Just Have Faith

Chapter Thirteen

"Hey, Layla," Abbie said as I walked into school the next day.

It was weird for me, I went in a different entrance because, after a lot of convincing, my parents had agreed to let me use my mom's car. They're just going to drive together this morning. I needed a way to get home after the swim meet that was after school today.

"Hey," I said while looking down at my feet, not wanting to carry on the conversation any longer.

"Listen I'm sorry about yesterday. Amiya and I decided that we'd go for pizza--"

"Layla, the team and I and a bunch of other people are going to The Smoothie Shack after the swim meet tonight. You can come if you want," Abbie got cut off as Nick ran up and said this to me.

"Sure, yeah sounds good," I told him.

"Okay, I'll see you in first period," he said. Then, he jogged down the hallway to meet his friends.

"Sorry Abbie," I began, "what were you saying?"

"Just that Amiya and I decided that we'd go to the pizza place after the swim meet. But, since you're going with Nick, I guess it'll just be me and Amiya."

"Oh, no Abbie, I can tell Nick I can't--"

"It's fine, Layla. After all, you live by the rule guys before fries, don't you?"

"No, I don't! I live by fries before guys, not the other way around!" I took a deep breath to calm myself. "How about this, I go with Nick for about forty-five minutes and then I'll go to the pizza place with you and Amiya for the rest of the night?"

"Okay, that'll work," Abbie said. Then, she walked with me to my locker and we talked about random high school things like who's dating who, who might get suspended, who might get cut from the cheer squad, things like that.

I was stupid to think that this so called fight from yesterday would last. And, I'm glad that Abbie and I are back to normal.

***

"Lay?" I turned around as I heard Nick call me by my nickname.

"Hmm?" I asked.

"I- If no one's told you today, well, you look beautiful."

I felt my cheeks heat up. But, the compliment wasn't true at all. How could he think that I was beautiful when basically everyone else in this entire school thought I was ugly?

"Th- Thanks, but I'm not beautiful, if you knew what I hid from the world, you'd understand."

Why did I have to say that? Now he's going to go about questioning me!

"You are beautiful, stop degrading yourself, Lay. And, what did you mean when you said what you hid from the world?"

"N- Nothing. J- Just forget I said anything," I stuttered.

"Okay," he said as more of a question than an answer as he raised an eyebrow in a puzzled expression.

Then, Mrs. Shultz walked into the classroom, putting an end to our conversation.

Today, we had an easy class. Today was every student's dream, it didn't matter if you were a kindergartner or a senior in high school, these were your favorite classes.

Mrs. Shultz was playing a science movie. She said that it covered everything that we'll be learning in this next unit, so she wanted to show it to us because then we'll start to know the vocabulary and basic concepts. We'll know the basic concepts and vocabulary if we pay attention, that is. Which most people in this class won't.