Man Down

Chapter Three. The First Day

Chapter three

The first day

Kristen awoken to the birds chirping outside. It appeared she had wakened before everyone else. She took this opportunity to tour the house a little bit more, she slowly creaked open her door and tiptoed through the house. There was a door at the end of the hallway that she had not ventured into the previous day. She opened the door slowly, there was an old wooden staircase leading down into darkness. This must be the basement, above her was a string attached to a light. She pulled it and the staircase lit up with a warm yellow light. She slowly stepped down the old wooden staircase, creaking as her weight landed on each step. She peered over the side of the railing, and it appeared the floor wasn’t a floor at all. She stepped down off the stairs and felt the ground squish below her feet. She crouched down and touched it; it was soil. The basement floor was dirt. Kristen’s phone vibrated, she took it out of her pocket and saw a notification that one of her old friends had posted a picture. She sighed. She should turn that off. The time on her phone read 6 o’clock. There was no use going back to bed, she would have to begin getting ready for school in an hour. She turned up the stairs and turned out the light shutting the door behind her.

When she turned to go towards her room, she saw zoe sitting by her leash that was hanging up on a tack by the back door. Kristen contemplated taking a bath but maybe taking zoe for a walk would be a better start of the day. She thought that if she were going to be living here for a while, she should probably go scope out the neighbourhood. She grabbed a hoodie from her room and attached the leash to zoe’s leather collar. She emerged from the house and was greeted by singing birds. The neighbourhood was quiet, she walked down the driveway and decided to turn right down the street. The neighbourhood was quite large, and each house looked identical but varied in different coloured brick. Zoe began taking the lead and Kristen followed, not really knowing where she was going either.

Kristen and zoe returned at the end of the driveway after a half hour walk. Kristen sighed; the house was beginning to grow on her. She wished it hadn’t, a feeling of guilt ran through her body. You can’t cheat on a place, but Kristen felt like she was. She took a deep breath and walked up the wooden steps to the front door. She let zoe in and followed behind her, unclipping the leash. The air smelt of freshly brewed coffee, her dad was awake.

“How was your walk?” her dad asked stirring sugar into his coffee.

“It was good.” She replied.

“that’s good,” he began “I thought I could drive you to school this morning since I won’t be working until tomorrow.”

“Yeah, thanks dad.”

“No problem, your mom got to have the heart to heart with you yesterday.” He said licking the coffee off the spoon “it’s my turn now.”

Kristen smirked, she appreciated how patient everyone had been with her lately. She slipped away down the hall to the bathroom, she saw the door to the basement at the end of the hallway. She had never seen a basement with dirt flooring before, she wondered if it was something to worry about. Kristen closed the bathroom door and locked it behind her, she then opened the shower door and turned it on. While she waited for it to get hot, she brushed her teeth, she stared at herself in the mirror. Her large brown eyes staring back at her, a feeling of nervousness pooled in her stomach. All the same questions from last night were filling her head once again. As steam filled the room, she attempted to push the thoughts out. She let the hot water fall over her hair closing her eyes. The air in the bathroom filled with a sweet vanilla as the shampoo rinsed out of Kristen’s hair. She opened the shower door and wrapped herself in a fuzzy white towel. Stepping over to the mirror, she starred at her fair skin. She began applying several different creams and makeup, she combed through her hair and got dressed. When she walked out of the bathroom her mom and dad had been discussing ordering some breakfast from a nearby diner, but the thought of food right now made Kristen nauseous. Her stomach was so full with anxiety she had no room for food.

“Dad?” Kristen asked

“Yeah Hun?” her dad responded holding the coffee mug to his mouth.

“Would you be able to drive me to school now?”

Her dad looked down at his watch, “now? School doesn’t start for another half hour?” her dad gave a puzzled expression.

“I know, but I was thinking maybe it would be easier on me to get my locker ready before everyone arrived.” She continued, “I was even maybe thinking of going to class early and sitting in the back, so no one noticed me.”

“well, that’s not how you’re going to make friends.” Her mom chimed in, sounding a little disappointed.

“I just want to get through this day and worry about friends after.” She said shifting in her seat. Her mom’s concerned stare made her uncomfortable.

Her father nodded sympathetically and reached for the keys on the island. Kristen reached for her bag and followed her dad out the door. The drive to the school wasn’t very long, 5 minutes at most. Her dad kept opening his mouth to speak but couldn’t seem to get the words out, he wasn’t very good at this. Maybe he should leave the talking to mom. The car stopped, she peered out of the window at the huge building beside her. The high school was a large dark brown building, it was almost perfectly square except for the front entrance which was shaped like a triangle.

“Great talk dad.” Kristen said sarcastically as she grabbed her bag and opened the car door.

“Have a good day kid.” Her dad said smirking.

