"Hey," Ellie said as she caught up to Bailey in the hall after Band.

       "Hi," Bailey seethed, her face twisted into a scowl.

       "You okay?" Ellie questioned, raising an eyebrow at her sister's unusual tone.

       "Yeah. A guy in my section was being a total jerk."

       "What did he say?"

       "He practically called me a hillbilly when he heard my accent. So sorry I don't speak like you, perfect California boy," Bailey scoffed. “Asshole.”

       "Ignore him. What does he play?" Ellie rolled her eyes.

       "Trumpet.”

       “Figures,” Ellie rolled her eyes. She hated stereotyping, but this time it seemed appropriate.

       "Yeah. How's your section?"

       "They seem alright. I'm a bit skeptical of Jess, though."

       "Jess?" the blonde asked, glancing at her sister.

       "Center snare and Section leader," Ellie clarified.

       "Ah. Why do you say that?"

       "I don't know. I just get bad vibes, you know?"

       "Makes sense. Oh, this is my stop," Bailey said, taking note of the room number.

       "See ya," the older girl said, realizing that she was now up in the 200 hall, where her English III class was. She walked down the long hallway until she reached room 224; Jacks' class. As she padded through the doorway, she took note of how the lights were off, and the various strands of white icicle christmas lights were hung around the room. In both back corners of the room, there was a lamp that broke off into 3 different colored lights; Red, green and yellow. I like this room, Ellie thought as she took a seat in the back row near the lamp. She put an earbud in and took out a folder, notebook and her dark gray chromebook, setting them on the desk. It was then she noticed that someone was coming up to her. She looked up to see a petite woman with shoulder length blonde hair and green eyes that sparkled with excitement.

       "Hi! You must be Ellie," the woman said, grinning from ear to ear.

       "Yes, ma'am," Ellie smiled, voice low and even. She never tried to sound charismatic, but her voice betrayed her.

"Pleasure to meet you," she said, standing up and extending a hand. Mrs. Jacks' grin widened as she shook Ellie's extended palm. "Well aren't you sweet,” she said just as the bell rang overhead. Mrs. Jacks went to the front of the room and spoke.

“Good morning, second hour! We just finished our last unit, so today we’ll be starting a new one! We’ll be reading Of Mice & Men for the next few weeks,” she announced. As Mrs. Jacks spoke, Ellie couldn’t help but take notice of the incredible amount of definition in the woman’s arms, which were crossed across her chest. She must be some sort of athlete, Ellie thought. Jacks handed out the books then assigned the first chapter and vocab words as homework. With that, Jacks let the class read, which most people opted not to do. Instead they all chattered loudly, and one particularly annoying group was having a water bottle flipping contest. Ellie just shook her head. She put her earbuds back in and began to read the opening words of Of Mice and Men as Julia Pierce sang Drawing A Blank to her.

The rest of the class flew by, and soon it was to go to Algebra, much to Ellie’s distaste. As soon as the bell rang, she set off at a brisk walk, wanting to get to class early. As she entered the room, she recognized a familiar face. It was Julia, one of the tenor players from band. She casually looked up, and her green eyes flashed with recognition. She smiled at Ellie, patting the desk next to the one she was sitting in.

“Hey, new girl,” Julia smiled as Ellie flopped down in her seat.

“Hey. It’s Julia, right?” she double checked.

“Yeah. Say, what state did you say you were from again. Sorry,” Julia chuckled. “My memory ain’t what it used to be.”

“Kentucky.”

“Oh that’s right! What’s it like?”

“It’s really nice! The people are great, it’s beautiful, and the food is amazing!” Ellie told Julia, who laughed and replied with, “The food’s all that matters!”

Just then, the second bell rang and the teacher walked into the room, swinging his hands and clapping them together.

“Hey!” He started. “Take out your notebooks. We didn’t have homework last night, so we’re going to jump right into notes,” the teacher said. Mr. Henderson was his name. He was tan and brown haired, and looked like he could be a basketball coach. The man was wearing a lanyard dangling out of the pocked of the khaki cargo shorts he wore, and an official Hawthorne High Nike polo shirt. Ellie snapped out of her trance and got her notebook out and flipping it to an empty page near the front. She scribbled down what was written on the Smartboard, and listened intently as Henderson spoke. About fifteen slides later, the notes finally ended and Ellie shook out her right hand, which was starting to cramp from writing so much. On the very last slide, was the homework assignment. Ellie’s heart dropped in her chest as she read what was written.

