RAMBLINGS

birthday

Anna looks on as the new girl moves along the school's hallway. She wouldn't give her any time of her day usually but when she had heard that the new girl had already been sent to the principal's office once and to detention twice, she couldn't quite resist.

At first look, she appeared to be like any other middle school girl, desperate enough to get out of their last year there. But now that Anna looked closely, she could see a fresh bruise forming just above her right elbow and that there seemed to be a little bit too much makeup around her eye.

The new girl catches her looking and raises her eyes as if saying, 'What are you looking at?'

Anna quickly averts her eyes and hurries along with her friends to her next class. She couldn't quite understand what the big deal about her was, sure she seemed edgy but that didn't really make her interesting enough to be the gossip of the entire school.

Her friends were chattering away happily but she was only listening to bit and pieces of it, thinking about the English assignment she's supposed to turn in that day, thinking maybe it would finally lift her grade to an A-.

Ryan Pratt passes by their group just then and when he winks at them, the topic swiftly changes to Ryan and how he's supposed to make the football team next year.

Anna wants to contribute to the conversation but oh well, she'd never be able to keep up with them. She wondered how a misfit like her was friends with such popular girls like her friends.

'Anna, we'll meet you in the cafeteria later. Cool?' says Samantha.

She nods to them but they're already gone. She lets out a huge sigh.

She opens the door to her class and quickly finds out that the new girl is sitting in her seat. She could tell her to get up, tell her that it's her seat but she realises it's so petty.

Instead she chooses a seat right beside her and opens her notebook.

'What? You stalking me or something?' asks the new girl. Her accent has a southern twinge mixed with something else that Anna can't recognise.

The comment catches Anna slightly off guard because the new girl has already acknowledged that she caught Anna staring at her earlier.

'You're in my seat.'

'Oh piss off princess.'

Anna's never been spoken to like that ever and it's also possibly why she finds it so intriguing.

'What's your name?' she finds herself asking.

The new girl looks at her like she's the dirt beneath her shoes and part of Anna wonders if her attitude is the reason why she's been in so much trouble already.

'Beth.' Anna thinks the name somehow suits her.

'Hi Beth. I'm Anna,' she says, extending her hand towards her.

Beth looks at hand once and then twice, already given up on the brief and the slightly awkward conversation that they've been having for the past few minutes.

Someone from behind tells Anna to sit down and when she does, she does it with the disappointment that Beth wouldn't shake her hand.

***

'My dad says he'll only buy me that new touch phone if I get a minimum of a B in English,' says Cara, biting into her apple.

They'd all gone on a fruit diet when Eve said it was doing wonders to her figure. Anna, even if she's perennially hungry these days and wanted to quit, held on, at least until her friends found a new fad.