The Life I'm Running From

3\ Catfights and Birthdays

"You've got to be joking. Danny!"

There was no response. I sighed, and stared at the mirror. My shirt, the new one I had gotten at the mall only last week, was too small. The sleeves were supposed to go to my wrist. They were an inch short, and it looked absolutely terrible. I wasn't one to care about my appearance, but this was ridiculous.

"Danny?" I called again. I left my room, and found her sitting in the living room. She had her earbuds in and was doing her daily yoga. She looked so peaceful. "DANNY!"

Danny jolted, falling from her tree pose. Her eyes flew open. Upon seeing me, she tugged out her earbuds and tilted her head. "Yeah? What did you need?"

I held out my arm, and gestured with my other hand to the too-short sleeves. Huffing, I said, "It's too small."

Danny shrugged, a hint of a smile on her lips. "I told you to try it on the store, but you refused. Guess you're going to have to deal with it."

Twenty minutes later, and in a different shirt, I was walking to school. My backpack was heavy on my back from all the textbooks I had to bring home. Last night had been my attempt to catch up in Math. I had spent three hours on learning facts and formulas, yet somehow I had barely made a dent in my workload.

Suddenly there was a hand on my shoulder. I whipped around to face a woman, her face partially obscured by large sunglasses.

"Do you attend J. M. Michaels?" she asked. Her voice had a heavy Irish accent, which didn't help the nerves blossoming in my stomach.

"Why?" I asked, making sure my voice was a lot more confident than I felt.

There was something about her that wasn't right. She was wearing dark pants and a black tank top. Her hair was dyed pink, and was tied up in a ponytail. I doubted she was much older than Danny. Along her bare arms were wrap-around tattoos, all in the design of chains. She removed her glasses and cleaned them on her shirt calmly. Her eyes were surprisingly plain from the rest of her.

"I was wonderin' if you knew someone at J. M. Michaels High School," she said.

I shook my head. "I just started going here. I don't know anyone." Yeah, I did know a few people, but there was no way I was helping this mysterious and slightly creepy lady. "Bye."

Without waiting for a response, I continued my walk down the street. She didn't stop me. When I got to the end of the street, I looked back to see if she was talking to anyone else. But she was gone.

★彡 ★彡 ★彡 ★彡

"I understood nothing from that class," I told Charlie as we exited Physics.

"Ditto." Charlie straightened her navy blue shirt, making sure the slitted sleeves were still on top of her arm. "What are you doing for lunch?"

I shrugged. "Just hanging in the cafeteria. You and Skylar can sit with me."

Charlie smiled as we started to descend the stairs. "Sure. I'll text Skylar to meet us."

We reached the eighth floor and stopped at my locker. Charlie already had her lunch with her, so when I was done we headed for the cafeteria. A group of freshman girls pushed ahead of us on the stairs. The scent of perfume around them was nauseating. Charlie looked at me incredulously and I wrinkled my nose in agreement. Those girls really needed to tone it down a bit.

The cafeteria was as crowded as ever. Charlie looked around at the tables, none of which were empty. "Who do you usually sit with?"

I pointed to a table at the edge of the room, where Adriana already sat. She was, coincidentally, wearing the exact shirt that had been too small for me this morning. Funny that we'd own the same shirt, considering our styles were so different. But to make up for the lack of colour in the shirt, her earrings and shoes were a radiant purple.