"Great," I thought, refraining from sighing heavily. I had already noticed that his friend Taehyung was sitting to Jimin's right. "How did I get stuck sitting in front of the two slackers?" I wondered.

"This is my friend Taehyung," he said pointing to his strawberry blond friend.

"What's up," Taehyung said with a nod in English while holding his hand up in something like a wave.

"Hi," I said with a small smile.

"Which state are you from?" Jimin asked.

"Oregon," I said. When he gave me a blank look, I added, "it's above California on the Pacific coast."

"Ahhh," he said with a nod, "So we've been living on the same coastline and never knew it huh?"

I couldn't help but chuckle slightly. "I suppose so."

"Jimin," Ms. Jun called out harshly, "quit flirting with the new student." I saw Jimin's cheeks turn slightly pink and I stifled a laugh as I turned back around. "Is he bugging you Aila?"

"Hmm..." I thought, "if I say yes maybe she'll move me..."

"No," I found myself saying, "it's alright." I was surprised with myself but for some reason him and Taehyung seemed funny and interesting. They made me think of the guys I had been friends with back home.

Ms. Jun continued on with what she had been saying earlier and Jimin tapped me on the shoulder again. This time he passed me a small folded piece of paper.

I opened it and read:

Sorry I was just curious. I've never met anyone from the U.S. before. Do you dance?

I stared at the piece of paper. Technically I did. I loved to dance, but I had never taken any official lessons and I didn't really like opening up and dancing in front of anyone, at least not like I did when I was alone.

"Aniyo (no)," I wrote and handed it back.

A few seconds later he handed it back.

Too bad. I’m trying to start a dance club. Are you sure?

"Sorry," I wrote, "I'm not who you're looking for."

I watched while he read it and then he just shrugged,  finally dropping the subject.

I had the next few classes with Hyosung whom I stuck closely with. But after lunch I had a P.E. class and Hyosung had English.

"I'll see you after English," she said before we parted ways, "you remember how to get to the gym right?"

"Ne," I said.

"I'll see you later then," she said with a smile and a wave as she left.

I was alone and my heart was pounding out of my chest. I kept on full alert as I headed to the gym. Suddenly someone was walking next to me.

"You look a bit lost," she said. The girl had black hair with side bangs across one side of her face, corn rows on the opposite side and the rest of her hair was up in a high ponytail. She was tall and pretty as and had beautiful large eyes.

"I thought I remembered where the gym was," I admitted,  "but I guess I was wrong." I shrugged.

"You have P.E. next?" she said.

"Yeah..." I said.

"I have it next as well,” she said with a smile, “I'll show you the way."

"Ah, kamsahamnida."

"No problem," she said.

"Here we are," she said, opening the door to the gym.

"Elly, you're late," the teacher said with a scolding frown.

"Sorry I was helping our new foreign exchange student find the gym," she explained.

"Ah I see," the teacher said, finally noticing I was there, "What's your name?”

"My name is Aila," I said nodding slightly.

"Glad you are here," he said, his expression suddenly changing,  "the girls' changing rooms are over there." He pointed to a doorway at one end of the gym.

"Thank you."

I took a deep breath as I entered the locker room. I was expecting to see a small group of girls in the changing rooms, but to my surprise there was only one other besides Elly and I.

The girl was tall, lean, and somewhat muscular. She was beautiful and had long brown shiny hair.

"Hi," the pretty, muscular girl said, "you must be new. I'm Krystal."

"And you can call me Elly," the dark haired girl said, officially introducing herself.

"I'm Aila. Nice to meet both of you. I came from America as a foreign exchange student."

"You came from America?" Krystal said in perfect English,  "I was born in California but moved to Seoul later on."

"I can tell," I said with a smile, "your English is perfect!"

She smiled widely. "Thanks. Let's be good friends!"

I chuckled. "Definitely!" It was nice to make another friend, plus she was actually as tall as me, unlike a lot of the other girls.

"So you like sports?" Elly said.

"Some. Tennis, basketball, and soccer are my favorites."

"You should join our club!" Krystal said excitedly, "Elly and I and a couple others have a sports lovers club. We focus on one sport a month. We play them, learn about the rules, basically anything we want to do that's related to sports!"

"Sounds fun," I said with a smile, "I'm in."

"Aila," the P.E. teacher said (I found out his name was Shin Sungrok), "what's a game you play in America?"

"Hmm..." I said, "well in our class we played dodgeball a lot."

"Why don't you teach us how to play?"

"Uh... okay. We'll need four volleyballs." He brought them out. "Okay set them on the middle line and spread them out. We'll need to split into two teams." I was so glad that he didn’t make me introduce myself to everyone for the 5th time since homeroom.

