Fenris

The halls at school were always so noisy, sometimes it was hard to think. Most of the time I just navigated the halls on auto pilot. I didn’t talk to that many people, mostly the small wave or friendly smile. As I carefully weaved through the crowds to my locker on the far end of the main hall, I twisted the dial around and unlocked it. I grabbed one of my notebooks and my biology book before stuffing my history book and math book into my locker. Just as I was shoving everything back into my tattered up backpack, I heard the sound of a harmonica. A chuckle escaped me as I heard a small slam against the lockers and a country tune of the harmonica.

“Don’t quit your day job, Miguel,” I said as I closed my locker and slung my backpack onto my back.

He played one more tune before pulling the instrument from his mouth and stuffed it into his back pocket. “Technically, I don’t have a day job, so I wouldn’t really be quitting anything,” he pointed out, and I rolled my eyes. Miguel De Soto was my witty—somewhat annoying, but I loved him anyways—best friend. He normally had a comment or fun fact about everything, needless to say he kept me on my toes. “Candy bar?”

“That’s not exactly a nutritious breakfast,” I told him as I stared at the yellow Toblerone box he was holding out to me. You could always count on Miguel to have some sort of chocolate or candy stashed in his backpack. The worst part was he could eat three bags of M&Ms or Skittles and not gain any weight or get a single break-out. If I had just one M&M a pimple would appear on my face as punishment.

“I didn’t say it was breakfast, it’s a breakfast snack,” Miguel joked as he retracted the chocolate, knowing I wasn’t going to have any. “So how was your weekend before I bore you with my horrible story?” He asked, shoving his hands into the pockets of his dark blue blazer with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows with a white and blue pinstriped polo beneath it with dark washed jeans that flared slightly around his lace up boots. Miguel had this urban cowboy/prep school boy about him. It actually worked quite well for him thanks to his handsome face, rich brown eyes, luscious chocolate locks, and ridiculously perfect skin.

“I just did work around the ranch,” I replied with a shrug as we began walking to our first class, which was Biology on the second floor on the opposite side of the building.

“Well my sister learned how to do on tie-dye at school on Friday, so she tie-tyed all my work shirts, then my dog killed our neighbors rabbit, and the little boy was crying for hours and I felt so guilty, but Roscoe is like a wolf, his instincts are just there and he can’t help himself,” Miguel told me as we started climbing up the stairs. At the mention of ‘wolf’ my mind went back to the massive one I saw this morning. My mind was so fixated on that wolf that I hadn’t even realized Miguel was asking me a question until he started snapping his fingers in front of my face. When i blinked and looked at him I smiled weakly, and he furrowed his brows. “Daleyza? Is everything alright with you? Something seems off today.”

“I’m fine, just didn’t get much sleep last night,” I lied and shrugged my shoulders.

“Well, you look radiant,” Miguel assured me with a smile as we walked into our class.

The teacher, Mrs. Abernathy, had separated Miguel and I since we spent too much time talking. We were on opposite ends of the room and on opposite corners. Not that it stopped Miguel from yelling across the room sometimes. As I took my seat the bell rang to signal students if they were still out in the halls they were late and classes had begun. I unzipped my back and pulled out my book and notebook so I could get ready for the death by power point that Mrs. Abernathy would put us through.

“Good morning class, today we are going to continue talking about the different regions and climates found on our great green Earth,” Mrs. Abernathy began as she pulled down the white screen to start the power point. “There will be a quiz at the end of the week, so pay attention, that means you Miguel.”

“Mrs. Abernathy, I always pay attention,” Miguel replied cheekily and batted his lashes. The woman, probably in her mid-thirties only scoffed, and started up the power point. Just as she was about to begin a knock came to the door and in walked Principal Bailey with a student behind him.

“Good morning, Mrs Abernathy, sorry to interrupt. I was just showing Henry to his first class, he’s new and just moved here from London.” Principal Bailey gestured to the young man as he stepped forward and smiled weakly as everyone gawked at him like he was made of gold or something. Though, I couldn’t deny he was rather easy on the eyes. “So everyone be welcoming, have a good first day, Henry.” Mr. Bailey clapped him on the shoulder and quietly left the room.

“Nice to meet you, Henry,” Mrs. Abernathy said, brushing a strand of her auburn hair behind her ear. “Why don’t you take a seat at the table next to Daleyza, raise your hand.” Mrs Abernathy waved a hand at me, and I did as I was told.

Henry nodded and quietly slinked through the tables of dozens of students. It was rare for us to ever get new students, this was such a small town after all. Most people left the small towns for the biggest cities. As Henry sat down at the table next to me, I looked at him and smiled weakly. He stared back at me and quickly looked away, which made me furrow my brows. Perhaps he was just nervous, London was far away and it wasn’t exactly like Shiner Hills was all that interesting.

“Did you just move here?” I asked him, trying to make him feel a little more comfortable.

Henry looked at me, his eyes were those gorgeous blue like the Caribbean blue you see painted on beach houses. “Yeah,” he answered quietly.

“How do you like it so far? Do you have any siblings?” I asked him.

“No, just me,” he replied with a shake of his head.

“Oh, I see,” I muttered and pressed my lips together. “Well I’m Daleyza, if you need any help or anything just ask.” I smiled, hoping that it would put him at ease.

“Thanks,” he said with a curt nod before looking back up at the power point presentation. The way he was watching the screen, it was like he had never seen something like it before.