Dedicated to santhiya130602; Ps. I made this chapter super long so be thankful xD It's revenge for writing my story too, though I have to admit it's really good and gives me feels.

A new start

{four days later}

"SANTHIYA! WAKE UP, YOU BUTT!"

I groan, rolling over and burying my face into a pillow.
Hearing the curtains being opened and letting in that dreadful morning sunlight, I cover my ears with my hands. Which was a difficult movement to execute, what with my entire face inches deep in a pillow that smelled oddly like Doritos. Suddenly, the covers were thrown back, and I was welcomed by a gush of cold -freezing- air. I roll over, well, attempted to anyway, and fell off the side of the bed, dragging the duvet down with me.

"Dhayalen, you asshole!" I moan, rubbing my temples as my idiot brother leaps with renewed energy onto the bed and starts jumping up and down.

"First day of school today, lazy butt! You gotta get up!" Dhayalen grins down at me, his face a blur as he jumps.

"Bloody hell, you're making my headache even worse." Still on the ground, I put my face in my hands.

"Don't swear, I'm gonna tell mum!" Before I could even answer, Dhayalen, being the most annoying brother ever to set foot on earth, shouts at the top of his lungs: "MUUUUUUM! SANTHIYA SWOREEEEEE!"

"DHAYALEN! SHUT UP!" I seize a stray pillow and throw it at him, which he swiftly jumps over.

"MUUUUUUM! SHE SWORE AGAAAAAAIN!"

"Shut up isn't a freaking swear word, you numpty!" I host myself up, trying to ignore the pain in my butt from the fall. Silently, I thank whoever the hell designed the room for the carpet, saving me from a potential broken butt bone. Or tail bone. Whatever. Butt bone sounds a lot better.

"Whatever you say, Potato Head! Tomato! Pig! Fatass! Banana!"

Shaking my head, I grab my new school uniform from its hook beside the closet and head out, slamming the door behind me. Through the wall, I can still hear Dhayalen calling me every 'rude' name he can think of. I sigh. Brothers. I'll never understand them.

"Santhiya! What on earth is your brother doing? The noise is waking up the whole house!" I turn, seeing mum emerge from her room.

"Being an idiot, as usual," I mutter.

"Don't mind him; I think he'd just excited for the first day of school! What about you, sweetheart?" Mum beams at me.

"You know, just the norm." I shrug. Seeing the look on mum's face, I decide to be more honest. Mothers have the ability to read their children's minds, I swear. I speak from experience, mind you. "I'm a little nervous, actually. At least I know what, three people at this new school?" Three. That's Alex, Dulhan and Nikay, whom I met just yesterday at a restaurant. And Dhayalen. I don't think he counts, though. He's not even of high school age anyway, so I won't be seeing him during school times. That's some weight off my shoulders, I suppose.

"It's okay sweetie, you'll do just great! And of course you have your brother and Alex to hang out with a lunch!" Mum folds me into a hug, which resulted in me almost suffocating.

When we pull away, I say: "Mum, seriously? Duly and Alex probably have their friends they hang out with at lunch. It'll be awkward if I'm there too!"

"Aw, that's okay, I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends in no time! Now go change, Charlotte's making pancakes for breakfast!" Mum disappears back into her room, ignoring my sounds of protest.

Not long after, I found myself walking on the pavement in my new school uniform and backpack alongside Alex and Duly, my official walking-to-school companions. After our great breakfast of Charlotte's five-star hotel pancakes, Charlotte had left with mum to the city, taking the Roberts' only car. 'Going to give your mother a tour of the city before she gets an official job,' as Charlotte had put it. Livvy had gone with them, considering her kindergarten program, too, was also in the city. A few moments after that, Dhayalen had left for school, claiming that he was 'old enough' to walk alone, ignoring me and Duly's sounds of protest.

