one. we meet again? !
real life...

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EDEN BAXTER WAS WALKING INTO her new school, her over the shoulder bag digging into her skin and phone in hand. she was texting her mother to see what she was supposed to do once she got into the building, which is the first thing she's accomplished. the next would be to figure out where the office is. good thing there was a decently large sign with the words "main office" in bold along with an arrow pointing in the direction it was in.

she started to follow the direction, looking down at her phone for a split second. all she wanted to know was what her mother had to say, and it ended up causing a collision with this random person walking opposite to her down the hall. their body was hard and on the taller side. they put their hand on her shoulder in response to almost knocking her completely over.

"oh my god. i'm so sorry." she looked up at them, noticing the blueness of his eyes.

the moment lasted only for a few seconds before he pushed himself out of her way with a quick, "excuse me".

she had no idea who that person was, but she wanted to know. her curiosity was so bad that she would go out of her way to ask a complete stranger who he was, assuming they would know. someone had to know. and she would become one of them.

she then went through almost two hours of talking to multiple different people in the office, moving from one person to another every ten minutes. it was almost disorienting and she just wanted to start her day so it could be over already.

her counselor was the last person to talk to her, giving her a schedule and showing her around the building and where all her classes are. and since she was already two hours into the school day they were currently transitioning into their third period.

"so, since everyone is switching classes right now, we're just going to wait to take you to your next class." she took a quick look at eden's schedule, "poetry. that should be fun!" there was a smile on her face, so eden forced herself to smile back. she was already done with all this first day stuff. her classrooms were already made clear, there's no reason for her counselor to walk her to her next class because she really didn't have to. more so, eden didn't want to make it a big scene.

a couple minutes passed and with more than a couple weird stares, the halls started to clear out. "okay, so you are just going to walk over here." she had her hand on eden's back, practically pushing her over to the room she's been looking at for the past five minutes.

"thank you, you really don't have to walk in with me." she mentioned to her with a smile, hoping she would take the hint. well, the hint was pretty obvious.

"okay, just remember i'm in the office, third door down the guidance hall. come see me if you have any questions. i hope you enjoy it here, eden."

she then turned and walked back to the front of the building, and eden has already forgotten how to get there.

after taking a couple deep breaths, preparing herself for all the eyes that would be staring at her, and putting on a confident face, she walked into the classroom. the first thing she did—her first mistake—was to look at all her new classmates, who were already staring at her. her breathing hitched as she started to look for the teacher, gladly she was already on her way to greet eden.

"hello, you're the new student? uhh..." she was trying really hard to recollect her name. once she got it, it looked like a lightbulb went off in her mind and she snapped her fingers. "edith! right?"

"eden, but it's totally okay." she reassured, knowing she was the first person to try and remember her name before hand. she deserved some credit.

"right! what a beautiful name. i'm mrs. walker, and this is my poetry class."

eden kept nodding her head, listening to what mrs. walker had to say, taking in any information she may need later. but before she got eden all situated with everything, she went on and on about getting the rest of the class started first. then more and more about the actual assignment they were going to complete.

"i just need to get you a composition notebook and a folder." eden watched as her hand pushed her glasses back up her nose in order for her to actually see out of them. then she went over to her desk, shuffling through drawers to find what she needed. the folder and notebook were immediately raised into the air once they were found.

"here you go." she handed the materials to eden, looking around the room for what eden assumed to be an open seat.

eden looked along with her instantly spotting one at the second to last row in the back next to the wall. it seemed to be the only available one, so when mrs. walker also spotted it a few seconds later, she pointed towards it. "you're going to be sitting behind miley," she raised her voice to get the girls attention, "miley! can you raise your hand please?!"

eden watched as the exact same girl she was already looking at with bleach blonde hair raised her hand. she proceeded to walk down the isle, a half smile across her face, before sitting in her designated seat.

she pulled out her black and white notebook from the small stack she was given and opened to the first page. the prompt for today was on the board in that hardly legible cursive some teachers did. "what is something that you love?" her mind immediately went to her dog, baby. it was her little sister who came up with the name when she was only four years old. baby was her first, and only pet she's ever had (with the exception of a couple fish and hamsters here and there). the love she had for him was unmeasurable, and she couldn't imagine a day without him.

as she was starting to write about her love for baby, there was a light tap of a pencil or pen of some kind on her shoulder blade. along with the sudden words, "we meet again?"

"huh?" her head turned to be met with those same blue eyes again. and she was completely taken aback, again.

"the hall?"

"ohh... uh yeah." eden acknowledged the memory, not wanting to bring up the embarrassing encounter. she wished it never happened now more than ever.

"are you new?" his question sounded somehow genuine. it was ridiculous to her that he would ask such a thing after she just stood in front of the whole class for five minutes talking to the teacher about the classroom rules.

"no, i just decided to never come to school til now." her abundant amount of sarcasm coming from literally nowhere. she turned back around in her chair to face her notebook, assuming he wouldn't have anything else to say. she was wrong.

"okay smart ass. i just wanted to make sure you don't get into the wrong cliques." he leaned back in his chair, like he didn't have a care in the world about what "clique" she gets herself into.

"i was only kidding." only one side of her body turned around to say it so that she wasn't completely facing forward, but she also wasn't completely against him.

"i know. it was a pretty stupid question. i just wanted to call you a smart ass."

"why?"

"because you're cute and i don't know how to properly flirt." it was probably the worst sentence for him to be cut off from.

mrs. walker had noticed the disturbance coming from their direction and yelled, "christopher!" his head flipped up from being hunched over his desk to talk. "why are you distracting eden?" she finished.

"i was just seeing if she needed someone to sit by at lunch." he raised his hands in defense before closing his notebook, showing her that he was actually finished with his assignment.

"wow, you're really slick, huh?" eden whispered loud enough for only him to hear her, but she stayed facing forward.

a few seconds later, there was a small folded piece of paper tossed onto her desk from behind. she unfolded it and checked out what was written inside of it.

do you?

was all it said. she was assuming he was talking about sitting with him at lunch, which she didn't even know if she was going to be in lunch for today.

we'll see.

maybe see faster bc lunch is next period...

she folded up the paper again without writing anything else on it and shoved it right into her pocket. as much as she may have wanted to sit by him for lunch, she was sure she would be needed for some kind of counselor meeting to talk more about the school and how everything is run around here. and she was right. another fully useless meeting was awaiting her the second she walked out of the classroom door.

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nat's notes !

UM HELLO
THIS FIC IS BLOWING MY SOCKS OFF ALR
YEAH 😃

i love it sm and the school atmosphere is sm fun im almost tempted to make my others in school environments bc like WHAAT.
i hope you guys enjoy what i have planned for this!!!

<3