Trading Pieces of Sky [COMPLETED]

3

The first day of the school year was always easy because we attended all of our classes for only 50 minutes and ended the day with an assembly. We got our class schedules a month ago at orientation where we also got our textbooks and locker combinations. One thing my school does right is allowing us to keep the same locker each year, so the combination is really just a formality in case we've forgotten it. They even let us pick our lockers, so I was able to get mine right next to Cassidy's freshman year.

I was lucky enough to have a free period last block of the day, which meant that every other day I could leave early and head to work.

Cassidy and I walked with our arms linked through the school building entrance. After climbing the two flights of stairs to the third level where the high school classes were located, we found our lockers.
I mindlessly punched in my locker code and it popped open.

"Hey, so I'll see you at lunch then?" She asked as she pulled out a binder and textbook and placed them in the crook of her arm.

"Yeah, meet you here?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'll meet you here. Good luck!" She sang as she slammed her locker shut and walked off down the hallway.

Randy Miller stopped at the locker next to mine and opened it. He was a senior too, but definitely not someone I'd talk to since he was the mayor's son and super popular. I shut my locker after pulling out my agenda and notebook and shoving them into my backpack.

I slipped my phone out of my cardigan pocket and pressed the lock button to illuminate the screen. I had made my wallpaper a photo of my class schedule so I didn't look like a loser carrying it around all day.
First class is English, room 309.

I put my phone back into my pocket and weaved my way through the crowd of students. The hallway smelled strongly of the perfume that girls had sprayed at their lockers before heading to class and it was headache inducing.

The classroom desks were set up into a circle and I internally groaned not wanting to sit inches from my classmates. There were three kids already sitting in the room, Michelle Cooper, Elizabeth Price, and Seth Wax. I decided to take the empty seat next to Elizabeth since it was closest to the front of the classroom and the door. They each looked up from their phones when they noticed my presence but didn't say anything. I smiled out of politeness, but they just returned to their phone screens.

Priya our English teacher walked into the room holding a steaming cup of tea.

"Good morning," she greeted sweetly.

I liked Priya. She was in her thirties and cared about what she taught. As the junior and senior English teacher, I had her last year and smiled at her when she took a seat at the desk next to mine.

"Good morning," I greeted back along with two girls.

"Welcome back! How was your guys' summer?" She asked as she reached behind her to retrieve a stack of papers from on top of her desk.

"Good," Elizabeth said.

"Yeah, same," Michelle stated as she set her phone down.

"How about you Seth?" Priya asked.

"It was fine, thanks," he shrugged twirling his phone in his hands.

"And, you, Skylar, how was your summer?"

"It was good. How about you?" I asked while I pulled out a pencil and notebook from my bag.

"It was wonderful, thank you for asking. I spent two weeks in Florida with my husband. We got to swim with dolphins and it was a really lovely trip."

"That sounds fun," I commented imagining what it would be like in Florida.

"Yeah, it was," she sighed.

"Hello Matthew, Janet...Parker," she greeted as they each walked into the classroom, "find a seat. Don't be shy. Hello, Clara, Tess...oh, I don't think I've seen you before."

"Oh, hi, I'm Elena Brooks. I'm new this year," she said, smiling nervously as she looked around the room.

I was grateful that I was seated between Elizabeth and Priya so I didn't have to worry about being next to anyone else. She took a seat next to Matthew and I smiled at her when she caught my eye since no one else had.

Priya checked the gold watch on her wrist and cleared her throat. She stood up and peered down the hallway for any last stragglers before closing the door.

Just as she had taken her seat, the door swung open and Beckett Hill walked in. His eyes flicked around the room and he took the last empty seat that just so happened to be directly across from me in our small circle of desks.

"Good morning, Priya," he smiled as he placed his bag beneath his chair.

"Nice of you to join us, Beckett. Next time, try getting here before I close the door," she said.

"Well, I know all of you know each other, but we do have a new student with us this year. Elena," Priya said as she motioned to where she was sitting, "Welcome to Old Ashton. What brings you out to our historic little town?"

"Uh, hi," Elena said waving to the class, "My, uh, dad was hired at the veterinary clinic."

"Oh, wow. And where were you before?" Priya asked interestedly.

"North Carolina," she smiled.

"Lovely. I've never been, but I've heard it's beautiful. Here at Old Ashton Prep, or OAP for short, we go by first names to break the barrier between students and teachers not communicating, so please call me Priya. Um, why don't we go around the room and introduce ourselves? I'll start and then Skylar you can go next.

"Well, I've been a high school English teacher at OAP for five years and I also am a home room counselor. So some of you might have the pleasure of spending more than just one class a day with me. I may teach English, but I'm always here for anything if anyone ever needs to chat...

"Skylar?"

"Uh," I cleared my throat, "Hi, I'm Skylar. Like everyone in the room I'm a senior and I've been at OAP since kindergarten."

"Hi Skylar," Elena smiled.

We went around the room and when everyone had introduced themselves Priya passed around the class syllabus.

"Okay, so this semester we will be focusing on narrative writing, so you'll be writing short stories. The course final will be an autobiographical nonfiction essay, but we will get more in depth about that later. Points will be earned by turning in a daily writing log, which we will start every class with. I'll have a prompt on the board and you will turn it in after the twenty minutes is up. There will be quizzes on the reading materials but they are short answer so don't worry. Tonight's assignment is to make sure you have a composition notebook for taking notes and to read the first short story that is in your portal online. Elena, if you need help setting yours up, ask your homeroom counselor. Okay?"

She nodded and Priya continued explaining the different assignments we would have to complete over the course of the school year.

I felt like someone was staring and I looked up to see that Beckett was looking right at me. My heart jumped and I quickly looked back down at the syllabus in front of me.

He's probably staring at the stupid cut on my face.
I looked up to check the time on the clock, which happened to be above Beckett's head, and noticed that he was no longer staring at me. Class was meant to be over now, and I saw that some of the other students were getting impatient too.

"Alright, alright. Dismissed," Priya smiled.

I checked my phone to make sure that I was still meant to be staying here for homeroom with Priya. I placed it back in my bag and stood up to use the bathroom during the break.