Jain was sitting at a table in the cafeteria with some of his friends, eating pasta salad. His friends were all laughing at some joke that Jain must have missed. On the opposite side of the lunchroom, Smay was sitting at a table of her own, with a few other girls.
Smay was eating off her tray of food, which consisted of nachos and a cinnamon roll, while laughing and smiling with her friends. Her shoulder-length, dirty-blonde hair was pulled up, like usual, in a messy bun on the side of her head. As Jain watched her, Smay took off her distinguishable yellow glasses and laid them on the table next to her. She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands and tilted her head from side to side, cracking her neck. She must be exhausted, Jain thought, noticing the dark circles under her light blue eyes.
"Hey man, you seem so out of it. Wait no, let me guess. It's that note from Jasmine. So, c'mon, spill the beans. What'd it say?" Tommy, one of the guys at the table who Jain wasn't too fond of, playfully punched him on the shoulder. He had salad dressing on his chin.
"Just wait until next hour, you'll see it on the bulletin board then." Jain sighed.
"I'll bet Jain's gonna have a girlfriend in a little while." Sam smirked. Now that Jain thought about it, he wasn't too fond of any of the guys at the table. "Like seriously, if Jasmine were sending ME love notes, I'd ask her out in a heartbeat." He glanced over at Jasmine's table.
Jain followed his gaze. Jasmine was sitting at a table full of cheerleader-type girls. She was wearing a tight fitting shirt that showed off more of her chest than Jain wished to see. Jasmine was wearing dark skinny jeans with rhinestoned back pockets and hot pink sequined shoes that could be seen from a mile away. She was bent over a loose leaf of paper, writing something.
"Probably another stupid note." Jain said gloomily to himself.
"What was that, Jain?" Freddie leaned forward but didn't wait for Jain to answer. He turned towards Sam. "Hell, I'd fuck her. Forget 'bout the dates, with a body that sexy, I'd want the good stuff first." Everyone, excluding Jain, laughed and slammed their fists on the table.
" 'Cuse me guys. I'm gonna go throw up." Jain stood up, gathered his books, and walked over to Smay's table.
As he walked away, he could hear the guys saying things after him like "Think you can put in a good word about me?" And "Tell the brunette sitting next to her that I'm available!" Jain shook his head and made a face.
"Hey Smay." Jain sat down in the empty seat across from her. She was writing in a notebook, her tray of food pushed off to the side. As soon as Jain sat down, the other girls at the table, fun, book-wormy types, started giggling.
"I think we'll let you two be alone." One of them, Tammy, stood up and walked off to the courtyard, with the three other girls who were at the table following her. They whispered and looked back at Jain and Smay a couple times, continuing to giggle.
"Um. What was that exactly?" Jain said with a nervous smile.
"Oh nothing. They just think that, um, well, that you and I would be a cute couple." Smay glanced up from her notebook, then waved the idea off. "Like I said, it's nothing."
"Oh. Well. How long were you writing last night?" Jain quickly changed the subject to something less awkward.
"How'd you know?" Smay looked up at him.
"Obvious reasons. One, you're always writing late into the night," Jain smiled at her. "And two, you look pretty tired."
Smay gave him a half smile. She took a deep breath. "Yeah. Well, it wasn't too late...."
Jain laughed. "Sure it wasn't. So 'not too late' means you went to bed around two, I'd say, right?" Smay forced a laugh in reply. The bell rang for the end of lunch.
"God Smay, try to get some sleep once in awhile." He smiled and shook his head, then walked her to class.
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Afterword
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Sorry for not updating yesterday, guys! *hugs to make up for it*
I've been trying to update everyday.
Well, I'd love to hear what you think about this chapter. I sort of like it, but I feel it could be longer (not to mention that this wasn't where I wanted this chapter to go AT ALL).
But anyways, thanks for reading!
-sa
P.S. what do you think about having afterwords after every chapter? Sometimes I think that it takes away from the actual story. Other times I feel that it's nice to hear what the author has to say, especially since you aren't going to get to read any more in the story for a little while. I think I'll keep writing them, but if I ever do a story that is super serious and that I make plans and character webs and everything for, I won't have them. So anyways, I'd be interested in what you have to say!
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Roman pour AdolescentsHigh school is said to be about discovering who you are. Jain, however, is already pretty sure who he is; a regular at detentions, best friends to the most bullied girl at school, and stuck in the middle of a family crisis. Pretty gloomy, in Jain's...