What I Thought I Knew

It's my first day in a new school and I managed so far to miss my alarm, which means there is no time to shower. I struggle with finding where i put the dry shampoo so at least it looks like i put effort into my hairstyle. I put on ripped jeans and an Aerosmith tee shirt paired with my black converse and head out the door. I remember I still haven't received the syllabus for half my classes and make a note to contact whichever teachers I don't have today. When I get to the campus I am so overwhelmed with the university and I can't remember how to get to my class. Looking down to try to pull up the map on my phone, I hear "Excuse Me" in a loud voice forcing to look up from the screen. when I look up I am like a deer in headlights when I see the most captivating brown eyes, I manage to mumble "sorry" as he proceeded to walk away shaking his head. Oh he was something, sandy blonde hair, muscular and roughly 6'2. I couldn't help but watch him. When I finally get over the shock I go back to the map on my phone and manage to locate my History class. In the classroom most seats are already filled so I take the seat close to the back as not to bring to much attention to me. Of course though like most schools the new student must be introduced to the class and that is exactly what Mrs. Lynch does. "Good morning everyone we have a new student, please meet Paige Matthews", said Mrs. Lynch. Oh did I mention I do not like be center of attention, so I smile politely from my seat.

***

The day moves slowly and someone must hate me because all my classes are in separate areas. Why do they make this campus so big, even the gym and aquatic center has its own building. It's my last class and I'm about to enter the gym when I see him again talking to a group of jocks next to the men's locker room. I continue walking and slip into the women's locker room when I hear someone call "Paige" behind me, I turn around and my eyes meet with a petite red headed girl and she is holding What appears to be a uniform. the red head tells me her name is Amber and she was supposed to be my guide but she was out most the morning and when she saw we had gym together she figured we can just do the tour tomorrow. However, she does tell me about the sports and other after-school activities. I am not surprised to hear Amber is captain of the cheer and dance team. Amber tells me there is a spot open for the dance team or if cheer was more my thing she would make it work. All while Amber is talking I am trying to make this uniform of red shorts and gray top more comfortable, but it's impossible because I think these shorts are made for little kids and not my curves. Amber and I step out on to the field, where our gym class starts with a running warm up around the track. Amber is still next to me as we jog side by side on the track. that's when I see him and the other boys that were outside the locker room. Amber follows my gaze and shakes her and just says don't even bother they are all jerks. almost as if on cue the boys slow a little so we can reach them and proceed to run backwards, pull on Amber's ponytail and say come on you can catch me all while laughing. I tell the boys to leave her alone. The sandy blonde hair boy says "who's your new friend Amber?".

" Her name is Paige, she just started today" said Amber.

"Well hello Paige, I'm Killian he says with a smirk on his face and extends his arm which forces me to stop jogging". I shake his hand and immediately feel warmth throughout my entire body like an electric current. I hold back from any weird noise that might escape my lips when Killian asked " where you from?" and I answer with "Boston". I didn't really want to get into why I was now here in Texas. But as I was contemplating his next question, he said see you around and nudged Amber in the side by her rib cage and said later sis and with that i looked at Amber and said "Sis?". "Yes, unfortunately he is my step- brother she said. i looked at her in disbelief and we went back to jogging. Amber was back to asking me questions. She wanted to know what is was like living in Boston, what I like to do etc. etc. By the time gym was over she was dragging me to dance tryouts. Most my answers were short with Amber. Since I was always told trust no one and don't say anything that you don't want getting out. I did tell her that I was on competition dance teams since I was 4 and so here I am at dance tryouts. As I prepared my routine, there are two other girls up front next to Amber, which I was told there names are Kiera and Callie. All three girls have to agree on my performance. Lucky for me when it comes to dance I don't care who's watching me.

I hear the beat of Britney Spears, Toxic and I into position and continue with my dance. When song ends I am greeted with clapping and head shakes letting me know that I am on the dance team. I'm still not sure how I feel about this but Amber, Keira, and Callie all seemed so happy I was their secret weapon.