Sparkly

Friendly

"Want to eat lunch together?" a sociable girl asked as they waited in the lunch line.

Leilah gave her a weird look. This girl had never noticed Leilah's existence before, why now?

"Sure I guess." Leilah said, not wanting to be rude.

She'd actually been planning to disappear for a bit during lunch, go find somewhere more interesting to eat with Diamond's powers.

Penny had actually been babysitting her like she was supposed to since the injury, but she was on the phone with her boyfriend the whole time and didn't give Leilah anything to do. It was unbelievably boring.

Since it had occurred to her, Leilah just wanted to use her powers to explore. She was worried that she'd lose the chance to for some reason.

The girl followed Leilah out of the cafeteria to the roof, where Leilah usually ate. She wasn't alone in that, there were a handful of other students that preferred to eat on the roof.

"So uh, what's your name? I'm Leilah." Leilah said, reining in her urge to ask the girl why she'd chosen to eat with Leilah today.

Being blunt like that had driven her classmates away from her before. But when she'd tried not to say anything they said she was boring.

Leilah really wanted friends. If this girl was giving her a chance to try again she'd take it.

"I'm Milana, but my friends call me Mi." the girl said, smiling at Leilah.

Leilah tried to work out if that meant she should call her Mi, or if that would be presumptuous and Milana had just told her that to indicate a nickname that could happen later in their relationship, or if maybe Milana was making it clear that they weren't friends, or mocking her...

"Mm." Leilah said, not sure what to say.

For the next few minutes they ate in silence.

"So... what do you like to do?" Milana asked.

Leilah swallowed her mouthful of food, this one feeling even more like a lump in her throat than the last.

"Well I like to play games and stuff." she said.

"Like board games?" Milana asked.

"No like pretend games." Leilah said, remembering a time when a lot of the kids around her had played those kind of games.

"Oh." Milana said.

Her tone was off, as if what Leilah had said was weird.

Leilah took another bite of rice, almost unable to swallow it. Her mouth was dry.

"Like... the kind of pretend games children play?" Milana asked.

"...Yes?" Leilah said.

Was there something wrong with this girl? Leilah was beginning to think she didn't want to be Milana's friend.

Milana walked with her to class without saying another word.

When they got out of school Milana sat with her in the bus. Leilah wondered if everything was fine and they were still friends despite the weird moment earlier. Sitting with this girl she didn't know in silence felt kind of uncomfortable.

Through the whole ride, Leilah tried to think of something to say, but she couldn't and the silence sat with them like another person squeezed on the seat.

"See you later?" Leilah asked.

"See you later!" Milana said, her voice sounding pinched.

Penny was standing in front of the house and she waved Leilah in.