*Copeland's POV*

Five more minutes passed by. I had to remind Alli to call me Danielle in school because I didn’t want anyone finding out who I really was. I had to make sure Copeland was restricted in this school for my name. “Ok,” Alli began, “This is where we’ll have lunch everyday and usually every year seniors get the back corner tables to themselves so we’ll be fine over there.” I listened to everything she was saying so I didn’t miss an important detail. “Here’s the counselor’s office and over there is the main office.” We started walking up to the third floor where our first hour was. “Since you’re schedule is the same as mine, I’ll walk you through every class for a week and see how you do. Don’t be surprised if we’re not sitting next to each other. Most teachers do assigned seats and then they let you move but some teachers aren’t that nice. They keep you sitting in a seat according to last name.”

We assembled in the class room to find out that we had our assigned seats on the projector. There were already kids in their seats watching the next person come through the door. The teacher wasn’t in the class yet and that was a problem. It said my name was Copeland Bostwick. I quickly found I pencil laying on her desk and erased my name, changing it to Danielle Quinn. Some kids looked at me in a weird way. I didn’t care what they had to say this time. They don’t know me well enough to judge me. I’m not going to let them ruin my day all because they gave me some weird looks.

“Alli, we sit close to each other,” I managed to say. Even though my last name was Quinn, the teacher still had me down in the section B for Bostwick. Lets just hope that she doesn’t make the adjustment. I feel like I’m going to have to tell every single teacher that my name isn’t Copeland Bostwick it’s Danielle Quinn.

“Alli! Woot Woot!” A couple crazy boys came flying through the doors shouting Alli’s name in front of the whole class. They must know who she is. I hope she’ll introduce me. “I’ve missed you the whole summer. You don’t call or text me!”

“I don’t have your number, silly!” Alli pulled out her phone and gave those crazy boys her digits. One of them was actually real cute.

The room was starting to pile in with more students. Half these kids look way older than 17 or 18. I felt so small and helpless compared to everyone else. I just sat there as Alli talked to almost every student that walked in the door way. Damn, did she have to know everybody? The bell was about to ring in 3 minutes. I saw Alli walking up to me to introduce me to a couple of her girlfriends.

“Uh, Danielle, this is my friend Kenadee and my other friend Joy.” I looked at them and waved hello. I was kind of nervous to speak the words hi to them so I just waved. The bell rang and it was time to be assembled. The teacher came walking through the doors and she was very ugly. Not to be rude to her but she was very old and wrinkly. It looked like she has been working here for ages.

She started to call peoples’ names. Luckily, she called my name and said Danielle Quinn. I responded with saying here and then she noticed that I was sitting in the B section. This can’t be good.

“I think I might’ve placed you in the wrong seat, Danielle. You belong in the Q section over by Mr. Query right there.” I look over to see who Mr. Query was. I couldn’t tell if he was tall or not but he was so cute. Dirty blondish hair with sea green eyes. All I did was stare at him knowing the teacher told me to move. “I’m going to let you trade seats with Joy. You two switch seats, please.” I gathered my belongings while the teacher continued taking attendance. I swapped seats with Joy and sat right behind the cutie. At least I was sitting next to someone who just might grab my attention the whole hour.

The teacher told us to sit tight while she goes to get our AP Physics text books. She said we could turn to the person next to us and introduce ourselves but we couldn’t get out of our seats. I glanced around at everyone talking until I felt a turn of head staring at me.

“So you’re, uh what‘s your name again?” the cutie said to me.

“Um,” I pushed my hair out of my face. “I’m Danielle.” God, I looked so damn nervous. Why couldn’t I keep myself together and not act like I’m a total loser? “And you must be?”

“Query, Bryan.” He took his hand out of his pocket and lengthened it out towards me. If there’s one thing I’m good at that‘s bad thing is getting attached to a boy. I never had this problem before but I can feel it. I don’t want to be let down and have my heart broken. I’ve heard stories from girls on the internet that cut because of this. They go into mild depression and don’t eat for days. Even Tony told me to stay away from boys because they’re all players and assholes. I guess one boy couldn’t hurt as much, right? What trouble can he cause?

“Nice to meet you.” I shook my hand in his and it was warm and cozy. “Sorry, I’m a little shy with new people. Especially cute ones.” I blushed and I could feel a light pink shade curving around my cheeks.