She shut the car door and heard the car pull away from behind her. She stared up at the building, there had to be at least 4 floors. She began to walk up the pathway to the entrance. She took a deep breath and opened the door. When she stepped inside, she was immediately met with the smell of floor cleaner and the loud humming of the floor wax machine. The janitors had still been preparing for the arrival of all the students this morning, it would all be for not. High schools are usually zoos the first day back, over the summer the students usually forgot how to act. She walked through the halls, stopping to look at different plaques and trophy cases until she found the office. Behind the glass there was a blonde lady, Kristen would have guessed she was at least in her late 40’s. she had red cat eyeglasses that sat right at the end of her nose. Kristen walked up to the counter and tapped the little bell to get the receptionist’s attention. Kristen cringed at the sound of her gum smacking as she turned on the little speaker that was on the glass.

“May I help you?” she asked raising her eyes over her glasses. She did not enjoy her job.

“Um hi, my name is Kristen butcher I am new and was just looking for my locker and class information.”

The receptionist raised an eyebrow at her and turned to begin feverishly typing on a keyboard. Just then Kristen heard loud footsteps approaching, a tall slender man was walking towards the office. He was dressed in a powder blue button-down shirt tucked into his khakis. By the confidence in his strides Kristen could tell this was the principal.

“What do we have here?” he said carrying a great big smile on his face. “An unfamiliar face!”

He reached out his hand to shake Kristen’s hand, she accepted the handshake. Although, she could not imagine it was very good, her nervousness made her quite stand offish.

“My name is Kristen butcher,” she began “I am new here, just trying to grab my locker and class information.”

“I am principal Howie,” the man said, “you are early, love to see the determination!”

Howie, what a weird name for a principle.

“Linda, will you please print off the sheet for miss butcher?” he asked politely “I am going to escort her to her locker.”

“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” Kristen began before being cut off by principal Howie.

“Nonsense! It’s your first day!” he began, “besides I have some forms I have to drop off to guidance and the senior locker area is on the way, no trouble!”

He grabbed the printed pages that Linda had pushed through the slot in the glass. He handed the papers to Kristen and began walking in the direction of the locker area. Kristen had a hard time keeping up with this man, he walked incredibly fast, and his strides were very large. He had to have been at least six feet. Kristen was very petite like her mother; she was five foot one.

“Senior locker area is on the top floor; we like to try to keep the grades as separate as possible.” He said matter of factly.

They reached the locker area and he continued to the guidance office. The senior locker area was quite large compared to her last school, it was decorated with blue and white streamers. Obviously, the school colours. The lockers were even blue and white. Kristen began roaming around looking for her locker number, six-seven-four. She finally found it, it nudged in a corner and only had two other lockers beside her on the right side. This day is looking up already. She puts in the locker combination and the lock clicks open. She began taking her books out of her bag and putting them on the top shelf of the locker and then placed her gym shoes in the shoe compartment on the bottom of the locker. There were footsteps approaching. Kristen didn’t pay too much attention to it; she had figured it was Mr. Howie making his way back to the office. She was startled when a small voice spoke.

“Hi.” Said a girl.

She had her light blonde hair in two French braids and had round gold frame glasses. She was quite pretty and just a bit taller than Kristen. She had baby pink vans on and black mesh tights, the cutest flared denim skirt, a led zeppelin shirt over top of a white lace long sleeve. She was holding a light pink laundry hamper Infront of her.

“I’m dawn.” She spoke.

“I’m Kristen.” Kristen responded.

“you’re here early I thought I would be the only one.” Dawn chuckled

“Yeah, me too.” I said a little annoyed, why was she talking to me?

“Looks like we’re neighbours.” Said dawn shifting her gaze to the locker next to kristens.

Kristen smirked and continued to load up her locker. When she was done both girls shut their lockers and locked it. Kristen unfolded her class schedule sheet.

“Oh, look we both have the same classes!” dawn exclaimed.

Kristen just forced a smile and began walking in the direction of their first class, university English. Despite Kristen’s wishes to only focus on getting through the first day alone it appeared she had already made a friend in the mere 20 minutes she had been in the building. Dawn seemed like a nice girl, but Kristen wasn’t sure she was ready to join a new friend group so quickly. It didn’t seem dawn was going to give her much of a choice though. She turned down a long hallway with doors lining each side, she could hear dawn trying to talk to her, but it was white noise. She had a lot on her mind and the anxiety in her body made it hard to focus on anything else. They walked into the empty classroom and Kristen began making her way to the back of the class. She sat down in desk and began opening her binder to reveal multiple pages of lined paper and multiple different pens and pencils. Dawn eventually got the hint that Kristen wasn’t in the mood for talking so they both sat in silence until the bell finally rang. Multiple students had started entering the class and Kristen made an effort to not meet their eyes, she kept her head down doodling with black pen on the lined paper. A couple walked in holding hands, the boy had dark hair and fair skin. Interlaced in his fingers was a very petite caramel skinned girl. She had long brown hair with caramel blonde highlights, she was pretty, and she walked with so much confidence. The boy made eye contact with dawn and took the seat next to her.

