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“Now, since the school year started a while ago, you’ll land smackdab in the middle of some lessons. If you have trouble with any of it, come to me and I’ll make some arrangements for you.”
“Like, get me a tutor?”
He chuckled softly at that. “That’s not what I had in mind, but if you prefer a tutor, then sure.” Principal Huckleberry was going to say more, but right then a soft knock on his open door alerted us to someone else’s presence. He immediately stood up and said, “Ah, wonderful.” He walked around his desk, toward the newcomer, and I turned my head to see who it was.
A girl with flaming red hair, a whole bunch of freckles, and an awkward aura about her as big as the state of Ohio. Her feet were pointed inward a little as she stood there, but when she saw me looking at her, she smiled.
“This,” Principal Huckleberry spoke, setting his arm around the girl’s shoulder, “is Miss Erin Watts. You’re in all of her classes, so she’ll show you the ropes here at Eastcreek High. Erin, this is Brianna Montgomery.”
Already forgetting that I was a Dent, not a Montgomery, but I didn’t go to correct him. Instead, I stood up and said, “Hi.”
The principal beamed. He let go of Erin and walked between us to get to his desk, where a piece of paper sat. Well, lots of papers, I should say, but he just grabbed the one on top. “Here’s your schedule,” he told me, finger running down the list of classes, their times posted to their left. “And your locker number and combination.” His finger went to the top right of the paper, and then he handed it to me. “Erin will show you what hall it’s in. If you need anything, and I mean anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”
I should correct him and make sure he knew I was a Dent and not a Montgomery, but I had the feeling nothing I said would sink in. To him, I would always be a Montgomery, thanks to the renown of the man my mom had married.
Holding onto the paper, I followed Erin out of the office. We walked around the secretary’s desk, and soon enough, we were out in the hall. “Can I see that?” she asked, her hand reaching for the paper.
I gave it to her.
“Ah, you’re lucky. You got a locker in the new hall.” She gave me a smile and handed it back to me, and then she started walking. “The first warning bell rings at seven-twenty. The second at seven-thirty. By seven-thirty-five, you need to be in your seat in homeroom, which is just your first class. It’s a little longer than the others because they take attendance and then there’s the morning announcements.”
So far, it sounded like my old school—besides being an hour earlier each morning—although, I did suspect that nothing in this school was upgraded or new. The classrooms still had chalkboards, I bet. My old school got rid of those things before I’d even started.
We turned down another hall. Students walked wherever they wanted, some with their bags, some with nothing in their hands. Eyes were on us as we walked by… or on me, more likely.
“It’s not every day we get a new student in the middle of the year in Eastcreek,” Erin was busy saying. “Plus, everyone knows you’re a Montgomery, so—”
“I’m not.”
That got Erin to stop, turn, and look at me with a strange expression on her face. “It’s not bad, being a Montgomery. It just means everyone will either try to be your friend or date you or use you to get to your stepdad.” She adjusted the bag on her back. “It won’t be so bad, as long as you’re ready for all that.”
“And what about you?” I asked, resuming the pace, just to get us going again.
“Ah, now that you mention it, my plan is to get in good with you so that, one day, you’ll invite me over to your house to study or something, and I’ll catch some more of Gareth—” She stopped talking, turning her face away as she blushed. “Sorry, that was a joke.”
My eyebrows furrowed. I didn’t think it was.
She must’ve sensed my suspicion, for she quickly added, “It was. I just… I’ve had a teeny crush on him since third grade. What’s it like, living with him? Is he just as quiet and broody at home as he is at school?” When I didn’t answer her right away, she said, “You don’t have to say. I’m just curious.”
Why on earth someone like Erin—someone who seemed genuinely nice and kind—had a crush on Gareth, I’d never know. Gareth was… let’s just say there were a lot of words I could use to describe him, and none of them were particularly kind ones.
We turned down another hall, and it was like stepping foot into a whole different school. The walls weren’t old brick; they were cinderblocks that had been painted white. The lockers were a little wider and newer. The hall itself didn’t have that old smell, either, which was a refreshing change.
“Here it is,” Erin said, stopping us in front of my locker. “I still have to stop at mine. If you want to come with me, I can walk you to homeroom.” I could tell she wanted me to say yes, for me to ask for her help.
“Sure,” I said, giving her a smile. As I tried the locker combination on the lock, I asked, “Why does this part of the school look like this, and the rest of it looks so grimy?”
“This is the science wing. Part of it exploded fifteen years ago—” When I threw her an incredulous look, she grinned. “No students were hurt. It wasn’t during the day. It was at night. Someone broke in to vandalize it and I guess they mixed up things that shouldn’t be mixed up. When the fire caught the rest of the chemicals… boom.”
My mouth might’ve fallen open at that. That was… not something I would’ve heard at my old school. There was nowhere without cameras back there, so no one in their right mind would try to bust into the science labs to vandalize them.
“That’s crazy,” I said, shoving my bag in my locker. I had some brand-new notebooks, along with a small pencil pouch. At my old school, you weren’t allowed to bring big bags to class, in case you were hiding guns or knives or other things in them. Which was stupid, now that I was thinking about it, because you had to go through a metal detector every morning.
Here? There was nothing. Someone could waltz in and shoot the place up and by the time everyone knew it was happening, it’d be too late.
Not something I should be thinking about, but the thought was always there.
I shut my locker and turned toward Erin, who still watched me like she was trying to figure me out. Maybe she’d had some assumptions of me prior to meeting me; maybe she thought I’d be more like Gareth, more bitchy or something.
