Isolation (Book #1 of the Taylor Series)

Twelve

"You got her a present?" Graham asks me when I see him on Friday morning.

I give him a look of annoyance, as if he asked me a dumb question, and he huffs. I nod slowly, then lean on the locker beside his.

"Quit being a matapobre, and tell me what you got her." He slams his locker shut and adjusts the bag on his shoulder.

Why does he always say things in Filipino as if I'm supposed to know exactly what they mean? Hello! I'm a native English speaker! And even if I wanted to learn Filipino so I could understand what he says to me, it's not exactly like it'd be convenient to find someone to teach me. Our school only offers French, Spanish, Japanese, and American Sign Language, one of which I'm already enrolled in. Spanish, probably the most spoken language in the United States today.

Whether or not I enjoy it is debatable, but regardless, at least I know things. That's saying more than Lauren or Julie. Lauren absolutely refuses to invest her time in a language besides Italian, particularly because she's obsessed with Italy and that the Enlightenment was birthed in Italy. Julie is a Freshman, so she's not exactly able to choose a second language to learn yet, but even if she does, she doesn't see the point in it because it's already so much work to learn big words in English.

"Well, she's been mad at me lately, so I didn't know what to get her. Usually, she tells me at one of the many sleepovers that we have during her birthday week, but I haven't spoken to her since Monday." I explain worriedly, and Graham narrows his eyes at me.

"Yeah, get to it, baby. What'd you get her?" He snaps his fingers in a rushing manner.

"I got her a Mystic Messenger music sheet. I had no idea what else to get her." I murmur.

His eyes light up with a smile, and I roll my eyes. "Wow, Eve, you're such a loser. Well, I got her the latest CD for that stupid K-pop band that she loves so much... Kiss Up or something lame like that. I don't really understand why she likes it so much, you know, she can't even understand Korean." I laugh, and he interlocks our arms as we walk to the cafeteria, where Stella and Sienna will hopefully be getting along. 

Come on, let's be realistic. We'd be lucky if we get there and they're not ripping each other's perfect hair out.

"What's the point of music if you can't sing loudly over it, you know?" He asks, and the fact that he's being serious makes me crack up.

"Other than serenading that cute Asian girl at Walmart, I have absolutely no idea. What morons!" I punch the sky, and Graham does it in agreement. Walking through the Cafeteria doors, I immediately notice that neither Stella nor Sienna are sitting at our table. Stella is sitting at another table with some of her previous friends and Sienna is sitting at the table full of band geeks, including that girl from before.

"What's going on here?" I whisper to Graham, and he sighs, running his fingers through his hair roughly.

"Nothing, we just got into a fight last night. Hindi malaking." He states simply.

"Sounds like nothing," I ignore the last part, which I couldn't understand, "Well, looks like it's just you and me." I murmur.

He nods and leads us to a line serving Calzones. I immediately shake my head and instead walk into the line serving fruit trays with chocolate milk. I roll my eyes and instead buy a water. Don't get me wrong, as a Vegetarian, I am allowed to have dairy and eggs; I just absolutely despise the milk served here. It's disgusting, and the cartons usually have some stupid joke or pun on the back of them.

I walk back to our usual table and sit down, waiting for Graham to make his debut. It doesn't take long for him to slam his tray down across from me. I try to hide the annoyance on my face and  the headache forming in my head.