Nightfall ✓

Chapter 2

• chapter two •

The bus stop was a little away from where I lived, so I walked.

Four Asian kids stood on the pavement along with two other American girls, all waiting for the bus. Initially, I was quiet, but after much deliberation, I walked over to them. "Um, hi. Are you guys...the art scholarship winners from India?" All of them were dark-haired (That's the weird thing about South Asians. You hardly see natural blonds or redheads) and tanned.

"Yeah," one of them said. Chirag, I got to know later. "Are you, too? You don't look like an Indian."

"I'm not, but I've lived there all my life, so...yeah. I'm Hazel."

They smiled and introduced themselves. Tanya was sixteen and had a delicately pointed chin and nose just like me. She was nice, but she didn't talk much because she was the shy type. Sid wore thick glasses. It looked as if all he did every day was play video games, or study, or do something else to spoil his eyesight. He was fifteen maybe, and so was Maya, our last neighbor.

Through the bus ride, they chattered about how excited they all were to be here and what our art classes were going to be like and etc etc, while I listened, not having anything to contribute.

Chirag took special attention in me. "You're pretty," he told me bluntly, and I was so startled that I reacted by laughing. This felt nice. The theme of his house was red and white, he said, and he told me that he'd never dated before because his parents hadn't allowed it, but he was hoping to change that this year, so would I be interested in going over to paint with him sometime?

"Sure!" I agreed, blushing, glad that he hadn't invited me on a cliché coffee date. That would've been awkward.

Valley Traditional High School was a very nice place. Even looking at it from the outside, at the neat, trimmed lawns and the light-brown building, I could tell it was going to be amazing from the inside.

There were a few cars parked in front of the building. High-schoolers were everywhere, chatting, laughing, kissing. A bunch of girls stood near the doorway, wearing the kind of clothes that the popular girls usually wear—designer jeans, stilettos or some other high-heeled shoes of whose names I didn't even know, and slightly revealing tops complemented by make-up. One of them chewed a gum. Another one stared at me. "Oh look, a redhead!" she mumbled to her giggling friends as we passed them.

I wished I was wearing a hoodie over my black t-shirt so I could cover my head. I opened the door and rushed in.

A tall girl, who had apparently been waiting for us, came forward and asked if we were 'those newbies', and when we nodded, she told us to wait for a sec. She fetched some papers from an office-like room, handed us our books, and then gave us a short tour of the school till a cute guy called out, "Anna!" and she excused herself.

We stood like complete idiots for a minute.

"Where do we have to go?" Sid asked, voicing our thoughts, and I said, "Um. Homeroom, maybe?" and then Maya asked, "Where is homeroom?" and I said, "Anna is back."

She came running to us, her blond hair flying behind her. Her face was flushed. "Sorry. That was my boyfriend." We climbed the stairs with her and she pointed out the various labs; the library; the gym; the music, art and dance rooms, and after I tripped over the untied laces of my sneakers and embarrassed myself, she took us to our homerooms.

In my homeroom there was this French teacher (And by French teacher I mean that she was French, never mind the subject she taught) who looked like a blonde Barbie doll and whose accent sounded something like: "Come een, sweet-haat, aa you ze new student?"