All it Takes is You and Me

Chapter 3

           Alyssa arrived at school the next morning, jumping out of her mom's car quickly, after seeing Emma get out of the car in front of her. She ran up behind the girl, hoping she would turn around to see her, but to no prevail. She tapped her shoulder, trying to gain her attention. Emma whipped her head around, a slightly shocked expression on her face, before seeing who it was. "Oh, hey," she exhaled, with a slight chuckle.

"You ready to work on our story today?"

Emma nodded, smiling slightly. She paused briefly, before asking, "Why are you walking in with me?"

Alyssa furrowed her eyebrows. "Why wouldn't I? I saw you walking in, and I wanted to walk with you. If you don't want me to, I can-"

"Oh, no, no, it's fine! It's just that you- don't you normally come in with Kaylee?"

As if on cue, a high-pitched voice from behind her called, "Alyssa!" She felt a hand grab her arm, pulling her away from Emma, forcing her to face Kaylee and Shelby, who both shot a glare at the girl Alyssa had just been talking to. She tried to send Emma an apologetic look, but her head was already looking back down at the ground.

"Why were you walking with her?" Shelby snapped. Alyssa barely knew Shelby, why did she suddenly act like she was in charge of her?

"Didn't we discuss this yesterday, Alyssa?" Kaylee asked, rhetorically.

"I was waking with her, because I wanted to walk with her," she explained flat-out. She wished she weren't so nice, and that there weren't so many other students and teachers around, because boy, did she have some things she wanted to say to the two. When they got to class, she saw Emma quietly reading a book. She so badly wanted to go and apologize to her, but knew it'd be best if she didn't with Kaylee and Shelby right there. As she sat down at her desk, Emma glanced up at her, but as Alyssa was about to mouth "sorry," she went back to her book.

~♥︎~

Before Alyssa knew it, it was 11:30; right when they would continue on their projects. When the teacher announced to get with their partners, Alyssa got up and tentatively walked over to Emma's desk. "Hey," she greeted nervously, volume almost to a whisper. Emma replied, doing the same. Alyssa slowly slid down into the desk next to Emma's and pulled the papers out of her folder. "I'm really sorry about Kaylee and Shelby-" she began, before Emma cut her off.

"No, you're fine. You don't need to apologize."

"Yes, I do. They were being jerks, and I should have just kept waking with you."

"Alyssa, seriously! It had nothing to do with you."

"You're sure?"

"Yes!" Emma didn't think she could ever be mad at Alyssa.

~♥︎~

While it was every other kid in her class's "favorite subject", recess was always Emma's least favorite part of the day. She had no friends who'd invite her to a game of 4-square or kickball, or a group of people, like Alyssa's clique, who'd gossip about who knows what. Probably me, Emma'd think. So, she'd bring out a book, sit down on one of the many benches, and try to block out all of the noise. The part she hated most about it, were the recess monitors. Almost every day, they'd come over to her, ask her how she was, what book she was reading, and sometimes would even try to get her to invite herself into a game of football, which she refused to do. She wished she could tell them to just leave her alone, that she was perfectly content just sitting and reading, and certainly didn't need to embarrass herself more than she already was.