{Ni's POV}
I walked into first period only to be greeted with a heavy body falling onto me. "Morgan!" I exclaimed as he huffed and looked into my eyes with a flustered face. "H-hey, Nicole!" Morgan said after moving. "I'm sorry, I was pushed by Elly." I nodded as he apologized, without an ounce of acknowledgement I walked past Mar and Elly.
"Hey, Lu!" I said while waving with a smile. "Hello! Did you see Mar and Elly?" Lu said as she fanned her face, "They're so cute together! Why can't they just admit their feelings for each other already?!" Lu screamed as the whole classroom looked straight at her. "Stop fangirling about your book and start to look for a real guy." I said to cover for her screaming. I do like to tease Lu here, I mean she has the choice of Morgan but she swears she doesn't have a crush on him. If you ask me, it's pretty obvious Morgan likes her, because he constantly looks at her. If you ask him about Lu he starts to go into detail about her. It's hilarious!
While stuck in my thoughts Lu was talking about some ship or another. "-You always say Morgan, Morgan, Morgan! Maybe you two should hook up. It would be hilarious to see the schools 'flirt a lot' girl with the 'scared or pranks are a way of life' guy together!" As she rambled away about how cute it would be if I started to date one of the guys at our school I was stuck with my past memories.
"Elly, don't you remember when we were little?" I asked while everyone at my lunch table, Mar, Morgan, Lu, and Elly, were chatting rather loudly. "Yeah, what about it?" Elly responded, immediately turning her attention to me. That's what I admired about her. Her ability to pay attention to even the shyest person. "Do you remember how we met then?" She nodded with a funny smile, "Yeah!"
It was a cool fall evening, the first day of school was going slow as everyone played outside for recess. Many kids were on the swings or the jungle gym, but there were those that ran around playing tag, hide and seek, or those other games you play when your small and energetic. I was off to the side, hugging my knees. While all these kids knew each other from last year, I was new. I came to Texas two months ago. It wasn't very pleasant for me to learn the language, being from Puerto Rico and all. None of the kids wanted to separate from their already made social groups. I could tell what groups would be the popular kids, which would be the nerds, outcasts, rebels, and other groups that separated society from being nice. As for me, I'm a shy kid who has no group. I suppose I'd be considered an outcast at this point.
My eyes were scanning the ground around the bench. There were different colored leaves from the tree that shades this bench. Red, yellow, orange, beautiful colors that made me fall in love with this season. I had been so interested with the leaves that I hadn't noticed a girl with lovely blonde hair staring straight at me. "Eeek!" I squealed as she poked me. Laughter could be heard when I felt her sit next to me.
"Whatcha sittin' all alone for?" The high-pitched voice rang through my ears as I worked up the courage to lift my head. "I-I don't have any friends..." my voice weakened by the time I finished my sentence. Leaving only my fast pace heart and heavy breathing. "Why not?" The stranger lightheartedly asked me. Her eyes held a strange gleam in them, the gleam of curiosity. "I'm n-new..." I tried to speak with less tremor but the feat seemed too great to achieve. "That means you have a clean pallet! A chance to be whoever you want! I'll show you around the groups if you want." Her hand-gestures were everywhere as she started to explain what my being new could lead to, "you could be the president of the cheerleaders if you wanted!" Giggles erupted from her lips as she thought about it. "I w-would like t-to be shown a-around, p-please..." I whispered as she smiled brightly, lifting my hand and jumping up. My squeal once again filling the empty space, "Alright, follow me!" Her little voice demanded.
"You dragged me off to find a group of friends not even thinking of the possibility that I could be friends with you! I didn't even know your name until a week later!" Everyone laughed as Elly and I were reminiscing. Elly's cheeks puffed out as a blush pushed it's way to her cheeks. "I was trying to help you!" She exclaimed while childishly pouting. "Yeah, I remember that part, too." I said with a smile still gracing my features.
"And these are the last people Lu-lu, Mar, Mor, and my sisters Ar and Lia!" She exclaimed with a wide smile while each person raised their hand as a name was called. "Now, you've seen everyone, who ya gonna hang out with?" I looked around the playground as her eyes felt like they were gently skimming over my face to see if I had any signs of decision. "I didn't catch your name, though..." I said as her smile faded. "That's 'cause I didn't throw it. You'll learn eventually. Now pick a group so you can spend the last five minutes with them." Her voice seemed a little worried. "I-I would like to be your friend..." she stared at me for a while as I summoned the courage to say it louder, "I would like to be your friend." Her mouth was left agape as I stared right into her eyes, "please." I added at the end for persuasion.
"Ni, I'm one of the outcasts... you wouldn't want to associate with me. Please, pick someone who can bring you popularity or brains. My group doesn't hold very much of that..." that was the first time I heard her voice weakened and sad, it made me never want to hear it like that again. "No." Now I had taken the spotlight, and I didn't like it. "We can make memories in this group. I don't want to join some cheerleaders and leave my brain in the dirt nor do I want to be some smart person who throws away their whole life for science or math. But mostly, I don't want just ignore our newfound friendship. Let's be normal! I'll be an outcast if being that's what it takes. Please?" I pleaded with her as she smiled an inspiring smile. "Yeah!" She responded as she immediately turned around sprinting towards Lu-lu and the rest. "We have a new member!" Cheers could be heard from these people all throughout the playground. "What?" I asked.
"Then, you explained how it was all one gigantic test to see if I would truly believe there was a way out of these categories." I smiled while looking at Elly. "Yeah, and they started to say things like, 'you guys sound like adults ' and 'what did half of that even mean?!"' Elly said while laughing. We were rather smart kids. At the age of seven we could have conversations about history, math, science, and english. And now, at the age of fifteen and sixteen, we can talk about Hamilton and other musicals. Have our brains gone downhill? Nah! We just found a different interest then in learning. Theatre!
"By the way, Ni?" Asked Elly. "Yeah?" I responded with a curious tone of voice while putting my cup up to my mouth. "Happy birthday!" She screamed at the top of her lungs making me choke on my water. "I thought you guys wouldn't remember!" I exclaimed while she looked at me, cheekily. "I saved it on my calender." Her smile soon disappeared as I sent a death glare her way. "You have five seconds to run. Five... four... three..." I said, Elly stared at me until realizing I wasn't kidding, then she zoomed down the halls. "Two... one!!" My voice sounding like bells through the cafetorium. A smile plastered on my face while chasing her. The only thoughts that were coming in my head was, this is what I would miss after graduating high school. Chasing Elly down the halls. Funny, right?
A/n- Hello! I hope you enjoyes my first chapter with a different perspective. It was difficult at first to figure out what information Ni should know about, but I think I did an alright job! Thanks for reading, bye-bye!
