The familiar face

Jessie has been homeschooled for 4 years straight. She loved being homeschooled so much, she liked being by herself. Jessie had her deep reasons for being homeschooled.. more like a trauma from school that sure left a mark on her.

But over the years Jessie slowly forgot about the past and even questioned herself why she was even being homeschooled, not that she complained about it but… is she different from the other kids?..

But one day everything changed - her Mom decided to sign her up to a school - not just school. A boarding school. Her mom never said a word about it, she did it secretly - she just decided to do it. Jessie was so mad at her mom, that she couldn’t believe that her mom did it behind her back. She felt like someone stabbed her in the back, her mom knows that Jessie's communication skills are so awful and she struggles with that. And now not only has she signed her to school. She signed her to a boarding school, and that means she’s going to stay there alone. Without her mom or Nani.. how could she survive there? 

She needs someone to help her. She's so terrified of talking to people she can’t help it - of course, she can talk to others.., but it's hard and scary for her.

Her mom's excuse was that she needs to work on her communication skills, but that’s not how you’re supposed to do it Pam…especially when you are aware of your daughter’s past.

It was night and Jessie sat on her bed trying to process everything. Is her mom actually sending her like that? She watched her mom packing her stuff, clothes, bed sheets, snacks, and more.

“I heard this school is good and it's also a boarding school, you know dorms and stuff,” Pam said as she packed her daughter’s bags “I know you don’t want this but I can’t let you be homeschooled forever, you need to socialize and see more of the outside world,” Pam said and looked back to Jessie who was still sitting there in silence. “You're a very smart young lady but as smart as you are you still need to be more social..” Jessie knew her mom was right but she didn’t want to go to school, she hated school, and she did love learning. She enjoyed learning so much but how could she go back to this hell place? She’s so used to being homeschooled. Why does she need a change? She’s perfectly fine!

Well, at least it's a new school. New school - new people. They don’t know anything about her. A fresh new start. No one from her town will be there.

Yeah, new people.. it can’t be that bad - Jessie tries to be positive.

Jessie stayed silent, she hated how her mom was right about this and mostly how she signed her to some random school without talking about it first - she might have been less upset if her mom told her about that first.

“I hope you’re not mad at me sweetheart..” Her mom said. She knew how Jessie felt but still asked her. Jessie was indeed mad but how could she not? “I. I'm mad but I don’t see a reason to show it” Jessie replied and finally got up just to put tons of books in her suitcase. In case she couldn’t make any friends. At least she will have her books.

Pam didn’t like seeing her only daughter so mad and well - upset.  “I'm really sorry.. but it's for the best. I promise”, Pam meant it, she knew it was difficult and that her action would cause a conflict between her and her daughter but she knew it was the right decision. She enjoyed having her daughter at home and seeing how happy she was but she couldn’t help but feel anxious when Jessie had no friends, and no social life - as much as Happy Jessie was she was so scared for Jessie’s future.

Most of Jessie’s day was study, study, fixing robots, reading books, eating, and sleeping. But Pam never knew how much Jessie loved it, she enjoyed doing all these things, she enjoyed being alone, although she always wanted to have a friend..again. It's ok she got Scrappy, her robot dog best friend.

“I know Mom. Can I bring Scrappy?” She asked, Scrappy was pretty heavy and it would be kinda difficult to bring him but Pam said yes, she wouldn’t want her daughter to leave her best friend alone.

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It was afternoon, and the mother and the daughter finally arrived outside the school. They were supposed to arrive in the morning but last night Jessie begged her mother to stay at home till the evening so she would miss her actual first day, she said that she wanted to organize her stuff at her dorm and maybe talk to the other kids first - this one was a lie but that’s the only way to convince her mother. Eventually, her mom agreed but she said they would go in the afternoon since she still had some work to do and had to talk with the principal before Jessie could study at school.

