I watched a smirk play on his lips. “Nothing like that.” He laughed again. “I think I may be too cool for everyone else.”
I let out a small chuckle. “Lucky me that I get to hang with the cool kid as the new girl.”
“You’ll be safe with me,” he promised.
“I’m Serenity Serrano, by the way. What’s your name?”
“That’s a cool name. I’m Shawn Palmer. Where are you originally from?”
I hated that question. I wasn’tfromanywhere. I wasn’t even sure where I was born. “We move around a lot for my mom’s work, but we’ve been bouncing around Arizona for the past couple of years. We were living in a small town in southern Arizona, but I think my mom prefers city life.” It wasn’t a complete lie.
“What about your dad?” he asked.
I paused, wondering how honest I wanted to be. “He died when I was a baby, so it’s always just been Mom and me.”
He ran his hand through his hair, which for some reason gave me butterflies. “Dang, that sucks. You can always borrow my dad—he’s pretty cool,for the most part.”
I looked over at this funny and kind boy, and felt like, for the first time in my life, I wanted a friend. Before I could say anything more, the bus came to a stop in front of the school.
“Do you have to go to the office? I can show you,” he said loudly over the kids scrambling to get off the bus.
“That would be great, thank you.”
Shawn led me to the office. “Here we are. I’ll find you at lunch,” he said, waving goodbye as he ran off.
Once I was done checking into the office, I headed to my first class, hoping Shawn would be there. When I walked into the classroom, I was overwhelmed by the sea of new faces, all their eyes on me, including the teacher. She introduced me to the class and pointed to where I should sit. I walked to my desk with my eyes cast down, and as I sat down and glanced up, I noticed Shawn was sitting right next to me.
“Hey, new girl, looks like we’ll be seeing more of each other.” He winked.
I smiled shyly at him and brought my attention back to the teacher as she started class. I played with the ring on my right index finger, resisting the urge to look back at Shawn. He was an unexpected surprise.
I spent most of the first day in a haze, moving between all my classes. I enjoyed school even if I hadn’t made many friends in the past. I loved learning and reading so much that I dreaded it a little more when each class ended, coming closer to the end of the school day.
Shawn was in two of my classes, and he invited me to sit with him and his friends Jacob, Zac, and Emma at lunch, where they asked me a bunch of random questions.
“What’s your favorite color?” Jacob asked.
“Magenta,” I replied quickly.
“Like the dog fromBlue’s Clues?” Emma teased.
I laughed along. “That’s probably where I got it.”
“What kind of music are you into?” Zac interrupted.
“I have recently discovered pop punk and have been obsessed.” I was suddenly embarrassed. What if they all thought the music I liked was completely lame, and that was the deciding factor in letting me sit with them at lunch? I could feel the anxiety growing in my stomach when Shawn chimed in.
“Me too!” he exclaimed. “What are your favorite bands?”
We spent the rest of lunch talking about music, and I even spent the rest of the school day thinking about our conversation, considering songs and bands I could bring up. Shawn tutored after school, so he wasn’t on the bus on the way home. I sat alone, stared out the window, listened to music, and thought about how good I felt to have made some friends on my first day. Even if the nagging doubt of just how long I would be there crept around the edges of my mind.
When I got home, I noticed my mom’s car in the driveway. I rolled my eyes because, of course, she would suddenly be home now but couldn’t be here this morning to help me on my first day. As I unlocked the door and walked into the house, I heard two voices coming from the kitchen, my mom’s and a deep baritone voice I didn’t recognize. I walked toward the kitchen, expecting the same spiel I always got every time my mom brought a new man home.
“Oh, hi,mija,” my mom said.
“Hi,” I said dryly. “Who’s this?” The man standing before me was of average height with a deeper tone to his skin similar to my mom’s. He wore a blue plaid shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes.
“This is my boyfriend, Andrés. He’s going to be staying with us for a while—isn’t that exciting?”
