Colours

chapter one

10 months before

Madison, Grace, and I had been at Canada's Wonderland for the day and we had just gotten into the line for the Leviathan. After waiting 20 minutes and finally reaching the stairs for the platform to get on the ride, we hear people calling out for my two best friends.

"Madison! Grace!"

Both turn around at the sound, and smile instantly at seeing who it is. They wave and beckon for whoever it is to come join us in line. I sigh under my breath at having to interact with anyone other than Madison or Grace but quickly let it go as the people had reached our spot in line.

"Lizzie," I hear Madison say as they walk up, "I didn't think we'd run into you guys!"

The group of four that had now joined us consisted of Jake Bentley, Woodbridge High's soccer captain, his best friend (and also fellow soccer team member), Danny Howe; and then two of Madison and Grace's friends from the cheerleading team they were on, Lizzie Martins, and Claire Davids. I'd seen them all around school but had never talked to them. My two best friends were quite popular amongst our school's population but I had successfully managed to keep myself well hidden the last three years of school. I feel someone staring at me and look up to find Jake Bentley looking at me. I quickly look away at catching his gaze and wonder what the hell he's doing.

Claire answers her immediately, "We really didn't either," it'd been hours since the park opened and when we came we usually stayed from open to close, makes it more worthwhile, "we just didn't think anything of it and kinda gave up but here you are."

All four of them begin to laugh and I'm just standing there semi-awkwardly on my phone. Suddenly, Danny speaks up, "Madison, Grace, nice to see you guys."

"Yes Danny, how are you? Feel like we haven't talked in forever," Grace answers.
"I'm good, how are you?"
"Ah you know, same old same old," she replies.

They all continue to chatter amongst themselves as we continued to slowly make our way up the stairs. While everyone was talking, I felt Jake continuing to stare at me and shot him what I hoped was a "what the fuck dude" kinda look. After doing it, he looks away and I assume it's done the trick until he speaks up.

"So, who's your friend?"

Madison and Grace turn to me with huge smiles, "This is Ella. Ella, this is Lizzie, Claire, Danny, and Jake."

I give a small smile and mutter a quiet, "Hi," before attempting to turn back to my phone.

"Do you go to Woodbridge?" Danny questions.
"Yes, Danny we went to the same middle school."
"Wait, Ella Black?! That's you? Wow, I thought you like moved after grade 7 or something. I didn't even recognize you without the glasses and braces and paint"
I shake my head but chuckle a little at the paint thing, "Nope, didn't move, I just-uh-missed a lot of the school year in grade 8 so people thought I did."

He just nods, as if he remembers even though I know he doesn't. Eighth grade had been the worst year of my entire life and it'd been the year I decided that going unnoticed was a really nice thing, at least for me. It also helped that I probably missed half of the school year, but that's not important.

Danny turns toward his friends, "Ella is like amazingly good at art, it's crazy how good she is."

Madison and Grace quickly agree with Danny and my cheeks begin to go red from the attention. Jake is still staring at me like he had been the whole time and still hadn't said anything since asking for my name. The conversation quickly moved on from me to something else but every little while I'd still catch Jake staring at me.

* * *

After riding the Leviathan and parting ways from the group that had joined us, Madison, Grace, and I rode a few more rides and then got a funnel cake from one of the many stores here that sold them. It had become tradition for us to share a funnel cake at night before leaving the park. After finishing the funnel cake and just talking about our day and school starting soon, we left the park, walking to find Grace's car.

I got home at around 10:30 and said goodbye to my friends, knowing I'd probably be seeing them tomorrow anyways. As I walked into my house, and laid down in bed; I couldn't help thinking about Jake Bentley and his weird looks the whole time he'd been with us. I quickly fell asleep, with thoughts of Jake and what I knew about him continuing to run through my head.