7922 Miles From Home

Chapter 1: Day One Sucks.

A beautiful Skyline is stretched out before me. I stare through the window, someone holding my hand. It feels so warm and familiar, yet so unknown. I love this feeling, but something about it gives me a sense of foreboding I've never felt before. I turn to look next to me, only to see nothing but an empty seat. I stand up. Turbulence hits the wings, and I stumble over the seat beside me, only to be.. caught? It feels that way. I get back up, and the plane seems completely empty to me. I can hear the general chatter of the plane-goers, but I see nothing but barren Isles before me.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

What in the...

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Hrrrgggnh.." I groan as I slam my hand on the noise, only to remember that I use my phone for alarms.

"God Damn it!" I whisper-yell, trying not to wake anyone up. What's the time anyway? Should I really be worried about other people waking up? I sigh as I check my phone for any potential damage. If nothing else, I'm awake now.

"7:00am, huh..." Why did I set my alarm this early again? It's not like I...

I could feel my eyes widen with realization.

"It's today isn't it." I say out loud with some profound mixture of horror and excitement.

I've had mixed feelings about this day for the entirety of the Christmas Break. My very first Day of High School.

I glare at my new uniform, which I Oh-So-Elegantly hung up on my door handle.

It had to come someday, I suppose.

"Shu!" My ears ring as I hear my name being screamed throughout the house. I swear, she can be the worst in the mornings.

"Yes Mom?" I yell back, equally as loudly.

"Don't Forget it's your first day at your new school today! We have to leave extra early to make sure you get there on time!"

Oh, great. It really is true. i don't know what hurt more, the fact that I'm really going today or the fact that I, for some reason, still had hope that I was wrong and that today was still the holidays.

"Shu!" She yells at me, expecting a response.

"I Know!" I could feel my voice trail off there. Yikes, I need to get it together.

As fast as humanly possible for me, I throw on my Shirt, Tie, and skirt. It sucks that I have to wear the tie, it still feels weird. hopefully sometimes I can go without it. Either that, or I somehow get used to it hanging off of the front of my shirt. After a solid 5 minutes of debating, I decide to go with Knee socks instead of tights. It's not going to be anywhere near that cold, so I would just be doing myself more bad than good by wearing those things. I giggle to myself. If there's one thing I won't miss about primary school, it's the ridiculous restrictions they put in place when it comes to hairstyle. I had to have my hair up 24/7 because it reached my shoulders when it was undone. I can actually wear that black wave down instead of worrying about school rules. I don't have to actually worry about tying it up. However, being such a prestigious school makes it so that no one can dye their hair any crazy colors. Although, I doubt they'll actually keep that in place.

"Haaa..." I sigh out in relief. I just barely made it in time before I have to leave to head off. Looks like no breakfast for me today.

-----------------------------------------

My mom closes the car door and sits down with some sort of pained sigh, and a smile that I can only read as... proud but tired. I hope I'm right and that she's not actually disappointed.

"Why'd you go and have to choose a school so far away, Shu?" She asks.

"I thought that was obvious. The Spanish Program is really good, and there's an overseas tour. Besides, the school is prestigious when it comes to looking good on my resume." I can't help but feel the edges of my mouth curling upwards.

"The drive is 30 minutes from our house to there without traffic, you know." She says. At this point, I already know she's making a joke. A tiny hint of sarcasm was hidden in her voice, but we both knew how far the school was.

I rest my chin in my palm and smile at her with the most smug grin I can conjure up. "Says the one who insisted on making it into a good school 3 months ago~."

"Quiet you."

How like her, any time I get some sort of point, I just get shot down. My grin disappears, leaving me with my neutral face. Well, as neutral as I can make it given the circumstances. I can't believe my situation. I managed to get into not only one of the most prestigious schools in the area, but I also made it into one of the "Enrichment" classes. The Fabled Spanish Immersion, a place where the Spanish language seems to infect our normal classes under the guise of making us fluent by year 10. But to me, that's not what's important. The main reason for most of the people joining is the opportunity to go overseas to Spain on a school trip, if you can even call it that. It's essentially a holiday that you can get just by knowing the language and paying attention in class.

-----------------------------------------

"Alright, we're here. Have a nice day at school!" Mom says with enthusiasm. I can't tell whether if it's because I'm finally starting my new high school life, or if she's just happy to be rid of me for 6 hours.

"Right." I say as I get out of the car. She begins to drive off.

"See you toni-"

Thud.

Ouch.

"Oh, sorry. I wasn't paying attention." An unfamiliar voice. I open my eyes from the bump. It's a guy, about a head taller than me. He has dark brown hair and fair skin, and his eyes are a light shade of blue with a hint of green near the center. What a strange color..

"Oh, uh, it's alright." I begin to brush off my skirt. I don't know why, it wasn't dirty. Maybe I've been watching too many drama shows...

"By the way, is there a chance you know where class F3 is? Sorry, it's my first day here." He says, placing his hand on the back of his head.

"Class F3...?" I inquire. I think I've heard that before... I check my timetable.

"Session 1, Tutor. Room F3."

Lucky me, first impression I've made on a classmate is that I'm clumsy. What a great start. I should try to salvage this as much as I can..

"What coincidence, I'm in that room too. I could show you the way if you like." I say. I could feel my voice shake a little. I'm not as good with new people as I'd hoped.

"Oh, cool. Lead the way." His lips curl up into what seems like a genuine smile. He seems easily impressed. I wonder if I could get him to be a friend of mine.

