Stella's POV

First day? The worst. New school? Even worse. I had honestly put an effort and everything was looking fine during tutor time until a girl named Storm interrupted. She's obviously the popular girl because she entered as if she owned the world. When Mrs Riley told her off for being late, Storm teased her rudely until she was given a 10 minute DT. When everything had settled down, Mrs Riley told me to introduce myself but somebody started teasing me. Surprise! It was Storm!

Because she had interrupted, I didn't even get to start my introduction when the bell rang for our first lesson. Storm is trying to make my life hell...and it's working! In Science, all the people in my group chatted amongst themselves and left me out, in Maths, my partner only asked for the answers, in History, my partner didn't talk to me at all but copied my work and in Geography, my partner worked with another pair and I had to work on my own. At break and lunch, I stayed in the library. My last lesson was English and my new teacher - Miss Cooke - made it fun by planning and playing games. I didn't even care about Storm's attitude and my no-friend situation anymore. However, that changed when she dismissed us and announced that we have a project to get to know our assigned partner. My partner is...Storm!

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Music buzzes in my ear as the bus(busy with students, parents, toddlers, elderly people and workers)drives smoothly on its route. In the corner of my eye, I can see my bus stop get closer so I press the button and start making my way to the exit. I mumble a thank you to the driver while he parks at my stop and step onto the cracked pavement before starting my journey home.

The auburn leaves crunch underneath my new black pumps as they fall from the soon-to-be bare trees and settle onto the crowded ground. The streets are noisy with the loud chatter of children coming from school, some throwing leaves at each other playfully. I sigh to myself while thinking of how I used to be exactly like them: talkative, playful, careless.

Unlocking the gate, I stand in front of a replica of all the houses on this road. However, it's completely different from all the other houses when you enter. My knuckles rap against the wooden door and in a response, there's lots of squealing.

"Someone's at the door!"

There's the squeak of shoes on the linoleum floor before the sound of keys turning in the lock.

"Stella! Oh, silly me! Did I forget to give you the keys?" Kate asks, rubbing her forehead.

I shrug as I enter the house.

"I'm so sorry! I'll give you before you leave for school tomorrow," Kate reassures me," How was your first day at school?"

Again, I shrug.

"Did you make any friends?"

My shoulders answer for me.

"Great! Now, do you want something to eat? I'm sorry if there's not many options. Jake and Josh would eat up the whole house if I let them," Kate chuckles while rushing to the kitchen, leaving me to kick off my shoes and dump my bag on the floor.

Entering the kitchen, there's a group of four children: two girls and two boys sitting at the table. Jake is a scruffy, wild, dark-haired, seven-year-old boy and is right now with smears of Nutella on his face and uniform. He was put into foster care because after his mum had died, he didn't have any other family that he knew of. In the seat next to him is Josh, who unlike Jake, is a smartly-dressed and composed six-year-old boy that you wouldn't guess that he eats a lot. Up until a year ago, he was living with his grandma until she was put into a nursing home. Next to them are the identical five-year-old twins: Evie and Ellie. Their fair hair is always tied in the same hairstyles and they dress in the same outfits so it can be confusing. They were both put into foster care because they had issues at home.

"Hi, Stella! Sorry that there's no Nutella left," Evie greets me as I take the seat next to her.

"Yeah. Jake and Josh finished it all. They didn't share!" Ellie adds, putting a sulking expression on her face.

"You two finished the last of the Coco Pops yesterday. You didn't share either!" Jake complains, spitting Nutella-covered crumbs everywhere.

"Yeah. So now we're even," Josh agrees, wiping the corner of his mouth with a clean tissue.

"For goodness' sake, all you four do is argue. Why can't you be quiet like Stella for once?" Harry mutters darkly as he walks down the last of the stairs.

"Because she's a weirdo," Jake whispers, loud enough for me to hear.

"Shush!" Kate hisses," Go do something useful!"

"Yeah. It's your turn to do the chores, Jake," Harry adds.

"That's if any of you catch me!" Jake challenges before running up the stairs.

Josh and the twins follow him but I just continue spreading peanut butter on my toast.

Harry clears his throat.

"So, Stella...how was school today?" he asks.

That's probably the most annoying question!

"Fine."

"Have you-," Harry starts.

"CAUGHT YOU! YOU HAVE TO DO THE CHORES, NOW!" Ellie yells.

Ellie has given me time to escape before Harry asks the dreaded question: have you made any friends? I stuff the last of my toast in my mouth and mumble an excuse that I have homework before climbing up the stairs as fast as I can.

Shutting my bedroom door, I finally receive privacy. Kate chuckled and thought it was a joke when I told her that I wanted my room to have the colour theme of grey. My toes curl up into the grey carpet while my hands stroke the sticker of the letter 'S' that is stuck on the grey walls. On my bed, there are grey, vintage beddings and I feel comfy when I land on one of my soft pillows. Across my room, there's an old-fashioned wardrobe, a tiny chest of drawers and grey curtains. When Kate and Harry had shown me how they had decorated my new room, I was angry because I didn't want to sleep in this room and have to call it mine. I didn't want to live in this house and have to call it my home.

"JAKE STOLE MY DOLL!"

A wail from one of the twins next door interrupts my thoughts.

"I WANT MY DOLL BACK!"

I ignore. Kate should be coming to sort the situation out.

"GIVE IT TO ME NOW, JAKE!"

Hasn't Kate heard? The house is literally vibrating with the screaming. I sigh before leaving the privacy of my bedroom to climb down the stairs so I can tell Kate about the chaos upstairs. Entering the living room, I discover that nobody's here which means that she must be in the kitchen. I'm just about to call out Kate's name when I hear whispering from the kitchen. One of those voices I recognise is Harry.

