Nutrition

Ah, nutrition. It was like the calm before the storm, and by storm I mean the rest of the school day.

I decided to go to the library for nutrition because well, I love to read. Besides, Jennifer would probably think to head there too, because she's a fellow bookworm.

"There you are!" Jennifer exclaimed outside of the library entrance. "How were your first two periods?"

"In Math we had a diagnostic test. It was no biggie though. As for PE, we just got our lockers, no physical activity yet," I replied.

"Did your locker work okay?"

"Of course."

We walked inside the library together. There were detectors, just like the ones at the mall, at the entrance. As soon as we got inside, we went straight to the fiction section. Even though we're bookworms, we still prefer fiction over nonfiction.

"This is a much bigger selection than the one in the library at our old school," Jennifer remarked softly, "Wow, they even have the latest book in the series I started reading over the summer."

"Oh really?" I asked in a whisper. "I can't wait to dig into these books! Also, I forgot to ask, but how were your classes so far?"

"In English, we started creating a slideshow telling the class about ourselves. I think we have to present it to the class. For Science, we were watching a video about fixed mindsets compared to growth ones."

When she said that we might have to present to the class in English, my body started to tense up. I don't think she noticed, though. I tried to relax as we picked out some books and continued our conversation, being as quiet as we could, of course.

"Did you make any friends?"

"Yep!"

"Good for you. I didn't." I wasn't really expecting to make any friends anyway. At my old school, people were really envious of my intelligence. They usually took advantage of and bullied me. I'm also super antisocial. Usually it's Jennifer who initiates conversations for me.

"Oh, I'm so sorry for you. But I can introduce you to my friends if you want. They're sitting over there." Jennifer pointed to one of the tables towards the back of the library. A few girls sat there.

"Um, sure, I guess." I wasn't fully on board with the idea, but I decided to just go with it. I followed her to the table.

"Hey, Jennifer! Who's that?" The girls greeted.

"This is my friend, Cyrus. He's been my friend since we were in kindergarten," Jennifer answered.

"Hi," I muttered.

"Hi! I'm Sarah, that's Emily, and she's Isabel," Sarah responded. She pointed to each of the girls as she introduced them.

"Do you want to be my friend?" I asked shyly.

"Any friend of Jennifer's is a friend of ours," the girls affirmed.

My first middle school friends. Not bad, if you ask me. My so-called "friends" at my old school (excluding Jennifer, of course) weren't nearly as welcoming as these girls were.

Jennifer and I went to the front counter to check out our books. The librarian asked us what our names were, since we didn't have our school IDs yet. She scanned our books and typed our names into the system, so that we could check out the books.

Right after we finished getting our books checked out, the bell rang. Perfect timing. Jennifer and I walked together and went our separate ways to get to class. She was on her way to her History class. Eventually, our friends caught up with her and they walked to class together. I looked down at the ground the whole time on my way to English class, nervous about the chance that we would have to present something to the entire class.