Lunch passed quickly once Hayden left. After lunch was history II, and I had that class with Nathan, Garrett, and my original guide Jordan. The teacher, Mr. Ern, was just as boring as he sounded. Funnily enough, a homophone to his surname was urn, and that's where just about all of his students wanted to be.

Luckily, the next period was the final period of the day. For a bonus, it was advanced art, the subject I had been anticipating all day.

I hoisted my bag straps over my shoulders and waited impatiently for the bell. Garrett, my guide for my final period, lazily sauntered to my seat.

"Hey. I don't think we've gotten the chance to properly introduce ourselves. I'm Garrett."

"I'm Veronica. I heard you're my guide for final period. Is that right?"

Garrett wiggled his eyebrows. "So, you've heard about me, huh? I guess I'm all the rage with the ladies, especially now that Mr. Gladwell over there is taken."

I laughed at how overconfident he seemed. "I'm assuming Nathan is with Reece, right?"

Garrett nodded. "It's almost their one year anniversary, actually."

"That's great. So, is the art teacher any good?'

He shrugged. "I don't know. Never had her before, but I heard she's alright. We'll see, I guess."

Finally, the bell rang. Garrett lead the way to my next class, which wasn't too far. He sat down in the center of the class, and told me to sit beside him. I chose to sit on his left, against the windows.

"I believe that everyone is here, so I'll begin attendance," the teacher announced.

As she went down the list, I took in her appearance. She seemed to be middle aged, maybe early forties. She had very curly dark brown hair scraped into a messy bun, and bright blue eyes. Freckles covered her face and arms.

"Hayden Dennis?" she called, peaking my attention. "No? Didn't think so," she muttered, laughing to herself.

A few people down the list, my name was called.

"Here!" I responded.

The teacher caught my gaze. "Ah, the new student. If I'm remembering correctly, you're the one with tetrachromacy and a fabulous history with art, yes?"

I nodded.

"Well, nice to meet you, Veronica. My name is Mrs. Smith."

"Nice to meet you, too."

Just then, the door swung open and the almighty Hayden Dennis strolled into class over five minutes late.

Mrs. Smith narrowed her eyes at him. "Find a seat!" she barked.

My eyes widened. What a personality change!

Hayden chuckled and seated himself in the seat in front of me, the only empty spot in the room.

I alternated my gaze from the back of his head to Mrs. Smith's angry expression. When she saw my shocked look, she laughed.

"Oh, I was just teasing him, kids. He's my nephew!"

Everyone mumbled their understandings.

"Well, class, let me introduce myself a bit more. As you know, I'm Mrs. Smith. None of my assignments will be too harsh, and no homework will be given. Now, let's go around the room. When it's your turn, say your first and last name and something that nobody knows about you."

Oh boy. Suddenly, the jittery part of my brain set to overdrive. What was something that nobody knew, that wasn't boring, yet I was conformable sharing with a class of twenty peers? Could I tell them about the time my parents and I traveled to Germany for scientific research? Or the time that a military commander requested to video chat with me for an interview? Probably not....

"My name is Hayden Davis, and I have a chihuahua."

I stifled a laugh.

"Very good," Mrs. Smith said, smiling. "Let's carry on with Veronica, and we'll continue zigzagging around the room that way."

I bit my lip. "My name is Veronica Grey, and I want to be a professional artist when I get older."

Mrs. Smith grinned. "Wonderful. Next?"

I sucked in a breath and zoned out for the remainder of introductions. Had I made myself seem nerdy, or did I add just the right amount of attitude?

After about ten traumatic minutes of the class spewing random facts and my brain doing its best to give me an anxiety attack, the teacher clasped her hands together.

"Now that I have a better insight on all of you, it's time to start our first project."

Some of the kids groaned, especially a cluster of them near the back.

Mrs. Smith held her hands up defensively. "Hey, I know, I know. How dare I assign work on the first day, right? Well, don't worry. It'll be easy. I want you all to think of something that starts with the first letter of your name, and draw it."

The class picked up their conversations and set to work. I stood up to grab a piece of paper and some colored pencils, trying to think of something to draw.

I frowned. Something beginning with a 'V'? Vampire? No, too Twilight-y. Vaccination? Nope, that's a bit controversial.

"So," a familiar deep voice said, "what are you going to draw?"

I held back a smile, looking up at Hayden. "I don't know yet. What starts with a 'V'?"

He shrugged, plopping into his chair, but straddling it backwards to face me. "Viagra?"

I laughed loudly, sitting down in my own seat. "And how would you suggest I draw that?"

He wriggled his eyebrows, making me scrunch up my nose. "Oh heck no!" I exclaimed.

Hayden chuckled. "Sorry Roni, I had to." He twisted back to grab something from his desk, then turned to face me again, setting down his paper on my desk. "What about vinyl? Like, a record player."

I bit my lip. "That's not a bad idea."

He smirked. "It's what I do best." His gaze fluttered around my face and he cleared his throat.

A bit of heat rushed to my cheeks from his stare. "What are you going to do?"

