The Leaf

The Lunchroom

"What?" I exclaimed. I stared at the person blankly.
"I should have said something; I was just surprised someone could be that dumb. Those guys, not you, sorry that probably came out wrong." They continued, grabbing my water bottle. I reached out for it but they opened the cap and took a sip. I lowered my arm.
"Uh.. what..? That's my water by the way-" I said slowly and confused. I scanned their face, narrowing my eyes. I searched for a name, and any hints that this person was joking. "Who.. are you? Sorry I'm not good with names, heh.." I didn't see any hostility with this stranger, why not crack a joke? About myself...
"Oh, shit, sorry, hah, I'm bad at talking with people. Wren Johnson," they held out their hand, "I'm in most of your classes, actually." I took their hand and shook it gently. "But like I was saying, its fucked up what those boys did after class, like, really fucked up." I looked at them again, still confused. I examined their image. A long, guy-ish face, red-brown hair that was put up in a messy bun on their head (little wisps were pulled out in front of their ears like how I'd seen on Instagram before), pale skin like mine, they wore a thin black choker and had killer eyeliner. To be honest I couldn't define them as male or fema-  Instantly I remembered where I had seen them. My face got redder than it usually was. They were the person sitting in the classroom when I got beat up.
"U-uh.. ohh... Right..." I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans. "I'm Jeremy Lichen, but, uh, I'm sure you already knew that? So you saw that whole thing? Like, when I fell, and stuff?" My hands shook. Why are they doing this? I've never had someone talk so long to me at school before, I'm not sure if I'm handling this well or not.
"Yeah, I saw it all. Like I said, I should had done something. But I didn't, because I'm apparently a dick, ya know?" They snickered. I didn't know if I was hallucinating or not but I thought I might be sweating too much.
"O-Okay..." I grabbed a chip from the bag and ate it. "But why are you sitting here? I mean like, I always sit here, and, no one ever sits here, so I didn't think people knew I existed or wanted to sit with me" I stumbled over my words.
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay, man" They said. This might be it, this might be the time I might get a friend? Could this person be willing enough to be friends with a loser like me?
"Oh, then, uh, thanks... man..?" I said, my shoulders only easing up a bit. They lowered their eyebrows in confusion. "I'm good, though, you didn't need to come over here to ask me..."
"Nah, I wanted to. You seem like uh.. what's the word, feel free to correct me or call me an ass, but you're pretty lonely? You seem like you need a friend, and I can help you out there?" I stared at my water bottle, which was being rolled between Wren's hands on the table. Friend? Fuck, they did wanna be friends! What do I say now?
"O-Oh.. Uh.. wow.. I guess you're right. I am pretty lonely. And I could use some friends, I guess. Thanks." I looked up and smiled slightly. "Oh, also I don't think you're an ass!" I said quickly. "I can't think that until we're friends longer, right? I think you're pretty cool so far." I grabbed my water bottle back and took a drink from it. Suddenly I felt like I didn't have a filter around this person anymore, I felt like I could be myself.

It got to the end of lunch and me and Wren just talked and talked until the end. We tried to find similarities between us, differences and just random things to talk about. We decided to finally leave the lunchroom and as Wren walked around the table to me, I glanced up at them.
"Fuck.." I whispered. Wren looked like they were at least several inches taller than me. I had to look up slightly to look them in the face.
"Hm? Oh." Wren looked me up and down, realizing the same thing I realized. "Yeah, I'm kind of tall, I guess." They laughed a little. "What are you, 5 foot 3?"
"W-What? No- I'm..." I tried to remember how tall I was the last time I checked, "5 foot 5!" I crossed my arms.
"Hah! You are short!" They laughed even harder. "I'm 5 foot 9! I'm like a whole head taller than you!"
"H-hey, shut up!" I turned around. Alright maybe they are a bit of an ass, but this is okay, friends fight sometimes, right? And get mad at each other? This is just normal friend things, I guess.
"Woah, wait, are you upset? Shit, uh, fuck, sorry. I can't help myself sometimes, uh.. damn, I messed this up already, didn't I?" They brushed some hair away from their face. "I'll see you in class, then? Maybe?" They took a step back.
"N-No! It's okay, this, this happens to friends all the time! Friends fight, right?" I turned around to face them again. "This is normal stuff! I accept your apology!" I reached out and grabbed their arm. "Please don't leave, I, uh, I need a friend" They looked at me.
"Hm? Oh? Okay. Glad I didn't mess anything up" They smiled, pulling me next to them and putting their arm around my shoulders. "English?" They asked.
"Yeah, English.."



ItsJeremy1: Finally I've wanted to write this chapter for so long it took so long to write too. I finally had to inspiration to write it and finish. I was longing to write this "secret character" for awhile. Tbh I didn't even plan on including her in the first chapter, but I needed a second character so BAM Wren Johnson! I love her she is me tbh xD an ass lel. Anyway idk where I'm going from here, because I don't know why I picked a school environment because I know nothing about school. I?? Might skip?? To summer? Or something? Because I hate writing schools in stories so I might just skip through some things heh... this story takes place in like.. the second month of school? Rip the school year. I'm rambling plz like my story actually is that how it works how does Wattpad work?