We the Running

Chapter 5 (POV Quinn)

"I'm somewhat nervous to meet your friends," I Confess to Tatyana before we're at the meeting place. GAP store in the middle then we'll walk to Panera.

"You'll be fine they're super friendly and inviting, they took me when we changed schools. I used to go to the local catholic school," Tatyana says reassuring me.  We walk up to the store and see a group consisting of four boys and two girls. There was one guy with his arm around a girl. Tatyana told me there was only one couple in the group, Bailey and Zack so I guessed they were them. The twin boys were very easy to tell were twins so the last one, who was fairly attractive, was Bentley. 

"Taty! Who is this bubbly?" says a girl with dirty blonde hair with blue dyed tips. Tatyana rolls her eyes. 

"This is Britney and she is not a slut, or a least I don't think she is. She's one of the foreign exchange students this year. We're housing both actually. The other one didn't want to come with us. I think you might like him though, Amanda," Tatyana tells the girl, defending me. I give an awkward wave to the group. 

"Well Britney, you trying out for any sports? I do lacross and we'd love to have you on the team," another girl says to me, "oh I'm Carley by the way and you've probably figured out that's Amanda."

"Um, actually, Carley, I'm  going to try out for the cheerleading squad, we don't have those in Canada, but thanks for the offer I'm sure your team's great," I say to her.  I keep my focus on the girls talking to me and not the chiseled jaw of Bentley.  

"Ya know the love birds, twins, and well you," Tatyana says gesturing to Bentley, "haven't introduced yourself to Brit."

"Oh I didn't even notice another girl besides my Bailey, but I'm Zack," Zack mutters looking longingly into Bailey's eyes.

"So I'm assuming that's Bailey because that's what you referred to her as," I say trying not to sound like I didn't already know.

"That's my brother Taylor," one of the twins says pointing to his brother.

"That's my brother Tyler," Taylor says and they both laugh thinking they confused me, but I can already tell them apart. I fake laugh with them and Tatyana glares at Bentley until he finally speaks.

"Bentley," he states leaning against the wall, "when are we actually going to Panera again?"

"Rude, we are talking to my friend Britney, she's a senior too you know," Tatyana barks at Bentley.

"What a change, now I have a new reason to actually hang out with guys and not just because my mother says I have to," he retorts. Breaking the ice Amanda stands up from sitting on the ledge of a pillar.

"We should get to Panera now before the weirdos start filling in and take our corner table," She  hinted. We start walking and Bentley comes up to me.

"So what classes do you have?" he asks me as others have their own conversations on the side. I pull my schedule out of my pocket and show him. "We have everything but  P.E. and science together, just switched, too bad I wanted you as my science lab partner. Better than getting stuck with one of the plastic princesses, class of 2017."

"Plastic princesses? That sounds awful." I say. The name is quite clever though. 

"The group of the girl's who have all the diamonds in the world, mommy and daddy issues, 'perfect' hair, 'perfect' everything, and are the stars in every sport they do because they payed someone. Don't worry out of them there is probably three in cheerleading, most of them are tennis and soccer players. The others are just there. No their not just there, they're the leaders, the richest ones. There's about 16-18 in all. Every single one is a slut. Or bubbly as we say." Bentley explains to me. "I can probably name every single social circle in the school. Some people are in more than one so the people in this school are like venn diagrams."

"So what's this social circle's name?" I wondered as he hands my schedule back to me.

"We are intimidation nation, number two on the social ladder. We are actually more adored than the jocks, mainly because they're some of the stupidest dudes ever. The ladder goes Plastic Princesses, Intimidation Nation, Rockin' Jocks, anything musical, anything artsy, anything tech, and everyone else. Now before you ask they're rockin' jocks because they're dumber than rocks.  Just remember as I said before everybody is a venn diagram. Carley is a plastic princess and part of the intimidation nation. She likes us better than the 'elite'. Zack is a jock if you can't tell by his letterman jacket. The twins are tech geeks but not as geeky as most. Bailey, my sister, plays clarinet in the marching band. And that's it for the venn diagrams in the intimidation nation," he rambles off.

"You like to explain things don't you? I only ask for the first sentence of that speech, but I guess the rest is useful," I say to him as the group enters Panera. 

"You two seem like friends, that's good," Amanda says glaring at me. She flips her blue tipped hair and goes to order her food.  

"Well school sounds fun with all the social groups. In Canada we all just got along nicely. Everybody said sorry to everyone so that made up for a lot of things," I say to Bentley, "Later Jonathan and I are going to the school for a tour."

"Who's Jonathan? Sounds cool. Wait is he the other foreign exchange kid?" Bailey turns around in front of us and asks.

"Yeah, he's my friend. We decided to do the program together. He prefers to be called Than instead of something normal like John or Johnny or something.  He's cool though," I reply. 

"Ooh he sounds cute," she replies to me and Zack glares at her, looking hurt. 

"I guess he is, somewhat," I tell her giggling a bit at Zack. I stand in lien a little more and then finally order. I try and make it look like I've never been to a Panera. I look at the clock on my phone, it says 2:00 PM. Seven hours and thirty minutes until I start school. I'm still not used to Britney. 

I wish I was Quinn again.