Hayden smiled. "A Harley. You know, a Harley Davidson bike?"

I rolled my eyes. "I know what a Harley is, idiot."

He laughed, holding up his hands in mock surrender. "No need for the name calling, Dove."

"Dove?" I speculated. "I thought my nickname was Roni."

He shrugged. "Is there a rule that states the limit of nicknames one can assign?"

I blushed. "You have a point."

Hayden grinned. "You're blushing."

I twirled a graphite stick between my fingers, not meeting his gaze. "And?"

"It's cute."

I bit my lip, looking back up at him. "Um, do you think that I should draw an entire record plater, or just a rack of records, or what?"

I mentally berated myself. Way to take the attention off of your appearance, Veronica.

"You should do like an entire scene, with a record playing on a phonograph and a rack of records beside it. Maybe similar to an old fashioned dining room or something."

I smiled. "That's a really good idea. Thanks."

"No problem." He began shading his paper. "How long have you been into art, Roni?"

"Since I was a literal baby, actually. My parents have pictures of me as a toddler, finger painting animals and other simple things like that. Funnily enough, my interest in art and color actually really effected my tetrachromacy."

"Really?" Hayden asked.

I nodded, switching from my graphite stick to a regular number two. "Yeah, since I was always around vibrant colors as a kid, during the time when my eyes were still constantly developing, I have even more sensitive color perception than a lot of tetrachromats. Like my mother, for instance, is a tetratchromat, but she was more into science than art, so she has only slightly exceptional vision."

"That's pretty interesting," he breathed out.

I laughed. "You really think so? Normally I bore people to death with my constant droning."

Hayden smiled, showing off his bright white teeth. I noticed that he had a small little gap between his front teeth, which made him seem much more boyish and friendly. "No, really. I loved learning about body makeup as a little kid and all of that biology stuff."

I smiled. "Maybe the two of us will get along better than I first thought."

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The end of my first day of school had come. Art had passed by rather quickly, especially with Hayden to keep me entertained. When the bell rang, I hastily said good bye to Hayden as Garrett dragged me off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said, quickly running after Garrett.

He kept his hand firmly grasped around my wrist. "Keep up, shorty. We need to get going!"

I frowned. "First of all, I am not short, you're just freakishly tall. But why are we in a rush?"

"A bunch of us are heading to Rick's, a café on the boardwalk, as soon as the bell rings. We have to go quickly if we want to get a good seat, near all the drama."

"What do you mean a good seat? How many of us are going?"

"Well, it'll be everyone that we normally hang with - Nate, Reece, Trevor, Britney, Nick, Jen, and Caleb."

"Oh."

We carried on walking and Garrett led me to my locker. Along the way, I wondered if the 'popular' group was really as snobby as some books and movies directed me to believe. So far, Nate, Trevor, Garrett, and Britney seemed really kind and sweet. I hadn't talked to Nick or Caleb much, but Jen seemed only a tad intrusive and Reece just appeared to be a protective girlfriend. Sure, they liked to isolate themselves from some other people occasionally, but they seemed to do so in a nice way. Plus, they weren't excluding anyone, they just didn't go out of their way to hang with people that could potentially cause problems.

Then and there, I decided I wanted to be friends with practically everyone in that friend group, but I wouldn't let that stop me from spending time with people like Hayden or Jordan.

"Here we are, the one and only Veronica Grey's prestigious locker."

I rolled my eyes, reaching up to input my combination that I had already memorized.

"Ooh, is Veronica already picking up a man?" Garrett teased.

I noticed the faded blue ink still on my hand from early that morning. "Oh definitely not. That's from Hayden."

I glanced at Garrett, who's face was screwed up in confusion. "Hayden Davis?"

I nodded. "Yeah, he helped me find the office first thing this morning and wrote his number in my hand so that I could tell him about my eye thing."

"Right." He paused, leaning against the locker beside mine. "I wonder if he likes you."

I abruptly shut my locker. "What makes you say that?"

"I don't think that he's ever shown interest in a girl like this."

I shrugged, digging my phone out and opening a text with my mother. "Exactly. That just makes this all the more unlikely."

"Whatever you want to think," Garrett said condescendingly.

I nudged him playfully. "So, what's this Rick's place like?"

"It's pretty swanky, with sick decor and really good food."

I giggled. "I'm sorry, what? Swanky?"

Garrett laughed. "Come on, Squirt. Let's go meet up with the others."

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This chapter was a bit shorter than the others, but I was feeling a bit stuck and I wanted y'all's opinions on how this story should progress.

Should Reece and Roni be enemies or friends?

Should Hayden and Nate dislike each other?

No matter what, I have a blurry image of how I want this story to turn up, so don't be upset if I go against your wishes to get to that end goal. Also, just wanted to state that the stereotypes Roni describes people as are not meant to offend anyone. This is just a part of her personality, seeing as she never really spent a lot of time with kids her age. Also, think about the title and why I might want to include a theme of stereotypes ;)

Thanks for sticking around through my long break, and be sure to leave any ideas for how this story should go!!