You Said You read Me Like a Book

You know that feeling when you’re fast asleep but your senses are still working?
It’s like daydreaming with your body disconnected.
All I can say is that I find it absolutely awful.
This is because you can literally be in the middle of the best dream ever only to be interrupted by a voice, a smell or an alarm.
Like I now was, my alarm clock to be precise.

I groaned and turned in bed, trying my best to reach and hit the snooze button on the old clock radio that used to be in my parent’s room before my dad had decided I needed it more.

I focused my eyes, ready to jump on my feet and turn off the beeping.
Being me, I obviously misjudged badly; I ended up colliding with the floor, stomach first, hearing a small ‘bam’ as I hit my foot against my “box of belongings”.
I turned over on my back, biting my lower lip to take the focus away from the short pain raising from my ankle, closing my eyes and pulling the blankets from the bed over me once again.

“Alex, time to wake up! The sun is out and the weather outside is beautif - what are you doing on the floor?”
My lark of a dad gently shook me, trying to receive some sort of confirmation that I was actually still alive, I groaned again and pulled the duvet further up above my head.

“Rise and shine sleeping beauty, today’s your first day on a new school and you know what that means?”
I pushed myself up to my elbows and stared at him through the messy hair that covered most of my face.

“Eternal damnation of all my enemies to the fire pits of hell and it’s suburbs?” I asked hopefully and gave him a joking smile

My dad, now used to me not being what you like to call a “morning person”, quite simply shook his head and rolled his eyes at me.

“Nope, it means that you’re going to go out, meet people, get friends and make connections!” the once again cheerful tone had me annoyed before my brain even registered his words.

I prefer the sounds to the actual meaning of the noises. Like, I don’t mind you speaking, but I won’t pay attention to what you’re saying.

“You mean like, drug connections? Dad, if you really wanted me to have a hash stash all you had to do was give me the money” I laid back down and tried to focus my eyes on a non particular spot up on the ceiling hoping that the slumber wouldn’t get the best of me.

“Come on, if you get your lazy ass out of bed within the next ten minutes, I’ll let you borrow the car for the day…”

---

Okay, before you say anything; No, I had not just sold my precious sleep to be able to drive a worn out Toyota.
I had sold it to make sure my “not yet existent reputation” didn’t get ruined.

I’ve been new before, and already back in freshman year you were looked down at if your parents drove you or picked you up from school.
This usually resulted in a bunch of teens walking or taking the bike (which usually got stolen)
Of course I had been one of those whom had not been informed about this, and my first year in San Diego had been sort of rough after that.
Therefore I was determined not to make the same error twice.

I had just slammed the driver’s door shut and I was now staring at the building which was going to be my school for the next year; compared to the school I went to back home, it wasn’t particularly big, but at the same time it wasn’t small either.

I bet it was a two-storage building, maybe with a decent sized canteen in the back?

In addition to the fatal mistake they had made by painting the entrance part of the school in an odd grey color which didn’t really correspond to with the perfect dentist white paint on the rest of the building, they had also written “Southwell high” in large, bold letters over the door.

I sighed and started making my way towards the entry, it was a double door, but still I was pushed aside by the countless students who were trying to make it to their already scheduled classes.

I, on the other hand, was left dumbfounded in the middle of the hall as I watched the pupils slowly say goodbye to their friends and disappear into separate classroom.

I had to get to the principals office to get information about the stuff like my classes and grades, but a lot like the tardis, this school was definitely bigger on the insider (Adding up to my nonexistent luck).

I started aimlessly walking around, looking for something, anything honesty, which could point me towards the principal’s.

“Oi, mate, all right? You look a tad lost…” a British accent spoke close to my ear as I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders loosely.
I looked up and met the dark eyes of a boy I had never seen before (which wasn’t really a surprise seeing I had pretty much just arrived).

I had seen this scene in movies many times before though; it was the part where the newbie accidentally got in the way of the bully whom would shove his face down the toilet of one of the bathroom stalls to “make a point”.

I really wish I could say I wasn’t even a little intimidated by the boy, but that would be one huge ass lie. He was tall, and the dark hair fell in his face, framing it and covering a part of his eyebrows.

It wasn’t the look on his face that had me frightened, in all honesty, his eyes seemed inviting and his smile was warm.
It was mostly the countless tattoos covering most of what I could see of his body and his “I-don’t-really-give-a-shit” attitude.

“No… I-I’m, um, I’m fine, really” I shrugged and tried to casually remove his arm off of my shoulder.

“Really? Cause I haven’t seen you around before and people tend to get lost around here, even students” he raised an eyebrow at me as he spoke, I knew he had seen through my act a long time ago but I still tried to keep it up

“Yeah, I’m new and I was on my way to Principal um, Way?” I glanced at my hand where I had written down the basic information as I spoke

“But I’m fine, thanks anyways” I added quickly and turned to continue in the same direction I had before being interrupted

“I think that’s tosh, cause if you were fine then you’d know that the Way-office is in that direction” I turned to look at him only to see his smug grin and his finger pointing towards the way I had jut come from

“Yeah, of course, just going the long way, getting to know the school and stuff”, I mumbled as I hurried past him

He rolled his eyes me before catching up and once again putting his hand around my shoulder.

“Follow me” he chuckled before practically pulling me along

I did as I was told, seeing I already had gotten lost once, leaving this dude would probably be a bad idea.

“I’m Oliver, by the way, but my mates call me Oli” he grinned at me

“I’m Alex, the new guy” I replied trying to pay attention to the various turns and stairs we descended as Oli chuckled

The stop was sudden and he pointed towards a door at the end of the hallway, he opened his mouth to say something but quickly cut it off

“Bollocks…” he mumbled as an elderly man passed in front of it, hurrying towards a room in the other end

“I would love to walk you there buddy, but I’m supposed to be in maths and I’ve got a feeling no one in there will be too pleased to see me, you’ll be fine though?” he looked at me and raised an eyebrow wondering, I nodded quickly and thanked him

He just gave me a wave as he shoved his hands in his pockets and hurried down another hallway to the left

I walked over to the door, and took a quick breath as I knocked

“Come in?” a voice spoke; I entered seeing a small room

There were few windows and the walls were painted dark, covered with diplomas, badges and display cases in glass, containing medals and trophies for everything from chess tournaments to football and arts.

In the middle of the room sat a man behind a desk; he looked authoritarian, though the first thing you noticed was his red hair, it was like… Red. He held a confused look as he saw me.

“Um, excuse me, I’m Alex Gaskarth, I’m new here an-“ I started, awkwardly looking around trying to keep my speech at a comprehendible speed

“Ah, right, Alexander, finally! Please take a seat” the man smiled kindly and motioned for me to take a seat by one of the chairs as he handed me a piece of paper.

“Here are your locker combination and number, just give me a minute and I’ll find your schedule before giving you a quick summary of what your stay here will be like”