I was dressed and downstairs by 06:55 a.m.
Mom was still in her robe, both hands around her coffee mug, and she literally blinked twice when she saw me standing at the kitchen counter in full uniform with my bag already on.
"You're ready."
"Couldn't sleep past six." I replied.
"Nervous?"
"Not even a little."
Smoothest lie I've ever told. She gave me a look that said she knew exactly what I was doing and chose not to fight it.
"Eat something before you go."
"Mom, my stomach is-"
"Mila don't challenge me."
"I will literally throw it back up. I'm not joking."
She slid a cereal bar across the counter without a word. I picked it and put it in my pocket. We both pretended that counted as breakfast.
The drive to Crestwood Academy took nine minutes. When it came into view through
the windshield I felt my stomach do something horrible.
It didn't look like a school.
It looked like a statement. All stone and iron gates and wide steps leading up to a main
entrance where the school crest was carved above the doors in letters built specifically to
remind you that you were small and this place was not.
The grounds stretched out on both sides further than I could see from the road. Students were already streaming in
through the gates in groups - laughing, shoving each other, moving like they owned
every inch of the pavement.
Most of them in the same black and gold uniform I was wearing, except somehow theirs looked like it fit better.
Mom reached over and squeezed my hand once. "Call me if you need anything. Anything at all okay baby?"
"Don't worry mom, I'll be fine." I said.
"I know you will." She smiled. "Now go before I change my mind and homeschool you for the rest of your life."
"Have a great day at school today" she shouted lastly.
I nodded and I got out. I did not look back.
Because if I looked back I was getting back in that car.
I found the admin office on my second attempt. The first corridor I tried took me all the way to the science block.
The woman at the front desk had my timetable ready before I even finished saying my full name - Mila Hendricks which told me she'd been expecting me, which somehow made it worse.
"You're in 12C," she said, sliding the paper across. "First period is Literature. Main
block, second floor, room 214.
Map's on the back."
The map was the size of a Post-it note.
It was completely useless. I smiled, said thank you, and left before she could see that I had no idea where I was going.
I was four minutes late to Literature.
I knocked once, walked in, and felt twenty-something pairs of eyes turn toward me all at
once. That feeling - being looked at by a room full of strangers. It never gets easier no
matter how many times you've been the new girl. And I had been the new girl three
times before this.
The teacher was an older woman with reading glasses and ink stains on two of her
fingers. She looked from the board at set her gaze at me.
"Are you the new student?" She asked.
"Yes. Mila Hendricks." I replied.
"You're welcome Mila. Find an open seat and open to page 180."
Two empty desks. One near the front - too exposed. One near the window in the middle
row, next to a girl who was already watching me with sharp, careful eyes. Not mean. Just
clocking me.
I went for the middle one.
She moved her bag off the desk before I had to ask. That one small thing made me like
her immediately.
"I'm Tessa," she said.
"I'm Mila." I finally breathed out.
"I know, she just announced you." The corner of her mouth pulled up slightly. "You can share my book if you don't have it."
"Thanks, but I have it." I pulled it from my bag and opened straight to the right page. I'd looked up the curriculum the week before and ordered the books online.
Old habit from every other school I'd ever started at. Never walk in unprepared.
I started making notes before the teacher even picked up where she'd left off.
I could feel Tessa watching me from the side. Not in a creepy way. In the way you study
someone new when you're trying to figure out where they fit.
At the end of class she turned to face me properly.
"Where are you from?" She asked.
"Southvale." I told her.
"Mm, never heard of it."
"Most people haven't. I don't think it's popular" I replied.
"Right. What do you have next?"
"History. Room 309."
"Same." She picked up her bag. "Come on, I'll walk you. Otherwise you'll end up in the science block again.
"I stared at her. "How do you know I ended up in the science block?" I confusingly asked.
She was already heading for the door. She turned and said "Everyone does on their first day. The map is a joke and they know it. Come on."
I grabbed my bag and followed her.
First rule of a new school; when someone offers to help you and they don't seem like they want anything back, you take it.
I'd learned that one the hard way.