LEILA {ongoing}

6.

Midway through the next week, I decided to shift things up a bit. Tara invited me to sit with her at lunch so this is where I am on Wednesday. It's also the first time I've sat in the cafeteria.

People are in full swing for Halloween. Everywhere I turn, there's various shades of orange. The hallways have been decorated accordingly and some students have even started pulling 'scary' pranks on each other.

It's mostly boys jumping out yelling boo and girls screaming. Standard.

On the way to school I noticed the neighbourhood is starting to look like the spooky section of the party store. This is one of those times were I start comparing Australia to the US again. Front yards are littered with ghosts, goblins, zombies, fake blood, knives, axes, creepy crawlies blown up to half the size of the houses.

Go big or go home, I guess.

It's the complete opposite back home. Maybe a handful of houses decorate. Even then, it's half arsed.

Tara's group was a little shy when we first turned up, but they soon warmed up to me. I may sass people, but I'm not mean.

We were all talking about our lessons, their costumes for Halloween and how Mr. Heckles is a terrible music teacher. Everything was going well until someone decided to interrupt us.

Feeling a tap on my shoulder I look up to see Elijah towering over me. "Hey pretty girl, what you doing sitting over here?"

"Eating lunch." I thought that would be pretty self-explanatory, I smirk.

"With these losers, really?"

Did. No. He did not just diss these nice people.

Both my brows shoot up,"...Pardon?"

"Ugh, I mean. You could be sitting with me-I mean us, so...and like... you know." Elijah shyly smiles at me.

"No, I don't know Elijah. Why don't you enlighten me and these lovely people why I should be sitting with you instead of them?" Challenging him, I keep my eyes locked on his.

"Well, you usually sit with us." he starts but I see his demeanor shift, "What, we weren't good enough for you." he attempts to challenge me back.

Chuckling, without any humour, I reply, "Ah, you're going down the accusation route I see." How disappointing. "Elijah, I'm sitting here because I want to. Simple as that. Tara invited me and I accepted. I'll see you round." Dismissing him, I turn back to Tara, who can't seem to decide who to look at. Me or the stupid boy behind me. Asking her a question to bring her attention back to me, we begin where we left off.

A few minutes later, Paul, who is sitting across from me pipes up. "I can't believe you rejected Elijah. THE Elijah."

"You know you could have gone if you wanted to, right? We wouldn't have minded." Tara lets me know. Looking over the group, they are all nodding shyly.

"Why would I. He was rude to you all. No one deserves being spoken down to like that. No one. Elijah and co. can go jump if that's how they treat people...Except Dani. I like Dani."

"Thank you." A little mouse voice responds. Leaning forward to see past Tara, a small girl is smiling gently with her head down, peeking at me through her whispy fringe. I give her a genuine smile in return. This is the first time she's spoken all lunch.

"So what do you guys do for fun around here." That changes the mood ten fold. The boys start an animated discussion about their latest feats in their online roll play game. Tara invites me to play tennis with her one time and I offer to chill at the Library with mouse soon. Mouse's name is actually, Sally. She's so cute, I just want to wrap her up and protect her from the world.