Redwood High 2

Chapter 5

"Who does that Marie Song think she is? I've never even heard of her last year. I know the schools big but if she's popular enough to win this election then she's obviously someone. Like us." Carol was ranting even two weeks after voting. I was upset for a while but I'm not going to waste time being glum all school year long.

"I love being popular," sighed Riley.

We kind of earned a popularity status a couple of months ago when Karen went crazy on us after Carol accidently leaked the photos she had of Karen and Mr. Flores. She fell off the ladders and broke her leg. Last I heard of her she was sent to Switzerland to live with her grandma. But after the fight, we earned popularity like we were on the Bad Girls Club. It was crazy.

Since then, people knew who we were. It was unnerving because I don't like that word. It's a word that the only way you can associate it with is bragging. And I don't want to be known for fighting. I want people to know that I'm kind and smart and not just the new girl with the dead parents. Another factor was that Karen blurted that my parents died. Murdered. Well, everyone else thinks that they were murdered. It's a good thing that the truth wasn't revealed fully or else who knows what else Karen would've spread.

"People give me money now for food when I ask. Before if I asked for money, I would get packets of ketchup. I love myself," said Carol.

Halloween was a couple of weeks away and we were thinking about doing something else besides going to the carnival. But the lack of getting a ride was an issue. We went to the carnival last year because Sebastian offered us a ride. Back when he was a gentleman. Well, he always has been a gentleman it's just complicated.

I hate boys.

We were sitting in our usual spot when we saw the new girl walking around.

"Who's that?" I asked.

Giselle looked towards the girl. "Oh that's Zoe. She came in during first period when I was a student aid. "

She was kind of tall with black hair cascading down her back. She reminded me of some porcelain doll. She had on Doc martens and a black skirt. She had on a white button up and wore no makeup. She went to the table to sit by herself.

"Let's have her sit next to us. She's alone," I said.

Carol craned her neck to look at her and gasped.

"I'm the beautiful one in this group. If she comes, I'll have competition. That can't happen or else I'll get gray hair."

I stopped listening and walked over to Zoe. She pulled out a sandwich in a Ziploc and began unwrapping it when I reached her table.

"Hi, my name is Grace. Do you want to come sit with me and my friends?" I asked.

She looked up and looked confused. "Oh, hi. I'm Zoe Everly."

"So you want to come sit with us?"

Oh-sure. Yeah that'd be cool."

I brought her back and she got along great with our group. She's a little awkward but she quickly became our friends.

"True friendship is adding people on Snapchat," said Carol as we walked to 8th period. Algebra 2. I cringe.

"What's your 8th period?" I asked Zoe.

"I have math. Ms. Hellgenus."

"Oh, we do too."

"Awesome."

***

"You guys never cooperate! All I'm asking for is who knows how to graph the parabola?" Yelled Ms. Hellgenus.

"Carol you aren't even doing it right your doing the Pythagorean theorem," I told her.

"Aw crap. How did that even happen?"

"Honestly, I don't know how you get triangles out of graphing."

"Hey!" Someone whispered behind us. We turned and saw Austin. He was the tall scrawny type who had light brown eyes. He was an okay person. On Carol's scale he's about a McOkay. Not a McHottie but not a McNottie.

He was on Zoe's side so he spoke to her.

"Do you understand this?" He asked.

Zoe shook her head. "No. I keep on getting the negative numbers."

He looked at her sheet. "That's because you aren't multiplying the exponents."

He began to show her how to do them while Ms. Hellgenus continued to get anxiety on her computer, not even paying attention to us anymore.

"What a great class," I mumbled.