Today was Minah’s first official day of school. She wore her uniform and pinned back her bangs with a clip.

“Oh no I think I’m lost” Minah scanned the map in her hands. Why did the school have to be so big?

“801,802,…803! I found it!” Minah joyously walked into her new History class. All of the students were playing around when she walked in and it was hard to find an empty seat.

When the teacher walked in everyone sat down, everyone except for Minah that is.

The teacher, Mr. Roberts looked up at her “You must be the new student. Would you like to come up here and introduce yourself?”

Minah walked up to the front of the classroom. “Hello, my name is Minah and I just transferred here from California.” She paused and looked around the room. Everyone was staring at her and she froze.

The teacher interrupted. “Alright thank you Minah. Why don’t you take a seat right over there?” Minah sat on the right side of the room by the window.

Class was exceptionally boring and Minah never was a fan of history.  So instead of paying attention she let her eyes wander. Outside the classroom through the window she could see a bunch of kids running pacers. They looked exhausted and almost made her glad she was in this boring history class.

Inside the classroom she saw her fellow classmates. There were pretty girls with tons of make-up and masculine girls with no make-up. There were muscular guys and skinny guys and then there was him, the guy sitting directly next to her. Minah couldn’t help but look at him, he wasn’t muscular at all and not nearly as skinny as everyone else in the class and still somehow Minah thought he was cute.

The boy next to Minah looked over and caught her looking at him. “Hey” he waved his hands in front of her face to snap her out of it.

“Byunghun, Minah, are you talking in my class?” Mr. Roberts taped his yard stick against his hand.  “Why don’t you two stay and continue your conversation after class.”

Minah slumped down in her chair.

When the bell rang everyone left except for Minah and Byunghun. “Well Minah, because this is your first offence I’ll let it off as a warning but you Byunghun are lucky I’m not calling your parents.”

Byunghun rolled his eyes.

The teacher pulled out a bucket of cleaning supplies “Alright you two cleaning duty, I’ll be back in 30 minutes to relieve you. This room better be spotless.”

After Mr. Roberts left, Byunghun grabbed a sponge and began scrubbing the desks. He looked over at Minah “aren’t you going to help? It’s the least you can do considering you got me in trouble.”

Minah grabbed a towel from the bucket and started cleaning the desks on the opposite side of Byunghun. “I’m sorry”

“What?” Byunghun asked.

“I’m sorry I got you in trouble, I wasn’t thinking. And now you’re missing your next class because of me.”

“It’s all right I have study hall anyway.”

They cleaned in silence for a while. Minah walked over to the bucket to refresh her sponge when she slipped and landed on the floor with the towel on her head.

Byunghun broke out in laughter.

“Hey it’s not funny!” Minah yelled.

“I’m sorry, you just look too cute!” he helped her up. “Hey one time I fell down the stairs in front of the whole school and everyone laughed at me”

Minah smiled. “Thanks Byunghun”

“Call me L.Joe, at least that’s what my friends call me.”

“I’m Minah”

“Alright Minah, How about we head to lunch.”

“Don’t we have to wait for Mr. Roberts?”

“It’s been way longer than 3o Minutes, C’mon”

-

The cafeteria was really clean and surprisingly not crowded at all. “Where is everyone?” Minah asked.

“Not here yet, we left sort of early. Let’s get food.”

L.Joe pulled Minah into the lunch line where they each grabbed a sandwich.

“Not that one” Minah put the sandwich she was holding back. “The tuna sandwiches are really gross here.”

Minah followed L.Joe to his table. “I assume since your new you don’t have anywhere else to eat so you can eat here if you want”

Minah sat down next to L.Joe and began to eat her ham and cheese sandwich.

A few moments later the cafeteria filled up and a group of boys sat down at the table with L.Joe and Minah.

“Who’s this?” One asked. “She’s pretty” another said.

“Calm down guys, this is Minah, she’s a new student.”

“Shouldn’t you introduce us?”

L.joe looked up at his friends but not wanting to share his new friend he said “Nope”

“Whatever, I’m Niel and this is Ricky and Cap. The silent strong guy over there is Changjo”

“I’ve seen you guys before” Minah replied.

“You have?” L.Joe asked.

“Yeah, you’re all on the soccer team.”

“Not all of us, Cap here is a wrestler.” Niel said.

“You guys are really good.” Minah took another bite of her sandwich.

“Thanks!” Ricky unwrapped his sandwich. “EW, my bread is all soggy.”

“That’s what you get for picking tuna” Cap yelled.

Minah locked eyes with L.Joe and laughed.

“Sorry I’m late guys” Chunji sat down. He took a big bite of his sandwich. “Hey, Minah” and waved.

“Hey Chunji” Minah replied.

“How are you guys so close?” Cap asked.

“I gave her the school tour”

“Of course you did” Cap groaned.

"Hey I thought their was a Geek vs. Jock rivarly" Minah mentioned.

"I told you Minah, I think it's stupid" Chunji replied.

"Yeah and that's pretty much why he's been banned from sitting with the music geeks" Ricky laughed.

When the bell rang everyone grabbed their stuff and headed to class. “Hey Minah where is your next class?” Ricky asked.

Minah looked at her schedule. “Room 437”

“That’s my class! I’ll take you there.” Ricky grabbed Minah and pulled her towards there next class.

-

Minah’s next class was science with Mrs. Smith.  “You must be the new student, let’s find you a seat shall we?” Mrs.Smith looked for someone without a lab partner. “Niel, who is your lab partner?”

“I don’t have one”

“Well now you do. Minah sit right here.”

Minah sat down with Niel at his table.

Just like history class science was boring. Minah began to doodle on her note book.

Niel leaned over and whispered “Whatcha drawing?”

Minah looked at the teacher; she did not want to get in trouble again. She scribbled a note on a piece of paper and passed it to niel.

Shh…I don’t want to get in trouble.

Niel laughed and wrote a note back.

Okay but I still want to know what you’re drawing.

Minah grinned.

Just doodles.

After science class Minah went to her other academic classes which of course she found no interest in. Then the school bell rang and it was finally time for tennis practice.

“Minah! Where are you headed?” Niel asked.

“Tennis, wanna come watch my first practice”

“I wish I could come but I have soccer practice.”

“That’s okay, I’ll do fine.”

“See you later then.”