I haven’t found that yet.
“Y-N-A. You had a good start, which isn’t the case for most people.” A smile teases my lips.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to make a mistake on the paper,” Victor says while he scratches his head.
Cute, he’s shy. That’s surprising, coming from one of the popular guys, and even more so that it’s because of me.
“It’s all good, I’m the one who should thank you,” I say as I grab my French books and close my locker. Walking toward the class, Victor reaches for my arm to stop me before we get to the door.
“While I appreciate your thanks, I'd much rather you go out with me this Friday instead.”
“This Friday?” I chuckle in disbelief, but Victor simply nods. “And what would we be doing?” I ask, nervously tucking a curl behind my ear.
“Well, I was thinking you could come and watch me play. Although I don't recall ever seeing your pretty face in the bleachers."
“Nah, not really my thing.” I almost admit that I bring at least one book with me everywhere I go, and that if I had to attend something like that, I’d be reading the whole time. But I pull back and keep it to myself, being a reader in high school isn’t really the sexiest thing.
“Well, if we win, I would love to celebrate with a cute girl like you, and if we lose, I’ll need to be comforted with good company and a milkshake. So, I was thinking we could go eat atDenny's?”
There it is again, that charm.
I can't help but wonder why he's suddenly talking to me; we’re far from running in the same circles. Skepticism creeps in at the edges of my thoughts. Still, he did call me pretty… and that was kind of sweet.
“Alright, what time were you thinking?”
“7:30? And I can pick you up, just text me your address.”
Agreeing with a smile, we both enter the classroom. Miss Lavoie is clearly unhappy that we are interrupting her lesson on Molière, which, in my opinion, is boring. Why can’t we study more modern pieces of literature?
To my relief, the excuse note looks legit. After a minute of contemplating the yellow paper, she asks us to go take our seats.
I walk to my place, located in front of Aaron and to the left of Vanessa. Victor shoots me a bright smile on his way to his seat in the back of the class.
“Why is Victor smiling at you, and how come you guys came in late… together?” Aaron whisper-yells at the back of my head. I slightly turn to him as I am facing Vanessa, who’s looking at mewith interest through her heavy eyeliner, making her blue eyesveryintimidating.
“Ugh, he helped me with my locker, which, surprise… didn’t want to open.”
“Mmm mmm,that explains the lateness but not the smile, and Victor doesn’t help… anyone,” says Van with an indifferent tone, which I know is only a façade because her gaze doesn’t budge.
“Exactly!” Aaron adds.
“Mademoiselle Rey, vous m’avez déjà fait perdre du temps en arrivant en retard, et maintenant vous n’écoutez pas mon cours. Dois-je vous envoyer en retenue? ”
“Pardon, Madame Lavoie, je demandais tout simplement où nous étions rendus dans l’œuvre de Molière ; ça n’arrivera plus.”
Grateful that I avoided detention,again, with my lie of asking where we were in the book. I start opening my book to the proper page, thinking that I’m lucky enough to have made two of the greatest best friends, which is a first for me.
I love that we’re always together, text every day and hang out at least once a week outside of school. When they learned about my living situation, the first thing they did was show up at my house with pizza boxes and a bottle of wine. I provided theScreammovies and sneaked into my dad’s stash. It was the first time I felt normal. The pizza boxes were piling up, and the late-night horror marathons were making it feel like nothing else in the world mattered.
I, the newbie who looks very not-white in this very Caucasian school. Which wasn’t the case at my old school, that’s for sure, but I shouldn’t be surprised this far out of the city. Then, Vanessa, who loves everything black a practical way to kill your social life in this small town. Aaron, who loves to gossip even more than he loves his hair, is the perfect school news reporter.And no one likes noisy people. Together, we’re our own little group of misfits, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
But what makes them very special to me is that they know about my night terrors, and no rumours about me being crazy have made their way through the school, yet. Which is a miracle in itself. The last people I trusted enough to be vulnerable with didn’t have the same decency; actually, they didn’t wait twenty-four hours to tell everyone I was a murderer.
My phone vibrates in my jacket, pulling me out of my morbid thoughts.
Aaron: Don’t think the conversation is over, we need DETAILS!!!
Van: That’s right! And maybe if Victor is interested in you, Aaron will finally stop commenting on how perfect his shoulders are…ew.
