From Eden.

It doesn't seem so odd that when you meet someone undeniably gorgeous that you can’t stop thinking about that person for the entire night. Or the days to come after. I could not get the thought of Zachary Baker out of my head. Even in my dreams, he was there, but it’s not like I minded; I welcomed such dreams of the gorgeous boy. School would be starting soon and despite the ball of dread in the pit of my stomach, I hadn’t slept more than two winks. Every five seconds I would yawn and roll over in my bed, trying to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in, but my eyes were glued wide awake. The anxiety surrounding my first day at Huntington Beach High was enough to make me feel physically sick.

Staring at my room in the darkness, I could see the silhouette of boxes stacked upon each other. It amazed me that Jacob and Christina had given me this room and not kept it for themselves. My mattress was placed in the middle of my room, right under my ceiling fan. The exhaustion from sleep deprivation made me think of how big my fan was and if it were to fall, it would rip me to shreds. I shivered at the thought and pulled my blankets up to my chin, as if it would help.

The hours slowly crept before me and past me in an almost unbelieving way. The night dragged on and I was thankful to see the sun beginning to rise. I knew today would be a long day of introducing myself, probably getting lost at least once and I would most likely end up embarrassing and making a fool of myself. I dreaded the thought of being bombarded by hundreds of kids that knew where they were going, while I would be wandering around, taking my time, trying not to break down and cry. For a moment, my eyelids began to droop and I couldn’t fight it. Sleep was blissful, for how little it was.

----

“Delilah! Wake up!” Christina’s shrill voice rang into my eardrums. I sat up, feeling sluggish from what little bit of sleep I had gotten.

“What time it is?” I asked, the voice coming out of my mouth sounding thick, like I had cotton balls shoved in my mouth. I had drooled sometime and it felt like every strand of hair on my head was stuck to the side of my face.

“It’s after eight!” Christina exclaimed, standing in my doorway.

Before she had even shut the door, I was out of my bed. My feet felt foreign to me as I stumbled across the floor to my dresser. I striped out of my pajamas, grabbing the first thing I could get my hands on; a pair of capris and a black tank-top. I grabbed my bra from the top of my dresser and a green hoodie when I saw the sleeve sticking out of the box beside it.. It seemed like it took me forever to get dressed; I could hear Christina downstairs making a racket about how I overslept.

I grabbed my brush off my nightstand and ran it through my hair. I flung it, hoping it would land on my bed and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I grabbed the pair of socks I had worn yesterday and shoved them on my feet as fast as I could. Grabbing my sneakers in one hand, my bookbag in the other, I took the stairs two at a time and landed in the living room. Looking at the clock, it was only eight-twenty.

“Where’s Laura and Henry?” I asked, slipping on my sneakers and bending down to tie them.

“Jacob’s already taken them, the school here starts earlier than yours.” Christina explained as she grabbed her purse and ushered me out of the door. We climbed into the car as my stomach began to rumble, Christina shot me an exasperated look and ignored it as she started the ignition and we pulled out of our driveway.

“Do you think you can find your way to the counselor’s office?” Christina asked as she pulled up in front of what looked like a two story prison. My palms began to sweat as that ball of anxiety in the pit of my stomach got bigger, but that

“Yeah,” I muttered, unbuckling my seatbelt and grabbing my bookbag, “I’m sure I’ll find it somehow.”
Climbing out of the car, I turned and waved at Christina as she drove off. School had already started, and I suddenly had the urge to go hurl my guts in the nearest trashcan. The school looked huge from the outside - I could only imagine how the inside looked - and a sign above the entrance said “HUNTINGTON BEACH HIGH SCHOOL. HOME OF THE OILERS”

Walking into the school, my chest felt tight. I didn’t want to be here, doing this today. I was thankful classes had already started; it spared me the odd looks I would get. The whispers in the hallway of “Did you see that new girl?” and people trying to be helpful.

“Guidance office Delilah, guidance office.” I murmured to myself, scanning the corridor until I saw a sign posted outside of a door that read GUIDANCE OFFICE.

Walking to the door, it seemed like every move I was making made ten times the noise it usually did. My heartbeat was pounding in my ears and I felt like at any moment, last night’s dinner would come creeping back up. I opened the door and walked in. A woman sat at a desk, the top of it littered with pamphlets and brochures. A gold plated name-tag sat right in front of her, reading Mrs. White.

