The Alpha's Kitten // discontinued

| The First Encounter |

Allison Braidford
Monday, November 16th

I pushed the rock-hard chicken nuggets back and forth on the black styrofoam tray. The stench from the overflowing garbage can that stood less than two yards away from me up my nose, forcing out what little hunger I still had. People stared at me left and right, probably murmuring about how much of a loser I was for sitting alone or how much of a loser I was for trusting a boy who ended up cheating in me with my best friend.

I wanted to cry, I really did. It seemed as though my world was collapsing onto me. Andrea and Dylan sat with the popular cheerleaders and football players. Dylan's arm was draped lazily over Andrea's shoulders, while still making flirty eyes at Chelsea who sat across from him. All of my other friends were the friends of Amber and Andrea. I didn't have to worry about making new friends because I always had Amber and Andrea. So with the two of them basically out of my life, I was a loser.

Andrea occasionally shot me apologetic glances, but now that I think of it, they are really just masked empty stares that are made to seem thoughtful. She is dead to me.

My mom always told me that even in the worst situations, you can always make it worse by not being confident. But as hard as I tried, I couldn't bring myself to hold my head up or even make eye contact with anyone. It was me against the world and the world was winning.

"Hey, mind if we sit with you?" I look up to see a friendly-looking brunette and and a less-friendly looking redhead.

"Sure, I'm not expecting anyone," I drop my backpack on the ground to make room for them to sit.

They slide into the seats and study me intensely. "You're the girl who just got cheated on by the quarterback, right?" The redhead asks, bluntly.

The brunette roughly elbows her, "You can't just ask that, Aspyn, it's really rude." She turns to me, "I'm sorry about that. I'm Aubrey and this is Aspyn."

I can never escape the A's, can I?...

"I'm Ally. And yeah, I broke up with Dylan. But don't feel obligated to feel bad for me, he was an ass." That managed to make both of them laugh a little bit.

"Well, we just thought you looked really sad, sitting here alone. So we thought we should keep you company and maybe get to know you." Aubrey says.

"She wanted to come over here, not me. But Aubrey is the only one who can put up with me, so I had to come," Aspyn clarifies. I don't know why, but I like her style.

"Thank you, I appreciate it. It really sucks being looked down upon by the rest of the school because of something that wasn't even your fault," I confess.

"We know the feeling. Most people consider us unapproachable nerds and stereotype us to be snooty and bland, like a bran muffin," Aspyn saltily says.

"But we're used to it, so it doesn't bother us anymore. Anyway, enough about us, what sports do you play?" Aubrey changes the dreary subject to something a bit more happy.

"Well, I play volleyball but I sometimes play tennis with my parents. I'm on the school volleyball team," I explain.

"That's cool. I've always wanted to play volleyball, but I suck at it. Aspyn once sprained her wrist from hitting the ball at a weird angle. Never again," Aubrey and I laugh at Aspyn's embarrassed expression.