New Life: A Second Chance

"Did you see that?" one girl hissed as she grabbed her friend by the arm.

"What? See what?" the girl asked, "I only saw a fresh new face, ripe for the picking?"

The other girl slapped her hard on the back, "Be serious! You're hardly the femme fatale you delude yourself to be."

The girl rubbed her sore shoulders, "Dang, Hope, couldn't you like, ease it a little?"

Hope laughed and gave her another smack on the back, "Come on, Fern. Shall we find out just who that was?"

Fern looked around and raised both of her eyebrows (she couldn't raise one), "Have you seen the eyes that seemed to bore a hole into that guy's back? There were so many drooling over that fresh meat. What hope have we to get to know him?"

Hope pointed at herself and said, "You have me, Hope. That's all you need."

Fern rolled her eyes, "Oh come on, you don't honestly think that was funny, do you?"

Hope shrugged, "Hey, as long as I like it, right?"

"You're hopeless," Fern replied.

"No, I'm Hope," Hope countered, which caused Fern to smack her own forehead with her palm while shaking her head.

"Why do I even bother?" Fern lamented.

Hope just grinned.

"But didn't you see that girl next to him? They don't look alike," Fern mused, "Could she be a girlfriend?"

"Unlikely, considering that they seem to be heading to the office. Then again, you won't know until you ask, right? So let's go let's go let's go!" Hope said impatiently, pushing her friend from the back, "If they are new students, we, as very friendly people, should swoop down and show them around, right?"

"Oh yes," Fern said, "Totally not having any designs on the guy at all."

"Totally," Hope replied, blinking innocently.

Fern laughed, swung her hand over the girl's shoulder and said, "Come on. Let's go and meet this dreamboat of yours."

"But you know ... " Hope said as they hurried over to the office, "He kinda looks familiar."

"Oh GOSH," Fern said with a roll of her eyes, "Please do not tell me you're going to use that line to pick him up? That's so lame!"

"No, no," Hope insisted, "I really mean it. He looks familiar!"

"Urgh, whatever," Fern replied, "Just don't say it to him. If you remember, you do. If not, let it be. Otherwise, he's going to look at you and know how lame you are from the get-go."

"I'm not that bad!" Hope protested.

"You are," Fern stated, "And here I thought, only guys would have dad jokes. You top them all."

"Hey!" Hope protested, "Dad jokes are funny!"

"I rest my case," Fern said with a dramatic sigh.

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Joseph gave the officer behind the general office counter a smile and seeing the nametag, he said politely, "Ms. Juliana, I'm Joseph and this is my sister, Lianne. We just transferred here."

"Ah, yes," Juliana said, looking at the two. They looked decent enough, and not dressed outrageously, "I'm surprised you are even here. It's the end-of-the-year holidays after all."

"Yes, we know," Joseph replied, "We thought it would be best to finalise all the details before then and also familiarise ourselves with the school first."

Juliana nodded, agreeing with them, "That is a good attitude. Here is the timetable for next year, and the book list."

Joseph and Lianne took the proferred list and looked through them.

"Can I ask, why are there so many students around at this time, even though it is the school holidays?"

"They are the upcoming third and fifth year students," Juliana explained, "They have extra classes to revise the year's syllabus and have a head start on next year's syllabus."

Lianne didn't say a word after that, but thought that it was pretty harsh. There go their holidays! They would have to spend it in class.

She turned to her brother and said, "You should attend, too, since you're going to be a third-year."

Juliana looked enlightened (while Joseph looked horrified), "Yes, you are right! It is perfect, too. Since you're new, this would be a good opportunity for you to meet your new classmates, and also catch up on the syllabus."

"I … don't have any textbooks or supplies," Joseph said feebly, regretting coming.

"That's not a problem," Juliana said, "You can buy the supplies in the school bookstore, and for today, I'll give you an excuse slip. You can share the textbooks from your classmates."

The smile on Joseph's face seemed frozen now and he glared at Lianne as they left the office.

Outside, Joseph turned to Lianne in exasperation, "Really, Lianne? My own sister, stabbing me in the back?"

She looked at him with the 'are you serious' expression, "I did you a favour, you know. It's best you integrate yourself now. You're coming in the middle of the school year, so to speak, and you have a major exam next year."

"Although, from what I could tell, it's almost the same as what Country M has but there is bound to be differences," Lianne continued to explain to her lazy brother, "By attending the extra classes, you'll be able to cover the topics already done. At the very least, listening and attending classes won't do you harm."

"I'm the one coming in from first year, and everyone is basically new," Lianne went on, "So I won't really be the odd-one out. Unlike you."

Joseph shrugged, "Unlike you, I'm sociable. Being the newbie isn't a big deal for me."

"But attending classes is still good," Lianne insisted.

"Fine, fine," Joseph said as he ran his hand through his hair.

Although it was unexpected, what his sister said made sense. He didn't like it though because he didn't like school. 

His eyes lighted up when he saw two girls approaching, smiling at him. He smiled back. The girls were cute and looked pretty friendly.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

A pang of slight guilt washed over him and he quashed it down.

He wasn't in any relationship and so, there was nothing wrong in admiring girls that were cute. Of course, Kay was far more beautiful than them, but that's not the point. 

The point was, he was here to get over her, so he had to make lots of friends, right?

He was glad that he had taken extra time to dress up for school today. Although he had not known that there would be people here, he still wanted to look good.

So, he had chosen his clothes carefully and styled his hair the way he liked it. Lianne had truly berated him for taking so long in their shared bathroom, but he didn't care.

She called him vain but he saw it as just loving himself properly.

He was rather tired of comparing himself to the Smiths, truth be told. It was only this morning that he realised how stupid he was for doing so.

Trying to measure up to Kyle was like trying to climb Mount Everest without any gear. Kyle was, like, a superhuman or something. With his looks and smarts, Joseph would never be able to even touch his toes.

He had tried to, because only then would he feel that he was worthy.

But, this morning, as he stared at himself in the mirror, he felt really stupid.

He was not Kyle. 

He was Joseph.

He needs to accept himself as he is and to work on whatever weakness he has in order to improve. However, he acknowledged that there were aspects about himself that he could not change.

Like, his sense of humour.

His sister would just roll her eyes at him whenever he shared a joke that he found to be particularly funny. He didn't mind, though, because she didn't mean anything by it. That's just the way she was. 

So, this morning, he dressed up a bit more because by doing so, he felt good about himself. He may not be handsome, but with the workouts he had been doing the past few months, he became more confident about himself.

He knew he looked good - not Kyle level good, but good enough.

He had a naturally slim physique, and with his mixed features, he didn't look like a native of Country M, which made them sort of a novelty there.

Joseph looked at his sister and knew that unless he told them, people never realised that they were siblings. This was because not only did they not look related, their personalities were so different. 

Lianne had curly hair while his was wavy. Lianne was serious while he was sociable. Lianne was quiet while he was talkative. Little things like that.

Right now, Lianne wasn't really paying any attention to the girls that were approaching them. However, suddenly, one girl grabbed the other girl's arm and screamed, "OH MY GOD! IT'S YOU!!"