Mr. Shin picked at random and the fairly large group, mainly guys, was quickly split into two teams. I realized that Rapmonster, or Namjoon, was in the class as well. He was still in his uniform and had his sunglasses on. He apparently wasn’t participating, seeing as he was in the corner listening to music and he hadn’t changed into his P.E. uniform. But oddly enough, Mr. Shin didn’t even say anything to him; he just ignored him.

I quickly explained the rules and after about 20 minutes of playing, everyone playing seemed to have it down pretty well.

My team was down to three players; me, Krystal and a boy I hadn’t met before, who had a bandana tied around his neck. A member of the opposite team hurled a ball across the court and hit Krystal's leg. It was only bandana guy and I left. The next throw, he jumped to try to catch a ball but accidentally dropped it. I was the last member left. A ball came straight at me and I doubled over to dodge it. I kept my eyes on the opposite team and dodged ball after ball. Finally I tried to catch one, but it hit my finger straight on. I winced and held my fingers stretched out.

"You okay?" bandana guy asked.

"Yeah I'm fine," I said. I shook my hand and let it hang.

"You were great out there!" he said with a beaming smile, "My name is Hoseok by the way. It’s nice to meet you."

“I’m Aila. Nice to meet you too.”

“Do you like dancing at all? My friend and I are trying to start a club and you’d be good at it.”

"Uh thanks," I said, "but I was already asked by Jimin and declined. Is he your friend?"

"Oh that's too bad," he said, "yeah Jimin and I used to live in the same neighborhood when we were younger."

"Ah, I see."

"If you change your mind about the club, let me know."

"I will," I said with a smile.

After class was over, Krystal and Elly insisted on walking back to the main building with me.

“Our first club meeting will be next week on Tuesday,” Elly said as we walked.

“Yeah, you’ve definitely got to be there!” Krystal said, flashing her perfect smile, “Let’s exchange numbers!”

I pulled out my phone and put both of them into my contacts.

“Great!” Krystal said, “Well our next class is the other way. See you later!”

“See you,” I said and waved goodbye to them. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Namjoon head the same direction as the girls. “Why attend classes if you don’t want to do anything?” I thought. I just shook my head and headed to class.

So how did the first day go? Did you see a bunch of hot guys??? Have you already met your boyfriend?

I shook my head and laughed at my best friend Cam’s text.

It was good. There were so many good looking guys! I know a couple are just your type too!!! No I haven’t met anyone like that yet, it’s only the first day! I only met an funny egotistical guy who nearly made me fall over in the hallway. T T ug… I miss you already!  I texted back.

The one downside to following this short term goal was the people I had left behind.

The first week went by in a flash of school bells and piles of homework. I had thought I had a good amount back home, but there was at least twice the amount of work piled on me in only the first week! Hyosung and I spent most of the weekend completing our work, but we had a little time to do some more sightseeing. Before I knew it, Monday rolled around again.

I took my seat in homeroom behind Hyosung and just before the bell, Taehyung and Jimin raced through the door and slid into their seats behind me.

“Well class,” Ms. Jun said, “since we don’t really have anything to cover this morning, and I’m sure everyone has left over summer fever, let’s go outside for the rest of our class time.”

The class burst out with cheers of happiness. Hyosung and I smiled at each other. The class filed outside and Ms. Jun took us out to the soccer field. The fresh air felt really nice.

Hyosung and I walked over to an outdoor table at the edge of the field and sat down. Some other girls sat at a table a few feet over. I could hear pieces of them whispering to each other. One of them kept glaring at me and I could hear her say my name.

"She's weird..." I could hear the girl say, "She just got here but I already saw her flirting with a couple different guys, and the worse part is she isn’t even pretty! She looks like a man in a skirt." I saw her laugh cruelly and then she made eye contact with me and smirked.

My heart sank. Was that what people thought of me? I could feel the color drain from my face. My stomach felt sick and I felt like crying.

"Are you okay?" Hyosung said looking concerned. I could tell she hadn't heard the conversation.

"I'm fine," I said, "I'm going to use the bathroom."

I stood up and walked away making brief eye contact with Jimin and Taehyung as I passed. Instead of going to the bathroom though, I went around the other side of the building. When I was sure no one was looking, I took off my jacket and bow tie and pulled my ipod out of my pocket. I stuck in my headphones and drowned out my thoughts. I picked my favorite song and started to dance. At first I was warming up, but then I really got into the song, not thinking about anything else but the rhythm of the music. I stopped thinking altogether and the tears that had been forming in my eyes subsided. Regrettably, the song ended all too soon. I pulled out my headphones and stuck my ipod back in my pocket. I turned around to grab my jacket but froze mid-motion. Jimin was leaning up against the building.

He smiled mischievously. "Busted."