school brochure.

Few minutes passed, I heard a voice through the intercom in the classroom, "may all students gather at the auditorium."

Excited chattering quickly filled the classroom as everyone started walking out and I followed suit.

On our way to the auditorium, a pretty girl approached me. "Hi, newbie," she said gleefully. "I'm Lily Cowell," she continued, extending her hand.

I politely took it and smiled, "I'm Sydney Raymond." We exchanged pleasantries before I asked out of curiosity, "how do you know I am new?" I was in a uniform just like any other student, so how could she tell?

She gave out a ringing laugh which was delightful to the ear. "It's very obvious. Firstly, the school brochure on your hand and secondly, you standout from the rest of us," she answered truthfully.

I tried hiding the brochure without her noticing but she actually did. "You don't have to be ashamed. It's very natural carrying it around on your first day since the school is huge and one can easily get lost," she encouraged me.

I looked at her warmly, finding her presence very comfortable. "When you say I standout, what do you mean?" I wanted to know if she meant in a good way or a bad way.

"If I must say, you are very pretty, so beautiful and the uniform fits you well more than the rest of us," She complimented.

My face turned into a shade of pink and she quickly changed the topic seeing reaction. "Have you found your classroom yet?"

I nodded. "Wow, that's fast!" She exclaimed obviously surprised. "Most students usually don't before the announcement is made."

I smiled at her and we walked on in silence. Lily's character was unique. She is really open minded and I must say, I already liked her and without an ounce of disagreement, she is very pretty.

Soon, I saw the door with the sign "auditorium". We entered the large hall and took our seats.

"Look!" Lily pointed. "That is the director and her staffs."

I looked to the direction where she pointed and saw them seated near the stage, dressed elegantly.

"Who is the director?" I asked Lily.

"The lady with her hair styled in a pony tail," she replied.

I saw her walking towards the microphone, her light blue suit beautifully hung around her body.

"Wow! She is so beautiful," I complimented.

Lily rolled her eye. "Beautiful on the outside but a devil on the inside," she said with disgust.

"Why would you make such an hurty remark?" I asked baffled.

"I don't regret saying that because she is the devil herself. She can make your life a living hell, starting from your grades to not getting accepted by another school but that's only if you cross her path."

I didn't know what to think hearing this from Lily. I stared back at woman getting ready to address us. Is she really that awful?

"Do you know that by the end of every term, the teachers always resign, not even a single one remaining because I heard she is hard to work with despite the huge salary. I'm sad for this new teachers because they don't know what they had gotten into," Lily said, kissing her teeth dramatically while shaking her head.

She continued, "she is like a demigoddess but an evil one and the worst part is, our parents never believes she has that malevolent side to her since she acts like an angel in front of them."

I wanted to say something but someone grabbed my attention. It was the jerk that pushed me earlier. I saw him signalling a student to get up for him to sit. How rude of him!

"Isn't he cute?" Lily asked, breaking my gaze from him.

"Sorry, who?" I asked.

"Rex, the boy you have been staring at," she pointed out.

Cute? I almost threw up inside my mouth. Is she daft?

"Him, Mr rude, cute?" I said scornfully. "There is nothing cute about him. He is mannerless, boastful, and top it all, very rude. He has all this bad qualities and yet you call him cute," I was almost screaming. "I can't even stand the sight of him," I humped angrily.

Lily seeing how angry I looked asked, "why do you hate Rex so much?"

"Can you believe he insulted me and pushed me?" I said, freaking out.

"Oh! You are the girl everyone in school is talking about. You are already popular," she casually brushed away my concern as if it was nothing.

From her demeanor, she seemed excited but I couldn't share in that excitement. I actually wished for the ground to open and swallow me. How can I be popular for being disgraced.

"I hate that rude jerk so much!" I clenched my fist tightly, my knuckles almost turning white.

Lily looked at me weirdly. "Wow! You are the first girl I'm seeing that actually hates him. All the girls adores him. I wish he would notice me even if it means getting pushed by him," Lily said dreamily.

