Love In Destin ✔

06 - sunroof

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𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒂

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"SHAKE IT UP, KELLY!" a guy yells to a huge girl, shaking her butt in front of a phone.

"Just ignore them," Pam renders, adjusting the bangs that prick her golden brown eyes. They look like they are gleaming in the dim sunlight.

Thankfully, the rain had stopped before lunchtime.

Pam and I had a quick discussion on our way to the picnic tables, and I found her intriguing because she asked the most random questions.

She pulls up her red leather skirt that is loose around her waist. "Michie baby!" she calls, extending her arms to someone.

A dark-haired girl with a pixie haircut and black lipstick is staring at the girl in front of her before turning to Pam. Pam is making all kinds of funny faces at her, causing the girl to purse her lips, looking unamused. She contorts her hands in all sorts of movements, which leads me to conclude that she's using sign language.

Whatever she signed results in Pam's loud and tumultuous laughter.

Michie arranges the choker around her neck while glaring at Pam with her almond-shaped dark brown eyes.

"Can I bring in a newbie?" Pam announces.

The girl in front of Michie signs to her, and Michie signs back before shrugging at Pam and continuing with the sketches in her drawing book. She looks back up quickly to give me a wave, which I return, and then she is back to sketching.

"I think it would be lovely," the girl sitting opposite Michie turns with a smile.

She has smooth, tanned skin, invaded by freckles on her neck and shoulders. The blue flower crown on her head bedecks her curly light brown hair with blonde highlights peeking through. It falls to her white top, tucked adroitly behind blue flower-printed pants. She claps her hands together, signing at Michie. 

Michie rolls her eyes at her, signing with her fingers in frustration at the girl. She goes back to her little world of sketches and whatnot.

"What did she say?" I ask.

The girl smiles at me again, "She says, 'I said I don't know. Ask Debra about it.'"

"Maya, that's Michelle," Pam points to the dark-haired girl, "but everybody calls her Miche. Miche is deaf, and Dawn is the only person who knows sign language." She points to the curly-haired girl. "I can only understand it, but I'm learning to well...sign,"

"Hi, Maya." Dawn waves. She pats the spot next to her. "You can come and sit next to me."

"I'm going to get lunch," says Pam, walking away from our table.

"Oh, I also have to go get lunch,"

"You can have some of what I brought," She flips the lunch box lid open. There are grapes, strawberries, crackers, and what looks like oatmeal cookies.

"I find cafeteria food disgusting," she admits, scrunching her face in disgust as I take my place beside her. I opt for the strawberries, crackers, and oatmeal cookies.

We plunge into an immediate conversation. I never thought I would make friends this fast. I didn't make friends this easily during my first day at Oak Ridge High.

I had been two weeks late for Freshman year, so when I arrived, everyone already knew each other. It was hard for me to befriend anyone. The only way I became friends with Jada and Cassie was when Cassie was being bullied by a group of boys during gym class. I had noticed that the boys would target Cassie when only Jada wasn't around; as you can guess, she was not there at that moment. No one else was doing anything about it, and I knew if I let the bystander effect take hold of me, I would always regret that moment, so I went to her aid. I almost got punched in the face by one of the guys when Jada appeared with a baseball bat, threatening to beat them to a pulp. And that's how we became friends.