Alright, I was kidding with that last line. Hey. Hey! Stop booing me! Sure she was nice to talk to and seemed to have a relatively peppy personality but besides that she wasn't really my type.

A friend? Sure. I can see us being good friends. Girlfriends? Nope. Lovers? Nope. A small fling?...Maybe. But that's not even what I'm looking for right now, so not happening.

Anyway, I texted her when I got home at about 3pm and she didn't respond until 7. I wasn't super thrilled about this since it was our first text convo.

The conversation went like this:

J: Hey

*4 hours pass*

Y: Hey! Whats up?

Y: Sorry for the late reply was with some friends and mu phone die

*Ten minutes pass* (I tried, ok...)

J: It's fine

J: What did you guys do?

Y: We just worked on homework in one of their rooms

Y: I won a hot cheeto related bet tho *cool glasses emoji*

J: Hot cheeto? Explain

Y: So my friend Shanice cannot take spicy foods at all so we brought her a bag of hot cheetos and bet on how much she could eat before giving up

J: Interesting. How much did she make it to?

Y: 2

J: Wow

J: And let me guess you bet on 2?

Y: Yea

J: How much did you make?

Y: 5 dollars. Ik kind of small

J: No 5 dollars is 5 dollars (I lied it is pretty small) that's like a milkshake at Ronda's

Y: Or some poptarts from the student store *licking lips emoji*

J: that too

J: I feel a little bad for shanice but that sounded like fun

Y: It was

Y: You have a friend group like that at your old school?

J: Not really I kind of just hungout with people separately (I lied here too. I had a friend group. Can't remember why I lied.)

Y: Dang your missing out

Y: Maybe I can introduce you to my friends sometime?

J: Sure

Y: Does Monday after school work?

J: Yeah that works

Y: Great. I gtg. more hw to work on

J: Alr see u monday

Y: See u!

After texting I watched Youtube, exercised, and then went to bed. I know, an exciting Friday night but at least Monday might be interesting.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty standard besides the dinner on Sunday as I noticed Emma looking at me from two tables down. Once I noticed I put my cold mac & cheese down and stared back. Our eyes met for about a second until she looked down and started fidgeting with something on her plate.

I thought you forgot about this blonde haired phenomenon. Now you're staring at me as if...

Wait. No way. Unreliable narration aside there's no way she could like me with how cold she's been towards me. And even if she did she'll need to have a really good explanation for this whole mood switch thing for us to date.

After that the day ended normally with me washing my face and then picking out my outfit for the next day. The outfit consisted of my sherpa jean jacket, a black Michael Kors thermal, black skinny jeans, and my black booties. The accessories I got out consisted of some silver hoop earrings, my almost choker length silver chain necklace, a thin black and silver Calvin Klein belt and my denim pochette as my bag. I went to sleep pretty easily, woke up and got up at about 6am and got ready.

Nothing really happened during the school day. Even fifth period was boring since there was no lab activity so it ended up being Dubois lecturing us about...scienc-y stuff.

I don't know. I tuned out once she wrote the lesson plan on the board.

After the bell rang I noticed Yuka getting up faster than usual. It wasn't the only thing I noticed as she was a little more unkempt than usual. She had on a white faded oversized Adidas track jacket that was zipped up, some black Adidas sweatpants, and some dirty white shell tops. Her hair was kind of messy too as if she didn't finish brushing it this morning. Maybe she woke up late or something.

I didn't question it but instead questioned her behavior by asking "We haven't decided on a meeting spot and you're already this excited?"

The Adidas wearing girl heaved her backpack on her shoulder, looked at me with a small grin, and said "Not really why I'm rushing. I just have to meet someone from my first period for... academic stuff."

Why so vague?

She took out her phone, probably checked the time, and continued "Meetings still on though. You know the big tree by the gym."

"Nope. I haven't been in the quad yet."

"Urg, I guess I'll text you the directions while I'm walking." Yuka murmured with a little bit of pity in her tone.

"Okay. See you in a little while then."

"See you." She said and then walked out the classroom in a bit of a hurry.

I packed up my backpack at my normal pace, walked out the classroom, and leaned on the wall across the classroom waiting for a text from Yuka. A short, pretty girl holding a bright backpack scooched further down the wall as I did.

...Whatever.

Luckily, I didn't have to wait long since when I got my phone out of my back pocket Yuka sent me the directions.

Left from the classroom, down the stairs, straight down the hallway, another left out the door and then follow the path to the going away from the school until you see a large tree kind of far from the path. A lot of lefts but got it.

I followed her instructions and made it to the tree pretty quickly. It was a big desaturated tree with orange and red leaves that besides the size was common in this town. The tree was surrounded by grass and alone since there weren't many trees in the quad.

I turned around to face the gym, took out my phone, and sent a quick text to Yuka letting her know I was here.

After that I decided to start a short text convo with Marianne that went like:

J: Hey

M: hey

M: What's going on?

J: Nothing. Why do you ask

M: Cause im usually the one that texts first

J: Well I was just bored. thought I would text you

M: Oh. You at home? You could maybe play pubg

J: I'm not. I'm just waiting for an acquaintance and her friend group. Ig shes going to introduce me

M: Nice! I see your making friends

J: Maybe

J: im still being cautious about this

M: Yeah after what happened here I would be too

M: I gtg made it to sixth period

M: Hope it works out for you!

