Hi, I'm Zoe Nicole Merrick

*beep beep beep* I groaned loudly and hit the off button on the stupid alarm clock. “Good morning sunshine!” Zack spoke to me in the best girly voice he could manage. I chuckled and got up as he left the room. What to wear, what to wear? I finally decided and looked at the clock, 7:06. Great, I have 24 minutes until we leave. I ran to the bathroom, threw on my clothes, put on my make up and ran down the stairs, for breakfast. I got in the pantry where the cereal was. All the Apple Jacks were gone. Looking over at the table, there Zack was eating my cereal.

“Zaackkk.” I complained to him.

He chuckled, “Sorry babe, should’ve woken up sooner.”

I gave him a look that said your-going-to-pay-for-this “Well, what am I supposed to eat?”

“I don’t know, look through the fridge.” He shrugged.

“Okay.” I sighed loudly.

I looked through the fridge, I guess leftover pizza from last night will just have to do. I chocked down the pizza, got my backpack, grabbed Zack’s hand, and pulled him out the door. Just then, a car pulled up, one I’ve never seen before.

Alex’s brown hair stuck out the passenger side and yelled out “Come on fuckers let’s go to school!”

“Alexander William Gaskarth watch that language!” A woman, who I was assuming his mother yelled.

“Sorry mom.” Alex mumbled.

Zack and I chucked and he yelled in the house “Alex is giving us a ride mom, love you!”

I smirked and got in the back seat, with Zack following behind. “Hello you two, I’m Isobel, Alex’s mother.” Alex’s mom spoke to us.

“Zoe, and this is my brother Zack.” I said, pointing at my brother.

“Well it’s very nice to meet you.” Isobel smiled.

*At School..*

I hopped out of the car and thanks Mrs. Gaskarth for the ride. Looking up, a sign that said “Dulaney High School” was above the school. The school looked really big, which bothered me, I wasn’t used to that.

“It’ll be okay.” Zack whispered in my ear. I’m telling you, we have twin telepathy! I smiled at him, and he returned it.

Just then our brother-sister moment was interrupted by the sound of Jack’s voice “ZOE! ZACK! HI!” he screamed at us.

Zack and I sighed and laughed “Hey Jack.” Jack smiled in return.

“Kara is sick.” Rian sighed, he was sad. They really do make a cute couple.

“Aww poor Rianbear is going to be so sad!.” Alex said in a baby voice. We all laughed.

“Ha ha ha, at least I have a girlfriend.” Rian smirked at Alex.

“Shut up.” Alex replied, pretending to be hurt. I could get used to these guys.

“Zo, we gotta go get our schedules.” Zack interrupted the laughing.

“Oh yeah.” I acknowledged.

“See ya guys around.” Zack voiced to the whole group.

A round of byes were spoken to us. Zack led me to the office, with me right behind him. This place was so big! People were staring at us we were the “new kids” , of course they did.

We got to the office, the lady behind the counter asked “What can I help you two with?” not looking up from whatever was on her computer.

“Um, my sister and I are new here, we need out schedules.” Zack replied.

“Names please.” She asked in a grouchy tone.

“Zoe and Zack Merrick.” I spoke for the first time, answering her question. She looked through some paperwork, and handed each of us a piece of paper.

It said:
“ Zoe Nicole Merrick: Freshman: 2002
Locker number: 234 Code: 24-32-06
Homeroom: Mrs. Gonzalez 119
1. A.P. English Mrs. Amato 224
2. History Mr. Greene 114
3. Choir Mrs. Lincoln 216
4. Science Mrs. Lerson 132
5. Math Mr. Knewson 128
Lunch
6. Spanish Mrs. Gonzalez 119
7. Physical Education Mr. Musgrave 104
8. Health Mrs. Jenkins 239

It looked easy enough. Just then, Zack grabbed my schedule and looked it over, his face fell.

“What’s wrong?” I asked curiously.

“We only have 3 classes together; Gym, health, and Spanish.” He sighed loudly.

I’ve never not had a class with Zack before, we went to a Christian school, where each grade was one classroom. So, we’ve never been apart, ever. It was a scary feeling to say the least “Oh.” I managed to mumble out.

“Yeah, but it’s gonna be okay bud.” He smiled at me, I returned it with a fake one, knowing that this was going to be a very long day.

I walked out of the room and to the lockers, finding it, I did the combination on it, and it opened. I took out the things that were on the list for English, and walked into room 119. It was weird, there was about 28 desks in the room, which was big because my graduating 8th grade class had 16 kids in it.

“Good morning sweetie, what’s your name?” a woman spoke.

“Zoe Merrick.” I forced a smile.
“Oh, new student, I’m Mrs. Gonzalez, sit in any empty seat you like, I’m not big on assigned seating.” She spoke quietly and motioned towards the desk. I sat down in a seat 2 rows back, which means not too noticeable but not completely invisible. About 4 kids walked in and stared at me, until I found a familiar one, Rian. I sighed, feeing relief all over me, being comfortable around Rian was a very easy thing. He smiled in my direction when he saw me and sat down next to me.

