I like it!! As a first chapter, it sets up the story very well and holds great potential. However, you said constructive criticism is welcome, and i have some to offer.

First of all, your dialogue punctuation is a bit off. As a general rule, if the dialogue is followed by a dialogue tag (she said, he asked, etc.), then it should end with a comma (unless it's a question, in which case it ends with a question mark), and if it's followed by an action then it should end with a period (example: --"I don’t know," she said/yelled.-- vs. --"I don’t know." She shook her head.--). The only exception is "bridging" action between dialogue (ex: "I don't know," she shook her head, "But I'd sure like to find out.").

Also, the spelling of words varies from paragraph to paragraph (ex: "realized" vs. "realised"), and the vocabulary can be a bit repetitive (ex: using the same word twice in one paragraph), but both of those are easy fixes.

The biggest issue i noticed is pacing. Some of your sentences and paragraphs are longer than necessary, which can make it difficult for readers to focus and follow the narrative. Try breaking them into smaller pieces. And I'm not sure you chose the best place to end the chapter--as a general rule, chapters (especially first chapters), should end on a cliffhanger, or at least some type of "change" between events.

Please don't feel like any of this makes you a bad writer!! Correcting mistakes is necessary for growth. I'm excited to read the rest of your story :)