Shifting Moon

 After my shower I found myself looking into my sky-blue eyes in the mirror. "You got this man, no need to stress over it." The guy in the mirror talking seemed like he had everything under control. I finished getting dressed and swore as I noticed I had worn a hole in the heel of my sock on my right foot. Well, this is going to be an uncomfortable day, hope my hikers don't get too wet. 

From the front door, I was able to hear Bella's truck pull up. It sounded like someone got the timing wrong and the poor thing was idling very high. Something to fix later today if the rain stays away. I walked to the passenger side of the truck and climbed in. Once I had my seatbelt on, Bella handed me a Tupperware bowl and upon investigating, I found it full of banana and peanut butter pancakes. "You are the greatest Bella." I said as I rolled a pancake up and started eating it. 

 Bella cautiously pulled back out on the road and drove towards the school. I used my second rolled-up pancake to point out a shortcut path that kept her off the main road and went directly to the student parking lot. After running the town a few times already, I was getting to know my way around, while Bella was reading her old trashy love novels for the 7th time at home. Though considering she made my favorite breakfast I didn't point this out to her. 

 As if to honor my wisdom of not making fun of Bella and her old books, I was rewarded after taking out the last pancake, with a baggy of blueberries at the bottom of the bowl. Pointing to a parking spot close to the exit I shared the wisdom of parking there with Bella. "The walk may be longer but just remember that the closer to the exit you park, the easier it is to get out of the parking lot. We both know that kids want to park as close to the entry as possible and it's a traffic jam trying to get out. Remember Clint trying to be quick in his daddy's Porsche and getting into 3 fender benders in the first week of school, always had to park as close as he could?" 

 Bella smiled, "Yeah and he cried for a month because he got it taken away and had to settle for a Mustang." We both look at each other and at the same time "What a douche!!!" We laughed for a little while.

 Bell looked out the window. "January of a new year, first day of a new school, we got this… Right big bro?"

 Reaching into my backpack I grab my headphones and say, "I'll let you know after school. Come on, let's go find the office and get our Schedules." 

 She got out and slammed the door shut, "I hope we have at least a few classes together."

 Slinging my backpack over my shoulder, "We shall see."

 The school was nothing like what we were used to, it looked like one fairly large building with a bunch of little ones spread out in a random pattern. Each small building had a number on it, so I wondered if each building was a class. No chain link to keep you in or guards with metal detectors. Weird.

 We decided to enter the double doors of the biggest building and as soon as we did, Bella pointed out a door down the hallway that said Main Office. We went to it, and I held the door open for Bella to walk in and I followed. We walked into a decent-sized room that was cut in half by a large counter. A middle-aged woman looked up as we entered. "Can I help you?" She seemed taken aback by my size and didn't even see Bella until she started talking.

"I am Isabella Swan, and this is Thomas Raizel, this is our first day." Bella used her full name; I can count on one hand the number of times I have heard her do that. 

 The woman stood up and cautiously approached us keeping a wary eye on me. She went to a precariously stacked pile of manila folders on the counter and pulled two slips of paper out, then handed both to Bella. "You will need each teacher to sign this, and then bring it back after school. Here is a map for each of you." After pulling the maps out from under the counter and handing them over, she slowly backed away not even discussing routes with us. 

 We exited out into the hallway and Bella handed my schedule to me so we could compare. Despite Bella's wish, we only had one class together and that was Government. Next, looking at the provided map we were able to tell that the big building we were in was the Main Office, Gym, Cafeteria, and the Teacher's offices. Bella's first class was English and mine was Art. Walking to the lockers we were assigned, which were also in this building we looked them over and luckily Bella reminded me to bring a combination lock, so I didn't have to walk around with all my books in my bag. We agreed to meet up for lunch and went our separate ways, I wanted to get out of the hallway before the morning rush to the lockers before class that every school had. After all, in a tight place 20 people can be a crowd just as 100 people in an open field wasn't a crowd. 

 I managed to get out of the Main building before the first warning bell went off and walked towards where the map said building 4 was. I was wondering what would pass as Art at this school. I knew Art was a very general term for some teachers. Some liked to dedicate it to drawing and painting and others pushed sculpting and carving. My last teacher in Phoenix was trying to get permission to bring in a welder to show examples of modern metal art. 

 I got to the correct building and opened the door to see only a few students in class so far and an elderly woman sitting behind a desk. I approached the desk and handed my class schedule to her. "Mam, I am a new student and was asked to have each of my teachers sign this schedule."

 "Why thank you, Thomas." She said after checking my name on the paper. "It looks like you will even up the number of students I have this year. Are you interested in art at all? Ms. Ross asked.

 "I do enjoy drawing with both a pencil and some chalk. I don't really like the powder chalk though. My previous teacher had just started us on painting with chalk and a stiff brush, but my move obviously cut that short." 

 "Was your teacher using small sculptures or stone plates?" Ms. Ross asked.

 "Actually, the first half of the year we made sculptures ourselves, and the second half we were going to paint them with chalk and brushes before clear coating them to re-temper the finished product in the kiln. He used the long Christmas break to set the sculptures we created." 

 "Sounds like you had a wonderful teacher, and his loss is my gain. I am able to see your interest just by the way you spoke of the project you were a part of. I hope I can challenge your creative side as much as he did. There is an empty seat there at the left corner desk. Your partner is a very passionate and high-spirited young lady by the name of Alice." 

 I moved carefully to the indicated desk and put my class schedule in my bag, so I didn't lose it. The room was a bit small, and the ceiling was much closer to my head than I liked. If going by the desk count and the comments from Ms. Ross, I assumed there would only be 8 students in this class. Shortly before the last bell rang the door opened and I saw a few more student file in, wiping sleep from their eyes still and yawning. After catching sight of me they usually did a double take to see if they saw correctly, after all a student my size was abnormal and sure to feed the rumor mill for days to come.

 At the last minute, the door opened again to reveal a very small girl. She stood no more than 4ft 10in, maybe 11in but no more than that. She was very petite and had short black hair cut in the pixie style, her eyes were a dark brown, bordering on black and she looked like she didn't sleep very well last night. Maybe she stayed up late working on something, I thought to myself. Combining all that with ivory-white skin and a chiseled face that Hollywood must be dying to see, this just wasn't fair to all the other girls in the world. 

 "Alice dear, please take your seat so we can begin class. I assure you, your new table mate won't bite." Ms. Ross said.