“You ready?” Sam asks from beside me.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I say with a sigh.
“You give ’em hell,” Sam says, patting my back. “And if anyone bothers you, you call me, alright?”
“Right.” I nod, blowing out my breath before I throw my bag over my shoulder and walk off.
“I’m gonna call my mom to come and pick me up,” she says. “When you’re done with class, text me about your day. Tell me how it all went down.”
“Course,” I reply. “Thanks.”
I don’t like saying goodbye, especially not to my best friend, and especially not when she’s looking at me like that. She’s worried we’ll see each other less and less … until we no longer have time for the other.
But I won’t ever let it get to that point. She’ll always be my best friend, and nothing can ever come between us, not even a different school.
“Love ya, bitch!” I tell her, sticking out my tongue, and she says, “Love you right back, bitch!”
Then I turn around and walk toward Ariane with my head held high.
“Hey, girl, I’m so glad you’re finally here!” she says, immediately hugging me, but in a weird non-touchy way, almost like some kind of ritual I wasn’t aware of. “How are you feeling today? Excited?”
“Yeah, of course,” I lie, but I don’t want to come across as ungrateful, so I don’t tell her the truth. I’m already glad she was willing to help me out.
“So this is our school, your new school … Black Mountain. Our colors are red and black, and our mascot is a cougar. Remember that. It’s important, especially if you want to try out for cheerleading. We’d love to have you.” She winks.
God no. That shit makes me wanna vomit.
We walk toward the building. “This is the main entrance, there’s the gym, and that’s where the cafeteria is.” She points at all the doors. “I already went ahead and got your roster for you so you won’t be held up at registration.” She whips out a piece of paper from her pink bag and hands it to me. “I’ve circled all your classes today, so you won’t get lost. The numbers are really easy, it’s just front to back, top to bottom, so A1 is the first room downstairs.”
“Got it,” I reply as we go inside, but I’m not really listening because the place is huge, and I’m taking in as much as I can.
“We have lunch in the cafeteria at twelve; you can sit with my friends and me,” Ariane says as we stop in front of the cafeteria door. “Our table is the one in the middle, there.” She points at one table, but I have no clue which one it is, so I’ll guess I’ll find out once it’s time to find her.
“Oh, and Mr. D gave me permission to give you a teacher’s bathroom pass,” she says. “So you’ll have some privacy.” She smiles. “I know how hard it is for you.”
I give her an awkward smile, as I don’t like talking about these things. I guess my mom told her about what happened, probably because Ariane was curious about why I was switching schools.
“But they’re unisex bathrooms,” she suddenly says, and I look up in surprise.
“Wait, what? Unisex?”
“Yeah. But it’s fine. You’ll be like the only one there,” she says, waving it off. “I think.”
Why do I feel like she doesn’t really know?
Oh, boy.
She hands me the pass. “Thanks,” I say, as I don’t want to appear ungrateful for her effort to give me a sort of haven.
“You’re welcome!” she says with a super cheerful voice.
We walk by most of the classrooms, and Ariane points out some things about each class, such as where the drama club is and how to sign up (like I ever would), and where the math club meets, where the theater is, and at what time the music club starts. She’s meticulous in her explanations, almost as if she’s afraid that if she skips a single item on her list, I won’t know how to find stuff for myself. She’s always been like this, and it makes me wonder if she thinks I’m dumb, or if she just hangs with a lot of dumb people. Probably the latter.
“Okay, and that’s the tour!” she says cheerfully. “If you have any questions or problems, anything whatsoever, you know you can always come ask me, right?”
“Of course,” I say, shrugging it off, but I didn’t listen to half of what she was saying anyway. I just looked around and marveled at the beauty of the building, and the uninterested looks of all the other students as though they didn’t even care I was there. And it was amazing. No one here knows who I am or what I’ve been through, and that feels so good. Not one second did I want to disappear.