Welcome to Spring Water

Moving in and out of school after school really makes a person tired. It wasn’t even that I was bad at school or anything. I got A’s in all my classes, made friends, even if I did lose them in the next five minutes, I even ate the school food and thanked the adults who made and served it.

There was just something off about every school I went to. All six of them seemed cool the first day, and then, BOOM. You get launched into this battle zone of cliques and needs and wants. I never liked that part of school, so I never stayed around long enough to get too far into them. My poor parents wanted me to just pick a school and stick with it until the end of the year. There was only one quarter left, so that could happen.

Today is my first day at Spring Water High. So far everything looks good. There haven’t been any fights, no one’s tried to shove me down the stairs. The teachers are all good, and the students seem nice. But I haven’t gotten to lunch yet, lunch usually decides it for me. The teachers are on their break, and students have free reign to the cafeteria. 

I step into the large white and lavender room and into the line for lunch. People are walking to their tables. No one, as far as I can see, is sitting alone. That’s a first. I get my lunch and say thank you to the person serving behind the counter, and can’t help but notice the person behind me does the same.

Gosh, something’s wrong with this school in the good way, I think as I walk to a mostly empty table. About three seconds later, a horde of students have come over and are now sitting next to me.

“Welcome to Spring Water, what’s your name? I’m Kali,” A girl asks.

“Oh, uh. I’m Lila,” I stutter.

Either the world has ended, or I’ve just found myself a school where I can finally belong.