Letters For Indie

~Chapter 8~

Fortunately, the next few periods ran by smoothly.

Despite the heaping amount of homework the teachers assigned, I was happy that I survived the first day of senior year with minor casualties.

Well, almost.

The bell for last period Drama class had just rung.

A bunch of students filed into class and some took their seats while others messed around with the costumes in the classroom.

This stalky, dark-skinned boy wrapped himself up in a Greek toga and another girl wore a Dracula cape. They laughed and some of their friends joined in.

The classroom was basically twenty chairs arranged into a lopsided circle, with a purple director's chair placed in the center. The walls were painted bright orange with patches of peeling paint here and there.

Posters with pictures of Roman Colosseums and Shakespearean characters were plastered along the sides, and there was even a picture of Achilles that read, "If you can believe, you can achieve!"

I quietly took a seat on the chair closest to the door and placed my bag on my lap.

"Hi!" A perky voice called out.

Wait, was someone actually talking to me?

A pretty girl with caramel colored, flawless skin and the deepest dimples I had ever seen extended her hand towards me. Oh my god.

"I'm Gabriella Hayes" she chirped, "My friends call me Gabby, or Gabs, or Ella. You can call me whatever you want. I mean, not actually 'whatever you want' like Hey 'whatever you want', what's up?' But like one of those."

I stood there paralyzed. Talk back, Indie, say something.

I reached out for her hand, and shook it weakly. Why the hell was I so nervous?

"Oh my god, you're shivering! Are you cold? It's freezing in here isn't it? I knew it, hold on, I'll go turn down the air conditioning. You're going to get, like, hypothermia or a cold!"

Does this girl have a mute button or something?

I shook my head quickly.

"Well?"

I stared at her blankly. What now?

"What's your name, silly?" she giggled.

"Indie?" It came out sounding like a question. Damn it, get youself together Indie.

"Indie! That's a pretty name, I love it! Oh my god, it's so exotic and bizzare!"

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, bizarre in the best of ways. I used to have a fish named Indigo, kind of the same thing right?" she looked at me with wide eyes, expecting me to agree.

"Sure?"

"Aw, it's too bad Indigo passed away, you would've loved her! But she's swimming around in her cozy little fishtank up there." She made a dramatic motion towards the ceiling with big, watery puppy dog eyes.

"I'm sorry for your loss," I said uneasily, "I'm sure she was a great fish."

"Oh that's fine! She was a cheery little fish, you know? Kind of like the blue one from Finding Nemo. Always swimming around in her aquarium. But one day, she just died of Salmonella."

"Huh?"

"Salmonella! It's this horrible disease in Fish, kind of like...." she scrunched up her face and thought deeply for a second, "STDS in humans?"