The first thing I learned about Valley Woods High was that you needed a map here.

Small and lost, I turned from side to side behind the entrance, wondering which way to go from here. An endless maze of hallways and doors stretched out in front of me, students hurrying past me on every side. Some of them pushed me out of their way without a word. They all moved in groups, all of them except the young-looking kids who could only be freshmen. I wasn't a freshman. I was just lost.

"Excuse me—" I tried to ask the next group of girls who pushed past me, but they didn't hear me at all. I tried again on a trio of guys. "Hello—"

No reaction. Again. They were so busy talking to each other that they didn't notice the lone girl awkwardly trying to get their attention over the general noise in the hallway.

I looked back down at my schedule. Asking others for help didn't seem to be an option, so I should help myself. Usually the digit the room number started with indicated the floor it was on, so if my first class was in room 215, then I had to get to the second floor…right?

In that case, I should probably find a staircase.

Steeling myself, I threw myself into the moving crowd, letting it sweep me along. It was so loud in here. My old school hadn't been half as big. And definitely less noisy.

Some of the student threw me passing glances, and I shrank under their gazes. Did I look weird? Probably. Maybe it was the intimidation, but everyone in this place seemed so much cooler than me—taller, prettier, better dressed, you name it. Abruptly I wished it wasn't too hot to wear my hoodie. At least I could've pulled that over my head to hide away my face.

A guy a whole foot taller than me almost crashed into my side from a door I'd overlooked, cursing under his breath as he avoided me at the last second. "Hey, watch where you're going!" he shouted in passing, but when I turned to apologize he was already gone and I almost collided with someone else.

"Sorry…sorry," I muttered as I weaved my way through the crowd. "So sorry!" But no one seemed to hear me.

My idea with the second floor had been good, which didn't mean I didn't have to spend another age finding my classroom on there. On the bright side, I found my locker in passing and dropped off my backpack. On the not-so-bright side, I was now standing in an unfamiliar classroom with no idea where to sit.

There were free desks, obviously. At least, they looked free enough. The problem was that I didn't know if they actually were free or if I was taking someone's assigned unassigned seat; and I definitely didn't have the spine to go up to people and ask. So I was just standing there, watching my classmates pour in, desperately hoping for someone to have mercy and invite me to sit with them.

The door closed behind me, and when I turned I found myself face to face with a middle-aged lady. Oh crap, had I really spent that long standing in the doorway? My teacher had to think I was an idiot now!

But the teacher only gave me a quick look before flashing a smile. "Pearl Evans, I assume?"

I smiled slightly and nodded. "That's right."

"Don't worry, I've been warned that you're new. I'm Ms. Mitchell, by the way," she added with a knowing little grin. "It's okay if you're a bit lost, we all were at first."

I nodded again. Some of the tension faded from my body. Maybe, I thought, I'd been panicking a bit too much.

Ms. Mitchell glanced at me, then at the classroom. "Still need a place to sit?" she guessed. "Why don't you sit over there at the back? There's still a free seat next to Sunday."

My eyes followed her pointed finger to an empty desk at the back corner, and then to the girl beside it. I tensed. The girl Ms. Mitchell had called Sunday was the kind of person I could only admire from a distance because she was way too cool for me: dressed in all black with dyed blue hair that was so spiky it seemed to come straight out of a video game, her eyes underlined with enough black eyeshadow to make her look like she hadn't slept in weeks. Her gaze briefly landed on me, sizing me up, before she shrugged and went back to doodling in her notebook.

"Okay!" Ms. Mitchell declared as I awkwardly sat down behind the corner desk. "Time for biology."

~ ~ ~

When the class was over, I was not looking forward to any more rounds of classroom-searching and pushing through crowds I didn't know.

Thankfully my next classroom wasn't too far away. The one after that, meanwhile, was all the way downstairs. And to make things worse, the building had somehow become even more crowded since the morning.

Holding my textbooks close to my chest, I hurried past the strangers as fast as I could. I'd somehow gotten lost on my way to my locker earlier, mixing up the hallways, and now I was running late. If I wasn't careful I'd risk a repetition of this morning, except with barging in after a teacher who might also not be as friendly as Ms. Mitchell. The thought was enough to make me pick up my pace even more. Finally, finally, I'd made it to the staircase, and from here—

Someone bumped into me from behind. Losing my balance, I put out a foot to catch myself and stepped into thin air. And suddenly I was falling, falling, over the stairs and down—

"Careful, princess."

A strong arm wrapped around me, yanking me back into an upright position. Staggering and stumbling, I turned, my heart pounding anxiously against my ribcage as I looked up to see my savior.

And suddenly had a whole new reason for my racing heart.

The person who had caught me was a boy about my age—at least, I thought he had to be my age. He was tall, intimidatingly tall, his broad shoulders filling out his scratched-up leather jacket. Dark tousled hair fell down into a tanned, narrow face with a jawline sharp enough to kill. And then there were his eyes: emerald-green and intense, like the sea on a cloudy day or a dark forest full of secrets.

"Oh, um," I managed out, my face heating up, but I couldn't look away. "That was…thank you."

My savior smirked down at me, and my heart did a backflip. "Hey, no problem," he said easily, his deep voice striking just the right balance between cocky and soothing. "These stairs are evil. You should be careful, or you might fall down when I'm not around to catch you."

