Just My Luck

Chapter Sixteen

Either this school is extremely big, or I'm way out of shape. I got into class just before the bell rings, and tried to slow my breathing and heart rate as I sat down. Luke leaned over to me.

“hey Nolan, you alright? You look like you ran a few marathons,”

“yeah, I'm fine” I scoffed.

My classes went by painfully slow.

I held over, until lunch.

As soon as the bell rang, I was out of that classroom. Being my small self, I can usually trail a group of friends, and get around fairly easily, but I was more hungry than normal, and decided to try and cut through the middle.

Turns out, I suck at that.

I swear, it's like walking upstream in a river.
And there is no downstream.

So I was frantically trying to find someone, anyone to trail, to get to the lunchroom.

And somehow, I turned around, and ran right into someone.

And no, thankfully it wasn't Dylan this time.

It was a girl, with long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, and slightly curled. She had big, gray eyes. I felt heat rise to my face immediately. I had to admit, she was pretty.

I recognized her, from my Social Studies class. I remembered her name was Sierra Anderson. I started to help her with her stuff, spread across the crowded hallway.

“I'm so s-sorry! I'm Nolan, and uh, I'm super clumsy and bump into a lot of things- and people- and I didn't purposefully bump you, it was an accident and-” I was cut off my her laugh.

“You're fine! Don't we have a class or two together?” Sierra asked.

“um.. let's see… I remember you from social studies but…. I'm not sure”

And we carried on a conversation until we got to her locker, which wasn't too far away from mine.

“so do you wanna have lunch with my best-friend Samantha and I?” she asked.

I'm sure my face lit up with excitement. Well yeah! She seems super cool!!!

“of course! I'd love to! I mean- as long as your friend doesn't mind- and I'd have to let my friends know I'm not sitting with them today…” I said.

She just laughed and agreed. So I walked over to introduce her to Nat and Luke.

“Nat, Luke- is it okay if I don't sit with you today? This is Sierra, and she invited me to sit with her today…”

Nat’s face lit up and she had a huge grin. “of course! Go ahead! Have fun!” Nat said enthusiastically

“umm okay,” I responded. Huh, I wonder why she is so excited.

I turned to Sierra, “So, would you like to go to the great outdoors for lunch, or sit in this crowded cafeteria, or walk the boring hallways?”

She laughed and said “I guess it is really pretty outside,”

So out we walked, and she was right, it was warm and sunny and the perfect day to eat outside. Sierra texted her friend- Samantha Golding, to tell her we were eating outside. Turns out, Sierra was also quite the book-dragon! She loves the same books I do! Like, we talked about I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore, and Harry Potter by JK Rowling, which both were some of our favorites! Everything was going great, until I looked over and she wasn't smiling.

“what's wrong?” I asked.

She sighed. “it's Samantha, the reason she isn't here is because apparently she has a cheerleading practice during lunch that she didn't tell me about.”