J: Thanjs

J: Thanks*

After the convo, I thought about why I was so cautious. While I was thinking I noticed a group of sporty looking girls stopped talking and walked faster as they passed me on the path nearby.

Well, that is one of the reasons yeah.

Sure I guess the whole She's a freak! sentiment definitely wasn't as bad as it was on my first few days here but it was still apparent. Which is why I started thinking, what if Yuka invited me out just to stand me up? What if they took an unexpected group selfie without my consent (with my off guard expression too ugh) and caption it 'Out with the freak of Coralines. We chillin.' Nevermind that wouldn't be so bad. Maybe they take the group selfie and caption it 'This is the freak of Coralines! Not so tough after all huh?' While they're all doing the stink eye.

Stink eyes?  My definition of a bully is literally straight out of a 80's coming of age story where the main character is some boring brown haired nerd who fell in love with the "oh so pretty" cheerleader. Well bedazzle the lockers girls a new kind of protagonist has entered the ring.

...Ok. Moving along from that eccentric analogy(?), you get what I was scared of. Yuka inviting me here for the wrong reasons.

On second thought, if she did that whole bully routine it would totally go against the personality she's shown me so far.

While I was deep in thought I noticed Yuka on her phone probably texting in the corner of my eye. She walked down the path I took and walked onto the grass until she was a couple feet away. She put her phone in her pocket and then greeted me "What's up. Hopefully you weren't waiting long."

"It wasn't too bad. Plus, I have my phone so I wasn't bored." I assured her, moving my attention from the gym wall I was staring at to her.

"That's good. Is it like an Android or something? I don't think I've ever seen you use it." Yuka asked, tilting her head a little.

"No. I just like to be aware of my surroundings, so I'm often not on it unless I'm home."

The main reason is I only have one friend who occasionally texts me but, this was also a reason.

"That makes sense."

We then talked about phones for a couple of minutes until Yuka noticed two girls walking towards us.

Yuka exclaimed with a grin on her face "There they are!"

They heard Yuka, waved in response, and continued walking towards us now on the grass. There was a taller girl that seemed to be only one or two inches shorter than me without heels and a shorter girl. The taller girl had fair skin, shoulder length straight brown hair and had a confident looking walk. She was wearing a grey bomber jacket, black distressed skinny jeans, and black and white Jordan 1's.

The shorter girl had warm brown skin, long curly black hair, and a more normal way of walking. She was wearing a black Thrasher hoodie, light blue jeans, and black low top vans. [ss]

Both outfits are a little basic, but I wasn't expecting much when it came to fashion anyway.

When they reached us the taller girl said "Hey guys. Sorry we're late. Ms. Brown held the whole class back since we were being loud."

"That sucks you two have her for the fifth period. She's already boring enough during second." I replied, trying to avoid a stiff first conversation.

"I know! My friend who has her first period says she actually helps the students in her class." The shorter girl groaned who I realized has a more brattier tone to her voice compared to the taller one.

"For real. It's like that with half of the teachers here but, it's four times as worse with her." Yuka complained.

"Oh yeah. I forgot you had her last year." The taller girl realized.

"Third period Algebra. Not a fun class at all." Yuka said, shaking her head slightly.

"They just need to hire different teachers cause literally all of the teachers I have had have been old and grumpy." The shorter girl complained, rolling her eyes.

"More teachers like Bailey. She's kind of cool." I said while shifting my weight to my right foot.

"Bailey? Who's she?" Yuka asked.

"She's a brunette English teacher. Kind of tall. I have her fourth period." I answered.

"I think a friend has her. She's younger right?" The shorter girl added as her phone made a notification noise.

"Yeah. Early thirties maybe." I guessed.

"Interesting." The taller girl said.

Noticing that the conversation was dying down, Yuka exclaimed "Oh yeah! Forgot about introductions."

"Jocelyn, this is Aliya and Shanice." She said while gesturing at the shorter girl and the taller girl respectively.

"And there should be one more...hold on let me text her." Yuka added, taking out her phone and taking a step back from the makeshift circle we created.

"I honestly feel like I've seen you before. Is your room on the fourth floor in the dorms to the west?" Shanice asked.

I almost panicked after she said the first sentence, but thanks to the question she asked after I was calm again.

"If by west you mean down the hall once you get out of the elevator then yeah." I said.

"I did see you then! I think I passed you in the bathroom while getting ready."

I looked at the brunette for a couple of seconds and deduced "I do remember you. You looked pretty angry then. Did your grandma get punched or something?" I joked in the same talking tone.

"No! What? My day just doesn't really start until I've had my coffee." Shanice explained concisely.

"You sound like an adult in their 30's." Aliya remarked looking away from her phone with a small grin.

Shanice shrugged in response.

The curly haired girl leaned toward me and whispered loudly. "She's just not a morning person."

I nodded and looked at the taller of the two.

"I'm not either. If I had access to caffeine I would actually pay attention in my first period."

Aliya laughed a little and looked like she was about to say something until all our attention was put on Yuka as she exclaimed. "Seriously! That's where you are?"

The Adidas wearing girl then went behind the big tree and came back out sort of dragging a short girl out with her.

The short girl wore a cute white blouse, a white thermal underneath, a small white leather purse, a blue plaid skirt, white leggings, and white high topped Converse. She also had familiar looking dark green dyed hair styled in a bob.

She looked up, noticed me and said in her soft voice "Jocelyn..."

Remembering how to talk again I said the only thing that was on my mind at that moment "Emma!?"