She was obviously coo-coo and I said that directly to her face. "You are crazy, Lily."

"Yeah, crazy for the director's son," she proudly said.

What? No wonder he has so much power. Just then, the voice of the director rang out. I looked up to see the almost perfect woman if only she didn't have those bad qualities. Now, I understood why that jerk behaves that way.

The director introduced herself as Sophie Gilbert before she went further to introduce the new teachers.

Lily bent to whisper something to me. "Do you know that rumor has it that she got married to a billionaire but they got divorced. I will bet it was her character that got them separated."

"That's so bad," I said sadly feeling a little pity for her. Who would have guess she was a divorcee?

When we turned our attention back to her, she was calling out the names of all the new students and their classes. Seems that this is the culture of the school. A class was called and a name followed, "Rexford Gilbert." There was an uproar as Mr rude climbed up the stage. I rolled my eyes. I made a mental note this was my second time calling him "Mr rude". I guess the name will have to stick to him now.

"He can't possibly be a new student, right?" I asked Lily.

"Yes, he isn't. Ms. Sophie just likes introducing him whenever she introduces the new student," she explained.

After his formal introduction, my name was called next, "Sydney Raymond".

As I stood up to leave, Lily excitedly said, "I can't believe we are in the same class. I guess that makes us BFF now."

I smiled at her before moving towards the stage. As I climbed, I heard the students snickering as they pointed at me.

Ms. Sophie turned to me, a hand covering the mic and said, "I guess you have already made a record on your first day," before casually turning back and continued calling out names.

I felt all the hair on my body stand and wished I could hide away in shame. I saw Mr rude walking towards me and whispered, "being pushed down in the hallway sure brings popularity and also you should stop staring at me everytime, it gives me the creeps."

This words jolted me back to reality. He grabbed my hand and dragged me back to the position he stood before.

"Ouch!" I winched in pain as he pressed down on my hand. "That hurts," I complained bitterly, glaring at him.

He scoffed. "That is what you get for making me come all the way over there and dragging you back to the right place you were meant to stand. How dumb can you be?"

As he said those words, he kept squeezing my hand and my face contorted in pain. He gave a satisfied smile seeing the pain on my face before letting go. I wanted to give him a piece of my mind right there and then but I decided against it since I have already created too much unpleasant scenes.

After the introductions, Lily and I headed headed back to class. On getting there we discovered that my seat was missing.

"Oh no!" Lily exclaimed. "I totally forgot to tell you about the orientation while blabbering about everything else. How could I forget the most important information?" She scolded, facepalming herself.

"What do you mean?" I asked, not liking the sound of that.

"Actually, you would face all kind of difficulties for a week being a new student. We call the days in those week "Hellish Days". This was formed by Rex to taunt all the new students in school," she clarified.

I was so shocked. Not only was he rude but also a bully. I was literally dumfounded.

"Sydney, are you okay?" Lily asked.

"No, I'm not," I answered angrily. "How can I start a new school and I'm already facing so much difficulties because of one person. I'm tired and I will have to give him a piece of my mind," I said between clenched teeth.

"No, don't do that. You don't want to get yourself entangled with Ms. Sophie. Besides, it's only for a week and I know you can handle it," Lily said encouragingly.

"Okay Lily, I guess I will have to endure. Come with me so that you can help me find my desk."

She hesitated and said, "although, I want to help you out but I can't get involved."

I was bemused by her reluctance. "Why can't you? I thought you said were best friends a while ago."

"No one gets to help the students undergoing the orientation or else, Rex will make things really difficult for anyone who helps. I don't want to get on Ms. Sophie's bad side."

I totally understood her. "I will have to do it on my own then." I was a bit disappointed.

"I'm sorry and also good luck." She said before whispering , "the desk is always at the entrance of the hallway." She winked at me. "Just make sure to find it quickly before the first class commence. You just have fifteen minutes."

I nodded and then turned to leave. What a hellish day it is, after all!