Pg. 553-555, #s 1-3, 9-12, 18-25, 22-29

Great, she thought. This teacher is going to murder me via homework. It was then that Mr. Henderson walked over and spoke, snapping Ellie out of her thoughts.

“Hey, Goldmann,” He said. Yep. Definitely a coach.

“Can you get your chromebook out, please? You’ll need the info to sign into your online textbook,” he instructed before Ellie could answer. Henderson spoke to her as she retrieved her chromebook. “Ever thought about Cross Country or Track?”

“Track, maybe. I’m no distance runner,” she told him truthfully. Henderson found this funny.

“I’ll make you a distance runner,” the man laughed with a slight smirk.

“Did you do track at your old school?”

“I tried it back in eighth grade,” Ellie smiled, thinking back to how awful(yet somehow enjoyable) it was. “Our coach was the librarian. The whole team got shin splints halfway through the season because of her.”

“Really? I’m surprised they’d even allow that,” Henderson said just as Ellie had pulled up the site. He gave her instructions on how to get in and all that. She thanked him and went back to doing her homework.

In the last five minutes of class, Julia spoke. “By the way, drumline’s having a party next weekend. You should come!” she said excitedly, handing Ellie a red piece of paper. Scribbled on it, were the words:

October 14th. 24 Alviston Lane. Come as you are!

“I’ll be there,” Ellie grinned.

“Sweet! Last year’s party was awesome! We just watched movies and ate candy all night.

“Sounds amazing. I can’t wait!”

“It was… Oh, yeah! Hold on,” Julia paused, pulling her phone out of her pocket and unlocking it.

“What’s your number? Jess wanted me to get it for the drumline group chat. Do you have Groupme?”

“Yeah, I’ve got it,” Ellie said casually. She gave Julia her number, and in exchange got hers.

The rest of school was pretty boring to Ellie, as she didn’t really talk much to the other people. She could be talkative when she wanted to, but she was also a very quiet soul.

Ellie sat in the car, the windows rolled down and Asking Alexandria drifting from the speakers.

“Come on, Bailey. Where are you?” she muttered under her breath. She was just about to pick her phone up and call when Bailey just walked out of the school. Ellie raised her eyebrows in surprise when she saw that she was flanked by two girls, one blonde and the other brunette. As the trio got closer, the blonde’s eyes widened as her eyes landed on the corvette. “Oh my god… That’s your sister’s car?!” she exclaimed, jaw slack. Ellie stifled a laugh, which only resorted in a faint snort.

“Hey, El,” Bailey said as she reached the car. “This is Grace and Talia.

“Hello. How are you guys?” Ellie said politely, smiling at them.

“We’re good. That car is so cool!” the one named Grace gawked. She acted like Ellie was some sort of celebrity. The other girl didn’t say anything, but just smiled.

“Thank you! Come on, sis. We need to go help Mom and Dad unpack,” she smiled, and flicked her head slightly, motioning for Bailey to get in the car.     

“Alright. Bye guys!” Bailey waved.

“Bye!” Grace and Talia said at the same time, walking away and whispering amongst themselves. Bailey put her things in the back seat and climbed into the front.

“They seem nice,” Ellie observed. “And you were worried you wouldn’t make any friends.”
“Please, I’m pretty sure the only reason they wanted to be my friend is because you have a cool car,” Bailey scoffed. “I’m not sure about Grace, honestly. I kinda get bad vibes from her.”

“Yeah? I would steer clear, then. You can still be nice and talk to her, but you don’t have to be close. What about Talia?” Ellie asked, shifting the Corvette into reverse and slowly backing out of her parking space.

“She seems alright. She’s really quiet and nice to be around.”

“That’s good then,” Ellie said, shifting into drive and pulling out into the packed parking lot. The two exchanged the tales of their day and the people they met as they rode down the sloping streets.

“You got invited to a party on your first day?” Bailey gawked as Ellie pulled the car into the driveway of their two story home.

“It’s not a big deal,” she reasoned, shifting the gear to Park. “It’s just a drumline party. Two people can’t be there, so there’s only going to be seven of us.”

“Oh. When is it?”

“Saturday night. I guess it’s supposed to be a halloween party,” Ellie told her, though it was more of question than a statement.

“Ah. Alright, let’s go unpack,” Bailey said, getting out of the car and grabbing her backpack.

“And do homework!” Ellie added, getting out of the car just as her sister was halfway up the driveway.

“Don’t remind me!” Bailey called back, punching the code into the keypad. Ellie laughed, rolling her eyes and walking up the driveway.