Chapter 3

"Can I put my clothes in your locker?" I asked Riley.

"Sure." She took my clothes and threw them in her locker.

"EVERYONE PLEASE REPORT TO THE GYM!" A teacher screamed.

All the girls rushed out of the locker room and into the gym. Everyone walked out and sat down on the floor.

"Riley, do you mind helping Miss Moreno out these couple of days?"

"Sure." She walked next to me and sat down.

Then the door opened from the other side of the gym. All the boys started coming out of the room. I saw Wes walking up to me but he sat down across from me. "Okay class we are going to run a mile along with Mr. Hampton's class." Then everyone started to moan. "Everyone outside." He said.

"Wow you're really lucky. For your first day you're already running a mile." Riley kind of chuckled.

I smiled. "Do you have to run the four laps?" I asked.

"Yup, but I suck at running. Are you good?"

"I used to have track in middle school."

"Then you are good. But you know who's really good?" I shrugged my shoulders. "Wes." I looked at her, "Wes?"

"Yeah he's really good because he has track. Here I'll show you who he is. No one really talks to him though."

We arrived at the track and stood behind the starting line.

"Let's do some stretches." Mr. Travin said, "stretch toward your right leg. Now your right leg. Roll your head and twist. Are you ready? Set. Go." Everyone started to jog.

"You see the boy that's in the black shirt in between the group of girls?"

"Yeah."

"That's Wes." He looked cute running a mile. "How come nobody talks to him?"

" I don't really know but something happened or something like that." She started to breath harder,"I can't do it anymore."

"C'mon you haven't even ran half a mile."

"I told you I'm not good. You go without me."

"Alright." I continued jogging trying to look for Wes. I passed a whole bunch of people. A group of girls walking as slow as they can. A couple of boys whispering, "who's the girl?" "Is she new?" "She can run..." I ignored the comments and kept looking for Wes. I finally caught up with him when he was half way in his second lap.

"Hey." I kept on track with him.

"Hey. You're the new girl from this morning, right?" He whispered.

"Yeah. I noticed that you're really good at track."

" Thanks," he turned around. His eyes were shining from the bright sun making his eyes even bluer than usual.

" I used to have track in middle school."

"Thats why you kept up with me. No ones ever kept up."

I smiled still looking at his eyes, "Wow you have really nice eyes. Sorry to be off topic but-" "It's okay. I get that a lot and thanks."

" Are you wearing contacts?"

"No. They're my natural color." I noticed that we were almost done with the mile. All we needed was a half a lap.

"I-I-I...can I ask you a question?" I was hesitant that he would say no and push me away.

He took a moment to answer, "Sure. What is it about?"

"Ril-somebody told me that no one talks to you a lot. Did something happen?" He lowered his face. He started to open his mouth but then the teachers called us to go in and dress out. I never got an answer from him.

I got dressed and ready for lunch. "Do you want to sit with me at lunch?"

"Yeah." I grabbed my binder and bag then headed to lunch.

On the way to the cafeteria I lost Riley in between the crowd and I couldn't find her, so I got in line for lunch. The lunch menu was Mac and cheese with a side of mini corndogs, pizza, or a chicken patty. I got my tray of Mac and cheese, a piece of brownie, and orange juice.

When I got to the register, to pay for my extra food, I dug through my bag trying to find my wallet. I had almost gotten my wallet out, but a push on my side let me drop it and other stuff from my bag. I looked who was walking in front of me, a girl with dark strawberry hair. She was wearing tight dark jeans with a white tube top. She was chuckling as she saw how my things fell out of my bag. There were two other girls behind her, chuckling as well. She was looking at me with an evil smile, "Sorry," she said harshly, "you took so long!"

I started to pick up my things off the floor before anyone stepped on them, when I saw a hand pick up my lip gloss. I stopped to look up from the floor.

"I think this belongs to you," he said.

I grabbed it from his hand, "Thanks."

"I'm Lucas." He extended his hand to me.

"Hi, I'm Jaden." I shook his hand. He was from the note.

"Here let me pay," he offered.

"No, no, no. That's okay. I have my own money, thank you." But he didn't listen to me. He took out a five dollar bill out of his back pocket and handed it to the lunch lady. I took my tray and slowly tried to find Riley.

