"Well, good luck," he said as I touched the handle. "Maybe we'll have some other classes together," he said with a chuckle. Small town humor.
I smiled at him vaguely31 and went inside.
The rest of the morning passed in about the same fashion. My Trigganomics teacher, Mr. Varner, who I would have hated anyway just because of the subject he taught, was the only one who made me stand in front of the class and introduce myself. I stammered, blushed, and tripped over my own boots on the way to my seat.
After two classes, I started to recognize several of the faces in each of the classes. There was always someone braver than the others who would introduce themselves and ask me questions about how I was liking Forks. I tried to be diplomatic, but mostly I just lied a lot. At least I never needed the map-document.
One girl sat next to me in both Trig and Spanish, and she walked with me to the cafeteria for lunch. She was tiny, several inches shorter than my five feet four inches, but her wildly curly dark hair and big nose made up a lot of difference between our heights. I couldn't remember her name, so I smiled and nodded as she prattled about teachers and classes. I didn't try to keep up.
We sat at the end of the full table with several of her friends, who she introduced to me. I forgot all their names as soon as she spoke them. They seemed impressed by her bravery in speaking to me. The boy from English, Eric, waved at me from across the room and I sighed.
31. An allusion to Da Vinci's famously cryptic Mona Lisa and the painting's film adaptation, Mona Lisa Smile (1972).