First day of hell
September 6th, 2004
Remus followed behind Lily, his childhood best friend and guide to high school, into the noisy and crowded cafeteria.
‘This is very different from home.’
Remus was homeschooled before this, he had been his whole life but now he was in person. His parents decided his junior year was the best time to start in person. Why? Because they hate him.
The lights were bright and overwhelming, but not as overwhelming as the stares from everyone as he walked through the cafeteria with his cane, everyone's eyes going from him to his cane and back to him before awkwardly looking away at the ground or at him with a glare. Remus sighed and rolled his eyes as they walked on to a big circle table with a group of all kinds of kids.
Lily stepped up to the table and cleared her throat, her arms behind her back as she smiled with her chin held up high. “Everyone, meet Remus Lupin, my childhood best friend.” The group stopped talking and looked over at Remus curiously. A boy with uncontrollable black curls and glasses stood up first and held his hand out to Remus. “I’m James.” He said with a wide smile. He was wearing a white shirt with a red short sleeve button up over it, unbuttoned, simple baggy blue jeans and a big chunky watch.
“Hello.” Remus said and shook James’ hand. He looked over at the others at the table and his eyes landed on an elegant looking boy with nice long curly black hair with a black leather jacket with some random patches splayed about, black pants and expensive looking black boots that had yellow threading around the rim. “That's Sirius.” James told Remus. At the mention of his name Sirius picked up his head from a letter he was reading. “Oh, Hey I’m Sirius Black.” He nods his head up as a greeting.
“I’m Mary!” A loud preppy girl with tight black curls, that bounced happily as she waved at Remus, said. She wore a cheer uniform in their school colors. She hung on Sirius like her life depended on it. “They are dating if you can’t tell.” a girl with wild blonde hair said with an annoyed eye roll. She looked over Remus and smiled at him. “I’m Marlene.” She was wearing a black tank top and a low rise long red skirt.
“And this is Peter!” James said, hugging a chubby blonde boy who wore a nice sweater and blue jeans. Peter looked up from his gameboy at Remus and smiled a bit bashfully. “Hey” he said softly and went back to his game.
Remus looked at the group a bit overwhelmed by all the new people and names to keep up with. “How do you keep up with all these people?” Remus whispered to Lily. Lily put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a sympathetic look as she said, “It takes practice,” she chuckled.
Mary leans forward and takes Remus’ schedule out of his hand. “Let’s see what classes you have!” She smiled as she read down, “Oh man you have algebra first period, that sucks.” Sirius perked up at this and sat up, he folded the piece of paper he was reading and putting it in his jacket pocket. “I have algebra first period. Who do you have?” His silver eyes looked up at Remus and he felt strangely nervous under the other's intense gaze. “Hey you both have Flitwick!” Mary said with a loud excited tone that broke Remus’ trance.
“Cool, we both have algebra together. Are you good at math?” Sirius asked as he leaned back in his chair again. Remus shrugged in response. “I pass.” He said which made Sirius smirk a bit. “Cool, you’re going to help me in class.” the fancy boy said arrogantly and Lily scoffed. “Remus will help if he wants, you can’t make him.” She said, crossing her arms. Remus shrugged, “I’ll help him.” He said quietly as he rubbed the back of his neck.
“You both have a lot of classes together.” Marlene said, leaning over Mary’s shoulder and reading the schedule. Something about that made Remus’ stomach feel airy and his knees weak.
‘What magic does this kid have?’
Sirius grabbed the schedule and read over it, “Oh yeah, we do. First and second period, fifth, seventh and eighth, practically the whole day.” Sirius smiles at Remus.
‘Oh boy… I better get along with this kid or I’m doomed.’