"Caldwin Fletcher. You're late." Ms. Jensen reprimandes the new kid for his lack of punctuality.

He drops himself down into the empty chair right across from me. I try not to stare, but I can't help myself. Every feature of him from his perfectly cut jaw to his untidy black hair or his strong build, exerts dominance over everyone else in the room. As if his perfectness made him somewhat of a threat.

I continue to stare and eventually, he becomes aware of it. The corner of his lips turns upwards, mocking me for my curiosity in him. I quickly snap my head back to face Ms. Jensen and her presentation. I'd rather be indulging myself in learning the quickest route to the bathrooms than pining over someone I literally met two seconds ago.

"...and with the high demand of...I can see an extremely high number of glazed eyes among you all and I promise I am almost finished." Ms. Jensen tries to reassure us, but everyone else in the classroom just groans.

She proceeds to speak of how people are supposed to respect each other, both their peers and their teachers, and then wraps it up with a long good luck. "Any questions?" Her eyes scan the room, but no one answers. "Okay then, off you go to lunch! Once you finish please head to the basketball court. It's right next to the cafeteria!"

Everyone briskly rises from their seats and runs to the door, desperately wanting to get out of the small room which seems to grow smaller every passing hour. I make my way through the halls and into the cafeteria.

Holy macaroni and cheese. I've been at this school since freshman year, and never once has there been this many students nor this loud. It's like I'm at 'Times Square' during New Year's Eve and there's a swarm of abnormally happy people screaming "3...2...1...Happy New Year!"

I grab a tray and pick out my food: chicken fingers with fries and ketchup. Simple yet delicious. Then, once I reach the end of the serving queue, I grab a brownie from the dessert options and attempt to head to an empty table. Unfortunately, it seems that is impossible, for every table has been pretty much filled so I end up standing in the middle of the cafeteria looking like a fool.

"You do like to observe, don't you?" A voice says from behind me, startling me enough to make me drop my tray on the ground.

"Jeez." I bend down and pick up my food. "You might as well have-" When I turn around and face them, I see the boy from earlier. The new boy. Caldwin.

"Might as well have what?" He grins at me.

"Nothing." I quickly respond before slowly walking away.

It takes a while, but I finally find an empty seat in the corner of the room. I walk towards it, but am interrupted by someone crashing into the side of me.

"Sorry! So so sorry!" The person shrieks. "I saw the empty seat and wow, I didn't expect it to be this hard to find one but it is and yeah, so I ran to it and bashed into you which I am so so sorry about and now I'm rambling and making an idiot out of myself and a terrible new impression."

I chuckle a little bit. "You're new I guess?"

"It's that obvious?" She scrunches up her face which has now turned into a rosy pink.

She's extremely beautiful with shiny grey eyes exhibiting a hint of opulence and ginger-red curls giving her the quality of looking both young and mature at the same time. I just have straight blonde hair and blue eyes. I'm a commonplace in complexion whereas she is exceptionally appealing. I bet my mother would like her as a daughter instead.

"Trust me, it's fine. I've been here for years and the first day has never been this bad."

"Are you a senior?" She asks me.

"Yeah. You?"

"Same." She smiles at me. "Hi, I'm Natalia Rose."

"Evelign Wright."

"Nice to meet you, Evelign. Thanks for not being mean about the whole running into you thing. I've known a lot of people who would have a lot different reaction than you did."

"It's fine." I laugh. This has probably been the longest conversation I've had with someone under the age of fifty in over a year. "You can take the seat if you want." I tell her.

"No, you should probably take it. I'm the one who ran into you."

In the corner of my eye, I can see another student sit down in the not-so-empty seat. "Yeah, well that didn't work." Socialize, Evelign. If you don't have friends then make them, I can practically hear my mother whispering into my ear. "Why don't we just look together?"

"Sure."

It takes a while, approximately half of the time of lunch to even find available seats, but when we do it's nice because I finally have company. I don't have to sit alone eating my food listening to music from my Walkman or a book in my hand, I can actually speak to someone, and despite not being keen on it for the majority of my seventeen years on the planet, I've discovered that it isn't as bad as I thought it might be.

