Mike Fuentes and a Semester Abroad

I absolutely despised everything about being the new girl at school. I mean, I wasn’t a bad looking kid- I've had boyfriends and guys, not to mention a few girls, hit on me countless times. I knew I wasn’t bad looking; I was somewhere around 5'6, with wavy auburn hair and green eyes and a slightly curvy body. I wasn’t exactly the hot chick, but that was okay because I didn’t want to be a carbon copy of every girl. I was myself and I liked it that way. I'm not cocky or arrogant, I just know what I have going for me. And no way in hell was I an introverted girl. Apparently, I got what my guy friends back home said was the best thing in a girl- confidence and a cute smile- but I just didn’t like the fact that when I got to a new school, all eyes would be on me and I would be the topic of quite a few conversations. The feeling of knowing people were talking about me behind my back bothered me. C'est la vie. I made the best of everything I could and dealt with it. I had no regrets in life because I did almost everything I wanted.

"How can I help you?" a muted voice asked. Not thinking it was a question posed at me, I kept my iPod headphones in. An annoyed cough came from the same direction. "I said," the voice said, growing louder, "How can I help you?!"

Well, the voice was no longer muted. People here were so lovely. I took out the headphones and walked up to the desk. I was in the attendance office at my new school. I looked at the short, angry looking man behind the counter and smiled. There had to be fifteen high schools in all of San Diego and my father sends me to the smallest and quite possibly least delightful of them all. Awesome.

"I'm new here-" I started. Before I could give my name, the short, angry man scrutinized me with his beady, little eyes. I hated when people did that. It was like they were intentionally pointing out all my flaws. He nodded as a boy walked into the office behind me.

He was extremely tall and skinny. Starving-child-in-Unicef-commercials skinny. I envied his long, chicken legs, comparing them to my curved, average ones. He gave me a confused once-over and sucked on his lip ring. Classy. He slowly walked into the spot next to me and handed Angry Short Man a piece of paper. "To clear my, uh, absence yesterday."

Angry Short Man nodded and looked at me. The skinny kid lingered in the office curiously. Apparently this school rarely got new kids. Angry Short Man handed me a few slips of paper including my schedule and a map. "Since you're our only new student, my guess is that you're Lacey Walker?" He snapped and continued before I could nod. "Alright, that’s all you'll need, drop off the pink slip at the end of the day with all your teachers' signatures." I waited for some encouraging semantics but none came.

I started walking out of the office when the Angry Short Man stopped me. I turned around as he looked at the skinny kid, "Oh. Mike?" The skinny kid looked up from his shoes, "Show Lacey around. Mike, this is Lacey Walker. Lacey, this is Mike Fuentes." I gave Mike a hopeful smile. He took my elbow and gave me a questionable grin.

Oh boy.