"Let's go then, we don't have much time." I say, beginning to walk away. He speed-walks to catch up to me. Wait, was that even speed-walking? His legs are much longer than mine... I've never felt so cursed.

"So..." I begin to play with my hair. It always calms me down when I'm talking to strangers, for whatever strange reason. "What's your name?"

"Oh, my name's Shen." He says. My lips begin to move without my consent.

"Shen? Isn't that a Chinese name? You're skins a bit fair to be Chinese."

I feel like I shouldn't have said that. He must think I'm a bit raci-

"Hahaha, I know. I don't know what my parents were really thinking when they named me." He says, scratching his head.

He... he laughed. Oh, thank god.

"Haaa..." I sigh from relief. I need to keep myself in check, otherwise something like this will happen again and things won't turn out well at all.

"Everything alright there?" He asks me. I guess sighing after telling what he thinks to be a joke seems a bit suspect.

"I'm fine, just nervous about the first day of High School." It was the best excuse I could really think of. After all, who doesn't get nervous after going to a new school, right?

"Personally, I'm actually really excited." He begins. "I can't wait to see what this school has in stock for us."

"You're sure coping with these circumstances just fine."

He shrugs. "Well, It's just how I feel."

How he feels, huh? I'll have to hold him up on that, see how he fares by the end of the day.

"Anyway, this is our building." I say, pointing at the tall read building in front of us. "F3 should be inside of there."

"Ah, cool." He seems to acknowledge what I'm saying, at least. Being polite? How is he doing it so easily? I feel like a nervous wreck just talking to anyone I don't know, let alone holding a full conversation with them.

"F1... F2... F3." Shen Mumbles to himself.

"Well, this should be it. Mind opening the door?" I ask. He just seems to be standing there, looking through the glass on the door.

"Uh.. We're late." he says.

"Oh, just open it."

"Fine, Fine."

Shen opens the door and enters the room...

Only to be immediately tackled into what I can only call a "Bro-Hug".

Luckily, the teacher looks either too busy to notice, or is ignoring them. Honestly, I'd probably do the same if I were in his situation.

"Shen My man!! It's so good to see you!" A blonde, even taller than Shen seems to be strangling him. So he really wasn't lying about his name. Wait, why would he? I already told him we were in the same class at that point.. I really need to get it together. The blonde turns his gaze to me and begins speaking, quite loudly.

"Wow, Shen. It's not even first session and you're already talking to girls. Really trying to start your high-school life off strong, eh?" The blonde says, without a single drop of empathy in his tone.

"Kade, I swear to god-" Shen says, with a clear struggle. So the blonde's name is Kade. He looks awfully lanky, but to be able to put Shen into a hold that seems to make him struggle to get out, I doubt he's as skinny as he looks.

"I'm not that sad, you know." Shen says, defending himself.

"Well, it's been ages, how have you been?" Kade begins asking a long series of questions, rapid-fire style. He begins walking away into what seems to be a group of old school friends. Great, the only potential friend I could've made was stolen from me in a tall, blonde flash.

I sit down in an empty seat near the back. Did I even tell Shen my name? He already seems to have so many good friends here, is he going to make any more? Am I going to be alone because I don;t have anyone I know here? Is that how High School is?

I sigh and rest my chin in my hands. If this morning is a good representation of what's to come, I'm scared of what happens beyond this point.

"So you know Shen, Huh?" The girl next to me pipes up. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, just like Kade. If you looked at them from far away, you'd think they'd be siblings, but their faces are too different. Jeez, just how many people know this guy? Was he popular in Primary School or something?

"I met him this morning..." I reply back, unable to hide the tiredness in my voice.

The girl next to me giggles. "He's a bit of a goof, isn't he?" She says that like I know anything about him. He does seem a little aloof, but he hasn't done anything that would make me think he's stupid. Besides, he's got to be good at something if he got into a school like this, in the same program as me.

"My name's Chell, by the way. What might yours be?" She asks, politely.

"My name's Shu." I say, more quietly than I would've liked.

"Shu? That's a pretty name. I hope we can become friends." Chell says. I can't help but feel a little patronized at that little compliment. I'm not 5.

"Uh.. T-thank you." Crap, I actually stuttered. That sounded awful to my ears.

I sigh deeper than I think I ever have before.

This school is gonna be interesting, to say the least.

-----------------------------------------

The bell for the first session is finally going. It felt like an eternity just kinda.. sitting here. We found out our teachers name is "Mr. Abados". He's on the shorter side, and definitely of Latin descent. Black hair, brown-ish skin. Apparently we have him for quite a few of our year 7 classes.

"Okay 7-B, time for our first session of the year. There will not be any assembly this session, so let us get down to business," He begins. "Because I'm sure even though it looks like most of you are acquainted, we should still introduce ourselves to the ones we don't know."

His accent was thick, but it seemed like he knew English fluently, at least.

Mr Abados stands up.

"Everyone, find someone who hasn't gone to the same primary school as you." His words kind of ring throughout the class. I wonder if I could pretend that I haven't met Sh-

The moment I turn to Shen, he's already talking to someone else. Unlucky me.

Chell turns to me and rests her hand on her cheek.

"So, what's your story? Any reason you came here?" She says, not a drop of nervousness in her voice. Either she's a social person by nature, or she's really, really good at hiding it. Either way, she's much better at this sort of thing than I am.