Genesis, avoiding eye contact steadily the entire way, finally made it down the immaculate hall to a bulletin board. Why it felt like everyone was staring at her, she had only the best ideas. A woman was standing nearby with a clipboard, and Genesis went up to her.

“Hi,” Genesis said. “Um, what do I do now?”

The woman gave her a pleasant smile and handed her a piece of paper. Joy, a map of a building she’d never seen before in her life.

“Over on the board,” the woman explained, “you’ll see what group you’re in and what you’re supposed to be doing. If you have any questions, please come ask me.”

She quite frankly sounded like a flight attendant, but Genesis smiled shyly and then walked over to the sheet of paper. She tried not to touch the kids on either side of her and tried not to make eye contact. Why did it feel like everyone there knew each other?

She found her name inverted in a list of ten other names. Hers had a large C next to it, and she fingered it thoughtfully. Another two names in her group had S’s next to them, and another girl had a C. She found her list of classes on the back of her map and bit her lip, then walked over to the full registration, praying that she would miraculously recognize a name. No such luck.

“Hey, Daina!” someone called, grabbing her shoulder and swinging her around.

Genesis froze as they looked at each other. The boy that had whirled her around had black hair that fell over green eyes and wore nothing more than jeans and a T-shirt, helping Genesis feel less self-conscious about her appearance if the scene had done absolutely nothing for her feint of invisibility. He had a grin on his face that clearly said I’m-the-king-of-the-world. Genesis subconsciouly pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and cleared her throat, looking down and clenching a fist.

“Oh, hey, when did you start wearing glasses again?” the boy queried.

Get over yourself. “Genesis Yates,” the embarrassed girl said quickly, shoving her hand into the boy’s and shaking it. “I’m new here.”

“Oh, uh, I am…really sorry about that,” the boy stammered. “I… Are you sure you aren’t… Well, um, welcome,” the boy stammered further, going red in the face from embarrassment. Genesis would’ve felt the same way if she had accosted an innocent girl.

One of his bros shoved him forward, and he whirled on him. Genesis stepped back, afraid for a moment that a fight would break out.

“Come on, man,” his friend chuckled. “See you in class.”

“Yeesh! Come on, bro!” the boy exclaimed but let his friends march off, smiling and waving.

“Well, uh, see ya,” Genesis said quickly, scooting out from underneath the boy’s arm.

She walked at a fast clip down the hallway and finally rested against a wall where there was less people and tried to breathe. Goodness, how awkward had that been? Five minutes in and she had already… Or had the boy…

“Ugh, don’t confuse yourself, Genesis!” she groaned under her breath. “Just focus. Now, what’s your first class?”

After identifying it, Genesis had a different problem: where was her first class? She was all turned around, and she decided to just suck it up and ask someone…who wasn’t already talking to someone else. Finally, after five tries with no success, mostly because of her mouse-y voice, she walked up to a girl who was alone.

“Hi,” she forced out, “I’m—”

“Oh, thank goodness!” the girl cut her off, chuckling nervously. “I’m, um, new, and I’m trying to get to my class.”

“Oh,” Genesis murmured. “Um, okay, I’m Genesis, and, uh, I’m gonna be a little bit of a let-down here because I’m new too, and I don’t have the slightest idea where I’m going.”

“Okay, I’m Jazzy, and I think we’re in the same group, and we can figure this out,” the girl grinned, making Genesis feel more at ease. Jazzy looked at her map, which had been drawn all over on with pencil. Jazzy caught her glance and shook her head. “Don’t ask,” she pleaded.

“Well,” Genesis said, unfolding her own map, “it’s room 101, and I think that—”

Both girls realized at the same moment what Genesis had just said and burst into a fit of giggles.

“That’s a good omen,” Jazzy chortled. “Starting in room 101, ooh, boy! So it’s a left and then a right and then we turn…down the middle? Okay, who wrote me these directions? Um, let’s just start walking and crash someone’s chatty-patty, sound good?”

“Sounds better than standing here getting trampled,” Genesis replied as everyone collectively looked at their watches and began to move.

Genesis, quite frankly, felt like a Turkish street vender as they tried to ask people where Group A was supposed to go. In the end, they found their way thanks to a kind senior named Ellajay who was in their group.

As they walked into the classroom, Genesis ducked behind Jazzy. The boy who had mistaken her for someone else was there!

“So you could actually mistake someone for me?” the girl with him chuckled. “How naïve of you, Dante.”

“You should have seen her,” Dante was insisting. “She looked like your long-lost twin sister or something!”

“Someone’s been reading fairytales,” the girl, who must’ve been Daina, sing-songed, turning to sit in her seat.

Oh, Lord, Genesis prayed, please don’t let her see me!

“Good morning and welcome to basic plotting,” the teacher said, standing at the front as everyone quieted. Jazzy and Genesis slid into seats next to each other just in front of the D duo. Jazzy cast a glance at her newfound friend, feeling the tension rising from the seat adjacent. “First,” the teacher continued, “we welcome two new spectacular scholarship students, Jazzy Jenkins and Genesis Yates. Would you two please come up here and tell us a little bit about yourselves?”

Genesis obediently walked to the front, answering how old she was, what grade she was in, why she started writing, why she liked it, and how many years she’d been doing it. She couldn’t help noticing that Daina gasped as did some of her friends when Genesis stood up front, and Jazzy didn’t miss the resemblance and cast a questioning glance at her.

When Genesis returned to her desk, there was a note there. Glancing at it out of her peripheral vision, she read, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, scholarship student.”

Oh, thought Genesis with a firm set of her jaw, so Daina’s one of those girls.