"Dude, that's awesome!" Duly exclaims, jarring me back to reality.
"I know, right? No freaking math tests for the term? Hell yeah!" Alex replies, bouncing the basketball along the sidewalk, grinning.
"Don't you guys like maths? It's like, the best subject ever!" I protest, interrupting the boys mid-convo.
Alex and Duly just stare at me as though I'd grown an extra head.
"Are you kidding me?" they say at the same time, open-mouthed.
I shrug, trying to act indifferent. "Well, it's fun because you get to actually learn stuff in maths, and it's not like the other subjects; you can use your brain to really remember those more advanced equations, like-" I break off, seeing the boys' bemused expressions. "I like numbers," I finish lamely, hoping they would understand.
"Lil sis likes numbers, I see.." Duly strokes an imaginary goatee. I shove at him playfully, sending him tumbling into a bush.
Duly regains his balance and gets to he feet, glaring at me. Then he breaks into a grin. "You're gonna pay for that!" He grabs my arm and I shake him off, dashing down the sidewalk. Duly chases after me, and Alex follows in hot pursuit, groaning.
By the time I reach the school gates, I'm gasping for air. Duly and Alex reach me, looking not nearly as tired as I probably look.
Duly tucks the ball under his arm and looks seeming to have forgotten his goal of catching me.

I glance over to my new school, really seeing it for the first time. Lords, it was huge. Not as big as the school I went to, but still. There were clearly more students here than my old school. As I start to shake with newfound nerves, Duly, being the best big brother ever, gives my shoulder a light squeeze.
"Sorry, I gotta rush. Gotta hand in the bloody basketball registration form, I'll talk to you guys later in class." Seeing my expression, his voice softens. "You'll do fine; I'm sure of it. And Alex can show you around, would ya, Alex bro?"
"Sure thang," Alex replies, giving Duly a fist pump before he bounds off toward the senior school office.
Alex turns to me. "You alright? Trust me, there're some really nice people in our grade; you'll get to know them really soon, don't worry."
I give him a nervous half smile, feeling the butterflies rise in my stomach.

"This," says Alex, "is the fabulous locker bay, where seniors are free to smoke, drink and exchange drugs. Only once a week, though." He gestures toward the endless row of identical lockers.
I pale. Seeing my face, Alex laughs. "Gotcha! Don't worry, the school's really strict about basically everything, so no one does anything weird." I feel the colour start to return to my face and Alex goes on, "school officially starts at nine, so that's in about let's see, half an hour? Plenty of time to get you prepped for your first day of year eleven!" He flounces off, gesturing for me to follow.

"Room T4, where we'll have most of our science classes." I glance at the room through the window. The science room was full of workbenches filled with racks holding test tubes of all sorts, with a peculiar-looking tap.
Alex points to a sticker on the wall beside the door. "See? It says T-fourrrrrrr."
I slap his arm playfully. "Yeah, and I clearly can't read! Wait-we? What do you mean?"
"Excuse me? Didn't you read the guidebook? Or any of it, to be precise? Hmmm?" Alex tut-tuts.
"No."
"Well, I case you didn't know, we're all in the same class. You, me, Duly. Even bloody Nikitha!" Alex throws his arms up in the air.
"Why? I thought the school was big!" I exclaim.
"There are only about a hundred students in year eleven this year, so that makes four classes for each house colour, around twenty-five students each class. See? I'm a freaking maths genius."
I laugh. "Alright, alright, now I believe you."
"Your accent is so cute," Alex says eyeing me. "It's funny when you say stuff like 'alright'. Alright? Sounds more like 'awlreight' to me!" He breaks into laughter.
I stick my tongue out at him. "Very funny, Roberts."
"Hah, there it is again! Roburrrrrrrrts," Alex mimics, going cross-eyed with effort.
I look at him, but his face was so priceless I start howling with uncontrollable laughter.