Pam and Jessie stood outside of school, the school was indeed a big building, huge! Massive!. “Woah that's a big ass school,” Jessie said, as she got out of the car. She couldn't believe she was actually there. Oh god needs to disappear. She Couldn't believe her mom made her go to school. Like her mother was not just tryna scare her. .“language, young lady” Pam said as she took out all of Jessie’s bags, Jessie had like 2 big bags, 1 suitcase, and a whole damn big box for Scrappy, her room better be big enough to fill all of this stuff, it was hard for Jessie to pick what to bring to her dorm especially when she had never experienced anything like that, Jessie never needed to pack things because all of her life was at home, she never felt the need to go out or anything like that. Not even trips or family events. She and her mother never stayed at anyone’s. They're home people.

“Do you want me to come along or could you do it yourself?” Pam asked even though she knew the answer, Jessie couldn’t take all of this by herself. And she also knew Jessie wouldn’t dare to speak to anyone so she got to do all the talking.

“Mom. Are you seriously asking me if I need help? All these bags? For real??” Jessie said sarcastically and laughed so her mother, Jessie picked up one of her bags and suitcase, she will let her mom take the other bag and Scrappy.

Jessie and Pam made their way to the principal office through the hallway, luckily the hallway was out of students since it was already after school. Jessie's plan worked! Yay! They both looked around the school. It was much bigger than what they expected, and the hallways were clean but not much, it was just clean compared to other schools, not that Jessie remembered much of her old one but she did know what school hallways mostly looked like. 

After a few minutes, they found themselves in front of the principal's room, they both just stood there deciding if they should knock or just come in but then they heard a voice “Come in” The principal said and Jessie and Pam jumped totally not expecting that. They entered the room, it was a big room with a few pictures of people in it, the principal sat behind his big desk and told them to sit in the two chairs in front of him, “you must be Pam” he pointed at the Mom who sat next to her daughter smiling and nodding with her head “and you, you must be Jessie, welcome to our school!” The principal said happily as he looked at the red-haired girl. “I'm Principal Byron, I'm very happy that you’re coming to our school Jessie, we’re so happy to have you here.” Jessie sat in silence looking at the ground, she didn’t even dare to look at her principal face. Byron didn’t notice that because he was already speaking to Pam about some stuff, Jessie zoned out while the two adults in the room spoke to each other, little did she know that Pam talked to Byron about her and her needs.

Jessie zoned out for way too long that Pam had to gently touch her shoulder so she would come back to herself, now Byron explained some school stuff and asked a few questions, he then gave Pam Jessie’s school schedule and her keys to her room. Jessie looked at the keys in her mom’s hand. Was she gonna have roommates? What if her roommates won’t like her? Why does she even care? It's not like she’s gonna even talk to them, as long as they don’t speak to her she doesn’t need to speak.

“you’re lucky, you got to be with Bonnie and Nita in the room, they’re sweet girls, I'm sure you three will get along. But I’m sorry for putting you with girls under your grade. All the other girls’ rooms are already full and the only left ones are with the boys...” Byron apologized and waved goodbye to the mother and daughter as they got out of his office 

(Bonnie and Nita huh..they’re graded under me but whatever...) Jessie thought to herself while looking at her keys for her room, “Ok Mom the keys say room number B7”, Jessie struggled to look at the room numbers since they were written so small on each door, although she had her glasses it didn’t help at all, she was completely blind, “oh I see here” Pam pointed at some door, how could her mom have such a good vision while her vision was so shitty?

Jessie was about to open the door but some girl burst out of the room knocking Jessie off, Jessie fell to the ground and her mom ran towards her, it took a while for the girl to notice what happened but then another girl came out and noticed what happened, “oh my gosh Nita! Look, you just knocked this girl!” The pink girl said and immediately offered a hand for Jessie, but Pam already helped Jessie get up, “I am so sorry for her!! She didn’t mean to do that!!” The pink-haired girl immediately apologized, the girl with the bear hat still looked confused till she saw Jessie, and then realized what happened, “NITA IS VERY SORRY! I DIDN'T KNOW YOU WOULD BE THERE!! SORRY!” Nita apologized as well, (god they’re loud) Jessie thought. “It's fine. Really. Jessie replied, are they supposed to be her roommates? If so then good luck to Jessie with the noise. Pam then asked them if this room was number B7 Nita and the pink-haired girl nodded happily, Jessie stood close to her mom like a little kid going on their first day at school, the girl with the helmet got closer to Jessie and said “I'm Bonnie!!” and shook Jessie’s hand very fast, “and Nita is Nita!” The girl with the bear hat said and asked Jessie.

