I went to my first class which was an English class. As I stepped inside, everyone had all of their eyes on me. As if they couldn't make it more obvious. I was not even late and they still stared.

I took a seat in the back of the class waiting for it to begin. I was becoming bored as more students walked in. Most conversations were too boring for me to even pay attention.

When the bell rang, the teacher walked inside writing some stuff on the whiteboard. Not even attempting to greet us. The girls begin to giggle all of a sudden and I could feel my annoyance peek already.

"You think I could get his attention?"

"No way, he likes more mature girls."

Seems we have a bit girls with crushes on the teacher. Why do I have a feeling this is typical for this school to have some issues. Despite the lack of the apparent diversity, I look toward the board seeing what we have to do today.

He begins to speak up talking about the objective and what not. Until he turns around looking at his clipboard trying to read names.

"Okay class, before we begin is like to introduce a new student here with us. Her name is Nadia. Please say hi and tell us something about yourself..." he cuts his sentence short when his eyes land on me. And for once in my life, I felt extremely uncomfortable when he stared at me.

It felt too intimate and too personal the way his eyes lingered on me. I could feel my cheeks heating up and the lower region between my legs feel a response to his gaze. I'm not into teachers, but what sort of teacher looks like him? No wonder the girls were whispering and giggling like some idiots. He's symmetrically attractive with a beard. And beards tend to be my kryptonite, goddamn it.

"Um... sorry, yes Nadia, you're from?" I did not want to speak up but he's certainly put me on the spot.

"Originally California but I moved to Mexico and came back to the states recently." At least they know not to make ignorant comments about me going back to my country.

"Oh wow, interesting. Well, it'll be great to have you here in AP English Nadia." He gives me a crooked smile, then in an instant, his demeanor returns into this grumpy professional teacher who doesn't think about his students inappropriately.

There's no fucking way I can stay in this class without clashing with this dude. I just know deep down he's going to give me unnecessary trouble.

"Who the hell does she think she is?" I hear one of the girls whisper. I don't know why they are jealous, it is not like I want this brown adult man nor would this man risk his job for Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.

*

*

The hour passes with the bell ringing for our next class. I leave right away not wanting to stay any longer. The rest of the day was filled with more introductions with less heated gazes, nonetheless gazes that suggest I may have enters the wrong class (or school). At the end of it all, I managed to survive my first day.

Some girls tried to be catty with smart remarks but I destroyed them with my wit. I wait outside of the school waiting for my sister to come pick me up. 30 minutes pass and she's not here. Another 30 and still not here, I try to call her but it goes to voicemail. It seems I'm walking home, ugh, the least she could do was tell me she couldn't pick me up.

I start walking hurrying up so it doesn't get too dark for me to walk. If I make it to the public boss stop I'll be able to make it home on time. I put earbuds in to block out the noise from the outside world. As I continue on further, I feel this slight creep sensation making its way on my back. I take one earbud out to see if someone is near me. But no one is, I'm by myself, I even feel a little nauseous.

I realize no one will be able to know I was gone since I'm all alone. I become too aware of my surroundings and begin to pick up the speed of my legs. It was too quiet and I felt I could hear everything.

The sound of the leaves rumbling on the ground, the flow of the air dancing in the leaves. The air changing its temperature with dark grey clouds circling above me. I reach the bus stop sitting down on the bench waiting for it to come.

Even as I sit down, I still feel acutely aware that there are eyes on me. Despite not seeing a single soul here, there must be someone watching me. My mind begins to race with images of past faces and new faces to think of who would want to stalk me. I fear my past may have caught on too soon for me to catch my breath. I just moved and I'm already freaking myself out with paranoia that hasn't gone extreme, yet.

I look on my right of the bus bench cover, a brown spider begins to slide down form
It's single web onto the bench. I stare at it for awhile watching it stand there doing nothing. Oddly, I didn't feel alone, I kept looking at it. The tiny thing ring trying to survive in this world with nothing but silk and it's many eyes.

BAM!

A smack of newspaper kills the lonely spider and I look up to see it was none other than my English teacher. Fuck,  I already forgot his name.

"Careful, these spiders have a nasty bite."

"Oh, it wasn't doing anything." He grins and begins to wipe the remains of the spider against his shoe. It doesn't seem like he's the type to care for nature.

"Why are you waiting for the public bus? The school provides buses for students, you know." Looking at his face up close, his nose is somewhat slanted, his eyes are gray and his hair is tussled up as if he couldn't bother to brush it this morning.

"I do know."

"And yet, you're here."

"Can I help you with anything!?" He raises arms in surrender when I talk back to him. He then proceeds to sit down on the bench. Not next to me but close enough that I can see what he's doing. He starts writing on a crossword puzzle. He's struggling on one word,  I thought he would get it right away for being an English teacher.

"Aglet."

"What?"

"I did that crossword puzzle this morning and that one is aglet. It's five letters and it is the word for the end of a shoes lace that is in a tube. Therefore, it is aglet." He writes the word down and seems surprised that I figured it out.

"Huh, I don't know a lot of students who can think of this word automatically."

"I don't know a lot of teachers who doesn't know this word at least."

"Haha touché."

He continues on writing until the bus came finally. I walk inside and wait for him to come as well. But he doesn't, I turn around to see him standing there smiling.

"Stay safe Nadia." The door closes in front of me as the bus driver goes off leaving my teacher behind. He waves goodbye until we're out of his sight.

I pay for my toll until the driver tells me something interweaving.

"These streets aren't safe during this time for young ladies such as yourself. Mr. Sutton waits near the public bus for any young woman alone until they're on." I nodded my head understanding what he means. Maybe I've written him off a little too early. There's just a possibility he's not used to seeing brown people for the first time.