Chapter 2 (Freshman Encounters)

Freshman Encounters

A lot of students lingered at the entrance, mostly freshmen trying to get rid of their parents as quickly as possible to avoid embarrassing conversations.

As for me, I saw Blair introducing Kimberly to her group of friends.

Then I walked in, followed by Jo, Tootie, Natalie, Blair, and Kimberly. For some reason, I was positioned right in the middle.

"I can't wait for the day to end so we can go to tryouts," Kimberly said with a smile.

She had been so eager to earn a spot on the cheerleading squad that she had practiced all throughout June and July. It got to the point where she let Blair have half of her allowance just to help her train for tryouts.

"We haven't even had our first class yet..." Natalie said, her mouth agape.

"If you want to join, you need to keep good grades," Blair commented seriously.

Right, certain academic requirements had to be met.

At the very least, you needed a minimum GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale, which averaged out to a B+ just to stay on the squad.

I wasn't a great student in my past life, but I never struggled to maintain a C+ average.

However, now that I'd been given a second chance to place more importance on my studies, I would make sure that my grades this time around were higher compared to before.

Plus, I had already learned most of the material in my past, so hopefully, I'd have an easier time.

"Don't worry. If she ever struggles, I'll do my best to help her," I said with a relaxed smile.

In my first period, I had math.

Unfortunately for me, I shared the class with Blair, meaning I had to keep up the act of being Johnny. Luckily, Jo was also there, always explaining the math problems in a way that just made perfect sense.

The following periods continued until 11:50 AM: English, Science, and History.

In history class, I didn't have any of my friends, sisters, or acquaintances with me. So, this gave me a brief period of some much-needed alone time.

When the class ended, I walked alone toward the cafeteria.

It was nice not getting so many stares.

In middle school, Johnny had been extremely popular, and wherever he went, he'd get stares and whispers. Since it was still the first day, I wasn't as well-known, and hopefully, it stayed that way.

As I turned the corner at a blind spot, I bumped into someone, causing us both to fall to the ground and scatter a pile of books they had been carrying.

"Ouch..." muttered the girl, rubbing her forehead with a slightly annoyed expression.

Her face was hiding behind a curtain of choppy, dark brown hair.

"Sorry, are you okay?" I asked, crawling over to pick up the books.

The girl stopped rubbing her forehead and slowly stared at me.

"Johnny Lawrence?" she asked.

“Do we know each other?" I asked, examining the girl more carefully: pale with very light freckles, short dark brown hair, brown eyes heavily lined with black eyeliner, a button nose, and small pink lips.

"No, no... of course not. Sorry for bumping into you," the girl said hurriedly. She stood up, snatched the books from my hands, and shrank into her oversized black sweater.

Within moments, she disappeared from my sight, practically fleeing down the hall.

Was that... Allison Reynolds?

Without giving it further thought, I resumed my walk to the cafeteria.

When I arrived, I saw my friends and sisters calling me over from a table. They had saved a seat for me, so I went over and sat down.

"Why did it take you so long?" Kimberly asked, sipping her Cola.

"Mr. Stein talks really slowly," I replied, dropping into the chair. I glanced at the long line in the cafeteria and sighed.

From what I remembered, Johnny was super strict on what he ate to meet his nutritional requirements, but even in a private academy, I knew I wouldn't find any of it in here.

"What's with your face?" Bobby asked, happily munching on his cafeteria sandwich.

"You've known Jay for years, and you seriously ask that, you idiot?" Kimberly said, shooting Bobby an irritated look.

"Wha—" he swallowed. "What did I do now?"

"The thing is, Bobby," Blair chimed in with an indulgent smile, "John has standards. Unlike you, he can't just eat an oily McDonald's Burger and call it food, thats practically sacrilege for him."

I sighed and rolled my eyes, though part of me wanted to yell, Burn!

I wasn't even a picky eater.

It was just that I didn't want to be exposed as a body snatcher or for possessing Johnny, even though I did personally prefer bringing my own lunch to school.

"Hey, I like the food here!"

Bobby said proudly, as if he were defending the cafeteria's honor.

"Now that's the spirit!" Jimmy said, talking with his mouth full of food.

Natalie and Kimberly shot him a disgusted look.

"Yeah, well, your arteries might have a different opinion," Tootie quipped, causing Natalie, Jo, and Kimberly to burst out laughing.

Blair pulled an elegant glass container from her bag. "Well, I figured the food here wouldn't be good enough for you, so I brought you this."

The container was filled with perfectly cooked chicken, rice, steamed vegetables, and a small packet of homemade dressing.

She placed it in front of me with a proud smile.

Everyone at the table fell silent for a moment, staring at Blair, until Jo broke it.

"Did you... did you buy that somewhere?" she asked, sounding both surprised and confused.

"No, I cooked it last night," Blair replied as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"Cooked?" Jo repeated, raising an eyebrow. "You cook?"

"Of course. What's so strange about that?" Blair asked, glancing around with genuine confusion.

"The fact that whenever you try to cook anything, you somehow burn it," Kimberly said, laughing.

"Yeah, I mean, how do you honestly expect us to believe that you cooked something that looks that good?" Bobby said with a chuckle.

Blair scowled at his comment.

"I don't expect you to believe anything when you lost all your brain cells in your last match," Blair shot back, frowning with her arms crossed and a blush on her face.

Goddamn!

"Thanks, Blair," I said with a smile.

"You're welcome, John," Blair said, instantly replacing her scowl with a smile.

"By the way, are you gonna be using the car after your training?" she asked.

damn.

I knew I couldn't dodge the question after receiving her meal.

"Nah, not until Saturday. Trainings gonna lasts well over two hours, so I'll finish late and be all sweaty. On Saturday, I'll have the car the whole day," I suggested, and Blair happily agreed.

"More than two hours of training?" Kimberly asked, incredulous that I had to train for so long.

"You've known Jay for years, and you seriously ask that, idiot?" Bobby said in a mock voice with a smile.

Kimberly elbowed him square in the side, making Bobby let out a groan and shrink into his seat.

"Stop the violence!" Bobby protested, rubbing his side.

Lunch continued as we all chatted and joked with one another.

At a solitary table in the corner of the cafeteria, I noticed Wyatt and Gary.

I wanted to talk to them about comics, movies and video games but I couldn't bring myself to approach them in such a public space.

It wasn't a rejection of them, but the problem was the situation I was currently in.

Massive example: I'm Johnny Lawrence.

It'd be weird if a guy who had probably rejected and made fun of a whole bunch of nerd stuff his entire life just suddenly started liking it.

On top of that, how would I explain to anyone sitting at this table that I loved Star Wars, could recite entire lines from The Lord of the Rings, or spent years of my life, playing video games?

But then again, I would just be doing what I did in my past life. Afraid to talk to the people I liked or do the things I wanted out of the fear of being ostracized.

At that moment, a boy approached the table and called out to me.

"You're Johnny Lawrence, right?"