Daydreaming at Night

Chapter 6 - Making allies in Prison

Photography was even more boring than Shakespeare. The teacher rolled around in a wheelchair and was too old to hear, let alone capture photos. On Google Classroom she assigned us to find a suitable camera fit for photographing weddings. It has to have enough storage to last the whole night she emphasized before rolling back to her desk. I got the gist that nothing's ever on paper for photography so safe to say that is the easiest elective I got placed in.

I found Talia again talking to the same ginger girl she left me for previously.

"Oh Mari, this is my friend Scout! She's in class with us first block."

"Hi," I sheepishly smile.

Scout grins big and throws herself on me. Kind of like Mom this morning, but more powerful. "Hi Amari. I saw you sitting near that quiet Korean kid."

Talia slaps her arm. "Scout, don't profile Baek-hyun. It's racist."

Scout rubs the polyester sleeve of her jacket where Talia's slap made contact. Her pink lips pouting in hurt. "It's not racist if I'm simply describing somebody's physical description." Scout meets eyes with me and continues. "Are you Indian Amari?"

"I-" I stumble over my words.

"Scout, okay that's a rude assumption to ask. You shouldn't just expect people to give them their ancestry results," Talia scolds.

"No, it's okay," I tread carefully over my words. "My mom's black and my dad's white."

Scout's eyes light up. "Figures, you give off such an exotic vibe."

Okay that earned a chuckle out of me. "Exotic? Never heard of that one before."

Talia grabs my hand and holds it in her soft ones. "Mari, wanna join me and Scout for lunch?"

Well I was gonna plan on ordering an Uber but school lunch could suffice with these girls.

~~~~~

"We have two dining halls at Donovan," Talia explains. "This one is the official canteen, whereas the other one is what we call the Mess Hall."

"Mess Hall?"

"Yeah," Scout talks over Talia. Lunch is broken down into two hours. The first hour gets the mess hall and the second gets the canteen. To be honest it's just a matter of luck which one you end up in."

Talia nods agreeably and orders a small portion of lamb stew and water. "The Mess Hall is, well, messy. It used to also be considered a canteen, but it's like the school made all the delinquents dine there together."

"Good thing I have second hour lunch then," I breathe out.

"Here!" Scout energetically points to something on the poultry menu. "You should try the duck and mashed potatoes. That's what I'm getting."

"Oh I didn't bring my wa-"

Scout puts her hand to my face. "On me Mari."

Eating with Scout and Talia made me realize that for the first in forever I have friends I can rely on to help navigate me through this new and foreign part of my life.