She spent the rest of the school day either with Chris or thinking about Chris. They went to history, then she had French while he had Spanish, then lunch and then math. All her classes that day were easy to catch up in and she didn’t have too much homework. Luckily, it was the beginning of a new quarter so everyone was starting like her, a clean slate.

At the end of school, after going to her locker and getting Chris‘s cell phone number, she realized she had no idea which bus she was on. She went to the office and asked. They told her she was on bus 146. She went out and found it quickly. There were no empty seats so she had to sit with some complete stranger. She looked around, and sighed. She had hoped that Chris was on her bus so she wouldn’t have to sit with some other person in awkward silence. But she had no such luck. She found a girl who looked about her age sitting alone and decided to sit with her. She sat down and held her book bag on her lap. The girl was pretty, with blonde hair and blue eyes. The girl was a little familiar, but Lindsey couldn’t place her. “My name’s Ana,” she said.

“Lindsey.”

“You’re new, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I just moved here.”

“Cool. What grade are you in?

“Sophomore. You?”

“Me too! Cool!”

“Yeah. Cool.” This girl was extremely happy.

“Hey, I think you’re in one of my classes. Do you take French with Miss Green?”

“Yeah, it was my third class today.”

“I sat right next to you.”

“Really?”

“I think so.”

“It wasn’t really that hard today.”

“Are you kidding? I am struggling so much in that class!”

“Really? I could help you.” She was starting to like this girl.

“You would do that?”

“Sure. Come over tonight, we can work on the homework together.”

“That would be great! Oh, thank you so much! Where do you live?”

“Right here.” The bus came to a stop in front of Lindsey’s house and both girls stood up to get off. Lindsey opened the front door with her new key. “My uncle’s not home yet. Do you want a snack?”

“Um, sure. Can I use your phone to call my mom?”

“Of course. It’s by the stairs.” She waited until she heard Ana say “Hey, Mom.” to go find a bag of chips. Five minutes later, Ana came into the kitchen where Lindsey was waiting. “Sorry it took a while. My mom was having another break down. We lost my dad a few years ago and she hasn’t been ever since. She needs to find someone.”

“I’m sorry.”

Ana just smiled and sat down beside Lindsey, taking a chip. “So, you understood French today.”

“Yes. Where’s your workbook?”

“Right here.” They each pulled out their workbooks and began to go over the homework. After a half hour, Ana exclaimed, “Oh my God, I think I get it!”

“Great!”

“Thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome. Hey, you wanna stay for dinner?”

“Oh, I would love to but I can’t. My mom’s got a class tonight, she’s studying to be a teacher, and on class nights, she’s so stressed that she always needs my help. Maybe some other time though.”

“Of course. Here” Lindsey wrote down her two phone numbers, home and cell, and gave them to Ana. “If you need anymore help in any class, just call me, ok?”

“Ok. Thank you so much, Lindsey!” Ana smiled.

“No problem. Hey, where do you live?”

“Around the corner. It’s the blue house with the purple door.”

“Cool. See you tomorrow on the bus?”

“Ok! Bye, and thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome!” Lindsey led Ana to the door, and watched her new friend walk a little ways before yelling, “Hey, when do you have lunch?”

“After my third class every day!”

“Cool! You can sit with me and Chris!”

“Who’s Chris?”

“A boy in a bunch of my classes.”

“Tell me about him tomorrow!”

“Ok! Bye!” She went inside, closing the door, and smiled. Her first day was great.