Priceless / l.h. (Hiatus)

chapter seven

October, 2008

"Hey, Cal, you remember Brooklyn, right?" I asked as I walked into the cafeteria with Brooklyn.

We took a seat together. 

"Yeah! You were the one who was good at the mad minutes, right?" Calum asked.

Brooklyn giggled and nodded, tucking her hair behind her ears. "Yeah."

"Where'd you disappear to?" Calum asked.

"Oh, I was homeschooled for a few years," Brooklyn explained.

Calum nodded, not saying anything else. I moved forward.

"So, Brooklyn, this is Genevieve, David, Will and Amy. This is our lunch crew, you're welcome to join us," I said, pointing at everyone. 

They all said hi and waved.

"So, Brooklyn, was it?" Genevieve said. "How do you know Luke and Calum?"

"I was in their fourth grade class for a bit, when we were younger," Brooklyn explained.

"And so, what? You just dropped off the face of the earth?" Genevieve asked.

"Gen!" I warned.

"What?" She asked, smiling cutely at Luke. "That's just what it seems like."

"I said before," Brooklyn said, hanging her head low. "I was homeschooled."

"You left in the middle of fourth grade to be homeschooled? Seems pretty weird to me," Genevieve shrugged.

"Ignore her," Amy picked up. "She's just jealous that you didn't have to suffer through public school all those years."

"Oh shut up, Amy, I am not," Genevieve snarled.

Amy just rolled her eyes and continued on with a more gentler conversation with Brooklyn. Brooklyn was more quiet after that though, maybe she was uncomfortable because when the bell rang I noticed her relax.

"Do you want me to walk you to class?" I offered, noticing her look at her schedule.

"Oh, no, I can manage," Brooklyn denied. 

"Are you sure? I know where the room is," I pleaded.

"I think I do, it's on the first floor, right?" She asked.

I chuckled. "It's on the second floor, come on, I'll take you there," I said, falling in step with her.

"Are you and Genevieve dating?" Brooklyn asked me, causing me to choke.

"No!" I laughed.

"Really? She seems really protective over you," Brooklyn shrugged.

"Oh, really? Well, no, we're not dating," I chuckled.

Brooklyn nodded and I stopped, reaching her classroom.

"Here we are," I said with a smile.

"Well, thank you," Brooklyn said.

I nodded, "well, enjoy," I paused and leaned over to look at her schedule. "Spanish."

She nodded and walked into the classroom. I took my time going to my next class, gym, because I really didn't feel like going. But eventually I got there and changed into my gym uniform. I left the change room and apologized to my teacher, explaining that I was helping my friend. I took a seat on the floor next to Calum, Genevieve and Amy.

"You walked Brooklyn to class?" Genevieve whispered to me.

"I helped her find it, yeah," I answered.

"How could she be so inconsiderate and make you late to your class," Genevieve mumbled.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "It's her first day, and I offered."

We were playing floor hockey today and split off into three teams. My gym teacher was pretty laid back and usually let us pick our teams. So with a class for fifteen, each team had five kids. Our team consisted of Amy, Calum, Genevieve, another boy who had no other team to join and I. Our team was on the bench first so we all sat down together.

"I don't like Brooklyn," Genevieve blurted out.

Calum gave her a weird look. "You've known her for an hour."

"Yeah, and something feels evil about her," She shrugged. "I'm getting bad vibes."

"Oh, please, you always get bad vibes," Amy laughed.

"No, but seriously, who just drops out of school to be homeschooled, that just has weird written all over it," Genevieve continued, making me frustrated.

"It's really not that weird, it's actually quite common, and besides, she was getting teased a lot," Calum said.

"Yeah and I can see why, she was wearing weird clothes," Genevieve laughed.

"She was literally wearing jeans and a hoodie, how is that weird?" I argued.

"It just is. Where's her purse? A skirt? Or normal clothing? It just wasn't girly at all," Genevieve said.

"Not all girls are girly," Calum said.

"Yeah, Gen, don't be such a bitch," I rolled my eyes.

Genevieve's mouth dropped open and she genuinely looked hurt, making me feel a little bad, but honestly, she was being rude. And before she could say anything else, we got called to play our turn.

I love this story so much, to be honest. I think it is one of my best. But not a lot of people read it and it kind of upsets me. Thank you if you do, I really appreciate it. <3