The girl in the book.

Making Plans

I ate lunch alone. I still hadn't decided what to do with Jackson and the others. They were my only friends. They reminded me of the good times at home. Nobody else had even tried to make me feel welcome.  As I walked out of the cafeteria I saw Ava, reading a book.  I walked over to her.

"Hey," I said. She looked up.

"Hey," she repeated back to me. 

I hesitated, not sure what I was going to say, then blurted out, "I heard you were pretty... smart."

"You did?" asked Ava, who was skeptical. She had a right to be. What I said wasn't necessarily true. Nobody really talked about her, good things or bad things. I knew she was smart because while I was talking to the math teacher about my grades, I saw she had an A+. Even so, I nodded.

"Yeah," I said, "So, uh, I was wondering if we could study together."

She stared at me, then shrugged. "Sure," she said slowly, "Where should we get together?"

"The park?" I suggested. 

"And when?"

"Um, sometime after school."

"That was specific." 

"Like, at four maybe?"

"Sure."

And with that settled she started reading her book again. I hesitated, wanting to say more, and then walked away.

I was at my locker when I heard a voice say, "Hey, do you want to hang out sometime today?"

I turned around to see Jackson walking up to me. I hesitated and he said, "We won't do... you know."

"I have, um, plans after school. Sorry," I said, glad to have an actual excuse.

"Yeah, okay," Jackson smiled at me, "Another time then. The guys miss you, you know." He walked off.

I stared after him, and suddenly I realized how much I missed hanging out with him. As long as they don't do the drugs around me it would be okay, wouldn't it?

I sighed and closed my eyes. I pushed what I was thinking out of my head. Right now I decided that I should focus on surviving a certain study session without looking like an idiot.