Sicily, she found out on the last day of the week, did not do P.E. She either spent it in the library or sat on the bleachers, reading.

"I have a heart thing." Sicily informed dismissively with a wave of her hand, though the tightness in her face and the way she adverted her eyes spoke volumes.

Amanda didn't pry, but knew that it had to be serious enough that Sicily was left unbothered by the teachers if she wanted to leave class early to lay down in the nurse's office, which is where Sicily told her to check if there was ever a time Amanda couldn't find her.

Amanda and Sicily only shared the two classes – P.E. in first period and Math in third period – but during lunch they met outside the cafeteria, where Sicily was always waiting with her bright smile and book, waving for her, Amanda a bit of a slow-poke.

The cafeteria was near identical to the last one she had been in, with long, roughed up looking tables and a serving area toward the far right, so there was no need to explain how things here went. She and Sicily got their lunches and then went to a table where few were sitting so Sicily could read her new book, The Vampire Lestat, in peace. One or two people came up to them toward the start to chat them up, but before long they were left alone.

This was just fine with Amanda. There was an easiness between the two girls that made the silence comfortable – both weren't especially loud or high energy, so it worked for them. Every few minutes Sicily would look up and comment on something and Amanda would reply before they fell back into their silence. While Sicily devoured her book with a chewed bottom lip, Amanda was working on her math homework and tugging at the end of her hair, both girls working in bites of their food occasionally.

When she became stuck on a problem – again – she pulled open her milk carton and lifted it to her lips to take a drink, her gaze moving away from her homework to look around. Something caught her attention immediately.

A boy was staring at her from across the cafeteria - not a particularly uncommon thing, considering how washed out she looked, but somehow this was different. His stare, for whatever reason, unnerved her. He wasn't looking at her out of curiosity or intrigue, not even flirty - it was like he was genuinely stunned at the sight of her, like he had seen something shocking. She looked him over. He was her age, skinny, tall. Light brown hair, healthy, clear complexion with something impish about his appearance, though unoffending. He was wearing the same sort of outfit that all the other boys were wearing, didn't stand out much in the crowd of her peers.

And yet, somehow, he did. He somehow just didn't fit, didn't quite blend. Once you saw him, it was all she could see, the one thing that didn't belong.

She lifted a hand in greeting and his eyes widened, unblinking. He looked like a ghost being seen for the first time. It made her laugh. Her smile had him recoiling. She dropped it and it seemed to bother him even more.

"Dennis Hadley." Sicily supplied from next to her when she saw her staring. "He's cute, but a little weird."

Amanda finally broke her graze from Dennis to look to her friend, taking a thoughtful drink of her milk before asking "How so?"

Sicily lifted a shoulder with a frown. "I don't know. He's really polite and all, but he's kind of...off. It's hard to explain. I mean, he has friends, but..." She scrunched up her nose. "You'll see what I mean soon enough, I'm sure."

Amanda nodded and looked back to see Dennis staring at her again. "He seems nice." She said, her default for anyone who didn't act offensively rude.

"'Seems' being the operative word. To me it's kind of...I don't know. My Aunt seems nice. He seems nice like her."

Amanda's gaze slid to her. "Is your Aunt not nice?"

Sicily's face tightened and a shadow fell across her gaze. "She makes people think she is, but she's a total bitch." She said in a hard tone. After she cleared her throat, she asked in a considerably more curious tone What about your family?"

"My Mom is nice. Busy, but nice. She's a nurse. My Grandma is nice as well."

"That's...nice." The two exchanged funny smiles - Sicily grinning while Amanda stuck out her tongue - before Sicily ducked her head to eat a large, greedy bite of her sandwich, returning her gaze to her book with an intense look before she folded the corner of the page she was reading and closed it with a hard breath.

Amanda wanted to ask Sicily about her own parents, but she remembered Sicily telling her that they died when she was young. If she was as sensitive as Amanda was about her father, she probably didn't want to be asked. So she changed subjects and asked her how her book was going.

They talked endlessly about books - it was a big bonding point for them - and by the time lunch was over, Sicily had composed a list of books she was going to lend to Amanda so they could talk about them, and while she was going to lend Amanda her Interview with a Vampire, she wanted her to see Lost Boys first. Sicily then insisted that Amanda read through the stack of Sicily's favorite Stephen King novels, which Amanda, a strict romance reader, was hesitant about.

When Amanda informed Sicily that she scared easily, her friend only gave her a mischievous smile and said "You don't know what scared is until you've read IT."

Just exactly what it was, Amanda wasn't sure, but Sicily insisted that she find out.

A week passed and Amanda found herself slipping into a routine.

Amanda went through her morning like she always did, reading her borrowed books in the time between eating breakfast with her mother and leaving for school, meeting up with Sicily and walked to school. They talked about dreams, about the weather, about gossip – there seemed to be one the same wavelength with most everything, which Amanda found refreshing and Sicily seemed excited about. While Amanda had friends, she had never had a best friend, not one that hadn't eventually outgrown her and moved on to more exciting girls who did more exciting things. Amanda was a reader, she liked to stay at home, watch movies, or lay in the park with a book and have conversations about hidden meanings behind Madonna songs.