“My name is Monticlaire.”
She continued to gaze at me. I felt like I was about to fall apart from being scared half to death. Nonetheless, I began to blush.
“I’m sorry!” she suddenly exclaimed, shaking her hands out in front of me in a quick motion. “I didn’t mean to scare you! Y-You’re not moving… or saying anything…” she swayed from side to side, placing her hands behind her back once more.
“I-It’s not your fault. I just…” I took a deep breath and straightened myself out.
“It’s just what? I love your shoes by the way,” she suddenly chimed. I raised an eyebrow at her suspicious statement.
Is this the new friend I’m supposed to make? She seems so… awkward, like me… but so peppy, like Nicole… ugh.
“You scared me. But I’m fine. You said your name was Monticlaire? What a nice name,” I held my right hand out towards her, feeling the heat increase around it. With my eyes widening, I quickly stopped and swapped it for my left. However, it was getting colder—a similar action to my right hand.
Are my powers really going off right now? Are they… going to stop me from making friends?
I looked up at the other girl, who was giggling and blushing to herself. “That’s so cute,” I could hear her whisper to herself. That only made me blush even more. I ended it up sticking out my right, placing it in front of her. She reached out with her own right arm, her hand firmly grasping mine.
“Wha…” I said, looking down at our intertwined hands. Her hand wasn’t a hand at all. At least, it didn’t have any skin on it.
It was a prosthetic hand.
“Yea, it usually comes as a shock to everyone the first time,” she stated, letting go and putting it back behind her awkwardly. “Golly gee, there’s something wrong with your hands! They aren’t hands at all!” she mocked for a few minutes.
“But yea, I lost my hand when I was a small kid… don’t let your child run around on a beach by themselves, they might accidentally play with a shark without even knowing it…” she laughed it off nervously. I did the same, trying to seem relatable in the conversation.
“Hehe, indeed…” I trailed off.
“Hey, you never told me your name, mystery girl,” she said, rubbing her head. “Oh! It’s Novella.” I sputtered out, looking away from her eyes.
“Wow! That’s a lovely name! I love that… a lot,” she spoke in an anxious tone. Maybe I was getting somewhere in this whole ‘making friends’ deal.
…Yeah, no. I’m kidding myself. And my powers weren’t making anything better...
“Well, hey, it was nice meeting with and talking to you, Monticlaire, but I should really be getting back home,” I made my way towards the door, slowly reaching for the knob.
“Wait! There’s one more thing I want to talk to you about!” she yelled behind me, grabbing my left shoulder. She was suddenly taken back by the sudden chill that ran through her body, which was produced by… well, you know what they were from.
“Yikes… I didn’t take you to be a cold person…” she said in a somewhat serious tone. Quickly making up a lie in my mind, I turned and placed my back against the door, starting to feel very panicked.
“N-No! I was putting away ice cream with my left hand! It must have been from t-that!” I frantically tried to explain myself, but it wasn’t working. Suddenly, she pushed herself towards me, almost pinning herself against me entirely. I froze, not knowing what to do or where to go. Her eyes were piercing through my own, as we were now almost face to face. I was blushing now more than ever.
“Hmmm… interesting,” she poked me with her finger. “You’re homeschooled, so you don’t know about anything that goes on with the local schools.”
I nodded my head, trying not to bump it against hers.
“Well, there’s this event coming up and I wanted to see if you wanted to—”
“Novella, sweetie! It’s time to go home! Your father has been waiting for us for a little too long!” my mother’s voice chimed from the other side of the door. I immediately slid under and away from Monticlaire, evening out my breathing.
“Look—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get in your face like that. I’m just really getting kind of desperate, and if I don’t find someone to go with, then it’ll really…”
“…suck. I get it, Monticlaire,” I said with a sigh, glancing around for a pencil and a piece of paper.
“I hope this won’t stop us from being friends, though! At least consider that…” the girl trailed off, turning towards the door. Finding the two items I was looking for, I scribbled something down and shoved it to Monticlaire’s back.
“I want to be friends. Here’s my number. Thank you, Monticlaire,” I smiled at her. She grinned back and gave me an awkward hug before I exited the room. I exhaled another sigh as I treaded past my mother and out of the door, frankly wanting to be alone on my walk home.
“Geez, that girl is weird,” I muttered to myself, crossing the dimly lit street. The house was only the next block over from here.
However, if she’s the only true friend I can make in all of this, maybe it won’t be so bad.
I twisted the knob on the front door, entering and quickly shutting it behind me. My motions made a figure shake on the couch, making me turn my attention to that direction.
There laid Mr. Nook, laying on his side fast asleep. Popped popcorn was strewn across the floor, most likely due to an overturned bowl near the tired father. I giggled to myself, scooping the nearby popcorn from the floor and placing into the bowl. I continued to clean up the mess and eventually turned off the blaring movie that was playing on the TV.
Entering the living room after hearing the door slam shut once more, I spotted my mother shaking her head at her dozing husband.
“Fridays don’t usually tire him out. In fact, no work day truly does. This is new…”
“He’s probably fine. Work your cold magic on him, I’ll be upstairs,” I spoke, tiptoeing to the stairs. “Goodnight.”
I sat at my desk tonight, opening my small laptop and taking my phone out of my pocket. My eyes lit up to see a text message from Monticlaire already:
Hey there! This is Novella’s number, right?
I guess a confirmation text isn’t that bad of a way to start a relationship. I texted her a small reply before receiving one back almost immediately:
Cool! So, how was your day?
I giggled to myself. This must be how one teenager conversed with another. I mean, it wasn’t a bad conversation starter, but I’m sure there are better out there. Ditching my computer entirely, I plopped right onto my bed and began texting Monticlaire.
But before I knew it, it was already three in the morning.
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