“Aww, you don’t have to be shy with me. I’m a cool guy. I won’t hurt you. I think we should be friends. You seem to me that you’re pretty cool as well and we should hang out sometime.” Ok, I like him already. Tony gets too worried of something small. He’s harmless and he said he wouldn’t hurt me. He means what he says, I hope.

It was now lunch time. I had no clue where to sit because some of Alli’s past friends took her away from me into the crowd and I lost her. I couldn’t figure out where she went and that kinda pissed me off. I’m going to go in the lunch line and buy my lunch and then I’ll try to find her.

It’s been five minutes and I still can’t find her. I grabbed my lunch and went towards the back of the lunch room where she said that mostly all seniors go to sit. But I couldn’t seem to find her anywhere. But then I spotted a familiar face glaring at me at the back, corner table. Bryan. He waved his hand over to me, signaling for me to come sit next to him. I walked over and found a group of popular boys with a couple of sluts sitting with him. I’m only calling them sluts because they look like they’re trying too hard. Their covered in make-up and short skirts. “Is this seat taken?”

“Nope, I actually saved it just for you, Danielle.” He put a on warm smile and turned away eating his sandwich. I took my place near the boys because I didn’t want to be by the whores. No offense to them. I saw Alli and her friend walking over to me.

“Where the hell were you?” Alli asked.

“I was in the lunch line the whole time and I just got over here. I was looking for you but I couldn’t find you in the crowd,” I said to her with an annoyed attitude. “You ditched me when you could’ve…never mind.”

“I’m going to sit down at the end of the table.” I nodded my head and showed her my phone, sensing for her to check her phone if I happen to text her. I was scrolling through my contacts when I landed on Tony’s name. In my contact list, I named him Turtl3<3. I clicked on it and immediately texted him.

Me: school isn’t so bad. I got through my first 3 classes and now I have A lunch. There’s like a billion kids in this lunch. Alli told me C lunch has the most kids but I’m doubting it. I met someone quite adorable and he actually talked to me without looking away or being worried of what I might say back to him. Imu and I hope your day is going well

…He replied back 6 minutes later.

Turtl3<3: that’s gr8. Listen I can’t talk now cuz Jaime is having a fit with his new bass to work on the amp. We’re literally all yelling at each other trying to calm him down and Mike is just…you know how he is when he’s pissed and some douche (Vic) yells at him. Jaime is always happy nd right now, he's fucking pissed. Sorry, text u in a lil bit when Jaime and Mike are calmed the fuck down.

I waited two minutes before I replied back.

Me: Yup that’s Mike hah. alright, ttyl Turtle, hehehe

I heard some girl from across the table say, “I always wanted to crowd surf but I never got the chance.” and then Alli responded with delight, “Come to an Of Mice and Men show with me! I’m sure you’ll get a chance to crowd surf! You know my dad, right? I swear you went back stage with me that one time and met him. If you want to crowd surf, just ask some people around you to pick you up and they’ll ship you all around the audience.”

I quickly reached for my phone and texted Alli.

Me: Alli, make sure u don’t mention nething about SWS!!! I don’t want ne1 getting suspicious about me or asking u questions about that band, alright? I’m serious. Draw her away from tlkng about bands please? For me? Ily.

Alli: ok ok, I’m sorry. I was just getting carried away b/c u know how we r when we talk about other bands. I love talking about my dad’s band, it’s amazing. Ik u hate it but I’’ll try to bak her away from tlkng about it. Ily nd I’m sorry bout that. Btw, my dad is picking us up after skool just for today.

I looked at her nodding my head in agreement to her text. Austin was picking us up. I’m allowed to call her dad Austin because he honestly doesn’t care. We’re super close anyway. I loved seeing his amazing face. I’ve always wanted to work on a song with him but I never got a chance to ask him. He’s like all screaming and I don’t really want that in the song I’m thinking of. I guess I’ll have to work on it myself for now.

6th hour was ending and I was so ready to go home. I didn’t have any homework on the first day. Thank god. I didn’t want any fucking homework. Five more minutes and I’m out of here. I’m so damn tired all I wanna do is sleep.

“For the last five minutes of class, you guys are going to have an assignment. But before I hear all the moaning and groaning, it‘s a fun assignment.” HA.HA.HA. “I want you all to think about who you want to bring for show and tell.” What does she mean show and tell? This isn’t first grade! This is 12th grade. And what does she mean WHO? “Your task is to bring in someone you admire or look up to. You will explain to the class why he or she is important to you and give examples. If you fail to complete this assignment, you will receive a 0. You will have until Friday.”

