Everything up

Five: Reaching out

I was alone and friendless.  Well, I had one friend, but we never hung out at school.  Probably just embarrassed to interact with me.  I needed another friend. One to hang out with at school.  Or else I would be eating lunch in the bathroom forever.  How did I get into all this drama. 

Shaina threw out insults and others were starting to catch on.  They were particularly fond of malaria Mallory. 

Thank god for art class.  My teacher, Mrs. Callisoc seemed extra nice to me.  She knew what was going on.  But she didn't do much about it.  That's the problem.  However, Mrs. C, as we call her, lets us listen to music, saying it helps us escape the world and get immersed in our art; she looked right at me while saying this.  That is what I did.  Getting fully immersed in my artwork with my music blocking out sounds from the world.  I love art. 

"Hey, Mallory," Viviana, a girl who sits at my art table said.  Viviana was part of Marci's crew, but she got really uncomfortable when they picked on me.  The past week, whenever they started dishing out the hate comments, she walked away.  It was her own way of doing an act of resistance, which didn't seem easy when you were under the influence of the evil dictator Marcie. 
During art, she's been reaching out to me.  I guess it was nice, but it seemed out of pity.  I don't need a pity pal, I already feel pathetic.  Besides, I'm not good at making friends, especially after what happened with my last close friend.

"Uh hey," I said. There was awkward silence for a bit.

During that time, I got a full look at her.  Short, brown spiky hair with bright sky blue eyes, not a hint of grey.  Little side bangs framed her heart shaped face and her petit nose.  She wore a loose
t-shirt and black leggings that looked comfortable and stylish on her.  Her skin was on the tanner side, and she had little white scratches all over her arms.  Looking away embarrassed, I realized I'd been staring too long.

"I'm sorry that Marci and Shaina and ...the others are giving you a hard time. And... you did nothing wrong. I feel so bad...I'm sorry," she looked serious and enlightened once she got that all out.

"Thanks. That's nice to hear. And it's nice that someone in this school has a sole," I say giving a half smile with no humor.

"Marci may seem mean, but she's actually a nice person, when she's not personally attacking someone," she said.

"I know. Marci and I were friends. She was always trying make something fun, or humorous, she liked attention. But...we're obviously not friends anymore," I spoke, looking at the floor. Marci was fun, but I don't know how much she's changed. Whenever we talk, she's always tossing around insults at me, like she's aiming bullets at a target.

While we were talking, Alexa came over  and knocked over my colored pencils.  They spilled to the floor and I wanted to cry.  I had enough with this shit. 

"Why did you do that?!" Viviana said loudly so Mrs. Callisoc would catch the hint she was throwing to her.  Alexa noticed this as I did. 

"Oops, sorry.  It's was an accident," she started to walk away. 

"You and I know darn well that was not an accident," Viviana spoke crossly.

"Whatever, Viviana," Alexa said.  As she walked away, she kicked one of my red colored pencils away, under the next table over. 

"I'm sorry this stuff happens to you.  It shouldn't," she said angrily.

"But you stuck up for me...Thank you," I said.  I think I had an ally in this war.

Later that day, Viviana offered for me to hang out at her place.

Her house was nice, stylish, like a magazine picture, but just messy enough to be comfy.

"So, what do you want to do?" She said. Possibly the most challenging question when you are with a friend.

"We could play soccer, volleyball, softball, hockey, or we could news around and take pictures, bake something...?" Viviana offered.

"Do you like pie?" I asked.

Viv and I both liked pie, but man, did we suck at making it. At least there weren't any fires.

"Do you have pre-made pie crust?" I asked.

"No, but we could make it from scratch," Viv pulled out her phone and found a recipe.

"What kind of pie should we make?" I said.

"Rhubarb," Viv answered immediately.

"Do you have rhubarb?"

"No we do not," Viv said.

"Apple pie?"

"Apple pie."

The next few minutes, we skinned and cored apples, putting the seeds in a tin for planting.

"Skinning apples is calming, but I can't wait until I'm done with it," Viv said. I laughed in agreement.

"You get me," I smiled, coring another apple.

"Okay, crust time!" Viv said.

"We need to mix eggs, flour, and butter and then add sugar. Mix until dough-like texture," I read off the recipe on Viv's phone. As we did that, we got flour, rather runny dough, and sugar all over the floors. We didn't even open up the sugar. Oh crap, I read over the directions again and realized we needed to put sugar into the dough, and we put an extra egg in there. Naturally, we just added more flour, sugar, and butter until the crust was "a dough-like texture." We basically winged it all.

The ending result was a messy kitchen, an unhappy mother, and a pie that was falling apart faster than putting a sugar cube in hot water. So we had a lot of cleaning to do.

The pie was good though, we ate it in a bowl with ice cream. It wasn't such a fail after all.

"Oh, the floors are so clean now!" Viv's mother said, admiring my fantastic sweeping abilities (Viv cleaned the countertops and I got the floors). "You can have Mallory over any time."

"This pie wasn't so bad, except the texture. But it's still good with ice cream so I'd call it a win," I said.

"We make a good team. And you, my friend, are a good sweeper," Viv grinned.

"Why thank you," I brushed my hair back dramatically and puffed out my chest. Viv laughed and so did I. We were both dorks, and we were proud.