New Horizons

It was Monday morning, and Marcella found it too difficult to even open her eyes. The exhaustion from moving all week long and unpacking an entire house’s worth of belongings really took a toll on one’s body. She could already feel her anxiety was pretty high today, and that was not going to be very good for the first day of school. When she finally pried open her eyes, she immediately regretted it, the bright morning sun shining directly into her eyes. She figured she would need to buy some curtains, seeing as her bed was in the direct path of sunlight. She mustered enough willpower to toss the covers off of her and swing her legs out of bed. It seems today was going to be a rough day.

Stumbling into the en suite bathroom, Marcella slowly got ready for the day. She was glad she set her alarm thirty minutes earlier than her usual time, because her body needed the extra few minutes to wake up. Definitely a coffee morning, she thought, as she washed her face. Finishing up in the bathroom, she now had the difficult decision of what she should wear to school. She decided on a simple band shirt and a pair of slightly ripped jeans, along with her worn out Converse.

She sat on her bed, putting her hands on her knees and taking a deep breath, exhaling slowly. Her anxiety was running rampant the longer the morning went on. Her mind was racing about all the possibilities that could go wrong, everything she had to do before school even started, like whether or not she could eat breakfast, how she was getting to school seeing as she didn’t have a car, and even if her first period would allow her to have her coffee. Some teachers refuse to let students have anything other than water, and sometimes not even water. What if there was a mix up in the front office and she wasn’t even enrolled? Or nobody could take her to school and she would be late and all eyes would be on her? She could feel the butterflies in her stomach intensifying, and with whatever bit of logical thinking she had left, she gave up and took her anxiety medicine.

Marcella was not too keen on the idea of taking medicine. She prefers trying to figure everything out by herself, and only at the last possible second she’ll decide if she really needs the help from pharmaceuticals. Today was one of those days. She couldn’t be known as the new girl who had a freak panic attack on the first day of school. She just had to suck it up and get on with it.

“Marcey, Tonia! Are you two up? You’re going to be late for school!” Her mother called up the stairs from the kitchen. Marcella grumbled as she made her way down to make her coffee and grab a bite to eat. She needed to pack herself a lunch too, she didn’t want to risk bad cafeteria food and be starving for the day.

“Good morning! Are you ready for your first day of school? It’s going to be so exciting, you’re going to make so many friends, just you see.”

She looked at her mother. “Mom, it’s too early to function, I just need coffee and a waffle or three.” She continued over to the coffee maker and poured herself a giant cup of coffee to go. In her family, coffee was a must. She had been practically raised on it, seeing as her mother and her grandma had put it in her sippy cup at two years old. Anytime they all got together, they made a pot of coffee. Even when they would go out and about and shop, they always stopped at a coffee shop. It was a family tradition.

Her mom chuckled. “You always need coffee and waffles. Well, everything’s put away and clean, figure out where everything is. The high school is right down the street, so after today you will walk, unless you can convince Tonia to drive you. I’ll drive you today since it’s your first day.” She patted Marcella’s hip. That, too, was a family tradition. Every first day of school her mother had called in late to work and driven her and her sister to school to send them off. Now her sister was attending a community college so part of the tradition has faded away since she’d be driving herself.

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Huntington Beach High School. It was simple enough on the outside, but with the flood of students it was quite frightening. Friends being reunited after the long summer apart ran towards each other, yelling with excitement. The diversity of students grouped together was not like her old school, where everyone was similar in cliques. That was a refreshing change from Oklahoma.

Her mother drove away after sending her off with hugs and kisses, but left Marcella standing nervously in front of the school. The bell went off, signalling first period would be starting soon. She twisted her hands together as she went to find the front office. People were crowding through the hallways as she tried to figure out where to go. She saw a security guard and politely asked him, and he gave her directions.

She walked up to the receptionist. She was an older woman, with a kind face and smile. She seemed nice enough. “Hi, my name is Marcella Kraus?”

The receptionist turned around to the filing cabinet, muttering Marcella’s name while she rifled through the filing cabinet. “Oh yes, here you are sweetie. Do you have any questions about your schedule? We tried to put you in the band, but it was too late for auditions so we put you in a study hall instead. That will just be in the cafeteria down the hall for your first period.”

Marcella thanked her and walked down the hall to the cafeteria. Most of the students had already made it to class, with the exception of a few stragglers. She looked down at her schedule. She had all the basics- Calculus, English, Government, Biology. What she was most excited for was her last period of the day, Creative Writing. She loved writing, it helped her release her stress and anxiety.

