Two Peas in a Pod

Lonely Lunchtime

I'd say that I'm not one of those typical perfect girls who always wants a boyfriend. I'm not someone who wants to be popular because let me tell you, it doesn't always end well. All I ever wanted was at least one person to be my friend. I always wanted to have somebody who would willingly stick up for me, not leave me for someone else, and absolutely NOT become a fraud. My name is Rebecca, I'm 13 years old, and I was considered a loner in school.

Years ago, in the small state of Vermont in the middle of nowhere, my parents decided to enroll me into a preschool full of children I never wanted to associate with.

I was in a puddle a tears every time my mother dropped me off. Until one day, a little girl went up to me.

"Hi, do you want to play 'House' with me?"

I stared back up to her.

"Okay," I said, shyly.

She took me to a doll house.

"I'm Alissa by the way. What's your name?"

"I'm Rebecca." I replied nervously.

"Cool," she nodded and gave me a small cat figure. "I will be the son, the mother, and the dog, and you'll be the daughter, the father, and the cat. Got it?"

"Okay," I said again.

We played with each other every single day after that. We even made up a little schedule for the three school days we had, which I would KILL for that schedule again. Well, not really. Tuesdays would be the Play-Doh day, Wednesdays we would play with the doll house, and Thursdays we would go outside. For years on end, since Pre-K we were always together like two peas in a pod.

Until everything changed.

It was a generic middle school day. Alissa and I were eating lunch together, and out of nowhere a popular girl name Georgia came up to her. Now, this isn't the first time this happened. It started about a month ago, and it had become a lot more recent as the school days went on. I treated it like it was nothing at first.

"I don't even know why she's coming here," I said. "we don't even like her."

"Yeah," she agreed, and continued eating.

Georgia continued to go to our table everyday. She only talked to Alissa, which obviously meant she was trying to exclude me.

"Hey, have you caught up on the latest Modern Family episode?" Georgia asked.

"Yeah, it was so good!" Alissa replied, excitedly.

"I watch that show," I said, "and I saw that episode." But nobody was listening.

One day at lunch, Alissa was talking to her, and the sort-of unexpected happened.

"Hey, Alissa, do you want to sit at our table?" She happily asked, completely ignoring me.

Alissa turned to look at me. I was giving her the "don't you dare" look. Unfortunately, she didn't get the message and accepted her invitation. I watched in horror and despair as she followed Georgia to her table.

I was stunned. "We've been friends for years! NOW she chooses to betray me?" I wondered angirly.

All day I was trying to recover from what happened. Lunch was embarrassing, since I was sitting alone. People were looking back and forth from me to their tablemates. After lunch, I had math, which is my worst subject. There was a new lesson, but my situation was more important so I didn't pay attention to the teacher at all. I ran home after school to find my parents on the couch with a downcast look on their face.

"Rebecca," My mom asked. "Is that you?"

Something was up. They obviously wanted to to talk to me.

"Yeah, it is. Who else would it be?!" I yelled angrily as I sprinted up the stairs. I violently slammed the door to my room.

At precisely 6:34 PM, my dad called me for dinner. I proceeded my way downstairs and settled at the table without uttering a word, until my mom spoke up.

"Why have you been in your room for so long?" she asked.

"I was doing homework," I grumbled.

"Oh, what subject?"

"Why is she so nosy?" I whispered to myself.

"You think I'm nosy?" My mother scolded.

Whoops. I clearly said that too loudly. I quickly switched back to the original subject. "Math." I replied. Math will forever be my least favorite subject.

"Oh, okay!" She said. All of a sudden she was incredibly happy.

"Jeez, does she have Bipolar?" I wondered this time.

We continued eating after that brief conversation. I cleared my plate after I was done, and made my way to my room.

"Uh, Rebecca, do you mind if we can all have a little chat?" my dad asked.

I hesitated. "Fine." Ugh, I just wanted to be alone!

My parents waited for me as I walked back downstairs and sat myself on the couch.

"Rebecca, we couldn't find an easier way of putting this, so we're just going to throw it out there." My mom explained. "Your great-grandfather... passed away last week."