Cool Kids Don't Dance

Thirteen

Louise let her fingers trace across the rows of beaten down lockers as she strode beside them. 

The kids who swarmed around her and throughout all of the hallways, filling every empty space, where mammoth.

Double the size of small little Lou.

It was intimidating, but the past week had shown Louise what she was really capable of. She could take care of herself, and she could carry on without Anna.

Every time she was alone, she felt insignificant, but since Anna's departure she had been learning how to make it. 

This had been the longest the two had ever been separated, and Louise was just now starting to live with the fact, the solemn, depressing fact that Anna might not come home.

The thought still gave Louise shivers, it still worried her to her core. But there was hope, hope that if that may be the case, that Louise would live. 

And, not to be forgotten was Jackson. Even though they barely talked, she wouldn't be alone.

Being on her own, her complete lonesome was one of her biggest fears, right next to confrontation.

Louise's fingers hitched on a locker marked E309. She then slung her teal corduroy bag from her freckled shoulder and pulled out her schedule. Down below the grid of classes she read "Locker Number: E903"

Louise shoved the wrinkled paper back into her bag before pulling it back onto her shoulders and heaving a sigh that rocked her chest.

A Large hand with deft fingers then clutched at her shoulder, and spun her around to face the source of the hand.

"Hey, I hadn't heard from you since your--" The boy who faced her searched for a word other than "attack." Other than "problem." Those were both words that triggered his mother.

"Visit." Louise completed, leaning up against the lockers behind her.

"Yeah, visit." Aidan reached up and scratched the back of his neck nervously as his eyes flickered through the now emptying halls. Louise marveled at the way his arm flexed and rippled with the movement, well as much as his white-tee would allow. The silence that enveloped them was full of tension, yet, it was comfortable for both parties. Both seemed like the had opened up to the other more than was needed, so what was the worst that could happen now. Louise had already had an attack in front of him, and Aidan had told her of his mother's sickness. What was left to lose?

Aidan cleared his throat and studied his shoes, so, are you new? I haven't seen your face around. I'm pretty sure I would remember a face like... like that." Aidan jerked a thumb at Louise and then took a large step backward, knocking into...

"Griffin?" 

All air escaped Louise as she watched Griffing lose her clutch at her books and papers, they cascaded across the ground. Louise then promptly followed in suit, her knees gave, and the last thing she saw was the tile racing toward her.