"I like that she's quiet. It's peace to my ears after having to deal with those noisy children all day."

Kate's voice is the whisper that answers.

"Yes but I wish that she would talk more. I understand it's because-..."

My phone from deep inside my pocket starts ringing, making me jump from shock during the process. The whispering has stopped. I groan before checking the caller's ID. Seriously! It's Storm! I don't pick up, letting my phone continue ringing. I hope that she will get the message that I don't want to talk to her. Unfortunately, it's either that Storm doesn't understand or that she doesn't want to because my phone continues ringing.

"Is that your phone?" Kate questions, still oblivious to the fact that I'm right outside the kitchen.

"Sorry, it's mine. I just wanted to tell you that Jake stole one of the girls' dolls and so there's trouble up there," I admit sheepishly as I enter the kitchen.

"OK. Thanks for telling me, Stella," Kate thanks me before jogging out of the kitchen, leaving me alone with Harry.

"Aren't you going to answer that?" Harry asks, eyeing the pocket where my phone is.

I shrug. I have no choice to answer it, otherwise he will get suspicious. I accept the call, place my phone next to my ear and make my way back to my bedroom for privacy.

"Yes?" I prompt, sounding moodier than I wanted it to.

"Hello to you, too, Miss Moody," an unfortunately familiar voice teases.

"Look, I'm busy," I lie, hoping that Storm gets the signal that she needs to buzz off.

"Great! This won't take too long and then, you can go back to whatever you waste your time with."

That sounds more like the mean girl I had to meet today that I'm resisting the urge to hang up.

"So...," Storm continues," We have to sort out when and where we're going to start on our project. So...are you free tomorrow after school?"

I grunt a yes.

"So tomorrow it is, then. We meet at school and we walk back to whoever's place we're doing the project at, right?"

"Right."

"Now, where do we do the project? At your house or at mine?"

That question is as easy as one plus one. Of course, I can never take anyone from school here. They'll go gossiping that I live at a foster home(and that sounds exactly like something Storm would do). My reputation at school is already as bad as it is; everybody finding out that I'm in foster care would only make it worse.

"Yours," I insist.

"OK. Mine it is! Now, you can go back to your boring life," Storm says before hanging up.

I'm so dreading tomorrow.

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BEEP! BEEP!

My alarm sounds, reminding me that I have a horrible day ahead of me: going to school and starting on the project with my worst enemy - that may sound really early, considering that I've only been at the school for a day: Storm. The only reason I jump out of bed is that if you live with four other children, you want to be the first one to brush your teeth before the invasion begins. After brushing my teeth, I change into my itchy uniform of a plain white shirt and a blazer that's too baggy for me, a black skirt that's too long and white knee high socks. I brush the messy tangles out of my hair and braid a bit of my hair. I slip on my plain black pumps before grabbing my bag to go downstairs.

I eye the last chocolate chip muffin and Kate chuckles as she's watching me.

"A secret between you and me," Kate whispers(the others are getting prepared upstairs), smirking while she hands me the chocolate chip muffin.

"Thanks," I say before sinking my teeth into it.

When I finish my breakfast, I say goodbye to Kate and leave the house.
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The day goes by slowly. I have Art first, which we have to draw a self-portrait.

"What a wonderful drawing, Stella! Would you mind if I put it on display?" Mr Garrett, my Art teacher, compliments passionately.

I shake my head.

"Brilliant! Put the finishing touches by the end of the lesson and I'll put it up during my lunch," Mr Garrett says before continuing his wander around the classroom.

"Teacher's pet alert!" Storm whispers under her breath, purposely making it loud for me to hear.

Her friends sitting next to her snickers and at that moment I wanted the ground to swallow me up.

My next lesson was PE and we had to play the sport I despise the most: dodgeball. It was embarrassing that I was the last person to be chosen to be the part of a team. In the first round, my team were playing against Storm's.

Strangely enough, I was actually doing well and I was one of the last ones in my team remaining. However, that was until I had turned my back to get a ball to throw at my opponents. As I was turning around, a ball lunged at me made physical contact with my nose...

There was excruciating pain. My eyes watered. No, I thought, Stella, you cannot cry in front of everyone!

"Storm, you did that on purpose!"

I recognise one of Storm's minions, Emma.

"Yeah. You'll get into BIG trouble!"

The other voice is Storm's other minion, Sophie.

"Not if you two keep your mouths shut!" Storm hisses.

"But, Storm, you've really hurt her," Emma argues.

"Yeah. Her nose is bleeding!" Sophie adds.

I touch my nose. She's right! There's warm liquid dripping from it.

"It's not my fault she has a sensitive nose. And, anyway, she should consider herself lucky! That throw was probably one of my weakest!" Storm defends herself.

I'm taken to First Aid and I feel stupid when I tell the nurse that a girl 'accidentally' threw a ball at my nose while we were playing dodgeball in PE. For the rest of lesson 2 and the whole break, I spend it holding an ice pack to my sore nose.

I practically beg the nurse to stay longer when the bell rings for lesson 3 but she stays firm to her choice. Throughout the last three lessons of the day, everyone stares at my red nose and gossip. News flies fast at Minehead Academy!

During my last lesson, I decide to not start on the project with Storm after school today. As soon as I'm dismissed, I ran out of the classroom, planning to escape before she can catch me.

I'm just about to exit through the school gates when I hear someone call my name.

It's Storm.