Radiance by Alana Curran (best english books to read for beginners TXT) 📕

I rubbed my eyes until I didn’t show any sign of tears and lay down on my bed and looked up at the ceiling.

“I wish I never came.”

The first school day of my life in ten years and I was shaking in my floral ugg boots.

I had passed through my weight gain phase and acne phase, so I had nothing to worry about when it came to my appearance, but what if I wasn’t as smart as all the other posh Chellewood student and they all thought I was dumb?

I was wearing my new black and white hoodie with my lucky skinny jeans, so everything was going to be ok.

Grandma offered to drive me to school, but I couldn’t bear the thought of everyone seeing me arrive in a dirty jeep with my grandmother.

I decided to take the bus instead.

“Have a nice day!” she yelled as I left.

“Thanks, see you later!” I called back, opening my new rainbow umbrella that she gave me.

I knew it wasn’t going to be difficult for me to find the bus stop because I grew up in a big city and had no problem getting around, a small town wasn’t going to be a problem.

The bus stop was right at the bottom of the hill and couple of people were already there, waiting for the school bus to arrive.

Usually there was a long awkward silence when I waited for the bus to go to the shops in Costa Lapris,, but some of the people said hello casually and I actually got chatting to this nice girl called, Hattie.

“I haven’t seen you around before, you’re new then?” she asked.

“Yep,” I replied, nodding timidly.

“Oh, well welcome, I guess,” she smiled, shaking my hand and offering me a piece of gum. I decided she was just being kind and not trying to suggest that I had bad breath. “Are you enjoying it here then?”

“Yeah, but it rains a lot,” I sighed, biting my lip, hoping she wouldn’t take offense.

“I know, it’s been years since we’ve had a proper clear sky here,” she told me.

“Really,” I sighed.

As the school bus stopped off by the pavement, everyone began boarding the bus.

Some people showed the driver their bus passes and I began to chew my nails nervously, would I need a bus pass and since I didn’t have it, would I have to pay for it?

When it came to my turn, I began the rambling explanation of why I didn’t have a pass.

“Don’t you worry, sweetheart,” the bus driver smiled. “I’ll let you off the hook this time so you can get your pass at school.”

“Thank you miss,” I said appreciatively.

The only space left on the bus was one next to a nice looking guy with black hair.

I quickly sat down beside him, expecting an awkward silence, but instead, he was just like Hattie and wanted to begin a conversation.

“New here?” he asked, I nodded shyly, avoiding eye contact. “It’s alright, I was new here once too.”

I glanced at him.

“Really?”

“Oh yeah, I used to get my education by peering through the lodger’s keyhole,” he joked.

I giggled.

“Do you really have a lodger?”

“No, not anymore,” he told me. “I live on a boat now.”

“A boat?” I gasped. “That’s unusual. In a river and all, what happens when you go to the toilet, where does it all go?”

He laughed at me, obviously thinking I was kidding.

I completely ignored my question and pretended it actually was just a joke.

“Are you American?” he asked.

“No, but I lived on an island near America, you’ve probably never heard of it,” I insisted.

“Try me.”

“Costa Lapris?”

He looked at me.

“Yeah, you’re right,” he sighed.

I giggled, but then my attention was drawn to five people boarding the bus, all of them with blue hair!

I gazed at them. They seemed very....strange. Something about them made me feel weird and uncomfortable.

One of the girls with bright eye makeup stared right at me and I quickly looked away nervously. She was really tall with a fierce facial expression and she kind of scared me.

“They’re really creepy aren’t they?” Trevor said, breaking the silence.

I nodded.

“What’s up with them?” I asked, turning away from them so I couldn’t see their creepy appearance.

“I have no idea,” he confessed. “Especially Francis, he comes into school in the morning with blonde hair and in the afternoon, his roots are dyed blue.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, the only person who seems half normal is Tulip. She talks to everyone and gets along well with people while the other people stay in the corner of the classroom and keep their mouths firmly shut even when the teacher asks them to answer questions,” he explained.

“Their probably just emos,” I told him.

“That’s what I thought, but there’s something deeper...weirder.”

I smiled at him, taking his hand to distract his slightly worried expression.

“We don’t have to worry about them though, they can do whatever they want,” I reminded him.

“You’re right.”

I stared at him for a moment, he had quite a charming smile but after a while the situation just got awkward, something I was trying desperately to avoid. I let go of his hand and we changed the subject quickly.

