CHARLIE

I didn’t know Anne went through so much. From what I’ve seen so far, although I’ve only known her a few hours now, Anne is always this ray of sunshine in the group. I take a deep breath and decide I shouldn’t bring it up to her. I’m not going to get all sappy, the car crash happened a long time ago, so there’s probably no reason to ask questions she might be uncomfy with.

Anne seemed to have calmed down, Jenn hugging her and patting her head. I walk over and Anne looks at me. “I’m so sorry…” She says. I blink, wondering why she’s saying sorry to me. She has nothing to be sorry for. Before I can do anything, they all look surprised and look to the parking lot. I look over as well and see that there’s a guy in a car, sitting in the parking lot, just a few feet from our group. He's honking his horn. He sticks his head out the window and I see Eren sigh beside me. 

The guy says something, well, more like he yells something but I can’t make out what he’s saying. I see Eren yelling back before the guy gets out of the car and comes toward us in a full-on sprint. He tackles Eren and looks at me, excitedly. Eren looks upset as he pushes him off. I hope he isn’t another bully. Eren dusts himself off and motions for me to hand him the notebook. I hand it to him and he writes. He hands the notebook back to me.

“This is Toby, please don’t answer anything he asks you.” 

I look back up, tilting my head. Toby is saying a lot of stuff but he’s talking so fast that I can’t really understand him. Eren pokes him telling him, “He can’t hear you”. Toby looks confused and looks back at me. I smile and write in my notebook.

“Hi, I’m Charlie, nice to meet you, Toby.”

Toby reads it, smiles back at me, and takes my hand. He shakes it, kinda hard actually, so much so that I’m shaking with it a bit. Eren pushes him out of the way and looks over at me. “Home?” He signs. I nod and repeat it back. I wonder if they're friends or not, Toby seems to be really outspoken but he seems nice.

My house is a bit far so Toby offers to drive me. Eren decides to go with us. He seemed adamant about it, too. I think I’ve had enough excitement for today, at least I found some good friends and a good club. I think right now, I should focus on that.

A few hours later, I lay on my bed, my head hanging upside down. I didn’t have any homework to do, and I didn’t really feel like doing any writing. I could play a game but for some reason, I just wasn’t feeling it. As I felt my head start to hurt, I sat up on my bed, still not sure what I could do to shake this weird moment of nothingness I was feeling. I wasn’t really sure why I was feeling like this, but maybe it was because of Paige’s comments today. Well, I know it was but I’d rather not think about it.

I’m lost in my thoughts for a while before a hand waves in front of my face. I turn around, my dad standing on the side of my bed. He signs, “Dinnertime, we’re having spaghetti” I smile, getting off my bed as we head down the hall to the dining room. I sit down, as my mom places the bowl of spaghetti, followed by another bowl of salad and a plate of garlic bread. It’s nice getting to eat dinner all together for the first time in a few months. 

Dad and mom have been super busy with work and either one of them is home some days or neither is. The only time they really get to come rest is the early hours of the morning. At least they got to come home at a nice time on my first day. I get my plate’s worth of food and before I can eat, mom taps my shoulder. I stop as I am about to bite into my garlic bread. 

“How was your first day? Was it hard? Did you make friends? How are the teachers? Are they strict? Are you stressed-” The amount of questions piled up before dad put his hand on her shoulder. I took a breath, I haven’t really majorly moved schools so, of course, she’s quite worried. I don’t want her to worry, and talking about Paige would do just that.

“Don’t worry, school was good!” I signed, smiling, then I ate my food and I didn’t say another word.