Don't Forget Me Please

C3: All fun and games

Louis saw me standing there and smiled at me, "Hey Clem, saved you a seat, you're between me and Vi." 'Vi, ay?' Louis proceeded to introduce me to everyone. "You know me, Vi, Marlon and Brody already. That's Ruby and Assim." he said pointing towards a girl with short red hair and a guy with slicked back black hair who was ingulfed in his book. They both said hi, and I noticed Ruby has a Southern Accent which sounded very cool. "And these are Mitch and Sophie" pointing towards two people I recognised from being in my chemistry class.

"We have chemistry class together, right?" Sophie asks.

"Yeah we do, I sit over to the side by the window." I respond.

"Well I'm sorry, if I knew you were hanging out with us at lunch today, we would've introduced ourselves sooner." Sophie apologised, with both her and Mitch smiling in my direction.

"Honestly it's fine, its nice to meet you. I mean it's nice to meet everyone." I say choking on my words. 'Everyone seems really nice so maybe coming to this school was a good thing' As soon as I finish my thought, I heard my stomach rumble and I think everyone did too. I thought what I ate for breakfast would've been enough to get me through the day but clearly not.

"Not to push but you gonna eat sug? It sounds like you need it." Ruby asks.

"I didn't bring lunch because I had a big breakfast and I thought I'd be okay throughout the day but I guess not. And it's not like I can buy anything from here because the school still hasn't sorted out my account yet." I explain.

"What would you like then, my treat." Louis offers.

"Are you sure, I will pay you back I prom-" Louis cuts me off and asks again, smiling. I look around seeing what everyone has and when I make it round to Violet on my left I notice she has chicken nuggets. "Could I get some chicken nuggets please Louis? With a bottle of Dr Pepper and lots of ketchup. I'll pay you back as soon as I possibly can."

"Of course and don't worry about it, anything for family." Louis reassures me and goes off to the counter, but before he does, he turns back "Yo Vi, looks like you two are a match made in heaven." He laughs, remembering what happened this morning in English, before heading back towards the counter for Clementine's food. Violet just sticks her middle finger up at him before going back to her nuggets, a slight smile spreading across her face. Everyone looks around in confusion before going back to their own conversations, I just drop my head into my hands for a while, until someone pokes me in the shoulder.

"Sorry about him, he's such an idiot, he always has been but he loves all of us, and that can include you if you choose to stick around." Violet says with a smile. This causes me to smile back, considering this was the first time she spoke to me outright since we met this morning.

I nod in agreement "You all seem really close and I don't wanna come in and ruin things but if you'd all let me, I'd love to stick around." I answer loud enough so only Violet can hear. She smiles and nods back, before finishing her nuggets. 'What the hell are you doing? You don't know them. Are you gonna trust them already, what about what happened before?' But I shake away those thoughts and join into one of the different conversations happening within the group and not before long Louis is back with two plates of nuggets, one for me and another one for Violet, which he uses as an apology for his earlier comments.

"Thank you." I say, breathing in the scent of the hot plate of nuggets sitting in front of me.

"Anytime, remember you're a friend so you're stuck with us whether you like it or not." Louis explains, grabbing me in a side hug with a cheesy grin on his face. I look up and see everyone smile in agreement, even Violet, even though I'm pretty sure it's towards her new plate of nuggets. 'This girl must really love chicken nuggets then, I'll try and remember that.' All I can do is smile in return before eating a nugget before they get cold. "How about a game?" Louis asks pulling out a pack of cards.

"What's the game today Lou?" Marlon asks his best friend.

"War, the oldest game around. A game played by man and beast alike. The only game there is." Louis says, clearly exaggerating. Violet just rolls her eyes.

"Sounds fun, how do we play?" I ask, having never played this game before.

"It's easy. Everyone gets a stack of cards, everyone flips one over. Highest card wins." Violet explains.

"And the winner gets to ask Clem a question." Louis finishes as I give him a confused look. "What I wanna get to know you, we all do." Everyone agrees.

"And what if I win?" I ask, wanting to know what I would get out of it.

"You get to ask us one, its only fair." Louis replies. He deals the cards out so everyone gets an even amount and we all flip one over. Turns out I won and Marlon lost.

"So Marlon, what's with that haircut?" I ask. Everyone looks at me in shock, not expecting that to be the first question to come out my mouth.

"What do you mean?" Marlon answers, slightly offended but he knew it was a joke.

Violet was quick to answer "She means it looks and probably smells like a dead cat." Everyone at the table quickly bursts into laughter.

"Whatever you say, I think I look cool." Marlon responds coolly, still slightly chuckling at what Violet said. Louis tells everyone to flip another one as it's time for round two. This time I lost and Violet won.

"So how comes you're new here, at this school?" Violet asks bluntly, slowly realising how she sounded.

"I used to live a few cities over, but something really bad happened a few years ago, causing me to move houses to here. I've been home-schooled for the last few years so believe it or not this is my first time in a school for a long time." I explained, giving as few details as possible as I really did not want to get into them. Everyone just looked at me and nodded in understanding before seemingly dropping the subject as it was time for round three. I lost again and this time Louis won. He seemed hesitant to ask but I reassured him that it was okay, not expecting that he was gonna ask what he did eventually ask.

"So you mentioned something bad happening a few years ago, what was it, what was so bad that you had to move cities?" Louis asked not realising what the weight of his words would be for me. Each word that came off his tongue was like a punch in the stomach. 'You didn't just ask what I think you asked' My hands dropped into my lap and my head fell, slowly drowning out the noise which had just formed a loud buzz. Everyone saw my discomfort and started yelling at Louis, Violet was especially loud which shocked me again, considering we hadn't spoken much, in fact I hadn't really spoken to anyone much. I felt bad for Louis for all the shouting he was receiving but I couldn't do anything, I didn't wanna move, it was like I was temporarily paralyzed.

The bell rang and I quickly grabbed all my things and ran towards History which I knew I had next with Lee. I rubbed my eyes and realised my face was dripping with tears. 'How am I gonna explain this to Lee when I go into his class looking like a mess.' I turned around and saw Louis and Violet running after me, which made me run faster, I wanted to be alone but I knew I couldn't leave school because then Lee would definitely know something was wrong so I just ran ahead and hoped they couldn't find me or that they didn't have the same lesson as me. I just needed to be alone. 'God I miss you mom and dad.' I made it to history and sat in the back corner. Lee saw something was wrong but couldn't ask what was wrong as more students started to fill the class. I looked over at the door and saw the two people I didn't wanna see, causing me to tense up. And just my luck, Lee saw the whole experience unfold before his very own eyes.