“Sky, Elise, this is Kristen.” She began “she’s new here!”

Kristen and sky’s eyes met each other, and she felt a bolt of electricity shoot though her body. A warm kind of feeling, he was very cute with emerald eyes that were lined with a dark brown on the edges. Kristen couldn’t help but smile at him and when she came back to earth, she noticed he was also smiling at her.

“So, is she new to our little group?” sky asked dawn.

Dawn nodded excitedly. Just then the teacher walked into the class. He was a larger man with round brown glasses and a twill blazer over a white button-down shirt. He swung his laptop bag on top to the desk and began setting it up to the projector. He turned to the chalkboard behind him and wrote his name on the board.

“I am Mr. Delaney; I will be your university English teacher for this year.” He paused looking around the classroom. “I would like to start this class by laying down some ground rules for my classroom.”

He turned to the chalkboard and began writing the rules down in bullet form in the top corner of the board.

“Rule number one, no PDA,” he began eyeing sky and Elise “rule number two, you will be on time to my class every day. If you are not that door will be locked after the second bell and you will be considered absent.”

This guy meant business. The firs class wasn’t very eventful, they had watched a documentary about Shakespeare. When the bell rang Kristen had gathered her things and tried to speed out of the class towards her next class. It would be for nothing though as dawn, sky, and Elise had the same class next as well. Maybe Kristen could get behind three new friends, that’s not a bad number. In the next class she again, went straight for the back of the class and set out her binder waiting for the teacher. Dawn had sat beside her, and sky went to sit next to dawn, but she had been saving the seat for someone else. Great, another new person. Sky moved to the seat Infront of Kristen and Elise sat beside him. A fiery red head entered the classroom. She had bright blue eyes and freckled skin. She had black ripped jeans with red fish nets underneath and a black oversized hoodie. Dawn motioned excitedly for her to come sit next to her.

“Patty, this is Kristen.” Dawn said.

“Oh yay!” patty exclaimed “we’ve been needing a new girlfriend to hang out with!”

“Yeah, sky hates being dragged to the mall.” Dawn chuckled.

Kristen smiled to patty; she was slightly confused since Elise was sitting right in front of them. Come to think of it, dawn had not said a word to Elise the entire last period, she only spoke to sky. When second period ended the students were herded downstairs and into the cafeteria. Kristen had been waiting in the food line when she heard her forced friend group come up behind her. She pretended she did not notice them behind her. She walked along the line with her tray held out, the lunch ladies put spoon fills of rice, butter chicken, and steamed vegetables onto her tray. Kristen walked towards the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water and sat in the first empty table she could find in the cafeteria. As she took her first bite, she heard people approaching.

“Oh look, you even picked to sit at our table.” Sky grinned.

“it’s meant to be!” dawn exclaimed from behind him.

Dawn and patty took their seats next to Kristen and sky had taken his across from them. Kristen noticed Elise was not with them anymore.

“where’s Elise?” Kristen asked.

“Oh, so she does speak.” Sky chuckled “I thought you were mute.”

“She doesn’t sit with us.” Patty said taking a bite of her food.

“Oh why?”

“she’s not part of our group,” began dawn and she stirred her chicken into her rice, “we don’t really like her we just tolerate her for sky.”

Sky rolled his eyes. Kristen kind of smirked to herself, she was curious as to why they didn’t like her. That would be a question for when sky wasn’t around. She spent the rest of her lunch just listening to her new friends talking amongst each other. She could tell a lot about their personalities just watching them interact. Dawn was clearly the leader of the group due to her bubbly personality; sky was clearly the childhood friend and occasionally the third wheel when it came to dawn and patty, and patty seemed to have a I don’t care attitude. So far, Kristen liked patty the most.

“so Kristen, “dawn began, “we’re heading to my place after school would you like to come?”

Kristen thought about it. After a long day she would rather go straight home and lock herself in her room, but she knew her mom would throw a fit if she turned down a seemingly nice group of friends the first day.

“Sure, my mom was supposed to pick me up, but I don’t think she will mind.”

Kristen took out her phone and began texting her mom, her mom responded with a series of emojis and exclamation marks, followed by a few heart emojis. Dawn and patty had peered over her shoulder to see her mom’s response.

“Perfect! Meet us at my locker at the last bell!” dawn exclaimed.

Maybe these girls aren’t so bad, and maybe making new friends isn’t so much of a bad idea. This city was starting to slowly grow on Kristen. She felt that the more people there were the harder it would be to find and make friends. That was certainly not the case, these ones came to her.