chapter 1: weisz thinks reno is cool

~weisz~

       The alarm on my phone blares loudly, waking me up from my sleep. I groan, ignoring the sound as I cover my head with my pillow. Even though I got a decent amount of sleep, I just want to lie in bed for a few more hours. Possibly for the rest of the day.

       I'm not really in the mood to go to school today. Maybe if I was back at my other school, I wouldn't mind going, but I hate the fact that I have to start a new school in the middle of the school year. Not to mention a lot of people I know at my old school are people I've known since elementary school, even as early as kindergarten.

       I won't know anybody at my old school, except for my annoying sister, but she doesn't count. Knowing Celine, she'll either pretend I'm not her brother or tease me. Either way, we're probably not going to be hanging out a lot at school.

       Right as I feel like I'm going to fall back asleep, there's a harsh knock on my bedroom door. I try to ignore the pounding, but it doesn't stop until I hear my dad say, "Weisz, I don't hear you getting ready. If you're not downstairs in ten minutes, I'm going to make you walk to school."

       I sigh heavily, taking the pillow off of my head before I sit up. I looked around my new bedroom, still stacked with boxes of my belongings I've yet to put away. If I have time, I'll put some of it away after school today. Unless the new school ends up draining a lot of energy out of me.

       I sit in bed for a few moments, waiting until I feel awake enough to get out of bed. Once I do, I get ready before heading down the stairs. Like my room, there are boxes here and there until my family can find the time and energy to put stuff away. 

       Since I got downstairs in time, Dad gives me my car keys so I can take my car to school. If I did take a long time to get out of bed, he would have actually hid my car keys and made me walk, which doesn't really make sense. You'd think he would let me drive so I would get to school faster after taking a long time to get downstairs.

       As I'm about to head out the front door, Mom hands me some money so I can buy lunch at school since we don't have much food in the kitchen yet. "Do you know how to get to the high school?"

       I nod, taking the money out of Mom's hand and putting it into my backpack. "Yeah. It's not too far so even if I do get lost, I should be able to find my way and still be on time." I hope.

       Thankfully, I am able to get to the school perfectly fine. However, finding my way inside the school is a different story. Once I get my locker assignment and my schedule, I first head to my locker to put all my supplies away so I don't have to lug them around the school.

       Which would definitely annoy me since it did take me a while to find my first class. In fact, I find it right before the tardy bell, and I don't know if my teacher would have been lenient, even if I'm a new student. 

       Ms. Maywood does seem nice enough when I tell her I'm the new student. She tells me where I can sit before telling me to talk to her after school if I ever need help catching up.

       I take my seat in the front of the class, which unfortunately is the one my teacher told me to sit in. I don't exactly hate sitting in the front, but it's harder to hide whenever I'm bored and not paying attention.

       Shortly after I sit down, the tardy bell rings. Ms. Maywood stands up from her desk and is about to close the front door. However, a student rushes in at the last minute. His dyed red hair is stuck up all over the place, almost as if he just rolled out of bed and didn't bother fixing his hair. He has quite a few piercings; a lobe piercing on both ears, three helix piercings in his left ear, and snake bites piercings.

       Ms. Maywood sighs. "Late again, Reno."

       "Just by a few seconds," Reno says before taking his seat in the back of the class. 

       Ms. Maywood begins the lesson, though it's not long before I completely zone out. She's talked about a poem the class had to read the day before, which I obviously didn't because this is my first day. I try to listen, but I can't.

       Ms. Maywood never calls on me for questions, thankfully. Maybe she is lenient of this being my first day here. 

       First period ends, so I head to my next class, once again making it just in time. My teacher tells me I can sit anywhere, which I'm kind of hesitant to do. I know when teachers let us sit anywhere, we sit in one spot and basically claim it as ours until the end of the semester. If someone sits in our spot, we take it as a personal offence.

       Which, unfortunately, ends up happening. I choose somewhere to sit, hoping that it's not someone's regular spot. However, someone ends up walking over to me. "You're in my spot," she says.

       "Oh, I'm sorry," I say. 

       I'm about to move somewhere else, but she stops me. "No, no, I was just kidding." She sits in the spot beside mine. "I mean, I do normally sit there, but I know it's hard finding a spot as a new student without knowing where anyone sits. I'm Jessica, by the way."

       "Weisz," I say. "Sorry for taking your spot. I always hated it when someone took mine."

       Jessica shakes her head. "Don't worry about it. It's different when someone knows I sit there everyday, but this is your first day, so I really don't mind. But just as a heads up, this desk," she gestures to the one she's sitting in, "isn't claimed by anyone."