I didn't know my already burning face could still grow hotter, and yet here I was. "Oh, uh, okay," I stammered. "Right. Okay. Thanks."

The stranger shot me another glance from those green, green, green eyes, then he lifted his hand in a casual wave and turned to leave. I remained behind, transfixed, not even realizing how easily I could be pushed and fall again.

You idiot! a voice burst out in my head as some of my senses came back. Why didn't you ask his name or something?

Not that it would help me much, I reminded myself as a million hopes and dreams started spawning in my head. This stranger looked exactly like one of the heroes from the YA novels I loved so much, and guys like that were only interested in beautiful girls. The heroines of my favorite novels might not think of themselves as beautiful, but they still were, and everyone else knew it. I wasn't beautiful. At best I might be kind of pretty if I were about two sizes slimmer.

Even if our first meeting just now had felt straight out of a book…

A glance at the clock stopped me from following that thought any further. Crap, I was running late! And I still didn't know where exactly that classroom was!

Forcing myself to focus on school again, I hurried down the stairs. For the entire way down I thought I could feel someone staring at me, but it was probably my imagination.

~ ~ ~

I did make it to class in time, just barely. Once again I was stuck searching for a free seat; but just as I started to panic, someone bumped into me. I spun around and found myself facing the girl—Sunday?—I'd been seated next to in biology class.

Raising her eyebrows, she blinked, then pointed a finger gun at me. I mirrored the gesture, then instantly felt weird. Why had I done that again?

"What's so funny?" she asked when I let out a nervous giggle, and her voice was a lot more friendly than her appearance. "If it's funny, I wanna hear it too!"

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing," I answered. "It's just, we have to look like that Spider-Man meme right now. You know, that one—"

That was as far as I got before Sunday burst into very loud laughter, completely ignoring the odd looks our classmates threw her way. "You're right!" she shouted, giving me a hearty pat on the arm. "You're me! Wait, I'm you! Wait, that's not right! One of us is an impostor!"

I stared at her in confusion, and she laughed again and messed up my hair. "I don't actually know what they're saying in that scene," she admitted. "I'm just making shit up. C'mon, let's sit down," she continued, leading the way to the back of the classroom. "Dan's waiting already."

Like a lost duckling I followed her to sit down in the corner again, next to Sunday, who had taken a seat beside a tall, athletic guy with tanned skin and short light brown hair. He was eating something out of a bag when we joined him, extending an arm to greet Sunday with a fist bump.

"I brought a friend," Sunday remarked as she opened her notebook, pulled out a pen and instantly started doodling.

"'Ello," the guy greeted me around a mouthful of food. "So when did Sunny decide you're her friend? Five seconds ago?"

I laughed nervously. "Pretty much," I answered. "But it's okay! I still need some friends here, anyway."

"Hmm." He reached into his bag again and shoved another fistful of snacks into his mouth. "You new here or something?"

I nodded. "My name's Pearl," I said. "I moved here over summer."

"Cool. This weirdo is Sunday, and I'm Dan." He leaned back in his chair, still chewing, then held out his snack bag towards me. "Want some?"

"No, tha—is that beef jerky?"

"Moo," said Dan. "That means 'yes' in cow." He treated himself to another handful. "I'm a student athlete, I can't starve myself."

"Fair enough," I said as Sunday rolled her eyes. "I'm not judging you, don't worry!"

"You should," said Sunday. "This asshole is always eating. Don't ever give him food or lend him money, or he's gonna eat the literal hair off your head."

Dan grinned and good-naturedly flipped her the finger. She returned the gesture and went back to doodling. I couldn't help laughing at their antics. "You guys seem close," I said. "Are you dating?"

Both of them instantly grimaced like they had bitten into a lemon.

"Ew," Sunday said emphatically. "Hell no! We've been friends since kindergarten, he's like a brother to me! Gross!"

"Same," Dan agreed, putting down his bag of beef jerky for a moment. "Also, I'm gay."

"Oh."

"Yep. But we're bros. Homies. Besties." Dan paused, and then made a face again. "Why did I say that last one? I hate that word!"

"We're BFFs," Sunday said in a tacky, exaggerated drama queen voice. The two of them instantly cringed and then burst out laughing.

"Buddies," I threw in, earning myself more laughter from them.

"Pals," Dan continued. "Broskis."

And I ventured again, "Bromeo and Juliet?"

We all laughed so loudly the teacher had to tell us off when he came in at last, ten minutes late.

~ ~ ~

The cafeteria was just as crowded as the hallways when I made my way in there for lunch break. Sunday and Dan had invited me to eat with them, but for that I'd have to find them first. Easier said than done when I had absolutely no idea where to start looking for them in the first place.

There were so many different people here, I realized as I piled some food on my tray and weaved my way through the crowd. All these different looks and styles and backgrounds, all this diversity I hadn't known at my small old countryside school. Part of me wondered if I was going to run into the green-eyed stranger from earlier, but either he wasn't here or I couldn't find him in this bustling place.

What I did find was a group of the prettiest girls I'd ever seen in my life.

And unless I was really, seriously mistaken, they were smiling and waving at me.