After she checked in with the teacher in the cafeteria, she found a table in the corner and make herself comfortable. She was going to be here for the next hour, after all. She didn’t have much to do, so she pulled out her planned and began writing out her week and schedule. She completed that task, and she sat back in her seat and looked around the room.

There weren’t a lot of people in study hall, but most sat in groups. It looked like regular study hall, students chatting with their friends, a few writing things down. There was a guy in the opposite corner across the room. He looked oddly familiar. He had his head down, scribbling away on his notebook, but when he felt someone staring, he looked up. He and Marcella made eye contact. From across the room, she could see his vibrant green eyes. They were nothing like she had seen before. But before she could look any longer, he put his head back down and continued to write.

She was enthralled by him immediately. He was wearing a Misfits shirt with a leather jacket, and was in all black. When he had looked up, the metal in his lips had glinted in the light. His aesthetic was a classic rocker type, which seemed to be her type. Maybe she could go and talk to him. No, what are you thinking? I can’t go talk to someone like him, I’d freeze up immediately, she thought. She pulled out her book to try to distract herself.

A girl laughing loudly across the room broke her concentration. She looked over and saw two girls coming in the cafeteria, one of them with caramel skin and dark hair, and the other with paler skin and short curly brown hair, both of them looking very androgynous. They were giggling to each other, and looked to be quite good friends. When they saw Marcella, they spoke quietly to each other and sat at her table.

“Hi, my name is Kris! You look really lonely and I’ve never seen you before, are you new?” The girl with the curly brown hair said, smiling. She was wearing a Captain America shirt, and had her nose pierced. “This is Sonata,” she said, pointing to the dark haired girl, “she looks very intimidating but it’s just her face, I promise,” she whispered.

Marcella greeted both of them, thankful for someone to talk to. Although she had social anxiety, she really wanted at least a few friends, and it’s even better that they approached her first.

“Let me see your schedule,” Sonata said, her arm outstretched over the table. “Oh cool, it looks like we also have Government together for fourth period. And you have fifth period Biology with Kris,” she said, handing the schedule back to Marcella.

“Well that’s good! I’m happy I’ll have at least one person I’ll know in class now.”

They kept getting to know each other through the rest of study hall, since it was the first day of school and they didn’t have homework. The bell rang, and soon after the halls were filling up with students and commotion. Marcella said her goodbyes to Sonata and Kris, and made her way over to her Calculus class.

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By the time the end of the day had rolled around, she had already made four new friends. She met Sonata and Kris in her study hall period, and met a pair of nice twins named Val and Michelle. They were identical, except for Val having blonde hair and Michelle having brown hair. The green eyed boy was in her English class but he once again was across the room scribbling in his notebook. He had looked up at her a few times and every time she’d look away, blushing. At lunch, Kris and Sonata asked her if she wanted get food and go to the mall after school tomorrow, and she agreed.

Marcella walked the short distance home, and when she got home she immediately changed into some lounge pants and took off her bra. She couldn’t understand how people didn’t do this, it was so uncomfortable to be in jeans and a bra all day long, even when you’re in the comfort of your own home. She completed the majority of her homework, most of them being syllabus quizzes, or icebreaker papers. By the time she had finished, her mom had already come home and made dinner.

“So how did your first days go, girls?” Her mother asked, taking a bite of some rice. Her mother was an amazing cook, and tonight she had made fajitas with rice and beans.

Tonia swallowed her bite of fajita. “Mine went so well, I got to meet most of professors, and it was so fun. Did you know that we don’t have to ask to go to the bathroom in college?”

“Well that’s a cool perk. Marcey how did yours go?”

“I had a good day,” she took another bite of her fajitas, “I met four new friends. Oh, also, they asked me if I can go to the mall with them after school tomorrow. Is it okay if I go?” She shoved some of the beans in her mouth. She was starving and loved fajita nights.

“Oh, of course you can! I’m so happy you made some friends! Do you need a ride tomorrow? Maybe Tonia can take you.”

She shook her head, “no, it’s okay Mom, Sonata has a car so she’ll be driving us.” They continued to talk about their days and finished up eating.

By the time they had cleaned up dinner and watched some TV, Marcella was exhausted and ready for bed. She took her nightly shower and put some pajamas on. She wrote about the captivating green eyed boy in her journal, and updated it about yesterday’s as well, since she was too tired to do it last night. She also wrote about her excitement for tomorrow, and how happy she was that she made some new friends.

Notes

Hey everyone! I hope you like this chapter. I'm trying to make them a bit longer but I feel like it just drags on if I do that, so I'm sorry if you think this is a short update! I'll try to work on getting them longer, I promise!