The Price of Beauty

one | neighbour

"Make new friends, but keep the old; those are silver, these are gold." ― Joseph Parry

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I JAMMED THE KEY INTO my locker a third time but fail, frustrated. "I don't know who designs these, but whoever does is going to have a huge whopping from me," I thought to myself. "Three seconds into the school and I already have tremendous hate towards something. Fabulous."

"You okay back there?" I heard a soft yet deep voice coming from behind me.

"Eek, the locker just wonnn't OPEN," I groaned in pain as I accidentally jabbed the sharp end of the key into my palm, "Ouch."

"Here, let me help, sweetness." He said smoothly. Any other guy who said sweetness would make me cringe, but he had that knack of saying things that in a way that sounded so great rolling against his tongue. I couldn't decipher why, but it just worked for him, I guess.

He took the keys from my clenched hand, easing it open and then sliding the key in, using such a gentle motion that for a second, I thought he was opening a locker that wasn't made in China.

He then used his hand and patted the side of the locker, and I looked at him questioningly. "Why would he do that?" I wondered.

He looked at me knowingly and said, "Ah, sometimes this ol' pal needs a bit of convincing."

He patted the locker again, and the door swung out.

"Oh wow." I gasped, and he nodded.

"There you go, sweetness."

I thanked him profusely, which he replied in return, "Oh, I just had the same locker last year. Don't mention it." He smiled and walked away.

I get back into putting my books, whilst the situation replayed in my head numerous times, when I feel a prod in my back.

"Who was that hot guy??!!" my best friend, Chloe squealed from behind.

"STOP drooling, it's undignified!" I laughed. I've known Chloe since middle school, when we called ourselves the two short C's. Short names and short girls. We've grown since then (I swear, physically too), but we had such an unreplaceable friendship.

"So, who do you have for homeroom?" she asked.

"Mr. Greene."

"Bummer," Chloe said, "I have Mrs. Jones."

"Home Ec which period?"

"4th."

"Ugh, I have it for 3rd."

We scanned our lists and compared and realised we only had lunch together, which sucked.

"Well, I guess that means we get to make new friends," Chloe said optimistically.

I rolled my eyes and waved at her just as the bell rang.

"Right, I'm gonna go."

I waved at her again and gave her a shooing motion, jamming my locker door shut and locking it. I then went up the stairs to Mr. Greene's homeroom class, and although it was a new school, it was impossible not to easily find this classroom as the board wrote, Mr Greene's Homeroom Class, welcome to SCHOOL in scrawled, mature writing.

I sat down on a seat at the front row.

"Are you new?" I heard a girl behind me say.

"Yeah, I'm Clai-", I began, but got interrupted.