Welcome to New Haven (9 page)

 
Holly pulled the covers over her head and went back to sleep.

Holly got to school early again and not long after, Dev walked into homeroom.
 

“Hi Holly!
 
How are you feeling today?
 
We were all worried about you.
 
Alex asked me if you were ok.”
 

That was nice of him to ask; considering he hadn’t met her yet.
 
Well, she was a friend of his twin sister after all.
 

“Yeah, I’m good actually.
 
I really needed the rest though.
 
I slept until the afternoon.”
 

Holly
had
actually slept that long.
 
It was 12:30 when she woke up and she only got out of bed because she really needed a shower, and her stomach was complaining of starvation.
 

“I was thinking…maybe I
could
meet the others today.
 
I’ve already met Ben anyway, so maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing.
 
Besides, I have the weekend to recover”
 
Holly said with a chuckle.
 

“Damn! That would have been awesome!
 
Alex told me, this morning, that they were going to go out today too.
 
You know, because we were.
 
I could text him and ask him to change his plans…”
 
Dev said as she reached into her bag for her phone.
 

“No it’s ok. I don’t want them to change their plans just because of me.
 
We’ll wait until Monday.
 
Anyway, I’ll probably see your brother later, when I go to your house.”
 

“He usually goes to the gym on Fridays so you may see him just before he leaves.”
 

“Ok, well, I’ll see him then.”

Mrs. Carter walked into the room with a stack of forms and gave them out to the front of the class.
 

“Hand these out please.”
 
She said to Jake.
 

Jake went round the room handing out, what looked like a letter, and winked at her as he placed hers on the table.
 
Holly heard a snort coming from behind them.

Stacey.

She must have seen what Jake had done and was making her distaste known.
 

“Ignore her” Dev whispered. “She gets jealous when guys pay attention to any girl that isn’t her.”
 

Holly just shook her head in disbelief and picked up the letter.

Dear students

       
As you know, the faculty has decided on a schedule change.
 
We believe that the previous system was a little outdated and, at times, confusing for some students.
 
The changes in place are as follows:-

All student chosen studies are numbered in the spaces.
 
See the diagram for an example.

Number 1 is AP Calculus; Number 2 is AP Biology etc
.
 
Therefore, number 1 on the schedule is at 11:40am Mondays and Thursdays.
 
If any student has none of their chosen studies in a time slot, congratulations, you have a free period.
 
Use it wisely.

For the remainder of the regular classes, they will be grouped together.
 
Previously, we had three groups who had their English classes on different days and times.
 
Now, they will be all at the same time, but split into three groups.
 
Some subjects require a short test to determine the designated group for you.

Due to these changes, last semesters grades, and test scores will be used to determine your group.
 
The results will be given out on Monday morning, during homeroom.

We hope you enjoy the change.

Good luck.

P. Lawson

Principal

That was just great.
 
Holly knew that this could potentially put her into more classes with Hot-guy.
 
She’d only had one class with him that week, and already she was a mess!
 
She couldn’t even imagine going into class on Monday morning with him there. She wouldn’t have an escape if her heart decided to burst from her chest like an alien.
 

Maybe she was overreacting.
 
It wasn’t as if he could just sit next to her and strike up conversation…Or was it?
 

Holly began to breathe a little quicker than usual.
 
Her pulse racing.
 

“This could be fun.”
 
Dev said from beside her.
 
Unaware of the emotional turmoil that Holly was going through.
 

Yeah, she was overreacting a little bit…a lot.
 

“We could end up with more classes together!
 
That would be so great!”
 
Dev was excited for the changes, but Holly couldn’t think about it right now.
 

At least she had the weekend to prepare herself.

I have to get through today first.

When homeroom was over, Dev said goodbye to Holly and left for her A.Bio class as Holly walked in the other direction for her social studies class.
 

As all of the students were walking ahead of her, she could just about see through the mass of bodies.
 
She felt a shiver down her spine before the group directly in front of her changed direction to go into a room.
 

Holly immediately saw him.
 

Hot-guy was standing next to the lockers, and he looked as if he were looking around for somebody.
 
Thinking that he wasn’t going to notice her walking past and embarrassing herself by blushing, she continued heading for her class.
 

Holly glanced up at him just as he made eye contact with her, and was full of panic as she saw recognition there.
 
Hot-guy stopped looking around and stared at her for a few seconds before he began walking in her direction.
 
He’d been looking for her!

Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God!
 
She thought to herself, over and over again.
 

Holly didn’t know what to do as she couldn’t go back because she’d be late for class, and the door she was trying to get to, was a few feet ahead of him.
 

Holly dropped her head and moved her feet as fast she could, without falling on her face, to avoid him.
 
She realised when he had gotten closer to her when she heard his voice.
 

“Hey Holly”.
 

Holly let out a strangled “Hey” as she carried on walking.
 

“Are you ok?”
 
he asked as he rushed to catch up with her.
 

Holly took a deep breath as the sound of his voice floated over her, sending tingles to the depth of her very soul.
 

Holly meant to say yes, but her tongue was currently having a seizure.
 