***

Once lunch is finished, Natalia and I walk to the basketball court for a 'mandatory group activity'. I'm usually a very prompt person, but due to my delayed lunch, I end up being one of the last seniors to enter the gym. As we enter, I notice Caldwin staring at me, then whispering something to the jock he is standing next to, before they both burst into laughter. They're probably making fun of me in some way, I wouldn't be surprised if he was already caught up on who to date, like, hate, or ignore.

"Do you know what this is about?" Natalia leans in closer to me.

"Not a single clue."

"Welcome all, both old and new students to Barlowe." The headmistress announces to the crowd. "You are all here for one reason; you want to succeed in life, or of course, your parents forced you to attend this school. I hope the first one is the correct answer. As seniors, your high school life is soon coming to an end and the next phase is quickly approaching: college. We want you all to get into not only a good, but an exceptional college, and we can teach you how to. If there is one thing in common between you all: you are smart. Being intelligent is normal here. You will not be praised for knowing answers to questions, you will not be treated like anywhere else. Returning students know this. Less than B's are unexceptable, rude behaviour will not be tolerated. Here you will be turned into your best selves, or you will fail. It is up to you to decide which path you will take. We can help carve it, but the rest is up to you."

Her speech wouldn't have been as intimidating if she wasn't glaring at each and everyone one of us.

"Since the rest of your year will be stressful, we decided it may be nice for a little breather. Till the end of the day, we all will be participating in fun games and also learn about our fellow classmates. This will not be seen again for your grade so saviour this moment. That will be all." Headmaster Collins finishes her speech and gestures to the other teachers to take it from there so she can retreat back into her office.

"Don't you find any of this a bit harsh?" Natalia's voice is laced with fear, and her eyes smudged with an anticipated worry.

"Of course." My voice blank of any emotion. "But that is Barlowe. Half of the people here don't want to be. Or at least didn't expect this to be what it is. It's a hell-hole, but no parent will ever see it nor admit it because making sure their child has an enriched life, well, that's all that matters to them."

"My parents sent me here. Didn't even tell me I was going till four days ago. I had one day to say goodbye to all of my former friends. It sucked. I used to go to school in Bells' Knox which is a small town only a couple hours away here, but since the commute sucked my parents transferred me here. The high school there was pretty average anyways."

"You don't say? I live there."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, I-"

Before I can say anymore, a teacher starts speaking. "Everyone please form a circle." It takes a while but eventually it happens. "Now, we are going to go around and say our names and one fact about ourselves." A bunch of kid's start to snicker, pointing out it sounds quite childish, but that is quickly silenced by the teacher's death stares. "I will start. My name is Mr. Hanks and I was born in California."

The circle continues on and on for a while. Most people's facts are dull and boring, having no originality at all. I start to zone out after a few, until it reaches someone of interest.

"Caldwin Fletcher and I have nothing interesting about me." Wow. If that isn't the most rebellious thing, I've ever heard. You can sense my sarcasm. Just say a damn fact about yourself isn't that hard. Not like anyone else's was actually interesting.

"Caldwin." Mr. Hanks raises his voice.

"Fine. I had a little sister named Cassie." Caldwin answers with the least amount of viviality in a voice I have ever heard.

After that, I kind of resume trance until the person on the right of me finishes talking.

"Evelign Wright and I like to read." I try to put on the most confident tone I can find. I'm not a huge fan of public speaking, actually I despise it.

"Of course." Someone says in the crowd. I don't recognize their voice, but I can tell it's a girl. I don't even care, though. I like books, so what? It's not weird so I don't understand why people try to make it.

"Natalia Rose and I have been ice skating since I was three years old."

After a while, we finally get to some obscure team work games, which in all fairness, are kind of fun. Once the school bell rings, the stampede of tired children all rush into the hall, towards their locker.

***

I get home around 7pm. My whole house is dark, meaning my mother probably isn't home. I guess she is working late tonight. I flop myself onto the couch and turn on the TV. I browse through the channels but there isn't anything enticing.

An abrupt ringing noise starts in the kitchen, meaning that someone is calling the home phone. Of course I am able to get up, walk over to it, and pick up, but I prefer being lazy and just wait till it goes to voicemail. Once it finishes, I hear it beep and the voicemail being played and...what the hell?