When we arrived at the school, I couldn’t believe how big it was. It was like a cathedral, only more boring. Its grey bricks and big, blacked out windows made me feel like a prisoner.

I got off the bus and peered up at the gloomy building. I was almost certain that I was going to die of boredom

“Do you want me to walk you to the office?” Trevor asked, kindly.

I looked up at him and nodded.

“That’d be great,” I smiled.

Most of the people went straight to their lockers, which seemed to go on all the way down the corridor, a row of them stopping when it came to a classroom door and continuing again on the other side.

The white, overhead lights glared down on the silver tiles which had been placed close together on the floor.

Trevor and walked all the way up the corridor right to the end of the school. I was trying to ignore the stares from many of the people standing by their lockers. I looked up at Trevor who didn’t seem to notice them looking at us.

We turned a corner and the mood of the whole school seemed to change.

The floor was a pale green colour and the walls were pastel yellow. There were a couple of lamps spread around the room which made the room seem much more comfortable than it would if the overhead lights had been turned on.

The blissful smell of lilies cheered my spirits a little, they were my favourite flower due the lovely scent they exuded. They always made me feel better.

We approached the front desk where a pretty, brunette woman was sitting.

“Em, excuse me, I’m, like, new and....” I began shyly.

“Ah yes, Miss. Lane,” the woman smiled, typing something down on the computer and then facing me. “Take these forms and you should get all your information from it.”

“That’s it? I just go to my class now?” I asked, quite relieved that there wasn’t too much of a process.

“Well no, but you just need to sign this form and you can be on your way,” she explained, handing me my information forms and then giving me a pen to sign a piece of paper which was on her desk.

I signed my name and then my initials in a couple of places and then looked at the forms to see what class I was in.

“I’m in Form 1W,” I read aloud. “In room eleven. Where’s room eleven?”

“Oh, that’s the English room, I’ll show you where it is,” he insisted.

“Thanks.”

We went back down the dreaded, long hallway, turned a couple of corners and finally ended up by the English room.

“Thanks for taking me here and showing me where the office was,” I smiled.

“No problem, if you need anything else, just tell me.”

“I will, see you later.”

“Bye.”

He turned and walked by up the corridor while I faced the door, gathering my confidence.

I thought for a moment. What was I going to tell the teacher? Did I explain to them that I was new? But that would have just been awkward. Was there a note somewhere in the information sheets? But why would they put that into it? Would the teacher believe that I was new?

These were the questions swirling round in my mind.

I decided just to go up to the teacher’s desk and show them the first information page so they could see for themselves who I was.

I knocked on the door, with a nervous stomach and with a shaky hand. I heard a faint voice telling me to come in.

The room pretty bright and cheerful too, but I didn’t notice this at first because all the people in the room immediately turned round to see who it was coming through the door.

When they realised I was new, they kept staring at me. Like when I went to drama classes in the city, a new boy came in the middle of the year and we were all so used to having the regular people in our class that it looked so odd with him sitting there, so I guess it was the same for them.

I went up to the teacher who was sitting by the desk in front of the whiteboard, who looked quite confused that I was there, as if to say: How did I miss her before?

I handed her the sheets I was given and she smiled.

“Oh, well, that’s ok then,” she sighed, giving them back to me for me to put into my schoolbag. “You can sit next to Radiance.”

I looked over to where she was pointing and was a little disappointed to see that she was talking about one of the girls with blue hair who was sitting on her own and staring up at me, just like her brothers and sisters (they were obviously related because they looked so alike).

I made my way to the desk and sat down.

Radiance wasn’t like the rest of the students that I had met so far. She didn’t want to begin a conversation and I definitely wasn’t going to attempt it, so I just left it and we sat there in complete silence.

The teacher, who was called Mrs. Stevenson, printed off a timetable for me and also gave me a map of the school which wasn’t in the sheets which the woman at the office gave me.

The whole day was pretty tiring. There was so much thinking and writing, but so little time to rest in between.

I had a few classes with Trevor in it and I was able to have a conversation with him, but the rest of the classes, I was seated beside Radiance (who by the way was as much fun as a cactus).

It was ironic that Radiance sat alone in every class and I had to sit beside her in every class. We were supposed to do some group work in art class. We had to begin preparation to make a save the planet poster, but she barely contributed. In fact, all