Discovering Rose

Chapter 4

After about half an hour on deciding what to wear on my first day at school, I finally settled on a Jack Wills hoodie and a pair of jeans. Pulling my hair into a high ponytail, I slung my satchel over my shoulder. Was American school going to be much different to England? What if no one liked me? What kind of stuff did they teach?

Calm down, Rose.

I took a deep breath and opened the door, lifting an arm to shield myself from the blindingly dazzling sun. Climbing into the stuffy car, I heard Josie swear as the drink holder came off in her hand. "That Mrs Brockman was right, this car is a crappy pile of junk," she said in disgust, looking at the piece of plastic in her hand.
"Well maybe if you listened to me, you'd get a better one," I grumbled, pulling my seat-belt on.
Josie chose to ignore this remark, starting up the car and reversing out of the gate. I sighed, lightly thumping my head against the window.
"I'm sure you'll make lots of friends." Josie decided to start up a conversation.
"Hmm."
"Maybe you could join some clubs?"
"Like?"
"Maths?"
"You're joking, right?" I snorted. "No chance."
"Basketball?"
"I'm about a foot too short."
"Dance? Cheerleading? Ballet?"
"You've got to me kidding me."
Josie laughed.  "You'll find your place soon enough, Rose."
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The receptionist, a jovial, friendly woman with spectacles called Mrs Bright, spent ten minutes explaining my timetable and classes at the reception desk after introducing herself, as Josie filled out several forms.
"Here is your school card, which you can use as a library card, a pass for school trips, and other occasions." She handed me a laminated card with a picture of me, my name and some other information. The picture was of me, blonde curly hair tied back into a high ponytail, striking blue eyes. I had to admit, there had been worse pictures, at least they'd picked a half decent one.
"Now remember, if you aren't happy with anything, or you feel like you need to talk to someone, just come to me, or the school nurse, Mrs Elphick. You've missed registration, so I'll get Mrs Johnson to walk you down to your first class."

Mrs Johnson was a tall woman, and a very fast walker, about every step she took, I took three. She didn't think to make conversation, although I was secretly quite relieved at that, already concentrating on keeping up with her.
I was out of breath when we reached the history classroom, but she just opened the door and almost pushed me inside.
"Mr Ozowa, this is the new girl."
The Japanese-American teacher looked away from the board on which he was pointing at.
"Rose Carrigon, am I correct?"
"Um, yes," I nodded.
"I'll take it from here, Mrs Johnson, thank you."
Mrs Johnson nodded, closing the door behind me, and surprising me with a warm smile. I hadn't thought she was going to be that friendly towards me, but I managed to smile back shyly, although I wasn't sure if she noticed.
"Rose, sit anywhere you like."
I looked around, seeing only one free seat next to a girl with straight, dark brown hair in a very long ponytail. She was twirling it around her pencil absent-mindedly, and I gave her a small smile as I slid into the seat next to her.
"Now, you lucky students are the ones who have chosen to study the Civil War! This is a very exciting subject, and I am so glad to see this many of you in here! Now, after seven years of teaching this subject to past historians, I have no doubt whatsoever that vacation has driven all knowledge of American history out of your brains so let's start with an easy one. Now let's see..." his eyes scanned the classroom.
Not me, please not me.
"Ah, Rose."
Crap.
"Can you tell me, when the Civil War ended."
"Uh...you er...had a Civil War?"
He looked at me as if I were a total idiot. Well, I guess I should've known that.
When he turned to face the board, the girl next to me turned around.
"I'm Thea Skelcher," she said, giving me a neutral smile.
"Rose Carrigon," I half-smiled back.
"Yeah, heard that. So, you aren't familiar with American history?"
"It would seem so."
"Don't worry. You have an excuse anyway. You're English." She winked and turned back around in her seat.
I relaxed slightly, knowing that she was holding a friendly attitude towards me.
When the class was over, I took a deep breath. I had survived. Barely. I suddenly realized I had no idea where my next class was, so I pulled out my timetable and map as the hallways flooded with shouting, laughing, hyper-active students. Suddenly, Thea was next to me, smiling. So she hadn't abandoned me yet.That was reassuring.
"What's your next class?" she shouted over the noise.
I glanced quickly at my timetable filled with relief slightly. Physics. I was good at physics.
"Physics," I called back.
"Aw, I've got Global Studies," she replied. "See you at break."