Uncontrollable | ✎

chapter four

Monday, August 21

Lydia: I'll be in the quad

Lydia: by our tree

I force myself to walk faster, checking my phone for the time. There are still fifteen minutes before school starts, but I don't want Lydia to stand there and wait for me. I do my best to stuff the rest of my granola bar into my mouth and get to school as fast as I can.

I end up at school in five minutes, and it's crawling with paranoid freshmen. I don't see many people from my grade, including Lydia, but I still go and stand by the tree she mentioned earlier.

The tree is the tallest in the quad, on the small grassy "hills" that form a half-circle, with long curling branches, and dark green leaves. The grayish bark is peeling off to reveal a light brown color underneath. The day it became "our tree" was completely random. On freshman orientation day, I found Lydia standing by this tree, and on the first day of high school as well. And then during lunch every day, and eventually it just became our tree.

There are two girls standing by the tree, giggling, and I lean against the opposite side of the tree, and patiently wait for Lydia. I pull out my phone, my fingers hovering over her name, but decide against it. She'll come, and I don't want to look desperate like I have no one else to talk to.

I'm trying to connect to the school's shitty Wi-Fi, but only because my data's even worse when something shoves into me from behind, and I stumble forward a few steps. A little shriek escapes my mouth, and I turn around about to say sorry or something along those lines when I realize who it is.

"What the hell!" I exclaim, smacking a grinning Cameron on the chest.

"Good morning!" he replies, smiling even wider, and I scowl at him.

"What do you want?"

"I just wanted to say hi."

"Well hi," I mutter and cross my arms.

"Hello," Cameron beams and I scowl at him, again.

"Do you normally do that to people?"

"Do what?"

"Come up from behind and scare them? Or am I just really special?" I snap, and Cameron shrugs.

"Usually people do it to me," he replies sheepishly.

"So I'm just your ragdoll for you to take your frustrations out on then," I grunt, and Cameron frowns at me. When I observe his face, I genuinely cannot tell if he's sporting actual concern, or feigning it.

"Of course not. Ragdoll is a bit of a strong term," Cameron reassures.

I guess it's fake.

"Wow, thanks. Go to hell."

"I'm already here," Cameron smirks, and I roll my eyes.

"You're so funny for quoting a Twitter screenshot from Instagram."

"Thanks, I know. It's one of my best qualities."

"Jenna!" I look away from Cameron and see a girl running across the quad with her hair streaming behind her face.

"Lydia!" I cry, and she pulls me into a hug.

"Hey, let me see your schedule! Do you think we'll have AP Psych together?" Lydia exclaims, and I quickly pull out my phone and show Lydia my schedule. She analyzes it for a minute and then sighs.