A Taste of Hollywood

Four

The next day, Mom dropped me off again and I went to A1. Mrs. Lang greeted me, "Ms. Dipalo!" and I just hurried to my seat.

Next to me sat a girl with skin the color of cocoa, black hair, a shiny orange shirt, blue jeans, orange Nike sneakers, and silver and gold bangle bracelets. She smiled a bright white smile and me and I looked back at my paper.

"Hi."

I sat up. "Uh, hi," I said shyly. She grinned again.

"I'm Destiny."

"I'm Ella."

"I know."

Destiny flicked her hair over her shoulder, causing her bracelets to jingle together.

Just then, the bell rang.

I gathered up my books. Destiny walked beside me. "I saw you sitting at my table yesterday. Tiffany invited you over. She has a short attention span. She must've forgotten about you. Do you have math next?"

I nodded. "Yeah," I said. "It says with 'Mrs. Meyers'."

"I've got ELA," Destiny said, making a face. "Well, I'll see you later."

And she walked off.

I found room B1 and entered. Mrs. Meyers was a tall teacher with curly black hair, pink lips, and grayish-blue eyes.

I sat down and felt a poke on my back.

I turned around.

A shy-looking girl with long blonde hair and a pink top with black leggings looked at me from behind her too-long blonde bangs.

"Sorry," she whispered, pulling her binder closer to her. I saw some of the metal wiring was sticking out and it must've poked me.

"I'm Ella," I said cheerfully.

She looked down. "I'm Olivia."

Is she shy or just unfriendly? I wondered.

As if she could read my thoughts, she set down her pencil and looked up. "Did I sound rude? I'm so sorry, I did. I'm sorry."

I smiled. "You're fine," I told her. She grinned weakly. "I'm not supposed to be rude," she told me. Then she looked down again.

That day at lunch, I sat by Destiny. I saw Olivia standing at the end of the lunch line, her dark brown eyes searching the ocean of tables worriedly for a place to sit.

Where had she sat yesterday? I couldn't remember. I smiled and waved her over, the same way Destiny said Tiffany had the day before.

Olivia smiled that tiny smile of hers and walked over. She slid onto the bench next to me.

"Thank you," she said gratefully. As she began to eat, I suddenly noticed her lunch.

Salad, skim milk, cooked carrots, a banana, and a bag of pretzels.

She noticed me eyeing it. "Oh, um, I'm vegetarian," she said quietly.

"That's cool," I said. I took a bite of my pizza.

"Destiny, this is Olivia," I said. Destiny smiled her bright-white smile. Olivia did her teeny-tiny smile again.

I grinned.

Just then, I remembered something.

"My stepdad said I could have some people over this Friday. Do you guys maybe want to come over?"

They both nodded. I gave them my number and told them to text me that night.