*Amelia*

I wake up to the extremely irritating ring of my alarm. It's 6:30am and I have had roughly 2 hours sleep - jetlag. It's going to take me a while to get used to this.

Then I realise why my alarm is ringing at this time of the morning, and alarm bells of my own sound in my head and send nervous and excited shivers through me.

Today is the first day of art school - the first day of the most important two years of my life.

I slide out of bed and go down to the bathroom to wash and do what I have been wanting and needing to do since I got here. I bump into Matt on the way, my rushing and impatience distracting me from where I am walking. "Sorry."

"It's alright, I didn't see you either. You excited for your first day?" He smiles.

"I am excited, a little nervous though." I say truthfully.

"Well, you're bound to be. If you wasn't nervous I would be worried. You will be great, I can tell."

I smile and look down at the floor momentarily. "Thank you."

"No problem. I'll let you do all your girly things now." He laughs and I smile even wider.

He walks away and I walk into the bathroom, closing the door behind me.

I see that there is a lock on the door and I twist it until I hear the click that tells me it is firmly locked and that I am safe.

I take a deep breath and wash my hands, not bothering to dry them - it's always easier when they are wet.

I sit down on my knees in front of the toilet and begin to get shaky like I always do. But I withstand it, like always, and I lean forward, lifting the seat up and slowly pushing my fingers down my throat.

It comes out of me quickly and easily, the disgusting amount of food I ate last night still not digested inside of my gross body.

I dwell on the amount that I ate and I push my fingers down again, and then again. Again until nothing but the bile of my stomach comes up. Again until I am satisfied that there is no food left to be regurgitated.

I hear a knock on the door and it makes me jump violently.

"Is anyone in there?" I hear Vic's voice, softly awaiting a response.

"I'll be done in a sec." I croak through my sore and burning throat, my voice strained and like nails on a chalkboard. I lean up a little and turn on the tap, sipping a bit of the water to soften my voice.

"Amelia? Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I'm fi-" I try to say but my voice is halted by my body rejecting the water I just attempted to swallow, I throw up once more, every milliliter of water i swallowed coming straight back up again.

But then I hear a key in the door and immediately start to panic. I force my weakened body to stand up and flush the toilet just as Vic comes into the room.

"I heard you throwing up, are you alright?" He says, a worried look on his face.

"I'm alright." I say and force myself to smile. "I think it's just jetlag getting to me."

I realise how stupid that excuse was and close my eyes, shaking my head. Jetlag doesn't make you throw up, especially the day after you arrived into the country.

Vic looks at me and I can tell straight away that he knows that I am lying. His brows are furrowed and his lips are pressed firmly together, his eyes pressing my for an explanation.

He looks down at the floor when he doesn't get one and shakes his head. "Well, as long as you're okay now."

"I am." I lie.

"Do you need anything? Are you sure you want to go in to college today?"

"I will be alright, and yes. I can go in, I just need a minute to sort myself out."

He smiles at me sympathetically and for a moment I think that he knows the real reason that I was throwing up, and that worries me greatly.

---

I hear a gentle knock on my bedroom door when I have finished getting ready, and I guess that it must be Raye, the softness of it not likely to be anyone else.

"Come in." I say, loud enough for her to hear.

Raye walks in and closes the door behind her, smiling at me. My heartbeat quickens - what if Vic told her about me being sick this morning?

"I just came to see if you're ready to go. I figured you wouldn't want to walk in there alone, so I wanted to ask if you wanted to come with me."

I smile thankfully. "That would be great. Thank you."

She smiles back. "It's cool. I remember how hard it was for me to walk in there alone on my first day. Matt and Vic leave earlier because they are in the year above us, and I wasn't about to go with Eloise and her weekly fling was I?"

I laugh. "I guess not. What about Tony and Jaime?"

"They go together. I mean, they ordered, of course. But I would have felt like I was intruding or something," she says. "It's alright anyway, I got used to walking in on my own, and now I suppose I have you to walk in with."

"I guess so." I grin. I want to ask her about the situation with Tony, but I know that's too much on the second day of knowing her. I can just tell that he likes her, and I think she likes him too.

"You look beautiful." She tells me and I smile widely at her, my eyes widening in shock.

"I-I... Thank you! That's lovely."

"You're welcome," she laughs. "The boys are going to be falling at your feet."

I laugh. "That's nice of you to say, but I doubt it. I can't say I've ever had that happen to me before."

