Waking up to Reese’s singsong voice, I ran my hand through my knotted hair, yawning and pulling the blankets up under my chin.
“Brenna, up and at ‘em! I made French tooooaaast!” Her thin face smiled down at me as I yawned once more.
“Why do we have to wake up so early? This is supposed to be a vacation,” I complained.
“We need time to see all the sights, silly!” she chirped.
“The sights can be seen without waking up at seven o’clock, Reese.”
She shook her head in friendly disappointment then stood up from my bed, galloping out of the room with her already-curled hair bouncing.
I got up and got dressed, deciding on leggings and a sweater with the scarf I’d gotten for Christmas. I walked to the hotel room’s kitchen to eat, but I was stopped by Julian and Charlie, who had probably also been awoken by Reese, judging by the sleepy daze left on their faces. Their eyes widened, however, as Reese brought out a plate of French toast. It was a well-known fact that she was a fabulous chef.
We all sat down at the small table and went over our plan for the day. Our parents had decided to let us drive wherever we wanted on the day after Christmas, and we’d decided to go to a city nearby and explore everything. We lived in a tiny town, so it seemed very interesting.
Finishing breakfast before everyone else, I went to the bathroom, where I put on some makeup and tied my hair in a quick twisted bun. I slipped on my boots and skipped back towards my friends, humming a One Direction song.
Reese was busying herself at the sink, and I sat back down next to Julian, who was having a very animated conversation with Charlie.
“Hey, no! I swear, Mr. Alberts was talking about it in Geometry!”
“Brenna, can you please tell him that I’m right?” Charlie pleaded, gesturing at Julian.
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about, so no. Are we almost ready to go, Reese?”
“Yep! Let’s do this,” she clapped her hands together, then pulled on a sweatshirt before leading us out the door. We walked down the hallway, into the elevator, and out onto the sidewalk, ready to see the city.
---
We had been together since freshman year, starting when I moved here about a week into school. Searching for my first period class, I’d found myself face-to-face with an overly-preppy brunette who had volunteered to show me around after introducing herself as Madison O’Brien. She ended up sitting with me at lunch that day as well, and the entire experience was all very awkward for me. There was a specific aura that most cheerleaders possessed, and she definitely carried it around her because I knew even before she prompted me to join the cheer squad that she was the captain.
I didn’t know if new kids were supposed to become friends with the very first person they met, cheer captain or not, but I was certainly breaking that expectation if it existed. Which is why I ended up picking a table at random to sit at the first day that Madison was absent. When I got to the cafeteria, there were no empty tables, so that was no longer an option. I looked around for a moment, before deciding that these people couldn’t be judged by their appearance and walking up to a table right in the middle. I looked at a boy with the greenest eyes I’d ever seen, and asked if I could sit there.
“Uh, sure,” he said, and the girl across from him scooted over, while smacking her gum and scrolling through her Instagram app. Green Eyes gave me a look that told me he felt just as awkward as I did, and I raised an eyebrow as he said, “Um, you guys can keep talking about Justin Bieber or whatever but I’m gonna go talk to…”
