The New Girl: Chapter 1

It’s the first day of school and Erica is beyond nervous. Her parents picked up and moved her from her comfort zone in Albuquerque and moved her to NYC so her mom could pursue a Broadway career. Erica was infuriated. It was another ‘dream’ of her mother’s which she knew would fade in the next year just like everything else: becoming a painter, becoming a writer, and taking a whack at professional volleyball. Well, here she goes. Erica starts her first day at St. Claude’s Catholic a little nervous. It seems like everyone has their eyes on her. Erica does not like being the center of attention and has always gone through school being the invisible one. I HATE being the new girl, Erica thinks as she heads to her first class. Geometry, she’s already taken this course but for some reason St. Claude’s wanted her to take it again. She knew this would be a breeze and didn’t really pay attention as the teacher started to rant about surface area. 15 minutes into the class and the teacher sounded like the teachers in Charlie Brown. Erica starts to look around and sees a few cute boys in the back of the class. They all have their ties loosened up and are sitting back with the ‘I rule the world’ type attitude and stance. Their chairs are back on their hind legs and Erica rolls her eyes. She’s dealt with guys like that before and she wasn’t about to get herself in trouble. She takes one more, quick look back then starts to focus on taking notes.
***
Andrew hates this class. He has always struggled with math and the only thing that got him through was the fact that his 3 best friends were in the class. Mr. Opaque was talking about surface area and Andrew begins to drown him out like he does every other day. He sits in the back so he can scan the class and still look like he’s paying attention. Mike is to his right, Jason to his left, and Alex next to Jason. Everyone in the school calls them the Gentlemen. They are always dressed to the nines and are known to treat girls like princesses. They are also known to have a different girlfriend every week. They were players but every girl wanted to be with them. In the corner of his eye, Andrew sees someone staring at him. He turns quickly to see a new girl. Andrew has never seen her before. The way her brown, wavy hair flows down the back is kind of pretty. For the rest of the period, Andrew thinks of a way he can talk to her. Maybe the same suave and debonair way he talks to every girl or maybe another way. All Andrew has seen is the back of her but every time he looks at her gorgeous locks, a knot forms in his stomach.

***
“Hey,” Andrew says approaching the new girl. His voice cracked. That hasn’t happened in 2 years.
Erica turns around. “Oh, Hey.” She starts to walk faster. Andrew has to walk at a speedwalk just to keep up.
“I saw you in Mr. Opaque’s Geometry class. Just want to introduce myself. I’m Andrew.” “Oh hi, I’m Erica. Love to chat but got to get to English.”
Andrew just stands there. He’s never been rejected like that before. Andrew made it his goal. He will get Erica to talk to him by the end of the day. Andrew runs to catch up with the rest of the Gentlemen. They head off to gym together. Thank the Lord for being seniors. They all have the same classes together. As he begins to change though, he just can’t get those chestnut brown eyes out of his mind.
Erica can’t believe it. The reason she did a double take in Geometry had talked to her. It took her until she sat down in Miss. Lamstead’s for her to catch her breath. She was able to compose herself on the outside but she was like mush on the inside. Focus Erica. He’s just a boy, is what she kept repeating to herself. Erica wasn’t going to let her get caught up in a romance when she knew her mom would be changing her mind in the next few months.
Erica and Andrew start their next classes trying to pay attention but they couldn’t get each other out of their minds.