Abi

Day One (Part 2)

Mrs. Argento was sitting at her desk while drinking tea in a red mug. She had red hair in a top knot, freckles, and blue eyes behind a pair of black-rimmed glasses. "Hey, Mrs. A! We got a new human!"

"Hey, I'm not a present!"

Nina nudged my shoulder. "For this school, you are. We haven't had a new student in two years." Argento stood up to reveal a baby bump. Maybe seven months? Eight? "Welcome to Stony Brook. You're Abidemi Dias, right?"

"You can call me Abi." She nodded and took out a file. "Abi it is. You can take a seat anywhere. I don't do the whole assigned seat thing. I also allow eating as long as you clean up after yourself. So, homeroom officially starts in five minutes. Then it ends at 8:30."

"Okay. Thanks, Mrs. Argento." The three of us sat down near an old piano in the back. Fatima and Nina took out some food from their backpacks. "Ooh, what is that?"

"This is Khobz with eggs and sausages with coffee. It's a Moroccan dish," said Fatima. Oh my God, it smells so good. And it looks so good. I'm so glad we're allowed to eat food in here because I also brought breakfast!

"And this is garlic fried rice, some tuyo, which is fried fish, and some black tea. Filipino dish," said Nina. I love garlic! Garlic bread, garlic on pizza, garlic with tonkatsu!

"Wow, they both look so good. And smells so good. I brought breakfast, too." I took out a tupperware container from my backpack to reveal...

"Akara, which are bean cakes, bully beef, ham on toast, and sliced bananas. It's a hodgepodge of Jamaican, Yoruba, and Brazilian food."

"Oh, you were born in Brazil?"

"No, my parents are from Brazil but my maternal grandparents are Yoruba, which is an ethnic group in Nigeria, and my dad is half-Jamaican and half-indigineous Brazilian. What about you guys?"

"Filipina over here," Nina gestured to herself. "And I'm Moroccan, specifically Imazighen, and Lebanese," said Fatima. "So, can you speak Portuguese?"

"Portuguese, Yoruba, Spanish, and English."

"Tagalog, English, and Cebuano."

"I speak Arabic, French, and English."

We shared our breakfast. Oh my goodness, the tuyo! Yummers! The Khobz with the sausages! Yummers! Fatima seems to really like the bully beef and Nina was taking her time with the Akara. I plan on bringing breakfast every day now. The bell rang and students started walking in. "Okay, everybody. Settle down. We have a new student here today. Please welcome Abi Dias." I stood up and waved. "Hi. I'm Abi."

"She moved here from Manhattan. Long way from home, huh? And it must be more crowded and louder in the city?"

"Oh, definitely. I miss the pizza." Everybody chuckled. I nodded awkwardly and slowly sat back down.

"Hey, Fatima, where'd you get your lipstick? It looks so nice on you."

"Craig & Karl Color Lip Last in L Train Jain. Got it from Sephora for $13." She took out the tube and passed it to me. "Mind if I test it on my hand? I promise my hands are clean." She nodded. I took out the wand and drew a line on the back of my hand. I pouted and shook my head. "Nah, not really my color. But thanks anyway." I gave it back to her. "Pink is cute but I'm more of a dark red kinda girl," said Nina. I shook my hair. "So am I!" She laughed and took out a tube of dark red lipstick. "This is NARS Semi Matte Lipstick - Scarlet Empress."

"This is dead nice."

"It's dead-what?"

Ah, yes, Upstate NY is not the same as NYC. Our lingo is quite different. "'Dead' means 'really, very'. It's really pretty."

"Oh! Huh. It costs $28."

I dropped on my desk, pretending to faint. I'm sorry but expensive tings (yes, tings...Patois for "things") put into fake cardiac arrest. "You got me effed up. I am not trying to spend 28 bucks on a tube that adds color to these luscious lips. Tempting but don't get me effed up."