“What's your name?”

“Me?..” Jessie asked which made her look stupid. There were no others around her and they would not ask her mom what her name was. “Jessie, I'm Jessie." 

“Welcome Jessie! Byron already told us we will get a new roommate and we are more than happy to have you here!” Bonnie said,” Although you were supposed to be with kids in your grade none of the rooms had space for another girl and the others are only boys..ugh” Nita added. Well guess Jessie gotta be with girls grade under her grade. Yay! 

Bonnie and Nita welcomed her into their room and told her to choose her bed, There were only two beds left, one next to the window and the other right in front of the door, of course, she chose the one closer to the window, it was also close to the desk so that’s perfect for her, Jessie put her suitcase on her bed and the other bag on the ground, her mom also put the bag on the ground and the huge box where was Scrappy in it on the desk. The two girls asked if they could help with anything, although Jessie didn’t like it when people touched her stuff she indeed needed help since she didn't want her mom to spend her day helping her, “yeah, I would like it if you could help” Jessie smiled even though she knew deep down she wouldn’t let them touch anything, and then faced her mom, who looked proud of her, it made her heart warm.. 

Pam smiled at her, “I guess I’ll be on my way” Pam said and hugged Jessie

“Keep yourself safe, sweetie, I really hope for the best for you.” 

“Thanks, mom..”

And with that, Pam left Jessie alone. Jessie wanted to cry but how could she when her roommates were here? She held back her tears and walked towards the two girls who were looking at the huge box on the desk, “what’s in that?” Bonnie asked Jessie, “uhm well. I have a robot dog there. His name is Scrappy and he's my friend.” Jessie answered and took Scrappy out so they could see him, the girls looked at her and then at Scrappy With such an existing expression, “Did you build him?! Do you build robots??” They both asked at the same time, they seemed so happy about it, “yeah, I do”  Jessie said surprisingly, she didn’t expect that kind of reaction, she was sure they would say that it's such a boring thing to do.., As Jessie kept unpacking her things Bonnie and and Nita kept asking more and more questions, questions about her life and why she came to this school and more and more that at some point Jessie just stayed in silence and Bonnie and Nita got the message and finally shut up and played with Scrappy. 

After finally finishing packing Jessie lay down on her bed, and started overthinking, how was she even going to survive in this school? Her lack of social skills is bad it's actually embarrassing, she doesn’t even have friends and the worst part is that she doesn’t even know how to make ones, she had the opportunity to become friends with Bonnie and Nita but she can barely hold conversations with them, Jessie took a peek of Bonnie and Nita playing with Scrappy, they seemed so happy. Ugh, she can’t believe Scrappy made new friends before her. How could a robot make friends better than her? 

But really what is she even supposed to do now? She already finished unpacking her stuff and she was too afraid to talk to Bonnie and Nita, besides they seemed so happy playing with Scrappy. So she took out one of her fav books from the shelf close to her bed, although she read it more than 100 times the story and the plot were still good as ever so she never mind reading it over and over, I mean she’s been doing the same shit & things for years and she never got tired of it, so the day she will get over her books are gonna be rare.

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Jessie finally finished the book. It took her about 2 and a half hours to finish the 400-page book. She noticed the time and it was already 7pm. She closed her book carefully and put it back on the shelf. She got up and noticed Nita and Bonnie getting ready to leave somewhere, she didn’t want to question but she couldn’t help but get curious. Where are they going? Are they going to ditch her? Are they going to leave her alone??

“Where are you guys going?” Jessie finally got the courage to ask them as the two girls already finished. It was just a simple question, but why was she so scared to ask that? It's not like it was an embarrassing question or something.

“We’re going to eat dinner” Bonnie replied and looked at Jessie, then she realized - it's Jessie’s first day here.

“Ohh! Yeah right come with us,” Bonnie said and took Jessie’s hand, but Jessie stopped and took her hand back from the other, Bonnie turned around and saw Jessie looking down at her feet, well basically Jessie was barefoot, did Bonnie really expect her to go out like this?

The walk to the dining hall was short, the dining Hall was big! Is everything in this school big??? It was already full of students, most of them walked in their pajamas but some still had their school clothes. 