Approximately half an hour later, Alex had shown me around the school (most of it anyway, considering the size of the place) and now we were back to where we came from, the locker bay. I had my textbooks gathered up in my arms; even squeezing past a flood people to my locker and getting back out was hard. Now my friend, that's just how crowded the place was.
Soon enough, having found Alex again -which was hard and took me about ten minutes- I was feeling ready as ever to start the day, despite the butterflies still fluttering about in the pits of my stomach.
"Ready?" Alex asks, bounding up to me. I nod and together, we head toward room MD4 for first-period maths.
Earlier, Alex had informed me how to find the classrooms in the complicated maze of a school, so that boosted my confidence by about 2%. Which is progress, considering the nerves I had felt on the plane on our way to Melbourne.
"Guys!" Alex and I turn around now, and I heave a sigh of relief in seeing a rare familiar face. It was the girl I had met that day in the crowded restaurant, Nikitha. Or Nikay. Nikki. Whatever.
"Hey!" She waves, and I wave back, smiling.
"Hi," Alex mumbles.
"What's up, doofus?" Nikay says in reply, rolling her eyes and turning to him.
"Oh I don't know, the sky?"
"Very funny, mista."
I stifle a giggle. The way those two argued was kind of intriguing.
Now as I look around, many senior students had gathered in front of their classes. About twenty more kids I didn't yet know were standing about the same class we were, chatting amongst themselves. Probably happy to see their friends again.

"Good morning class, my name is Ms De Carlo; I'm your teacher for maths this year. So, why don't we start with the roll?" The teacher beams at us from her place behind the desk. She quickly lists our names alphabetically, ticking each student off as she went. Upon further study, I noticed she was quite young, perhaps in her mid-twenties, with black lipstick that for some reason made her look even cooler. Ms De Carlo also wore black heels that were at least seven inches, I swear. How anyone managed to walk in those death traps remained a mystery to me. The whiteboard behind her, I noticed, was almost entirely covered with complicated-looking formulas, some of them I recognised; Newton's law, formulae for estimating slope force, and heaps of others I couldn't wait to get my head into.
"Natalie!" The teacher calls out in her clear, slightly accented voice.
"Here," a girl with slick chestnut hair swept back into a loose bun calls back from somewhere near the front of the room.
"Alex! Nikitha!"
They both look up with an indifferent 'here,' and continue looking bored.
She ticks off a few other names, ones I don't recognise -Kris, Natasha, Amber, Ashley, Jessica, Philbert- and when my name is finally called out, I am caught off guard.
"Santhiya!"
I start, looking about me. The class, mostly seated in front of me -I sat on the desk as far back as possible- turned around to stare at me. The new girl. I feel all the blood rush to my face at once. How embarrassing. Now I get it; so this is what it felt like to want the floor to open up and swallow you whole. I clear my throat.
"Here." Good. At least my voice came out steadier than I had expected.
"So, you are new here, I see?" Ms De Carlo asks. Oh crap. Lords of embarrassing times, please have mercy on me.
They don't listen.
"Ms R, if you would like to stand and introduce yourself a bit to the class?"
Crap. Crap crap crappity crap.
I hesitantly get up from my desk, the legs of the chair scraping along the hard floor as I stand.
"Um, I'm Santhiya, and I've recently moved here from Singapore. My brother, um, Dulhan goes here as well. So um, yeah, my mum and my brother are here too."
"Good, good!" The teacher claps appreciatively, the class following her example. Above the noise, I hear hushed whispers being shared around the room; I catch some words here and there, 'Dulhan has a sister?' 'They look so alike!' 'Oh my gods!' 'She's actually really pretty!'
I flush a bright red, plonking back into my chair. I turn around, and Alex gives me the thumbs up from the back of the room. I smile at him gratefully as ms De Carlo continues with the roll.
She then calls out Duly's name, and I look around. He wasn't anywhere in sight. Then, as if on cue, Dulhan barges in through the door, catching his breath.
"I'm here!" He throws his arms toward the ceiling. My big brother, always one to be late for everything. I stifle a giggle.
"Mr Dulhan, I expect you to be more prompt." Ms De Carlo looks at Duly sternly above the rim of her wide-framed glasses.
"Yes, miss."
"Alright class, may you please flip to page two hundred and sixty two of your textbooks please..."

