Your Happy Face

Chapter 2

ᴀꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ʏᴇᴀʀꜱ ᴘᴀꜱꜱ, ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇ. ʙᴜᴛ ᴍʏ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀꜱ ᴀʟᴡᴀʏꜱ ꜱᴛᴀʏᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴀᴍᴇ.

Andrew. Wait for me.

I thought that, but it seems my plan has to be on hold for a while...
As I was chasing after Andrew, the bell coincidentally started ringing. I had forgotten that I was in school.

"Oh crap." I said.
I rummaged through my neatly and organized backpack and made sure (even though I was lying) my literature book was inside.

I rushed towards my lit classroom and saw all my classmates.
Oh, there's Maggie and Hannah.

"Hey, Ehlyssa. Did you- hehe get your lit book?" Maggie chuckled.
I bursted, "YEAH YEAH OF COURSE I DID!"

Tons of students turned their heads in our direction.
I slammed my backpack on my desk, yanked my chair out, and sat down with a big smile on my face.

If I had to make people like me, I had to be different than others. I had to stand out. I had to be funny.
I had to change.

From the distance, I saw Maggie and Hannah walked towards me and sat in the desks besides me.

Wow, my plan really is working out.

Maggie spoke to me, "Can I see your backpack, Ehlyssa?"
"Yes yes! Of course!"

I gave her my backpack, and she carefully zipped it open.

"Woah. Your backpack. It's actually pretty neat. It's so organized."
Hannah stood from her desk and walked towards Maggie. "No way. Let me see."

Hannah glanced at the insides of my backpack.

"It's so neat. . .for a kind of person like you. If you acted way more like this, then you could be way prettier and cuter to all the boys. You could really act like a girl."
I don't know why, but I could sense a tint of disgust or jealousy from what Hannah just said to me.

I proceeded to lie.
"No! No! No! HHEHEHE, this is super rare! My backpack would be usually super disorganized and all over the place. I just decided to make it look organized for the first day of school you know?"
Maggie answered, "Yeah, Hannah. And besides we like her better this kind of way. Where she doesn't really care about boys."

Maggie moved her heads towards Hannah and me.
"There are so many damn girls with a fake personality trying to impress all the guys. Look over there."

We all glanced at the door.
What are we waiting for? So I asked, "What do you mean?"
Hannah spoke, "Just watch."

A short girl opened the door and walked in. She had mid length brown hair. It seemed more healthy than Maggie's nor Hannah's. She had a cute innocent little but shy face. She even struggled to open the door.

Hannah and Maggie spoke at the same time.
They whispered, "Leia."

I was confused. She was cute! What was so wrong with that?
I whispered, "Leia who now?"

Hannah whispered, "Just look at her. Who is she trying to impress? Acting all cute and all that. Girls like her are so annoying."

What?

I looked at Maggie's face and there I saw. I haven't ever seen it before. But I could see the hatred and jealousy in her eyes. Maggie probably didn't even know she was making that face. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her lips were tight.