Animal Ribbons

Chapter Two: Badger

The sun has woken up after two glorious weeks of stormy weather. I tried to persuade mum to let me off school today, except she didn't allow it. I walk into the classroom, five minutes before the bell rings, and notice Kelly and Jen writing on a piece of paper. I walk to my seat and they hand me the piece of paper. "Look at this!" Kelly enthuses. I glance at the drawing. There's four extremely badly drawn stick figures in a cliché meadow.

One is obviously Jen, another is Kelly, a third could be distinguished as me, and the last one has fairy wings. My friends surprise me by noticing my confused face. They actually noticed me! Jen sighs and rolls her eyes dramatically, like I'm stupid. I knew it was too good to be true, I mean, it must be so hard being nice to me. Kelly starts to explain, except I've worked myself into such a state that I can't hear over the words spinning around in my head.

We go out to morning tea and start eating. I nibble on a chocolate chip cookie. One of my other friends, Alli, from a different class, comes up to us.

"Hi guys!" she greets, uncharacteristically cheerful.

"Do you think that you could look after the new girl for morning tea? I've got monitor duty." We nod at Alli and the unfamiliar girl behind her, and our old friend wanders of to the office with her two BFFs. The girl grins confidently at me and sits on the concrete by me.

"What's your name?" Jen loudly asks.

"I'm Connie," the girl grins, causing dimples to appear in her tanned cheeks. Then she turns to me, her long dark wavy hair flicking around wildly in the process. "What's your name?" she asks me, enunciating the your. I hear Kelly sigh in frustration; she's not used to being ignored.

"Sienna," I whisper, almost inaudible. She grins again. "How old are you, Sienna?" she asks. "She's 14," Kelly says, and a sudden wave of anger overcomes me. Connie seems unimpressed as well. "Sienna can talk, you know," she snaps, adding a glare in for good measure.

She turns to me again. "I'm 14 as well."

The bell rings for second block and we glance at each other. "To be continued at lunch!" she laughs. I giggle. "Definitely!"

The next block seems to go by in a whizz. "Hi!" she greets me. "Hi!" I respond. She notices my depressingly empty lunchbox, and reaches into her overfilled plastic bag. She pulls out a kit kat bar and a wrap with avocado, cheese, tomato, salad, and carrot. "You want?" she asks. "I couldn't possibly..." I begin, but she cuts me off. "No," she says firmly. "Your having these, I'm not having a best friend that won't accept random gifts!" I reluctantly steal the food in her hand and snap the Kit-Kat in half, handing her some.

"Mmmm," she hums, licking her lips. I take a bite out of the healthy wrap and compliment her. "I didn't make it!" she giggles. "I can't make toast without burning it!"

I join her in a laughing fit. "I love baking," I argue, "except mum won't let me in the kitchen in fear I'll burn down the house!"

Connie starts laughing again. "You should come over some time," she says, serious this time. "My mum,"-she seems to struggle with the word- "loves to bake, and doesn't mind us making a mess as long as we clean it up!"

A smile creeps onto my face. "When?" Connie shrugs. "Whenever whatever!" I smile even more broadly and the bell rings. "So, what do you wanna do at lunch?" I ask her. "Do you have a field?" she asks innocently. I nod and we start walking towards the grassy stretch of land. She sees it and drags me down the concrete stairs towards it.

"Connie!" I shriek, laughing, "your going too fast!" She laughs, too, but doesn't slow down. I'm panting by the time we've crossed the field and gave taken refuge under some shady pine trees.

"How... are you... so fit!" I pant, gasping for air. Connie giggles, in a manner that suggests she does this five times everyday. Being breathless is a good excuse to think. Why would this dark-haired, shiny-eyed, tanned, dimpled-skinned beauty want to be my friend? Me, plain old Sienna. I notice that the kids playing soccer are staring in surprise as well, like they're reading my thoughts.

"Are you free this afternoon?" I blurt out stupidly. She smiles and nods. "Do you want to come to mine?" she asks. I grin. "So, tell me about yourself," I say to her. She pouts, and says "boring! let's dosomething fun!" She gets up off of the ground and tucks her ugly school shirt into the uniform shorts, and launches into a cartwheel. I giggle, and copy with a flawless handstand at the end. 

And, for the first time in years, I actually felt truly happy.