“Hey.” he said casually.

“I’m glad you’re here Rian.” I smiled at him, a genuine one.

He chuckled and said “Thank you.”

The bell rang and people still talked. I guess Mrs. Gonzalez was pretty loose with teaching. A random guy scooted his desk up to mine, while I went closer to Rian. The guy spoke “Oh, you don’t have to be scared angel, I won’t hurt ya.” He said winking, this guy was creeping me out.

“Hey fuck off man.” Rain spoke to him, apparently he knew that I was freaking out.

“Whatever.” The other guy mumbled and moved away, back to his lame ass friends.

“Thank you.” I whispered to him.

“No problem.” he smiled. “oh, by the way, let me see your schedule.”

I handed it to him as he looked it over. He finally spoke “ We have gym and History together.”

Good, that means 4 classes down, only 4 to be alone in. That shouldn’t be too hard, hopefully.

The bell rang again. “See ya around Zo.” Rian said to me. I nodded in his direction. Walking off to English, god only knows what’s gonna happen in there.

Walking into the English classroom where there was a shorter woman, with semi-short hair, and funky glasses on. She finally spoke “Hello honey, what’s your name?” She asked me, she seemed really nice.

“Zoe Merrick.” I softly said to her.

“Well Zoe, you can sit wherever you want, I don’t care. I‘m Mrs. Amato by the way.” She smiled at me.

I sat down at a desk kind of close to hers, but not too close. Kids started piling in, of course I didn’t recognize any of them, until Alex walked in. He soon saw me, smiled and sat next to me.

“Hey.” he said nodding his head in the way boys like to say what’s-up.

“Hey.” I smiled at him.

Then another blonde girl came up to him, “Heyyyy Alex.” she spoke seductively to him, she was a big ass slut.

“Hi Lisa.” He uncomfortably spoke, as she sat down next to him.

She smiled at him still, until she saw me and said in a bored voice “Who’s this?”

“Her name is Zoe, she’s my friend; her brother just joined the band.” He smiled at me, and winked.

He said I was his friend, I smiled like an idiot at that and nodded my head at Lisa. She rolled her eyes and turned to one of her friends that just walked in. Alex rolled his eyes, motioning that he obviously wasn’t a big fan of this Lisa Girl. I smiled with him, and he smiled back.

“Let me see your schedule Zo.” He said plainly. He looked it over and spoke “English, Choir, and Gym only.” he had a sad look on his face. Which made butterflies swirl around in my stomach, knowing that he was disappointed.

The bell rang loudly and Mrs. Amato spoke “Alright class, today were doing partner reading for a new story were starting. You may pick your partners.”

I wasn’t sure who to pick, I was always partners with Zack. Interrupting my thoughts, Lisa spoke “Alex, want to be my partner?”

“No thanks, I’m gonna be with Zoe here.” He spoke and looked at me with a questioning gaze.

“Yeah sorry, were going to partner up.” I smiled.

She huffed, and went back to gossiping with her friends, just then Mrs. Amato gave me a book and Alex too, then he said “Thanks for saving me from her.”

I laughed “No problem.”

We scooted our desks closer to each other as we read the chapters we were assigned in the book.

It was almost my turn, when I saw out of the corner of my eye someone pointing at me, it was Lisa with her friend. I rolled my eyes, and looked back at Alex, who was looking at me.

“What’s wrong?” He questioned.

“Lisa is pointing at me.” I said.

“Screw her, don’t worry about her, she‘s the school slut. I would not worry about it. Plus, your prettier than her” He winked at me.

“Thank you.” I managed to say as the blush flew to my face. He smiled at me.

BRIINNGGG the bell rang loudly, as we scooted apart, and handed the teacher our books.

“Hey, I’ll see you in choir” Alex winked at me.

“Can’t wait.” I spoke, truly meaning it.

Walking back to my locker, I got all my History things, and walked into room 114. As soon as I walked in, Jack jumped out of his seat and yelled “Zoe!” as he ran up to me and gave me a hug.

I chuckled out “Hi Jack!”

Then, Rian came into the room and said “Hey, I want in on this love fest!” as he picked me and Jack up at the same time. I laughed loudly. While Rian smiled, and finally let us go when people were clearing their throats so they could get through the door.

The teacher rolled his eyes at us, and asked “Hello miss, what’s your name?”

“Zoe Merrick, sir.” I replied, kind of embarrassed, because I didn’t realize he was right there.

“Oh, the new student, there is an empty seat right in front of Mr. Barakat, Mrs. Merrick; oh my name is Mr. Greene.” He said, almost forgetting to say his name.

“Yay! Zo is by me Rian!” Jack stuck out his tongue at the shaggy haired boy.

“Dude, she’s by me too, I’m the seat in front of her.” He said matter-of-factly.

Jack’s face fell “Oh.”

“That’s okay, I like both of you the same.” I giggled.

They smiled, and we took our seats. Oh, does Mr. Greene have a thing coming.