Girl, New

Chapter 6 - Homebound

MABEL

First day at Burmenton? Check! 

I let out a sigh of relief as I walked outside the well established school. My goal was to find the front grass area to wait for my dad. It was still a little tricky maneuvering around the majestic school. Finding a nice bench to sit on, I pulled out my phone. As usual, there were no messages. I didn't want to sit on the bench with nothing to do so I unlocked my phone and launched Tumblr. Luckily for me, no one was near which meant I could peruse my dash as normal.

"O-m-geeee!" I heard a squeal from behind me, and saw a girl with strappy sandals came hurtling towards my bench. A few of her friends lingered behind her whispering and gawking, hopefully, at Jessica. I didn't want to draw attention to myself and Jessica's bubbly stamina wasn't helping.

"Oh... Jessica, hi." I tried my best to do a nice smile but it just came out as awkward and uneasy.

"So Mabieee how was your first day?!" She was still chewing fruity gum and I could still smell it from where I was sitting. 

What kind of a nickname is "Mabie"  it sounds like a pet name...

"So," the familiar sound of gum chewing fill my ears, much to my dismay. "have you spotted any cute senior boys?" She took a seat right next to me her perfectly plucked eyebrows were raised as if excited to hear my answer.

"Um, no... I didn't..." I stammered, rarely had I held conversations with kids my own age; and when I did it wasn't about boys. Jessica wasn't so bad, but I just couldn't tolerate girls who obsessed over boys their entire high school career. Hoping this conversation would end, I sat quietly waiting for Jessica to say something.

"Oh that's too bad! I heard Aden was in your Calc class." she gave me a wink and I tried to think if I had seen him. However, her face was very animated and the gum chewing distracted me from my thoughts. The group of girls had broken up and now only two of Jessica's friends remained, they had finally made their way to the bench due to their relaxed cool-girl gait.

"Aden? As in Aden Corley?" A girl with strawberry blonde curls looked up from her iPhone with huge green eyes she looked interested yet fearful. Her head was cocked to the side in a curious manner.

"Yeah and oh what's his name? The one the got really hot over the summer?" Jessica looked to the berry blonde and brunette next to her.

"Oh! I know who you're talking about! 'zero'?" The blond had said the last part in a hushed voice as if to preserve whoever 'zero' was. This was obviously a well established code name known. As per usual I had no idea of this inside information.

"Yes him! O-m-geee! Look he's walking out of school! He totally made old film cameras a trend. And look how tan he is ugh..." I could see Jessica swoon from the corner of my eye her face had become glazed over from the sight of 'zero', I had resorted back to my phone in between the conversation. Looking up I didn't expect to see Nat, 'zero' if you will, walking out of school, a small but brightly colored skateboard tucked under his arm and a old camera hanging from his neck. I thought Nat was nice looking but not swoon worthy. He seemed too nice for popular girls gathered around my bench.

"He is major eye candy now, I wouldn't mind adding him to my list..." The strawberry blond bit her lip and tried waving at Nat, he was too far away to see her. Embarrassed, she acted like she was examining her nails, pulling our a nail file to hide her flushed cheeks.

"Oh. My god. Do you remember in 8th grade pants incident?" she said, still filing her nails. Jessica, the brunette, and herself all shrieked with laughter, erupting from their glossy lips, I was afraid Jessica would choke on her gum from laughing so hard. I felt awkward, like a misplaced prop on a movie set. I didn't belong and I wasn't contributing to anything. Just then I saw my dad's car pull up near the school. Thank goodness... My mind thought. Standing up I was more than ready to bid goodbye to my acquaintances.