Fuck. Who am I going to bring to show and tell? There’s only a couple people I admire or look up to and that’s Tony, Austin, and my dad. I for sure as hell am I not bringing my dad! Then everyone will know who I am and it’s going to be awkward if I have to explain things about him. At any point in giving my speech, he might say Copeland and I can’t risk that. I could get Austin to come to my show and tell. If I tell him to call me Danielle and not Copeland, I think he’ll remember not to spill. Maybe Alli should stick to her own dad. She’s already good at showing him off to her friends 24/7. But if I have no other choice, then I’m definitely taking Austin. And that leaves me with Tony. My beautiful turtle. Oh there’s so much I can say about him. But I can’t bring a rock star in school. Everyone will get suspicious of me. They’ll probably ask how I even got a hold of someone like him. I’m pretty sure the school knows who Tony and Pierce the Veil is because I saw a couple people wearing their band tees. No. I have to think of someone who isn’t famous. I was thinking of Gabe but that would make me sound like I’m a bitch and he’s not part of the band when he really is. Ugh, I don’t know who to choose. I have 3 days to pick someone. Maybe I can bring someone famous. I’ll just ask Alli if I can borrow her dad to come because everyone already knows who he is. Hopefully she can pick a different person.

I felt my phone vibrate in my side pocket. It tickled that crap out of me. I checked to see who it was. Tony.

Turtl3<3: Hey, I can’t come over 2day. But you can come over here. Sleep over? Our bus is clean so don’t worry. Just ask Kellin for me? Text me wat he says alright? Seeee yaa -Ttuurrttllee

I couldn’t reply at the moment. I didn’t want my phone taken away. I slipped my phone back in my pocket and carried on writing the directions to the assignment.

The bell rang. Finally!

“Now remember class, don’t forget to bring in a special guest you want to present to everyone and make sure you get all the information you need.” God she had the biggest smile on her face. She’s an amazing teacher as it seems for the first day. She’ll get nasty later.

“Mrs. Spiteri?” I stood there in anxiety wondering if she would think I’m crazy if I told her. I had to tell at least one teacher who I was. I can’t just present to everyone who Austin Carlile is. It’s impossible to know so much about him and go all out for everyone. I bet half the class knows who he is already. But I bet what they don’t know is that he saved so many lives. I only have a couple minutes to tell her because Austin is picking us up. I’ll ask him in the car. If he rejects me, I’m done for. “Can I have a chat with you? There’s something I need to get off my chest.”

“Yes but I don’t have much time though. I need to go pick up my son from elementary school. You have five minutes.”

I took a seat next to her. “I uh n-need some help. I’m not who you think I am.” I sound like I’m a serial killer and like I’m about to rob the school.

“I know exactly who you are Miss Quinn.” Oh. My. God. I’m scared now.

Silence. I didn’t know what to say. All I could think was, “How do you even know this?”

“You look just like your dad. Kellin right? He was one of my friends in high school.”

I just shook my head yes.

“Sorry to frighten you. What did you want to tell me?”

“Well, that's kind of what I wanted to tell you. And I wanted to tell you that I don’t know who to bring for show and tell. I was thinking of Alli’s dad, Austin. I had a thought to bring my dad but I just can’t.”

“What is the reason why you won’t bring him?”

“Everyone will know who I am. I can’t risk that. I can’t let anyone know who I am. I don’t want the school to go all fan girl on me if you know what I mean. Can you imagine people never leaving you alone?”

“I do know what you mean. My son loves bands. He practically tries to force me to listen to You Me At Six and Mayday Parade. I can only imagine what it’s like being Kellin’s daughter and having to hide from the school.”

“So you’ll keep my secret? You can’t let anyone know who I am or I just might die.” Literally.

“I won’t tell anyone. It is my job here at Mountain View to make every student comfortable. I might not be the principle but I‘m still a teacher and you‘re my student.”

I sighed in relief. “Thank you so much!” I hugged her knowing she won’t tell a soul. “Well, I have to run out of here and I’m sure you do to.”

We both left the room.

I ran to the bathroom checking my face to see if I had any pimples appearing. She was staring at me a lot. Good, no pimples.

I unlocked my phone. 2 missed calls and 1 unread message. Damn it, Alli called me and left me a message.

Alli: where r u?! my dad is gonna b here in less than 1 min. Get ur ass out here. Meet me by the office…

Me: Sorry, I was chatting w/ the teacher. I’m in the bathroom I’ll b out in like 30 secs.