My Heart CH.2

My Heart: A Joshayley Story
CHAPTER 2

So Hayley made her way toward the lockers, still being watched. This attention was not really the kind you wanted. She looked at the blue lockers against the walls...locker 110...111...112...

and finally, 113.
Hayley's locker.
She stared down at the yellow paper with her combination written on it, twirled the lock, and it opened. Inside, it was fairly clean, a small marking from a silver Sharpie pen was written on the bottom, and it read "Hi!" with a smiley face drawing beside it.
Hayley smiled. Even though she had no idea who wrote it, she liked the feeling of having it there. Something saying "hi" to her every day just made this no-good high school experience...better. Somehow.
Beside her, a brown haired, sweet smelling guy opened up his own locker. He was taller than her, (which made her feel even worse) and dressed plainly, in a black cashmere sweater and grey skinny jeans. He was, undeniably, very handsome.
"Hey," he said, not making an effort to create eye contact with her. "Awesome hair."
Hayley blushed. "Uh..thanks."
"I see you have my locker. Well, my locker from last year. Who would have known they'd get me locker 114 this year, just next to my old locker. Hope you don't mind the 'hi' written in there. The school annoyed us on not writing in the lockers, but hey, I couldn't resist. And I thought maybe it would be nice, you know?"
Hayley absently nodded, silent.
"You new here?" The boy asked.
"Yeah. I...I moved here," she muttered.
"Well at least you're quiet. Very hard to find those type of people here."
Nobody back home told Hayley she was "quiet". She was actually quite outgoing, she sang and performed, talked to everyone, and had loads of friends back in Mississippi. Why did she have to be so quiet here?
"Well I'll see you around..." the guy then paused with a confused look. "Uh..."
Then Hayley caught his drift--he wanted her to say her name.
"Hayley. My name's Hayley," she said shyly.
"Josh," he answered, returning that. They formally shook hands, and the guy walked away.
And it was simple, oh so simple. A greeting, an introduction, just a formality, really. But it stroke a chord in her. She didn't expect it--but she got it. She had actually introduced herself to someone in this school. Maybe things wouldn't go as bad as she presumed.

Once the bell that released all students to their classes had rung, the students of the school had no issues with finding their classes. Even the freshmen got through fine (those freshmen orientations were a perfect introduction to the school and its classroom locations), but this was not the case with Hayley.
She stood there in the now empty hallway, completely clueless. She had no idea where the science room was (room 23--to be exact), and was running late. She panicked, afraid of what her teacher would think.
Luck was definitely not in her favor today.

She spotted an adult in her frantic search for any human being in this place, and luckily for her it was a teacher.
"Miss! Ma'am!" Her attempts at calling the teacher ended in success--the teacher caught her glance and turned her head Hayley's way. The teacher smiled at her. "Miss, I'm running late. Do you think you could point me to room 23? I need to get to my class."
"Actually, I am the teacher for room 23. I'm running pretty late myself..." She quickly fixed the books that were close to slipping off her arms, "My name is Ms. Wells. And you are..."
"Hayley. Hayley Williams." Hayley smiled, glad to have her first period teacher here.
"Well let me lead you to room 23, Ms. Williams. I am the teacher anyways."
Hayley thanked her and followed behind her. She wished to help Ms. Wells with all the things she carried, but hesistated to do so.
When the teacher entered through the door, the students went silent. Hayley took the vacant seat in the back row, trying her hardest to ignore the penetrating stares that followed her every step. A few kids around her laughed.
"Sorry I'm late class!" Ms. Wells said, dumping down all her books at the front desk.
"Is she your mom?" Someone whispered to Hayley. "No! I was just..." Ms. Wells cut Hayley off, yelling out "Welcome!", and beginning to talk about herself. "Congratulations on making it to senior year here," she continued, "This is a very, very important year for most of you."
Hayley scanned the classroom crowd. She saw Josh in the front row. She was in such a hurry to find a seat earlier she didn't even notice him at all. She found herself staring at him, and when he stared toward the back Hayley pretended to stare out the window, or actually listen to Ms. Wells.

By second passing period, which was P.E., she found herself in a class with Josh yet again. Her P.E. teacher, Mr. Reed, seemed very fit indeed, and quite in love with physical education.

Third period was math, room 30, with Mr. Carter. He was quite a nerd, but a cool one, if that made any sense at all. He had a cheap plaid polo on and his classroom was adorned with math stuff, posters, cubes, everything you would expect in a crazy and over-obsessive math room. Josh was not with her in math, but the trio who passed by laughing, (who's names she soon figured out to be Jaelyn, Madison and Alexa) were in this class.

Fourth period and fifth period were combined classes, Language Arts and History. Luckily Josh was in this one with her, and they even talked during the meet and greet time (which the teacher, Mrs. Stokes, decided would be a good idea). They had a piece of paper with questions to ask someone in the class. Hayley built up the nerve to go ask Josh.

"So..." she began, casually, lacking the normal awkwardness that she seemed to possess while talking to everyone in this school, "Can we just get this over with?"

"You know, I find it very strange how you're in half of my classes. Most of them, actually. Anyhow, it's still great, and I'm not complaing. Fate clearly wants us to be together," he replied charmingly. "Ask away!"

"Favorite music genre?"

"Anything involving guitar."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. I have lots of musical influences." Hayley found herself smiling at this. She loved anything guitar, as well, loving the old school rock 'n roll bands that her father had introduced to her. She figured she might as well figure out how alike she and Josh were in the next few questions.

"Okay..favorite restaurant?"

"Starbucks."

"Why? It's not a restaurant."

"Yeah it is. You can eat there."

"Oh." Hayley smiled yet again. "Favorite class?"

"Probably this one. Writing is one of my highest points in school."

"Wow. I'd like to think I'm a good writer, although it's not completely true," she admitted sheepishly. He continued smiling, not leaving this conversation anytime soon.

"What's your favorite guitar brand?"

"Er--Gibsons, I guess? Although I don't have the money to afford one. God forbid, I might end up owning a Gibson soon. I don't know. It's still a long shot." He shrugged and smiled in a way Hayley considered to be completely adorable. She caught her breath. Shifted from foot to foot. Blinked. Josh was still there.

"Uh...favorite...uh..." Hayley paused, her eyes trailing toward the floor.

"What is it?" He prompted.

She was distracted by his voice, his features, the mere fact that he was even standing before her at the very moment in time. She had so much on the tip of her tongue, words that couldn't be strung together into the right sentence, into something satisfactory. She settled with a question asked in complete impulse. "Favorite word?"

"Is that even a real question?"

"Just answer it!"

"Alright then. Mischevous."

She laughed nervously. "Nice," was the only reply she managed to utter.

Mrs. Stokes stopped the students, and Hayley realized that it wasn't even that long of a conversation. "Move on to different students!" Josh moved on to some other student, and so did Hayley. At least she had one friend. Maybe this year wouldn't be as bad. It would be bad, but not as bad. She smiled at the thought, and began getting to know the others.

~Okay! Chapter 3 up very soon!~

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