“Um…I…I…”
 
she took another breath.
 
“Gotta go”
 
she managed as she gratefully turned into her class.
 

Holly sat in her seat and looked down to her desk, not daring to look in the direction of the door.

Alex was left standing in the hallway wondering what the hell had just happened.
 
He stared at Holly, who’s face was turning pink, as she was looking down at her desk.
 
She didn’t look back at him, but there was nothing he could do because the teacher chose that moment to walk past him into the room.
 
He turned to close the door, stopping to look at Alex who was still standing there.
 
Then slowly closed the door in his face.

Alex walked to class wondering what he could’ve done to make Holly act that way with him. Dev had said ‘
Holly says Hi
’
 
when she was texting her yesterday, when she was ill.
 

He’d been worried something was wrong when Dev had told him that she had a migraine.
 
If she had told him ‘Hi’ then why was she acting that way now?
 

Ben had said that she was cool and Dev liked her a lot.
 
He wondered if it were just
him
that she didn’t like, because she always seemed to be running in the opposite direction to avoid him.
 

Alex had told Dev that he and the guys were going to go out of school for lunch that day.
 
That wasn’t true though.
 
He’d said that, on the chance that the girls would stay in school, in case Holly was going out of school to avoid him.

I’ll be meeting her for lunch.
 
Then, I can find out what’s going on.

“Dude you’re late”
 
Ben said as Alex took his seat next to him.
 
“Where did you go?”
 

“I…uh…waited for Holly.
 
I just wanted to say ‘Hi’ and see how she was after being ill yesterday.”
 
Alex replied, not looking Ben in the eye.
 

“And…?”
 
Ben asked, a little smirk playing in the corners of his mouth.
 

Alex blew out a breath of frustration.
 

“She wouldn’t talk to me.
 
I asked her whether she was ok, and she just said ‘I gotta go’ and then walked into her class.
 
She didn’t even look at me when I spoke to her.”
 

Alex felt a little sick himself then.
 
He had no idea what Holly thought or why she was acting that way.
 

“Maybe she’s just shy”
 
Ben said with a shrug.
 

“Yeah, well, she talks to you.”
 
Alex practically spat.
 
He didn’t like feeling jealous of his best friend, but right then, he did.
 
He’d gotten to speak to Holly in A.Calc class.
 

“Not much though.
 
I only said hi to her and that I was your friend.
 
I asked her how long she’d been here, and she said almost four weeks now.
 
She lives with her Mom and Step-Dad, but I guess Dev already told you that. Anyway, she wasn’t overly conversational.
 
She was still pretty shy.
 
Maybe it’s just you, dude.”
 
Ben grinned.
 

“What do you mean? I haven’t done anything!”
 
Alex whisper shouted.
 

He didn’t want to attract any attention to himself in the class.
 
Stacey was already shooting him some serious ‘fuck me’ eyes and he wanted to vomit.
 
He didn’t want her to overhear him talking about Holly.
 

“It’s not what you have done, it’s you.
 
You
are
the resident beefcake round here.
 
Maybe you just scared her off.”
 
Ben snorted a laugh that he couldn’t hold back and Alex narrowed his eyes at him.
 

He secretly hoped Holly liked him, but the way she avoided him didn’t make sense if she did.
 
Ben leant on his elbow and faced Alex, giving him a little ‘stare down’.
 

“What?”
 
Alex said when Ben pursed his lips to stop himself from smiling.
 

“Nothing, dude.
 
Absolutely nothing.”
 
Ben replied before turning back to the teacher.

“I think she’s avoiding me because she doesn’t like me”
 
Alex said suddenly as they got to their next class.

“Are you
still
on that?”
 
asked Ben, shaking his head.
 

“Why else would she avoid me?
 
I mean, I spoke to her, and she took off.
 
She practically ran away from me.”

“Yeah well, she’s a tiny thing.
 
Maybe your towering over her freaked her out.”
 

Alex knew Ben was just being a smart-ass.
 
It was a running joke with them, Alex’s height, because he was two inches taller than the other guys, and he seemed to be more muscular too.
 
So he tended to look bigger all over.
 
Ben was closer to his size than Ryan and Kyle, but still a little smaller.
 

“You’re so funny.”
 
Alex said sarcastically as his so-called best friend cracked up laughing.
 
“I told Dev that we weren’t going to our table for lunch today.”
 

“Why did you do that?”
 
Ben asked, confused.
 

They’d always eaten lunch with the girls, until Holly started.
 
Dev had told him they’d been going out because they wanted Holly to feel completely comfortable with the girls first, before introducing her to the boys.
 

“Because if Holly
is
avoiding me, then if they think we’re not going to sit with them, which we
are
, they won’t have to leave.”

“That’s not cool, man.”
 
Ben said with a little shake of his head.
 
“What if it goes completely wrong and she freaks?
 
Did you think of that?”
 

Alex was ashamed to admit that he
hadn’t
thought of that.
 
The only thing going through his head was that he wanted to know what was going on.
 
If she were there, at the same time as he was, he could find out.
 
Now, though, he felt like an ass.