Your Happy Face

Chapter 3

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

The same thought was whirling inside my head: Did Maggie and Hannah see me walking with Leia?

After the excruciating one hour and thirty minute long pain of hearing Spanish words go in and through my head, I headed towards the cafeteria. Because I was filled with anxiousness and fears, I bought many snacks. They were my comfort food.

I tried to find a place to sit. I had many great locations of where I could sit alone. This was all thanks to my middle grade self, because I was alone most of the time, I explored many locations.
I was thinking of sitting right in front of the classroom or by the bathroom until I heard someone call my name.

"Ehlyssa! Come over here!"
I looked over the person and saw Maggie waving at me. Hannah and Maggie were both sitting at a two person table very neatly and properly. Their backs were straight and they had pink homemade bento lunches.
I quickly walk towards them and freely placed all my snacks near their bento lunches.

"Woah, Ehlyssa. I didn't know you ate this much. Let alone all this junk food." Maggie chuckled.
"Yeah, totally unfeminine haha." Hannah chuckled.
"AHHH! WHO CARES ANYWAYS? BOYS AREN'T GONNA FALL IN LOVE WITH ME?"

As I was standing up while Maggie and Hannah were sitting properly down, I gobbled, swallowed, and devoured all of my snacks. Ripping every bag one by one until it was just a pile of bags stacked on top of each other. People were looking at us. They were whispering to each other, and staring.

...

Sure I wanted people to notice me. I wanted to make friends. But not make assumptions of me.
Sure I wanted the boys to not think of me as girly. But I didn't want them to talk behind my back to some other people and spread rumors.

"Ehlyssa! You ate all of them!" Maggie gasped.
"Ehehe..yeah..." My face was burning.
"So do you guys have any trash you wanna throw away?" I asked.
Maggie and Hannah gave me a handful of trash. They probably had more trash than me combined. Why didn't they take this out earlier?

"Thanks." Hannah said.
"Yeah, thanks Ehlyssa!" Maggie smiled.

I smiled back and quickly walked over to the trash can. It was a long walk. For some reason, they didn't have any trash cans in the cafeteria, which is stupid. I walked all the way to the hall of classrooms and there it was, I found the trash can at the end.
I picked up the pace but the massive amount of trash I was holding, one by one they fell to the floor. I had to turn around, crouch, and pick up the trash one by one.

As my hand crept close to the trash, someone's hand picked it up. I looked up.

What a handsome face.
It was Andrew. He held out his hand, and he helped me stand up. On the other hand, he handed me the piece of trash.
"Thank you." I whispered.
All the other little pieces of trash that I accidentally dropped, scattered around us, he picked them up. He walked towards me and held his hands out.
"What?" I asked him.
He gave a small pout and took the trash from my hands and put it in the trash can. He did it so quickly and effortlessly.

"Thank-"
"Why do you have so much trash? Are you doing some kind of lunch detention? Pathetic."

What.