Everything up

One: Pulled away

"Mals, it would be perfect," Shaina pleaded. 

"No! It'd be nice... No! Sorry. I don't have time for relationships, they just get in the way.  Plus, middle school relationships are a joke.  They are just for attention.  I'm not doing it, Shay," I argue.

"Your stubborn as a mule. I had to deal with enough of those in my old farm," Shaina rolls her eyes.

"What's wrong with being stubborn?" I sassily put my hands on my hips.

She starts to say something, but another girl, Marci, trotted up to us. 

Marcie planned an intricate get up for the first week of school.  It was day four, and her outfit consisted of a green and white striped t-shirt and jean shorts, with gold bangles and small stud earrings.  Weaved flip flops brained gold, stood proudly on her feet.  The pieces of Marcie's black hair that would normally frame her face were pulled back and clipped at the back of her head, but the rest of her hair was curled and fell down to her shoulders.  She had a full face of makeup on.  Over the summer she acquired a deeper beach bum tan, and grew a little taller, not quiet at five feet four inches, which I only knew because I was five feet and six inches, which is what the doctor said at the back to school yearly physical. 

"Hey Shay, want to sit with us?" Marci completely ignores me. She leans in casually toward Shaina.

"If you ignore it, it will go away," she points toward me.

Uhg, you have one stupid fight with her 3 years ago and Marci suddenly hates you for life. She used to be so nice, until that stupid fight. Honestly, she needs to get over it.

"You can't do this," Shaina says with a big sigh. "I'm not going to do this, she's my friend okay?"

Marci rolls her eyes, and goes to the table. All the popular kids sit there, always messing around. One time, Andrew Macallueu and Jason Ritter flung several volleys of peas at Ms. Jadon the lunch aid- who we nicknamed the grinch. They also played a full-out game of basketball with a container of milk; that they ended up spilling on Georden Wheeler's math homework, and she threw mild tantrum. Everyone wanted to be at the table. That table meant acceptance. Honestly, I didn't want to sit at that table. My OCD would spin long out of control when I was around and they did something stupid, which was all the time. If I sat by them every day, I think I might physically explode.

The problem was, Shaina wanted acceptance. Marci dangled it ever so carefully over Shaina, so Shaina would follow her like an adoring puppy. It was like that toy at the store you always wanted when you were a kid. Your mother would always say, "next time" or "maybe you shouldn't have been mean to your brother."  The second one was Shaina's case; oh, you want acceptance, maybe you should've dumped your loser friend like I told you. Seriously, I'm sure Marci has mapped out a plan to destroy my life. Marci comes back, hands on hips and sighs all dramatic.

"Shay, are you coming or not?!" She begins to walk away. Shaina eyes me pleadingly, and I give her the okay. Excitedly, she trots over and links arms with Marci, who whispers into her ear.  I observe carefully from my usual table, 2 tables away.  Andrew walks over to Marci and kisses her on the cheek (gross!) Jason follows close behind, he looks at Shaina, and scanned the room, stopping at me, flashing a peace sign.  In his hop-skip sort of walk, Jason makes his way to Shaina.  He says something I can't make out.  Andrew puts his hand on Jason's shoulder and says somethings with an "I got this"  attitude.  With a loud stomp, Andrew clears his throat, soon everyone is looking up. 

"Thank you.  Now, my buddy Jason here-" he gave Jason a hard clap- "has something to say."

"Shaina, uh, your cool and stuff.  Uh, can we go out?" His voice got higher throughout that sentence.