Bonnie and Nita sat next to Jessie to accompany her, but most of the time they were chatting with each other and laughing while Jessie was reading some articles from her phone. She still appreciates them sitting next to her, she preferred that instead of being a complete loser by sitting by herself.

Jessie sometimes looked around her, watching the other kids, her age, younger than her or older than her, she doesn’t remember when the last time was surrounded by so many people, the dining room was full of kids, it was weird for her. The only people who were around her most of the time were Nani, her mom Pam, and  Scrappy. Her family.

As Jessie kept looking around she noticed a group of girls, there were 4 of them, 2 pink-haired girls, 1 with short black hair, and the last one with purple hair. They didn’t draw her attention but she couldn’t help but notice the shorter pink-haired girl.. she was.. she was so familiar to her, she knew she had seen her before. But when? Why? And how? Why was she so familiar to her? What the hell??? Jessie tried to remember but it was as if her brain was preventing her from remembering why the girl seemed familiar.

Bonnie and Nita notice Jessie looking at the 4 groups of girls, they both begin to smile, “You want us to call them?” They both asked, they wanted Jessie to get to know other people before she went to her first day at school, but little did they know Jessie wanted the opposite of that, she doesn’t need friends to survive at this school.. right? “oh..no.. I'm good” Jessie replied, she didn’t want to get to know them, she just wanted to know and figure out why this girl was so familiar to her. 

Jessie was still staring at her till the other girl looked back, and they accidentally made eye contact, Jessie felt embarrassed, and broke the eye contact, the face, she knew that face. She was so lost in her mind she didn't even notice the other kids sitting next to her. 

“HEY JESSIE!” Nita suddenly yelled, and Jessie jumped. Nita yelled so loud that some kids were looking at them, the eyes. Jessie felt so humiliated but kept quiet, she didn’t want to draw more attention by leaving the room or crying.

“Sorry, Jessie, but you were zoning out” Nita apologized and Jessie replied with just a simple nod. “Anyways I want you to meet Leon, my big brother.” The boy with the green hood said hi and Jessie replied to him, “And that’s his friend, Gus” The white-haired boy just replied with a simple smile, “Wait a second… Where's Sandy??” Bonnie asked. “Mhm, I think he's still sleeping”. Leon said and they all sighed. Typical Sandy. ,” also they’re in your grade!!” Bonnie added, Jessie didn’t want to meet other people, she knew she needed to but well if she eventually got friends and got more social her mom would tell her to stay in school, and she will never get back to being homeschooled again. And besides, they’re kids in her grade. It would be disrespectful if she wouldn’t be nice to them and then see them in her class or hallway and feel guilty about it, or just say hi and maybe become friends with them.

“So It's your first day here?” Leon tried to start a conversation with the shy red-haired girl, the girl replied with a simple nod without saying any words, she then took a bite of her food. “Cool, did you transfer schools?” The boy asked again, this time he was expecting her to reply. “Actually, I was homeschooled..” Jessie answered as she took the last bite from her food. “WHAT?! Lucky what the hell” Gus out of nowhere joined their conversation, “That’s so cool, for how long have you been homeschooled?” Gus also asked, Jessie was surrounded by so many questions today. “Uhm well.. about 4 years?” Jessie said and now all the eyes were on her. Oh god.. did she say something bad?.. “WHAT?” Nita was more shocked even though Jessie already told her.. did she?

They all told her how lucky she was but they never questioned why she was even being home-schooled.. 

They all kept talking till the last finished their food, they all then went back to their dorms but each one had their paces, Jessie and Leon walked together while Bonnie, Nita, and Gus walked together.

