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Chapter 6: Breaking Out Of The Shell

I got an early start to Jackie's office just so I wouldn't run into Megan or Ethan. I got ready to start on a stack of papers, when the office door opened revealing a sad looking Ethan and Megan right next to him. He looked at me with sad, apologetic smile. It almost broke my heart to see him like this. "Ethan invited me to help. I hope you don't mind." She smiled sickly at me. Of course I minded but, I'm just gonna keep lying to her. "No, I don't mind at all. I was just about to finish this stack and head off to class. I'll be out of your hair before you know it." I smiled at them. Ethan's eyes grew  wide and they looked as if they are begging me to stay. "But, Mrs.Matthews wanted me to clean out some of her file cabinets, so I had to stay a little-little bit longer." I glanced over at Ethan, who flashed a smile at me. Megan looked at me once again as if I had a disease and rolled her eyes. I crouched down near Ethan and picked up a couple of papers and placed them in their boxes. We worked in total silence until Jackie came in the room. " Hi there, Ethan and Harley Quinn." She smiled at us and wiped it off when she saw Megan. "Hello Ms. Snow. "Hi, Mrs. Matthews, I hope you don't mind me being here. Ethan invited me." Please say you mind. Please say you mind.

"Well, there is a policy that states that I have to ask you to be in here. Unfortunately, I didn't ask for your assistance, so I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." Never have I been elated to hear Jacqueline's high pitched voice until now. I tried to cover up the smile that was forming on my face, but I think Megan saw it. She scowled at me and Jackie and stormed out of the room. Jackie looked at me and Ethan and smiled. "How's the organizing coming along?" "Just fine, we're almost done." Ethan said. "Oh, no. I was getting used to you guys being in here. Alone... with no guidance whatsoever." Jackie smiled. I shook my head and Ethan laughed. "Well, I have some news for you guys. There are 3 new students here, getting enrolled right now and guess, what Quinn." She smiled at me, her pearly whites shining from the sunlight coming from outside. "What?" "They're in all of your classes!" She squealed. "Oh, well that's nice." I said flatly. "Well, I was thinking, maybe you can befriend these ones." "That's nice of you, Jackie, but I'm fine being by myself." Ethan looked at me, confusion all over his face. "Fine," Jackie sighed. "I tried. I have to go and finish up the paper work." Sadness took over her eyes and I felt bad for saying what I said. "I'll try, but if they dump me like the others, I'm coming after you, Jack." Jackie turned around and hugged me tightly. "They won't dump you. I know they won't." She said to me before nearly skipping out of the office and closing the door. Ethan looked over at me. "What?" I asked him. "Why don't you want friends?" he asked me and I stopped putting the papers inside the box.

"It's not that I don't want friends," I started. "Then what is it?" He pushed. "Jackie, Mrs. Matthews, always tells me when we get new students so I can befriend them. But it never works." I said, looking at one of the papers and gently placing them inside the box. "Why doesn't it work?" Ethan asked me, putting in a sheet of paper in the box just like I had. " Well, they either think I'm too weird and hang out with another crowd, or they're recruited by your deranged girlfriend." I realized what I just said and covered my mouth. "I'm sorry about the last part." I said in a hushed voice and continue putting the papers in the box. Ethan laughed. "It's okay, not many people are her biggest fans. Not even her "friends" like her." My eyes widened a little bit. "What about you?" I ask quietly. "What do you mean?" Ethan asks. "Do you like Megan?" I asked, my head down looking at a paper. "There are times where I find myself wondering if I do. And then there are times where I see the real her, the part of her that I'm the only one to see." His voice dropped. Then this is where I realized that I'll never have a chance with him. Ethan grabbed the last sheet of paper and places it in the 11th grade box.

"We're done." Ethan said, standing up. "Yep, we're done." I said sadly as Ethan helped me up. We stood there in total silence looking around the room. "Well, I'm gonna go see those girls that I'm gonna be friends with." I half smiled and walked out of the room. I saw three girls sitting in chairs in the front office. An older woman, a little bit older than Maddie, smiled at me. "Hi, you must be Harley Quinn-James. Mrs. Matthews said you'd be out shortly. " She stretched a hand out to me and Jackie came into the office from the records room. " Harley, this is Brenda Powell, and these are her children, Autumn Powell, and Carolyn and Dana Maddox." Jackie gestured a hand in the girls direction and they all smiled at me. I returned it and walked towards them. "Um, I guess I will be showing you guys around the school, since you coincidently-" I turned towards a guilty looking Jacquline. "Have my classes." They nod their heads and grab their bags. "Have a good day girls, I'll pick you up when school is over." Mrs.Powell hugs the girls one by one and we all leave. Jackie calls me back for a second and I ask the girls to wait. "For lunch, I want you to bring them in here, so you all can talk. To, you know, get to know each other." I shake my head and I take the girls to our second period, since we missed the first one. I just wanted lunch to come so I can get over with the non-sense Jackie was trying to make me do.

***

Lunch time was finally here. The girls and I were excused early because Jackie called the teacher and told her to let us out. We go to the front office and Maddie is standing by the door. "Jack wants you to take them to get their lunches right now and come back to the lounge in the back." She says to me, holding the door open. We all make a U-turn and walk into the cafeteria. We get in the line and I see Nick drinking soup from one of the china bowls we have at home. "Nicky, why aren't you using a spoon?" I ask him in my whiny voice. "Because the metal against my teeth hurts like hell and what did I tell you about calling me 'Nicky' in public?" I roll my eyes at his comment. "Wait, what are you doing in the cafeteria during my lunch hour? You're in 12th grade. This is 11th." He questions before bringing the bowl up to his mouth. "Jackie wanted me to befriend these girls, speaking of whom, I need to go back to them. Am I driving you home today?" Nick nods his head and I ruffle up his hair before running back over to the girls. "Who was that?" Carolyn asks me. "That was my brother Nicholas." I say, grabbing a box of chicken salad.

We went silent again as we walked back to the office. Jackie greets us with a warm smile. "Okay guys, you're going to be eating in here today and whatever other day you feel like it for the next 3 weeks. You can come by yourselves or with a friend IF you give me a heads up in the morning. I arranged it for you guys today so you can get to know Harley. She's a regular here and I wanted you to know someone who could show you the ropes." Jackie opens the door to the lounge and we all go in and pick a seat on the recliners.

"Okay, now before I leave, here's your convo starter: where did you guys move from? Byeee." Jack closes the door and I think I hear it being locked. Jesus, she really wants me to make friends. I play along with it. "So, where did you guys move from?" I ask. "New York. Our mom got a job offer here that she couldn't refuse and, we didn't mind the idea of moving." Autumn says.

It goes quiet again and Dana speaks up with a quiet voice, " Are you wondering why we have different last names?" I shake my head and the other girls give her a look as if she weren't supposed to say anything. "A little bit, but it's none of my business, so I didn't worry about it." All of the girls exchange looks and Autumn opens her mouth.

"Dana and Carolyn are adopted. My mom knew their mom when they were younger."

"Then our mom died and we were placed in foster home for a few days." Dana says. "My mom wrote in her will, just in case anything were to happen to her, that she wanted us to be under Brenda's care. She acts like our real mother, so we call her mom." Carolyn states.

I take a bite of my salad. "I am sorry for you loss." I say in a quiet voice. They all smile at me. "It happened a long time ago, we've learned to put it behind us." Dana smiles at me. I smile back at her and we continue getting to know each other and eat. We were almost devestated when we learned that class was about to start. I forgot what having friends, well, what having people to talk to felt like. Maybe befriending people isn't so bad after all.