"I'm Mr Alcott. Nice to meet you." He smiled. "I'm sure you're ready for the next few weeks of English."

"I am." I smiled, noticing Jonah walk in.

Mr Alcott began the lesson, talking about a unit everyone else must be already familiar with. He kept mentioning exams, which I'd never done before, but it was starting to stress me out. No one in my class looked impressed with the mention of exams, so I began to feel the same way. The unit they were studying was news, but they were almost finished. For their exam, they had to write a news article based on a topic that was big in the news right now. Mum and Dad liked having the news on the TV, but I didn't like to watch. There were often scary car crashes and other visuals I didn't enjoy.

"I've put you into partners. Together, I want you to create a list of things that are big in the news right now, or topics that you feel are important." Mr Alcott started reading names out. I hoped I could work with Jonah, since I didn't know anyone else, but that unfortunately wasn't the case. "Jonah with Will, Ashlyn with Tate..." I had no idea who Tate was.

"Hey, you're new here right?" The girl asked, taking a seat next to me. Everyone else was up and moving around, but I stayed where I was. Jonah kept close by too, which I was grateful for.

"Yeah." I nodded. I was still shy and nervous.

"Moving schools mid-term must be tough. What's the reason?" She asked. She was friendly and had a nice smile. I didn't feel like she was trying to be nosy or rude, just wanted to start a conversation.

"You all good?" Jonah asked me, turning around from his seat in front of mine. I didn't even have time to answer Tate.

"Yeah, thanks." I nodded.

"You know Jonah?" She asked me, after he'd turned back to his conversation with his partner, Will.

"He's my brother."

"Brother?" She checked, looking a little shocked. "I didn't know he had a sister." I didn't know what to say so I just sat there. I was his sister. "I'm Tate. Tate Symons."

"Ashlyn Hughes." I smiled at her.

We got started on the project, her taking the lead. She showed me how to use what I needed on my laptop which I was thankful for, and after barely any time at all, that bell rang again.

"Where's your next class?" She asked.

"I'm not sure." I responded, pulling out my timetable to look. "Maths in A008."

"I'm not in your class but I'm next door. Come with me." She was very kind and had the prettiest brown hair with blonde streaks through it. "So, Austin is your brother too right?"

"My twin."

"That's so cool. I wish I was a twin." She sighed, but I laughed. "That's your class. I'm just in here."

I hesitantly went inside and took a seat towards the back, again. There was no teacher but there were a few other kids already sitting down, all on their phones. I didn't they were supposed to be using their phones.

"Ash." Jonah called, having taken a seat on the opposite side of the room. I was surprised he was already in both of my classes. He motioned for me to come over, so I quickly picked up all my stuff and moved to where he was. "What'd you think of Tate?"

"She's really nice."

"I don't think you have to do the exam in English, by the way."

"Oh phew." I let out a sigh of relief. He laughed, just as a few other boys walked in.

"Dude, what happened to Scarlett?" One asked, eyeing me.

"You mean my sister?" He smirked.

"I'm Charlie." He nodded, after taking a minute to look at me.

"I'm Ashlyn." I responded softly.

Finally, after what felt like forever, the teacher arrived and started the lesson. She kind of scared me since she was so serious, but at least she didn't draw any attention to me.

"I didn't bring 2 books." I whispered to Jonah. Our teacher told us to start working in our workbooks now and do the textbook questions, but I only brought one notebook which I'd used for the notes already. I had very little idea what was going on but copied everything the teacher wrote down anyway.

"Just rip a page out of the back and use that and then you can copy it into another book at home." He suggested. It was logical but I was too highly strung for that at the moment.

I felt annoying for pestering him with questions, but he kindly helped me see the textbook on my laptop and find which questions I needed to do. I did not understand at all. Maths had never been my forte and that clearly hadn't changed since my last school.

After what felt like ages of sitting there, staring at a blank page, the bell rang again and that meant it was lunch time. I followed Jonah back to our lockers and carefully put in the code. They were slightly different to the locks at my old school, but I was sure I'd get the hang of it soon.

"How were your first two classes?" Austin appeared, giving me a fright.

"Good. How were yours?"

"Boring. As usual. Can I see your timetable?" I handed the printed timetable to him whilst I grabbed my sandwich out of my lunchbox.

"What is it?" I asked, showing him my sandwich.

"Ham and cheese." I frowned. "You'll like it." I took one bite, and it was actually okay. Nutella was better so I'd ask for that tomorrow. Maybe honey even.

"We have nothing together." He sighed, handing me back my timetable. I closed the locker and together we walked off. I had no idea where we were going.

"Jonah was in both my classes this morning." I told him, as we walked into a large building. It was full of big, round tables with lots of chairs and people everywhere. I looked around and saw Sean sitting with a group of other guys and some girls. Jonah and Scarlett were there, as well as Charlie from maths. At another table, on the opposite side of the room, were two girls, one being Tate from English.

"Tate is waving to you. Go say hi." Austin nudged me.

"I'll just stay with you for now. Maybe later." I mumbled, waving back.

"Go," he pushed slightly harder, nodding at me to go.

finally at school! I feel like it's taken forever for Ash to be finally back at school but here we are!

I'm going to work on a character aesthetic for Tate in the coming days and it will be up on 'Rising out of the Abyss Extras' which is another 'story' you can find on my profile! There are character aesthetics for each current character as well as other covers that were a possibility for this story!

Let me know what you're thinking about Rising to the Surface so far! I'd love to hear some more feedback and any future ideas you have. I will also try to start updating back to every 4-6 days instead of 6-8 but school is very busy this year!