I love Mondays, the sun streaming through my windows as the birds chirp bright and early at seven thirty in the morning.

Not.

I hate early mornings, I'd rather never have coffee again than wake up this early. I had about an hour to eat and get ready before leaving for school. Miguel said since my apartment was on the way he'd walk with me to school which I was grateful for cause I hate being the new kid, especially this late into the year.

Alright outfit time, I could either not care about how I looked or dress to impress. Obviously, I wanted to make a good first impression so I put on a cute skirt and a matching colored cropped polo shirt.

Before I knew it it was eight thirty and Miguel was in the lobby waiting for me. I grab my backpack, put on some high top shoes and head down. As the elevator doors opened I spotted Miguel leaning against a wall on his phone wearing a hoodie and some casual jeans. He looked up at me and laughed as I walked towards him.

"Vera this is high school, not some fashion show."

"Yeah yeah whatever, I just wanted to make a good first impression alright." I reply while we both walked out of the lobby and on our way to school.

"Oh I think you already have." Miguel chuckles, "by the way where were you? I was trying to find you to introduce you my other friends?" He asked

"Did you not run into Chris or Mitch? I told them to go find you?" I question

"What? No, I saw Chris and Mitch playing beer pong the entire night. Why what happened?" And that's when I told Miguel what happened yesterday night. He ended up laughing at my stupidity and told me that's what happens when I leave things unattended.

"It's not my fault! I thought people would just leave my bag alone! I lost a good pair of slides yesterday." I frown

"So that's where 'hot babe on the beach' came from huh?" he asks while putting air quotes around hot babe.

I smack my arm against his chest while stopping on the sidewalk.

"You better be kidding."

"I'm not! All the guys were talking about it at the party yesterday, saying you were their dream girl or something." Miguel says in a laughing fit.

"It's not my fault I wore a bikini, at the beach!" I reply as I continued walking again. " I don't want kids at school to know me by that! It's a little embarrassing."

"Well, that's the least you should worry about because we're here at your first day of school!" Miguel excitedly says.

"Wow, thanks I'm so excited." I say in a monotone voice.

"Okay so you just go to the office to get your schedule and I'll be outside waiting." Miguel tells me as we walk up the steps of the school.

I head in and immediately everyone turns to look at me. I'm kidding. Actually, no one bothered to look at the new girl, they were all just in their own little world talking to their friends or on their phone. I walk into the front office and ask the receptionist for my class schedule. Once she hands it to me I walk back out trying to find the only friend I made in this school. Yet again, Miguel was nowhere to be found.

"Her name's Vera, what kind of name is that?" I hear followed by laughter. I turn my head and see Hawk confidently tell his friends about my name. Obviously, I had to protect my reputation so I walked up behind Hawk crossing my arms. His friends all start looking past him to look at me and widen their eyes.

"I was just thinking the same thing." I interrupt as Hawk turns around and glares at me, "because what kind of name is Hawk right?" I question "I just don't think it fits your personality right fellas?" I sigh and put my head on Hawk's shoulder. "I think pigeon works, aw isn't that cute? We should call him pigeon" I declare and watch Hawks friends holding in their laugh. Hawk starts getting more agitated as he turns his head looks down at me on his shoulder. He clears throat , puts his arm around my shoulder and steers me away from his group before calling out to his friends.

"That was Vera everyone." He roughly pulls me along the hallway with my shoulder still under his arm. "Alright you should get to class now, you wouldn't want to be late would you?" Hawk grabs my schedule before saying "Let's see here, what do we have first? Oh English with Mr.Roberts perfect Miguel has that class too." He sarcastically says before handing me back my schedule. We continue walking before he leans into my ear and whispers "Now be a good girl and walk to class, don't talk to me at school got it?" He removes his arm and pushes me toward Miguel who was at his locker getting his books. I scoff and turn around to argue but the blue mohawk was already far away and back in his little circle of friends.

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Class sucked, I hate high school. It was boring and the teacher's didn't even bother helping me get settled. Sadly I only had one class with Miguel the rest I was alone. It was lunch now as I walked toward the cafeteria with my tray in hand trying to find the blue mohawk, Hawk couldn't just insult me and get away with it, I wasn't going to let that happen.

"Hey Vera over here!" I hear someone shout, I turn and see Demetri frantically wave his arms at a table that was empty except for Miguel who was sitting beside him shaking his head in embarrassment. I smile and make my way over there but before I could make it an arm reaches out and stops me. I look past the arm to see who it was to be face to face with Kyler.

"What?" I roll my eyes and ask.

"Damn no I was just going to ask for your number." He casually replies.

"Kyler, do you remember yesterday?" I sigh "I will flip you again and think twice before replying because this is hard ground not sand." I warn.

"Jeez woman, okay message received!" Kyler replies with arms held up in surrender before turning back to his own table. 

I turn back to the table and sit down on the other side of Demetri.

"Sorry about that." I chuckle. "Here's your button up back, thanks for letting me borrow it yesterday." I smile

"Don't worry about it, I wanted to do something nice for a pretty girl." Demetri politely complimented.

"Demetri if you like her just tell her upfront. Who knows she might get a boyfriend and your chance would be over." Miguel injects.

I scoff at that comment. "Trust me guys no boy drama here, I'm single and I like being single."

"Yeah yeah, the strong independent woman speech. My moms been saying that ever since I could remember." Miguel replies

"Oh no." I laugh "I'm just not interested in anyone at the moment." I add

"What about Hawk?" Miguel asks.

"You like Eli?" Demetri questions with a hint of defeat on his face.

"Eli? You're telling me Hawk's real name is Eli?"I laugh while asking

"Yeah, sadly he changed it to Hawk right after he joined the dojo." Miguel says. "You should join Demetri, Vera here is training us for the All Valley Tournament this week."

"Yeah grandpa Kreese says the only decent ones are Miguel and Eli at the moment so I've got a ton of work to do this week, hey speaking of which, where is Eli?" I ask

Right at that moment, Hawk and his friends walk through the doors of the cafeteria, behind him are some friends from this morning and some from the dojo. I see them make their way to the back of the cafeteria all confidently and as some of his friends sit down I take the opportunity to yell out.

"Hey Eli!"

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Jex ✰