“Uh, hi,” I squeaked out in a voice that wasn’t my own.

The lady behind the desk - Mrs. White - was a woman possibly in her late thirties, her platinum blonde hair was in a poofy curl fashion and was cut short against her small and fragile scalp. She had a hooked nose that looked like it had been broken one too many times and her blue eyes were sharp and all-knowing.

“Can I help you?” She asked, peering up over her papers.

“I, uh, I’m a new student. D-Delilah Baybrook.” I struggled to get the words out. It felt like my tongue had grown two sizes too big for my mouth.

Mrs. White stood up and began to rummage around the papers on her desk, muttering “Baybrook, Baybrook, Baybrook.” She snapped her fingers as she produced three sheets of paper.

“The first one is your schedule, the second is the school calendar and the third is our attendance policy. Since you’re new, I guess I’ll give you the rundown,” she began, “We don’t take in until 8:30 on Mondays, but every other day of the week, we begin at seven. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you’ll take the odd number classes and on Wednesdays and Fridays, you take the even number classes, and on Monday, you pretty much get to choose what class you go to.”

I nodded and looked down at my schedule, I had barely gotten past my Homeroom teacher’s name when her phone rang.

“Yes?” She answered, the person on the line said something to her and she looked right at me
“Yes I do have her right here, I’ll bring her straight back. Uh huh, no problem.” She hung up the receiver and walked around her desk, “please, follow me.” she said, turning and walking down a hallway. I followed behind her, looking through the windows of the doors that we passed, most of them were offices.

“In here.” Mr. White said, leaving the door open for me as she walked past it.

I followed behind her, and walked right into what looked like a living room that one door cornered each wall. There was a couch, and a desk standing in front of the furniture. There was a guy already sitting on the couch, staring at his hands, as he waited for his name to be called.

“Go ahead and sit down, I’ll tell Ms. Jones you’re here.” She said kindly, turning around and shutting the door behind her.

I did as she said, and sat down on the left end of the couch, farthest away from the guy. I waited just like him, only I was looking over my schedule and hoping that I wouldn’t get lost.

“Hey.” A deep voice said quietly.

I looked up to see the guy looking back at me. “Hi.” I said quietly, giving him a shy smile.
The guy smiled slightly, and looked back down at his hands, picking at a hangnail he’d found.

“Delilah Baybrook?” an unfamiliar voice called.

I looked up, and saw a woman holding a door open that came into the room I was sitting in. Her dark brown hair came down to her shoulders, and had obviously been teased a bit on top, but her hair was so thin it didn’t do much. She was a bit bigger than the other woman, with her round, pudgy fingers and palm holding the door open. “That’s me.” I said, waiting for her to say something about me having to stand up.

“Follow me, please,” she smiled at me and turned around, walking away from the door. I waved to the guy sitting on the couch but he was so interested in his fingernails, he didn’t see it. I followed the woman back down the hallway Mrs. White had led me down but we stopped at an office on the left. She opened the door and gestured for me to go in first.

“Go ahead and sit, don’t be a stranger.” The woman said after she walked in behind me. She closed her door and walked past me to her desk, sitting down on her chair, looking at me as I sat down on the chair in front of her. “You already have your schedule, correct?” she asked. I nodded, tapping the first paper Mrs. White had given me

“Well, Huntington is pretty big, compared to your old school in Minnesota. Here at Huntington, we have a buddy program where if we get a new student, other students can sign up and help show them around on their first day,” she explained, “and thankfully, we have one student who has the same zero and first period as you and the same lunch. She’ll show you where your locker is, where your study hall, that kind of thing.”

I nodded intently, taking all of it in. My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest, but at least my palms weren’t drenched in sweat anymore.

The woman gave me a smile, “Alright, I'll get her.” She said, picking up a phone and dialing a number. She paused for a minute, and then began to talk. “Yes, Mr. Renfrew? This is Carrie. Do you have Gena Paulhus in your class right now?” she paused. “Do you think you could send her to my office please? I have a new student I would like to have her show around.” She paused, and then smiled. “Alright, thank you so much.” She hung up, and then looked at me. “She'll be here in a few minutes, you can just wait here. Good luck.” She said, rolling back in her chair to look at her computer, leaving me to think.

I was really hoping that I wouldn’t screw this up.

Notes

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