The Bookstore

Chapter One

        I slipped through the halls quietly. No one really glanced my direction and if they did I could almost see what they were wondering if anything at all. When did she start going here? Who's she? Never seen her around before.. Then usually the question drops in their mind and they move on. Which I'm grateful for. If I was going to survive high school at all, it should be silently. It's almost punishment enough to sit through painfully boring classes, not including Literature, but I also had to endure listening to hormonal teenagers rambling on about everything.
       It was hard to believe I was even a teenager. My mom always told me I acted older than her sometimes. Anyways, back to being invisible and where am I even going? The library that's where.
      Since I'd learned to read, I'd taken an interest in the world of fiction. My friends, two of them, and I spent our lunches in the library. Greg and Lily hardly look up from their books when I approach our table in the back.
       "Hey Jane," Greg mumbles, his eyes flicker up at me for a second before looking back down. "Sorry just let me finish this chapter. Things are getting intense." I suppressed my laughter at how hard he stared at his book, a bit hypocritical because that was probably as intense as things got for us. Lily took a moment to carefully place her bookmark in between the pages, then set her book down in front of her.
      Lily's face was mostly hidden by thick frames and the uneven bangs that fell down her forehead. I'd hardly ever seen her any different as she claimed the bangs and glasses felt like a shield. I gave her a tight smile.
      "Was it really that bad?" Lily asked knowingly. I groaned and sank down into the chair.
      "It was so boring I could throw up," I muttered. Last period my teacher had separated the class into groups and forced us all to work together. The class was chemistry, which is horrible enough without having to actually talk to people. "They flirted the whole time. I hardly got anything done."
     Chris Hammons and Nichole Binder were hell schools most exclusive couple. Slurping each others saliva every day in the hallways like they'd dehydrate without it. You'd think they get tired of it after two years, but the further into the relationship they went the more horny they seemed to get. I wouldn't really mind if the slurping sounds weren't coming from two lockers away.
     "Oh come on, Jane. You're just bitter cause you haven't had a boyfriend in so long," Greg teases as he finally closes his book. I rolled my eyes at him.
     "I haven't had a boyfriend ever," I corrected. And I planned to keep it that way. High school dating drama was the biggest thing on my list of what to avoid this year. I had all I needed and I wasn't going to ruin that with stupid hormones. Greg giggled and leaned forward as if he had some big secret to share. He probably didn't. Greg just liked melodramatics of it all.
      "I heard that Isaac was secretly gay," he spilled with glee. Lily and I exchanged glances, then leaned in too.
      "That's great, Greg. Maybe you'll have a little buddy to join the Flamingo club," I humored him lightly. Gay jokes didn't bother Greg in the slightest, but that's the furthest Lily and I ever went in teasing. He got enough of that from the straight guys that shoved him up against lockers. Flamingo is Lily and my word for gay. Gregory Arnold had been as straight as a rainbow since elementary school when he tried to kiss Bradly Richie during recess.
      "The Flamingo club is exclusive baby. It's too fabulous for Isaac," Greg did a tiny hair flip to add to his words. "Besides it's not like you don't wishful think every now and then."
       I sighed and flipped open my book bag. Greg gave me an I told you so smile and nod before opening his book eagerly. Sometime between the Flamingo club and wishful thinking, Lily had become engrossed in her book again. I settled down into my seat as my booked sucked me in.          This is pretty much a normal day for the three of us. Normal isn't necessarily bad. What even is normal? I doubt we were it if there was a definition to the word. I guess it didn't really matter as long as we just stayed here together.