Warrior (working title) by Shannon Jade Middleton (best reads .TXT) 📕

Soon enough Monday was upon us and mum had ironed my uniform (thankfully it was similar to my old one, and I only needed to buy a new blazer and I would be given a tie when I got to the school). I got up, got dressed and ate some cereal before mum ushered me into the car. My new high school was actually quite near to the primary school that my mum worked at, so she was going to drop me off at her work and I would have to walk the small distance to the school. I was happier with that than having to walk the whole 35 minute journey from home. I still didn’t have my phone back because I was still grounded until the next day, so when we got out of the car, mum looked at me and put on her most serious expression, “AJ, I want no fighting, I don’t want any phone calls home. After school come straight here and we can go home together.” I agreed and gave her a small hug, making her smile before I walked out of the small school car park and down the road to the school that I would call mine for the next 8 months. As I walked I decided that the next day I would have to bring a jacket, although it was only a short walk it was cold and the wind was fierce as I sped up to try to keep my feet from freezing.

When I got to the school I went straight inside, I got a few weird looks as I walked towards what I was guessing was the office, but I ignored them as I stepped into the room and walked up to the desk.

“Hi, I’m new here; I was told I could get a tie and my timetable and stuff.” I gave my best award winning smile as the receptionist rolled her eyes and didn’t give me a second glance. “Name?” she asked grumpily as she continued to stare at the computer screen in front of her.

“Ajax Smith.” I replied happily, ignoring her rude behaviour.

“Here’s your tie,” she said as she reached below the desk and pulled out a silver tie with a single red stripe on it. “The red shows that you’re year 11, you’ll work out the other colours.” She went back to her computer and typed slowly, before I heard something print.

“And here’s your timetable, you’re in form 11A, room 302, now get to form.” She gave more no direction as to where to go, so I took a guess and went left. All of the rooms that I came to began with the number 1, so I found a stair case and headed upstairs. The next floors rooms began with 2, so I took a guess and went top the top floor and found room 314 across from the staircase I had chosen. Going one way the number went up, so I took the other direction and finally came to room 302 as I pretty much guessed which way to go. According to my timetable first period didn’t start until 9:05, so I had five minutes to spend in my form room and to hopefully get some help.

As I entered everyone turned to look at me, so I just put on a smile as the teacher began to speak, “I’m guessing that you’re Ajax, I thought you wouldn’t find us. I’m Mr Frank; I’m also going to be your biology teacher. Sit next to Nathan there and he’ll explain about the way our form system works and how we run things, then he’ll show you to your first lesson.” Mr Frank pointed towards a boy who looked to be a lot taller and bigger built than me. He had brown hair a shade lighter than mine and blue eyes that made him seem friendly enough. He smiled as I sat next to him and began to explain a few things. “Welcome to Saint Hubert’s. Interesting fact Saint Hubert of Liege is actually the Patron Saint of Mad Dogs. So we have 10 forms, S,A,I,N,T,H,U,B,E,R, you’re in A which is the best, obviously. There’s kind of a rivalry between saint and huber but saint is better. We’re separated most of the time, so don’t worry about it. Let me look at your timetable.” He stated giving me no chance to say no as he plucked the piece of paper from my hand.

“Ok, so if you look, today is Monday so you look at this column and it’s period 1 so you look at this row so you have English in room 113with Miss Hardy, she’s quite a nice teacher.” I tried to take in all of the information, but truthfully only about half of it was going in. “So basically, all of the rooms on the bottom floor begin with 1, first floor they begin with 2, second floor they begin with three. And they’re the same layout pretty much, so 113 is in the same place as 313 just on a different floor. Make sense?” I nodded even though I wasn’t really listening. The canteen is on the bottom floor, but I’m with you for period 2 so I’ll show you after class.” He gave me a smile and I realised that he had finally finished speaking. I didn’t need to reply as the bell decided to go and make me jump. Nathan just laughed and began to lead me out of the classroom and into the corridor.