Lunchtime, and I'm in the canteen awkwardly trying to balance a whole tray of food in my arms. I look about frantically, trying to spot a familiar face. Alex, to be more precise. Or Duly. The canteen, alike any other place around the school, was over-crowded, not to mention humid and bloody squishy. I could barely get into the place much less imagine getting out.
"Hey, would you like to sit with us?" I turn around, seeing a small group of girls seated around a table, eating their lunches. The girl that spoke pats the empty seat next to her. I smile thankfully, trying not to look awkward as I make my way past people rushing about to their table.
"Thanks," I say, seating myself into the chair, relaxing.
I look at the girl next to me, trying to remember her face. She looked familiar, for some reason. The girl was very pretty, with sleek black hair dyed slightly brown at the ends. She was the kind of girl that you see in those sunscreen adverts, sitting on a boat and chilling with ice cream. She extends a hand.
"Hi, I'm Jessica. You can call me Jess."
"Hi, Jess. I'm-" I start.
"Santhiya! Of course we know you! Dulhan's been talking about you ever since oh, I don't know, a year ago?" The girl that interrupted laughs. "And of course you're in our class! How exciting it must be for you!"
I smile. I look at them each in turn, wanting to remember every detail. They were potential friends, so may as well get to know them. You never know where first meetings can lead.
One of the girls -the one that made the outburst, I think- had dark hair, chopped so short that the ends curled inwards, looking like a bob. Or more like Hagrid's hair. I like Hagrid.
The other girl, I notice, is sipping Pepsi through a straw, looking reserved. Her black-framed glasses and mushroom fringe reminded me strangely of a character in one of the Studio Ghibli movies, though I can't recall who.
"So, how's your day been so far?" The girl with the bob-ish hair asks.
"It was alright; a lot of work on the first day of school though!" I attempt to joke.
"I know, right? Everything's stupid," says the Studio Ghibli girl.
"Dude, you seriously look freakishly like Dulhan it's creepy," says Jess, "It's like seeing Dulhan as a girl." 
I laugh along with them, until the bob girl extends a hand.
"Waddup? Sorry, didn't introduce myself! I'm Michelle, but please call me Mishii. Michelle is a stupid name."
"Hi, Mishii. I like your hair," I comment.
Her hand instantly flies to her hair.
"Oh um.. I wanted a haircut, you know? I liked my hair to be short but my mum chopped all of it off so now it looks like a freaking orange," she scowls.
"No actually, I like it! It's kind of like one of those styles models have in the Vogue magazine photos." It was true; I like her hair. It looks nice.
"Thanks," Mishii says with a genuine smile.
"So, do you have your own house? Staying with your brother?" Jess asks, leaning across the table.
"Yeah, we're staying with Duly and Alex for a while then hopefully mum and dad'll find a house in time," I quickly answer in reply.
"Duly? Cute nickname," Mishii smirks.
"Oh. My. God. Seriously? You're staying with ALEXANDER FREAKING ROBERTS?" Jess cuts in.
"Yeah, why? He's in our class, right? You know him!"
"HE IS LIKE A GOD, OKAY? THOSE EYES THOUGH. Ah, a year and he still hasn't noticed any girls in the class." Jess sighs dramatically.
"Dude, are you kidding me? What about Phil?" Says the girl with the Pepsi, whose name still remains anonymous to me.
Jess flushes bright red. "Of course Phil's always gonna be hotter, but-"
"Wait, who's Phil?" I ask, out of curiosity.
"Jess' boyfriend," replies Mishii, casting her eyes to the ceiling. "They're like the cheesiest couple to ever set foot on earth!"
Jess starts to protest, but I'll never know the end of it as she is cut off abruptly by a loud crash.
All heads were turned towards our table. Looking over, I see the mushroom head girl sprawled across the floor, Pepsi still in hand and holding onto it for dear life.
"Natasha! What the hell? You okay?" Jess rushes to help the other girl up, putting the chair she had just fallen out of back on its four legs.
The girl, Natasha (nice name) merely stands up and looks around at the crowd of gaping faces before her. And waves.
"Sup, people! Alrighty, show's over! Back to the line, kiddos!" My jaw drops. She was absolutely shameless. Then, as the crowd starts to depart, I hear a series of whoops and cheers. Natasha waves again and plonks back down into her chair.
"That was so bloody awesome!" Jess exclaims. We all look at each other, and laugh. I feel the tension in my muscles start to recede, and I relax. Laughing along with these people felt good. Not bad for a first day, huh? Looks like I've found myself some new friends. Maybe I do have a place here after all.