Freshmen...Fresh Meat?

Four days ago was my very first day of high school. Ninth grade isn't as scary as everyone makes it out to be, but it is pretty intimidating to be walking around the halls with sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I am taking a creative writing class for the whole year, and I am literally the only freshman in the class. It's very nerve-wracking, and, I ignored all my classmates for the first few days of school. Yesterday, however, I was forced to interact, and it was the greatest thing that's ever happened to me.
Yesterday, my creative writing teacher gave everyone a paper that had several questions on it, and we had to go around the room and ask these questions to other classmates. As he was passing the papers out, I was thinking, "Oh, dear Lord." I got up and looked around, trying to find a face that wasn't hostile. I first talked to the girl in front of me, and she wasn't from America, so I was more comfortable around her. She answered a question for me. Then, the unthinkable happened. A girl named Lizzey approached me and kindly asked me, "Hey, what's your name?"
"Zoe," I answered with a smile. We exchanged a few questions, and she made me feel much more comfortable. I then made my way to a group of girls who were all talking, and I fit right in with them. Jenene, a girl who, on the outside, seems intimidating and self-destructive, came over to me and told me, "I can answer a ton of those questions. I've done a lot."
So, she took my paper and signed her name on almost half the questions, and we talked for awhile. She was interested in my future career goal: being a novelist. After Jenene walked away, the class bean-pole approached me. He's in eleventh or twelfth grade, and he's really tall and skinny. His curly hair hangs down his head like Spanish Moss on an oak tree. I asked him what his name is, and he answered, "Connor."
I asked him what he wanted to be when he was older, and he replied with a smile, "I wanna be famous. That's legit, isn't it?"
We both chuckled, and like Jenene, he thought it was cool that I wanted to be a novelist. I saw Connor at lunch that same day, and I said hello to him, him replying with a smile.

Today, we were put into groups by our teacher, and we had to 'brainstorm' about the origin of inspiration. I was in a group with three girls and one boy, and the boy, whose name was Ben, was super friendly. I stood up, and he spotted my ID and asked me, mildly shocked, "You're a freshman?"
I nodded, and he smiled and replied, "Some of those freshmen are bad."
I was confused on what he meant by 'bad', so I asked, "Bastards?"
He raised his eyebrows in agreement, and I chuckled. My group ended up winning the prize for the best theories of origin of inspiration, and we all smiled at each other. I cannot wait for tomorrow.