“I’ll show you to your first lesson.” He said as he began walking towards the staircase. I tried to follow the route, but I wasn’t really paying enough attention to remember it completely. When we got downstairs and rounded a few corners Nathan pointed at a room “That’s 113, I’m down the corridor a little, but if you wait here after first then I’ll meet you and we can go to maths together!” He seemed overly friendly and nice, but I liked it. I gave him a genuine smile and nodded as I walked in the direction of the room he had pointed to. He gave me a small wave before walking round a corner to get to his own first lesson.

“Mr Smith I assume?” A woman teacher asked as I entered the classroom. Her hair was clearly dyed blonde as dark roots were peaking out from her scalp; she had a round face and eyes a little to small for her face. She did however have a somewhat decent dress sense and had on a modest blue dress and black tights. But what stood out was the rainbow necklace she was wearing. It looked to be made of those small rubber bands that were a massive craze a year ago. Looking around the classroom I saw a picture on the bookshelf near here desk of two children. If I had to guess the little girl with blonde pigtails had made her that necklace and she refused to take it off. I thought that was sweet.

“Yes miss.” I replied when I realised that she was waiting for a reply.

“I’m Miss Hardy and I’m your English teacher, you’ve been put in my class because we have studied the same books as at your previous school and the other classes have studied different books. If you have any questions then I will be here at lunch time. Take a seat over there and I will get started.” I did as she said and spent the class writing notes on the chapter of the book that they were reading. I was a couple of chapters behind, but I’d read them up at some point if I remembered.

The class was an hour long and it dragged as Miss Hardy asked questions and got each student to read 3 sentences as we went through the chapter. Soon enough the class was over and I was waiting were Nathan had told me. Looking at my time table I was supposed to be in room 224 next which meant I’d be upstairs somewhere.

“Boo!” I jumped and nearly hit Nathan as he bent over laughing at my expense.

“That was not nice!” I said making him laugh harder. “Fine, I’ll find the class room by myself.” Even I didn’t believe myself when I began to walk away slowly; I didn’t get very far before Nathan shouted that I was going the wrong way. Turning around I followed him grumbling to myself that he was being mean but he heard me and he just laughed at me.

Thankfully I knew that he was not being malicious and when we got into the now empty stair case I joined in with his infectious laughter. “Fine, it was funny,” I started “but that doesn’t mean that you can do it again.” He held up his hands in surrender and I stuck my tongue out at him childishly.

The rest of the day went really well. At lunch I sat with Nathan and his friend Robin. I liked Robin. He had dark skin with even darker hair and eyes. If I was gay then I would definitely go for him. But I’m not. He was really cool as well. Just like Nathan he didn’t treat me like a new kid, he acted as if he had known me for all of his life which I was thankful for. They informed me that Nathan’s sister sat with them sometimes, but more often than not she’d randomly disappear and break and lunch and nobody knew where it was that she went. I’d meet her sometime; but for the mean time I was happy with the two new friends I had made, it was two more than I had had at my old school so I wasn’t complaining.

The rest of the day flew by and before I knew it I was leaving and walking back to meet my mum and getting home. I decided that I probably should read the chapters that I missed, so I tried, but as soon as I got into it mum called me for tea, so I put a book mark in it and put it back in my bag. I’d do it later.

The rest of the week went by and I didn’t read the chapters, instead I just continued on with the final few chapters like the rest of the class. It would be fine. I was good at English. I was good at nearly everything- well good enough to pass my exams- so I wasn’t that bothered. Nathan and Robin accepted me at their table every day and I was starting to get to know the layout of the school as well as knowing which teachers I could wrap around my finger and which would need a little more sweet talking when I inevitably forgot to do my homework.

By the end of the week I was exhausted and decided to just sleep my weekend away. And that’s exactly what I did.

As the weeks continued I was getting settled and actually preferred the