“You know..” Leon started the conversation again, they both walked pretty slow compared to the others who were basically running away, “I couldn’t stop but stare into your eyes” the boy said as he put his hands in his pockets, Jessie got confused and asked why, “Well you got two different eye colors, it's pretty.. I mean pretty cool. Having two different eyes is cool.. hm what is it called again? Het.. something like that…” “Heterochromia” Jessie said and looked straight up to face Leon, he blushed a little and looked away from her face. “Mhm Yeah that, I better go.. my room is right here” Leon pointed at the room next to them, room number A1. It took her a while to see the number since the numbers were so small on the doors, that it was really far from her room, not that it mattered anyways. Jessie again just nodded, suddenly Leon got closer to her - (wait what is he doing..) Jessie thought and closed her eyes looking to the ground again, she then felt arms around her, was he hugging her? “oh uh that’s a goodbye hug..if you couldn’t tell..” Leon immediately said and laughed nervously, “Oh ok..” Jessie said as she tried to process what happened. Leon got into his room and Jessie was on her way, she kept walking and walking, and then after more walking, she realized that she was lost. There were so many rooms and numbers and people. There were people. She couldn’t tell where her room was, the numbers on the doors were so small. She could ask some kids who were passing by her but she was too shy. Too afraid. Too lost. 

She kept walking without looking forward till she bumped into someone, “I'm so sorry” Jessie apologized immediately and didn’t dare to look up, she felt like she was gonna cry, where was Nani to guide her? Where is her mom to comfort her?

The person she bumped into slowly turned around, “It’s okay.. wait, aren’t you new here? I mean not to sound rude but I have never seen you before”  the girl said, she had such a sweet voice that made Jessie feel somehow.. safe.

“Yeah, I am..” Jessie said quietly, she looked up slowly and she found out the girl was not alone. It was the same group of girls she had seen in the dining room. She accidentally made eye contact with the other girl from before again. Which is weird cause this time she felt a warm feeling looking at her. “Im Janet,” the girl she bumped into said and the eye contact with the other girl broke.  “Well you look kinda lost, could you tell me your room number, so I could show you where your room is?” the girls said kindly. 

“B8”.

“Oh! Are you in a room with Bonnie?” Janet asked and Jessie nodded, “Well I'm her big sister, but hm.. Are you a grade above her?? I mean you don't look like you're in 9th grade” Jessie smiled nervously and replied, “Well it's pretty hard to explain that..”, Janet smiled but didn't question it, “Come with me I'll show you where your room is” Janet said and told the other girls that she will be right back, the other girls nodded and waved goodbye to Janet and then walked away,

Janet and Jessie walked quietly till Janet broke the silence, “Did Bonnie just leave you?”

“No..we walked together, but I was walking slower than them while I was Leon, I guess Nita and Bonnie figured I knew where our room was..”

That was the longest sentence thing Jessie said today, which only proved how short her replies were. “Mhm that explains a lot… oh we’re close!”Janet jumped happily, she had that sweet kind vibe that only made Jessie feel safer around her, the two girls walked a bit more till they got right in front of Jessie’s room, “Hey Bonnie!”Janet busted into the room, “Don’t forget…what is your name?..” Janet asked shyly, “Jessie.” “Don’t forget Jessie again!” 

Bonnie and Nita looked at them while they were looking into Jessie’s stuff, Jessie kinda panicked when she saw it but she decided to stay quiet. “WE’RE SORRY!!” Nita and Bonnie ran towards Jessie and hugged her, “When we got to their room we figured maybe you’re still with Leon and he will show you where our room is” Bonnie said and Nita added “But when Nita called Leon he said he doesn’t know where you are! He said he just left you and he couldn’t see you in the hallway anymore..” Nita hugged Jessie more tightly, “and then we decided we should call you!” Bonnie almost cried, “But we didn’t know what your phone number was! So we looked into your stuff to maybe find your phone number. Omg, we’re so sorry we looked into your stuff!!” The two girls were crying and hugging Jessie more tightly till they noticed Jessie couldn’t breathe anymore, “we are truly sorry!” Jessie then laughed, it was her first time today she laughed,” Hehe.. my phone number is on Scrappy” She kept laughing quietly, it was so sweet, I mean sure it was scary for Jessie to be lost but hearing how much Bonnie and Nita cared for her made her feel funny.

Bonnie and Nita looked back at Scrappy, then they noticed that on his collar there were numbers, Jessie’s phone number. They laughed and hugged Jessie again.

Janet watched the three girls getting along and smiled softly, she waved goodbye to them and made her way out.

Jessie was more than grateful she had Bonnie and Nita as her roommates and her first two friends here.

Maybe her mom was right after all…