The Hitting Zone

"How can I help you boys?" The woman asked when it finally got to our turn.

"This is Jake Hollander. He's new. My mom registered him." Noah introduced. "She said he should also meet his counselor?"

The lady nodded and started to look around and came back with some papers. "Here's your schedule. A map of the school. The list of books you need to check out from the library. And an agenda book to keep track of your assignments." She looked towards a lady on her left. "Macey, have you seen Mrs. Golladay? She has a new student."

Macey shook her head. "Nope. Maybe she's out and about." She looked at us. "She'll get you called from class to introduce herself to you when she finds the time."

Noah gave a nod and grabbed my papers for me. "Alright. Thanks. I'll take him to the library now." Noah led the way out, back to the huge hallway. "That was strange."

I tilt my head, not understanding.

"Mom specifically said you would meet your counselor in the morning." He answered. "I wanted to be there with you too. Just because I've never met her either." He shrugged. "Whatever, it's fine. Let's go to the library."

I followed him through the hall as an endless amount of people greeted him. Noah was really popular from the looks of it. The definition of everybody's best friend, I guess.

The library already had a good amount of students on the computers and filling up the tables. "Slackers." Noah called them. "They waited until the last minute to get their homework done." We walked up to the librarian and collected the books I would need. Noah frowned at my locker slip. "Your locker is nowhere near mine. I think it would be better if we share until you get comfortable. This way we can walk to and from classes together."

I nodded eagerly. I didn't want to be on my own so soon. The school was much bigger than my middle school and it looked easy to get lost. So he led me to his locker where we stashed all but one of my books.

"English, World History, break, Biology, Spanish, lunch, math is when we'll split, and then reconvene for Health." Noah gave me the rundown of the day as we walked to our first class. "All the teachers should know that you don't really talk so don't stress about that. I'm going to try and make sure you sit next to me in every class."

True to his word, Noah convinced every teacher in our first four classes to let me sit next to him. They also gave me looks of pity, so I knew, that they knew, what had happened to me. Maybe not the whole story, but at least enough to feel sad about it. Noah paid no attention to it though and introduced me to all his friends and classmates. I obediently followed him to each class, trip to the locker, new class, new people.

By lunch, I was mentally exhausted. I couldn't remember anyone's name and I felt dizzy with all the homework I got today.

"More than half of the classes are over with." Noah comforted me. "Let's eat outside since Mom packed our lunches. Normally I eat in the cafeteria, but it might be too cramped and whatnot."

I nodded. I definitely wanted to stay outside, especially on a nice sunny day like this. It was still chilly because it was only February but the sun made it bearable.

Noah led me to the benches near the gym and picked one to sit at. We sat on either side and pulled out the lunches his mom made us.