"Well, maybe it is time for it to start happening."

"You're too nice." I say, still smiling. "You look lovely too."

She smiles but shakes her head. "You don't have to say it back you know."

"What? I'm serious. You are super pretty, you know that right?"

"Not as pretty as Eloise." She mutters under her breath, but I hear every word. I understand why she seems so intimidated around her now.

"You are way more beautiful than Eloise. Inside and out." I say honestly. "She isn't a nice person, it makes her appearance uglier too."

"Yeah but all the guys like her. Jaime does. Don't tell him I told you that."

"I won't."

"I bet Tony likes her too." She says and sighs.

"You like him, don't you?" I say, innocent curiosity in my voice.

She blushes and looks at me. "Please don't say anything... I don't want him to know. Not yet anyway."

"He likes you. I can tell."

She shakes her head again. "I doubt it."

"Honestly. I can read people pretty well, and I can tell by the way he looks at you," I tell her truthfully. "Are you planning on telling him?"

"There is a big party coming up soon. I was planning on telling him there. I will probably get too scared and chicken out on the day though."

"Maybe he will tell you first." I wink at her and she smiles cutely.

"I wish. Anyway, we better get going. Better not be late on your first day."

"Okay, let's go."

---

"I'll take you to reception so you know where you are going, but I'm gonna have to go soon otherwise I will be late to my Fine Art class." Raye tells me.

I nod. "That's great. Thank you, Raye."

She smiles. "No problem. Okay, reception is there. Just go in and tell them you are new and they will ask for your name. Obviously you tell them and they will give you a timetable and a map."

"Okay."

"I will meet you outside the crush hall before lunch so that you aren't alone."

"Thank you, really."

"It's nothing. I remember my first day and it wasn't the best, I don't want yours to be the same." She smiles. "I have to go now. See you later."

She waves and starts to walk away. I take a deep breath and replay in my head what Raye said to me - new; name, timetable, map.

I push open the doors to reception and walk in to see a friendly looking lady sitting behind a desk. "Hey there, are you alright?"

I take in her strong Californian accent and smile. "Yeah, I'm new."

"Ah. Okay, one second." She says and types some things into a computer. "What's your name, darling?"

"Amelia Browning."

"Ah, there you are. Okay, let me just print off your timetable. Here is a map, you can ask any member of staff to help you if you get lost anyway, but this should help."

"Okay, thank you." I smile and take the map from her.

"From London, eh? Lovely place. I went there last year." She says and smiles at me.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. Had a blast. Anyway, here is your timetable. Have fun darling!" She says and takes the piece of paper from the printer.

"Thank you." I say and smile at her, turning around and walking out of reception.

As soon as I step outside I see the girl that I was talking to at the airport when I arrived in San Diego. A flutter of hope flashes through me as she turns around and sees me.

"Hey! It's you!" She smiles widely and I smile back.

"Yeah, hey." I say, relief flooding through me that I have found someone that I have actually met before, even if it was only briefly.

"It's Amelia, right?"

"Yeah, you're Georgia."

"Yeah!" She says enthusiastically. "So, what class do you have now? Maybe we could walk together if its in the same block?"

"I have Art & Design. That would be great."

"Ah, I have Theatre. We could walk the same way, our blocks are right next to each other."

"Yeah, cool." I tell her and we start walking.

"You nervous?" She asks me.

"Very." I reply and she nods her head.

"I'm nervous too. I'm not used to being around people who have no idea who I am, you know?" She says and furrows her eyebrows. I nod. "I was popular in my old college, I had a lot of friends. This is such a big change for me. I know no one, the only person I know of is you and we have only met briefly. I mean, thank God we did meet at the airport, God knows what it would have been like then. Having no one know your name... We can be friends, right?"

I slowly exhale, not even realising that I was holding my breath, and flash my teeth momentarily. "Yeah, of course."

"Thanks, that's so great." She grins and we reach the door where we separate and head into different buildings.

She turns to face me and surprises me by giving me a hug. I hug her back awkwardly and smile falsely when she pulls away. "See you later." I say.

"See ya, Amelia." She turns and walks towards what I assume is the Performing Arts department.

I turn left and walk towards the block in which I should be and nerves instantly hit me.
I speed up pointlessly as I am already late, but the thought of entering the room and everybody staring at me makes me pick up my speed.

I reach the door and knock on politely, but when I get no answer I just walk in.

