Exceptional

The Blue Girl

        I have never had a girlfriend. Nope. Never. Well, I'm still a normal teenager, with crushes and urges and hormones. But no girlfriend. Must be something about the combo of dorkiness, blond hair, green eyes, and kind of a wimpy build that turns girls off. Oh... and the scars. Meh. Maybe I should just shower more.

        I still like girls, though! I'm not gay or anything. One girl thought I was, once, but that's another story. I'm just shy, I guess, and not very good at talking to girls. I usually just end up blurting out something random and really weird, and then I never see her again. Are girls always that unforgiving? I guess I'm just hopeless!

        But girls are really great... I've had so many crushes in my lifetime, it's almost creepy. So it was really great that the first person I met at that school was a girl. Here's what happened.

        I was walking through the hallway. First day of school, I had no idea what was going on. So I just started taking it all in! Wandering through hallways, staring at artwork, touring all the classrooms. Sometimes I would just start talking to strangers, hoping to make new acquaintances, but no one I met seemed really friendly. It didn't really faze me much, though. I'm used to people treating me different because of the scars. I just kept wandering aimlessly through the hallway, when I bumped into this girl. She had hair that was dyed blue and partially shaved on the right side. She had a multitude of piercings, and makeup darker than a starless night. She was also carrying all of her textbooks in her arms, and promptly dropped them when I ran into her. She muttered a rather nasty word and dropped down to pick everything back up. I dropped down, too, to try to help her collect all her books. It was my fault, anyway. It's only natural for me to want to help.

        "What kind of idiot are you?" she asked. "Who just wanders around aimlessly, not even looking out for other people?"

        "Who carries all of their books around in their arms?" I countered. "Isn't that what backpacks are for?"

        She smiled slightly, like she didn't want to laugh at me on account of what I had just done.

        "You should really look out around here, kid." she said. "I'm in a good mood today, but some other kids might no be as forgiving."

        I handed her the last book, which she added to the pile in her arms. "Safirah London." she said, standing back up.

        "Er, Sean! Sean Roscoe!" I said, tripping a little as I rose up too. "I'm new here, which probably explains that incident there. I really am sorry."

        "It's cool," she said, smirking. "I'm new too, so maybe I deserved it."

        Just then, another girl came up and bumped into Safirah. No falling books, this time, but it looked like Safirah and the other girl were good friends.

        "Er, hi?" I said to the other girl. She was short, with dark brown, curly hair, and strikingly blue irises, which almost looked white.

        "Hi! I'm Kira! Kira Tide!" she announced energetically. She then turned to Safirah, saying "I didn't know you would be here! This is great!"

        "I didn't think you would be here, either," Safirah said, quietly. "Especially after what happened with... with your brother. I-I don't really know all the details, but I'm sorry."

        It was at this point that I noticed Safirah's accent, which was especially evident when she said "sorry."

        "Er, sorry to interuppt, but I have some questions," I said, awkwardly jutting into their conversation. "First, Safirah, are you American?"

        "Is it that obvious?" she asked, blushing slightly, making her pale face turn just a little pink. "Yeah, my parents moved here in the middle of the War. Good thing, I guess."

        Laughing a little too loudly, I told her how I agreed with her completely. Then I asked my next question, which was what had happened to Kira's brother.

        "We don't really talk about it much," she said much quieter and slower than how she normally spoke. "He came here once, made it all the way to his senior year, but vanished forever just a little after classes started. He'd be about twenty-two by now..." she added wistfully.

        "I-I'm sorry," I apologized. "I didn't know. It sounds like you were very close."

        "Yeah, we were. But it was about that time when I met Safirah. She really helped me through it, I don't know where I'd be without her!" Kira exclaimed, hugging Safirah, who didn't appear to be much of a hugger herself.

        "I'm glad I met you two, too," I added. "It's good to know some people in my same classes."

        "Yeah!" Kira agreed. "But I'd better be getting back to my room before dinner. I'm meeting my boyfriend then, I want to blow him away!"

        Safirah scoffed. "You mean that guy, Arthur? The one you've had a crush on since before I even met you?"

        "That's the one!" she said. "Why is that funny?"

        "Nothing. He just doesn't strike me as the type to be easily impressed." Safirah said, stifling a laugh.

        I looked around, clueless as ever. It would be really hard to fit in with these girls, who were already so close to each other! But I guess I asked for it.

        "I guess I'd better get going too," Safirah said, waving to Kira, who had already taken off. She then turned her glance to me. "See you at dinner?" she asked.

        "Sure! I think I'll head to my room, first, though. I signed up late, so I have to share. It'll be nice to meet my roommate." As soon as I said that, I realised I hadn't thought about that before. I hope I like the guy...

        "Yeah, sure." Safirah said. "See ya." She flipped her hair back over one of her dark brown eyes and walked away.

        "Remember! Backpacks!!" I yelled after her.

        What the heck? Why did I say that?! Stupid, stupid, stupid!! I knew I couldn't keep my cool around girls! I glanced back up after her, wincing slightly at what I just said. Surprisingly, she had looked back at me, and was laughing. And not the bad kind of laughing, or the "I can't believe you said that" type laughing. The good kind of laughing, the genuine, happy one. I walked back to my room in a pleasant trance. Finally, a girl who didn't hate me! I arrived at my room, unlocked the door, and flopped on the bed, sighing. Today was a great day!

        "Er, excuse me? Who do you think you are?" a voice from the other bed said.

        Looks like today wasn't quite over yet.