       "Good to know," I say. "I'll make sure I sit there tomorrow."

       One of my biggest worries at starting at a new school was is not having anywhere to sit for lunch. Sure, it's not a big deal having to eat alone but it gets lonesome after a while. The worry fades the moment second period ends. As I pack up my stuff, Jessica asks, "Do you have anywhere to eat lunch? You can always join me and my friends."

       "Really?" I ask.

       Jessica nods. "Really. I started at this school in my sophomore so I know how hard it can be at times. And don't worry about my friends being closed off. They're always welcoming to new people."

       Jessica is right about her friends. The two of us buy our lunch in the cafeteria before she leads me to the table her friends are sitting at. Three guys and one girl sit at the table already. One of the guys is the first to notice me and Jessica. "Ooh, a new guy," he says.

       "This is Weisz," Jessica says. "He's new, obviously. Weisz, this is Neil, Rodolfo, Hal, and Padma."

       Padma sighs. "Another guy. We're being overpowered."

       "I can leave," I say.

      "I'm kidding," Padma says. "Kind of. Jessica and I might need to recruit some more girls for us."

       "Recruit?" Neil asks. "You're making this sound like we're in a gang. We're not Reno."

       I furrow my eyebrows as I sit down at the table. "Reno?"

       "He's a junior like us," Jessica says. "Lots of piercings. He's a hard person to miss."

       "I know," I say. "He's in my first period class."

       "Oh, well, he's in a gang," Neil says. "I mean, we don't know for sure, but come on. It's so obvious."

       I want to ask if he thinks it's obvious just because of the way Reno looks, but I'd rather not get into the conversation of Jessica and her friends judging Reno. Sure, I don't know him well and they might have others reasons why they think that, but I'd rather not spend my lunch time gossiping.

       So I change the subject, asking them for their opinions on the teachers I have after lunch. It's enough to actually change the topic, thankfully. They completely forget that they were talking about Reno in the first place.

       Reno ends up being in my fourth period class as well. Jessica's right; he's a hard person to miss. He's the first person I noticed when I walked into my last class of the day. He sits at a desk in the last row, leaning back in his seat as his legs stretch out under his desk.

       Close to the end of the lesson, the teacher tells us to pair up for an assignment. I sigh as some people get up from their seats to find a partner. I don't exactly hate group or partner projects, but that's only if I can pair up with someone I know. I don't know anyone here. Well, Neil and Padma are in this class, but they've already paired up, of course.

       No one's asking if I want to be my partner, so I get up from my desk and walk up to my teacher. "Um, I don't know anyone I can ask to pair up with."

       Mr. Basu looks around the class, trying to find a partner for me. His eyes land on Reno, who hasn't moved from his desk at all. He's on his phone instead. "Reno," Mr. Basu says, immediately getting Reno's attention. "Get off your phone." Reno tucks his phone into his pocket. "Weisz here is going to be your partner."

       Reno gives Mr. Basu a thumbs up. I walk over to where Reno's desk and sit in the one beside him. Before I can even say anything to Reno, Mr. Basu gets the attention of the class before telling us the one thing I dread about group projects; he's not going to give us any time in class to work on it.

       Meaning everyone will have to meet up with their partner outside of class time.

       Most of the class groans in disappointment at the news. Mr. Basu just tells us to get over it before handing out the information sheet about the project. We don't have long before the bell rings, so he gives us the rest of the time to discuss things with our partner.

       "Are you able to meet up after school?" I ask Reno.

       "Uh..." Reno thinks for a bit. "No right away. I have to help my dad with something." He sighs and leans his head back. "Knowing Mr. Basu, he's going to expect us to be halfway done with it by tomorrow, though."

       "I'm fine meeting up a bit later if you still can," I say. "Does around five work?"

       "Yeah, sure," Reno says. "Anywhere you want to meet up?"

       "Not really," I say. "I'm still new to the town so..."

       "Ah, right." Reno rips a piece of paper out of his notebook and scribbles something down. He hands it to me, so I look at it to see an address written on it. "It's a diner. Will that work? We can eat there while we're at it, and they have the best burgers."

       "Yeah, I think it will work," I say.

       The bell rings, so Reno starts packing up his stuff. "I'll see you at the diner then."

       "See you," I say.

       Part of me wonders if Jessica and her friends are even right about Reno. Sure, I only had a very short conversation with him, but he doesn't seem bad at all. Maybe someone just made something up and it spread like wildfire.

       The other part of me isn't concerned about the rumours. Instead, it really wants me to get to know Reno more.

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i love reno already thank you. he's so cool :(

so yeah i hope you enjoy reading this as much as i'll enjoy writing it!