I am surprised to see that no one is actually staring at me and that everyone is actually chatting and getting on with what they need to be doing. I expected silence and independence, not talking and group work.

I walk to the front of the classroom towards the teacher and manage to get through with only a couple of second glances.

"Um, hello?" I say nervously to the very eccentric looking man sitting behind a computer.

"Oh! Hello!" He shouts and almost everyone in the class looks up at me, apart from a couple of people at the back of the room.

I turn bright red and scratch the back of my neck awkwardly. "I'm-"

"Amelia Browning! Of course. I already knew that!" He yells again and a few people in the class laugh at his oddness.

"Sir, can you not see how awkward you are making her feel?" Someone says from a table not too far from me.

I look over at them and see a guy roughly my age smiling at me.

"Yeah, okay Null. Don't get your knickers in a twist over a girl you haven't even met yet." The teacher says and everyone laughs, then goes back to their work. The guy shakes his head and shrugs at me when I look at him, smiling and then going back to his painting.

"He isn't really called Null. His name is Daniel, but I have a personal nickname for everyone in here. Anyway, Amelia. I am Professor Oddity. That isn't my real name, obviously. I adapted it about 4 years ago, and it kind of stuck. My real name is Mr. Adamson, but everyone in her just calls me sir or Gray. Because my name is Graham. I don't mind either, you can call me what you like."

I nod and try hard to take in every word of his seemingly endless speech.

"Amelia. Amelia. Hm... I am going to call you Meel. Okay Meel, what kind of art do you specify in?"

"All sorts, but I prefer abstract and surrealism."

"Lovely! You can go and sit over there with Null." He says and winks at me. "Just make sure he doesn't fall in love with you."

I smile awkwardly and turn around to go to Daniel's table.

"I'll come over in a few minutes and sort you out with an assignment after looking at your skills!" Gray shouts again.

I feel like shouting 'okay' back at him, but realize how rude that might seem and I don't want to draw too much attention to myself anyway.

I take a seat directly opposite Daniel and pull out my sketchpad from my bag, placing it on the table ready for when Gray comes over and checks it out.

"Hey, I'm Daniel." Daniel smiles at me.

"Hi, I'm Amelia." I say awkwardly and he raises his eyebrows.

"Are you British?" He asks me, and I fight the urge to roll my eyes at him.

"Yeah." I put bluntly.

"Awesome." He grins cheesily. "Can I look at your work?"

I tense up visibly and place my hand over my sketchbook. "Uh..."

"Okay, Amelia. Lets see what talents you've got hidden in this book." Gray shouts from behind me and saves me from Daniel's prying eyes.

I hand him the book and he takes a seat next to me, opening the pages and studying the work inside. His expression tells me nothing about the way that he feels about my work and I can't decide whether that is a bad thing or not, so I just look away from him.

"Beautiful." I hear him mutter under his breath, and the whole class turn around and stare at this table.

"Well done, Amelia. You are the first person ever in this whole class to make him whisper when he sees a piece of art." Daniel tells me.

I see a few people with their mouths open and a few shaking their heads, and I don't see the big deal, and I don't like the fact that the attention is now solely on me.

"I wanna see." Someone says from behind me and gets out of their chair, walking up to Gray and peering over his shoulder to see what his gaze is so firmly stuck on.

I realise that I am interested myself about what painting he is fixated on, and I look at my book and see the drawing that I hate people seeing the most.

My heartbeat quickens as more and more people get up to check out what has silenced their teacher and I become more and more defensive as people ask me about the meaning of it.

"I don't know, it just came to my head..."

"It's just a doodle..."

"It's nothing interesting..."

"QUIET!" Gray shouts louder than I have heard him all morning, and a few students go back to their seats. "Sit down, all of you."

"That was pretty messed up." I hear someone mutter from the back of the classroom, and I feel tears rush to the corners of my eyes.

This is the reaction I got at my school, and the college that my mum and dad forced me to apply to a few months ago.

"That was weird, but you can't deny she is awesome at art. Really goddamn awesome." I hear someone else say.

I see my book get placed in front of me, the cover closed and all of my art safely hidden.

"I'll get you some graded pencils and oil paints. Okay?" Gray says quietly to me.

I nod.

And I sigh.

Notes

Bit of a glimpse of Amelia's first day, aw poor her :(
What do you think the drawing was of? And what do you think of the characters that seem to like Amelia?? Opinions??