"I guess I'll see you around." he said. I nodded.

I saw Riley sitting at a table next to a group of boys. "Hey!" She said.

"where were you?" I asked.

"I was walking to the cafeteria like you but then I saw you weren't behind me." She took a bite from her cheeseburger. "What happened to you? What took you so long?" she said with her mouth full of meat and then licking her fingers.

I took a spoonful of the Mac and cheese, before I explained, "I was going to pay for my brownie and orange juice, but then I was trying to find my money a dark strawberry haired girl bumped into me making my stuff from my bag fall out." I paused for a second, "then Lucas came and helped me pick up my stuff. And then he paid for my lunch.

Her eyes looked like they were coming out of her head and she almost dropped her burger out her hands. She put her burger down, "He paid for your lunch!?" she said almost screaming to everybody in the cafeteria.

"Yeah, but I told him not to."

We heard someone scream out, "I hate you..."

"How could you?"

"She loves me not you..." I searched the cafeteria and saw Lucas standing in front of two guys fighting over a girl.

"I can't believe you..." Lucas was trying to separate them but he couldn't by himself. Three other guys showed up and separated them.

Someone seemed to have called the principal because Mr. Murrow screamed out, "CUT IT OUT OR YOU BOTH ARE SUSPENDED!!!"

Everyone stopped talking including the ones that were fighting. "You two," he said pointing to the guys, "come here you both have detention." He took both boys out of the cafeteria and everyone returned talking as usual.

"Does this happen often?" I asked Riley.

"Not really." She said still taking a bite of her burger.

In science class....

I handed my schedule to Ms. Hansen. "Ahhh...welcome!" I smiled. "Your name?" "Uhh...Jaden Moreno."

"Well, Jaden I hope you have an amazing year at Arroyo. Please take a seat with Wes." she pointed towards a table in the center of the room. "Wes," he looked up, "please make sure to make Jaden feel welcomed." He nodded his head.

I got to the table and dropped my things.

"Hey." he said looking at his textbook.

"Hey." I responded.

"So we have the same science class?"

"Yup."

"Okay class lets turn to page 134. Start reading and then work on the chapter review at the end." Everyone started to open their textbook and flipped through pages. "Jaden, I'll hand you your textbook." Ms. Hansen said.

"Miss?" Wes raised his hand.

"Yes, Wes?"

"Can I talk to you?"

"Yes, let me just take attendance." she looked at her computer screen and then music played. Isn't she cool?

Wes walked up to Ms. Hansen and he started to whisper. "Oh yeah. I completely forgot!" she said out loud. Wes continued telling her something. Ms. Hansen whispered this time.

Wes came back next to me. He closed his textbook, took out his phone, and put on his headphones. I just looked at him. How is he allowed to do that? I wanted to ask him what it was about, but I didn't have the courage to ask him.

I continued with my work. Something was up. Something was wrong with Wes.

Next class as math. They were in the middle of solving radicals.

My last class of the day was art. I really liked drawing figures, because it helps me express my feelings. Wes was also in my art class. He had an excuse to not really talk to me since he barely knows me.

After school, I walked home trying to not get lost. It was easier when I noticed that there was a moving truck in the driveway.

I looked in front of the house. I looked at it in front of me. A big mover truck in the drive way.

I made a permanent picture in my head, my new home. I walked in and looked at the hundreds of boxes in my new living room. Boxes and boxes and boxes everywhere, in the kitchen, the living room everywhere! We barely had any room for us to pass through. The house was a pleasant place to live in. It had three bedrooms (as usual), bathrooms, a kitchen, and all that stuff. Unlike our other home we had in Florida this house had 2 stories. My sister and I have always wanted a house with stairs and of course our bedrooms on the second floor.

My mom didn't notice me until I almost tripped on a box, "Hello, Honey how was your first day of school?"

"Hola Mom it was actually great. I met a girl named Riley." "That's nice."

"Yup." I said grabbing a piece of cheese off of my mom's cooking board, "I'm going to be upstairs. Tell me when dinners ready, okay?"

"Okay." I heard her say while I was walking up.

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Jaden had a great first day....Hope you liked it!