He looked up from his phone, staring me dead in the eyes, his expression emotionless. I noticed how attractive he was, but I didn't let that stop me from saying what I had to say. "Hey! What's wrong with you?! Don't you know you could have hit me?!" He stopped walking for a moment, and took in the appearance of my car. It was a 1997 white Nissan Altima. An older model, sure, but it still ran fine. After checking it out, he looked back up at my grimacing face. "Ooops," was all he said, in such a bored and disingenuous tone. Then he turned on his heels and went inside. Wow. And I thought this stuff only happened in books. Looking at the time, I realized I only had ten minutes until first period, and I still had to find the classroom. I searched for another spot, finding one in the far back. Three minutes later, I was walking through the doors of LHHS for the first time. I didn't have time to waste, the halls already becoming scarce of lingering students, so I went to the first person I saw. A girl, whose hair was in pigtails and was dressed like we had a school uniform. She was standing by a display table in the front, hanging up a few newsletters. I hated to say it, but she looked like the kind of student whose only friends were her teachers. But, that practically guaranteed that she could help me. "Excuse me," I said as I ran up to her. She turned around and looked me over, scrunching her barely visible eyebrows. "Hmmm, you must be new, because I've got the whole student body memorized and I don't know you," she said, very matter of factly. No, Natalie. DO NOT stereotype her right now. "Yeah, I am and I was wondering if you could tell me where room 231 is," I inquired, hoping she wouldn't try and chat because I hated being late, and right now I was really pushing it. Thankfully, she just answered my question, telling me it was the first door on the right once I got up the stairs to the second floor. I shot her a genuine smile as I raced up the steps. Just as she said, the door was right there, and I had two minutes to spare. I used one of them to catch my breath and slow my heartbeat. I didn't want my first impression to be "that heavy breathing new girl". Once I felt confident in myself, I opened the door and went in. "Hey! Who's that?!" I heard some dude say, but I couldn't tell who. A few whistles were made by a group of guys in the back as I walked further in, but I ignored them, more aware of the eyes in the room, all on me. See, this was why I didn't want to move. Your senior year is supposed to be the final horrah you make with the people you spent the last three years growing up with. The majority of these people probably grew up together, and I didn't know any of them. I was drawn out of my little rant when I heard the teacher say something. "Ah, Miss Drake! Welcome to Langston Heights High! Why don't you introduce yourself to us?" Ughhh...this dude is the epitome of an annoying teacher. He had on an ugly brown sweater vest with a short sleave peach button up underneath (EW) and he was sitting in his chair, resting his arms on his protruding belly. Plus, he was making me do the lame "introduce yourself" bit that every new student hated doing. Turning to face the class, I was ready to get this over with. "I'm Natalie Drake. I'm from New Jersey, where I'd much rather be right now, but I can't do anything about that until I turn 18 so..." I said, shrugging my shoulders. "Until then, I guess you're stuck with me." Finishing my little speech, I headed to the only empty seat, next to a girl that was giving me the hugest smile; teeth and everything. Everyone else just watched me sit down, while a few guys shot me a wink. Idiots. The teacher, who was on my schedule as "Mr. Hatchel", looked a little disturbed by my introduction, but he quickly shook it off. "Hi! I'm Lauren!" The girl beside me squealed. Her golden brown skin was glowing, like LITERALLY glowing. This girl had so much highlighter on, she looked like a sun-kissed angel. If I knew how to apply makeup the way she did, then maybe I'd consider wearing it more. But, unless there was a reason, I tended to stick with just mascara and my Burt's Bees Lip Balm. "Hi." I replied, giving her a small smile. "You are so pretty. We have to hang out sometime," she chirped, still grinning ear to ear. Right now, I wasn't sure if I could like this girl. She had that look that said she wanted to be the new girl's bestie, which was me, and I was not a fan of forced friendships. As I took my seat, Mr. Hatchel struggled to get up from his. I heard a couple of giggles from the people around me, especially Lauren. "Maybe if he didn't eat a honeybun every class, he wouldn't have to stand up like a very pregnant woman," she whispered to me. I couldn't help but chuckle, imagining him suddenly crying out that his water broke. With that image in my head, I was genuinely amused, and just like that, I liked Lauren. She may have been preppier than I was used to, with her pink plaid skirt and white polo...but she was funny and friendly, and that's what I needed right now.