Don't give up on me ✓

[07] Eye Candy

Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Chapter 7: Eye Candy

High school is like dodgeball. They try to reduce your mindset into a 2D box set. Turn your wildest ambitions into stable careers and pin you to a stereotype.

Dodge. it. all.

Dodgeball. That's my take on it anyway. And as I actively dodged the students whizzing past me, I followed Jesper to my first class. I tightened the straps of my backpack, feeling overwhelmed by all the posh students around me.

Jesper held the door to my first class open for me. He stayed there, waiting for me to enter before he left for his class.

"You'll ace it, G."

I patted his arm in thanks, and walked inside.

"Hey," he called out.

I turned around to look at him. A couple students squeezed past in between us.

"Take off your gloves."

I looked down at them. The weather was hot outside and here I was inside wearing gloves. I know it's weird. But so is electrocuting people. If I accidentally touch the metal on someone's watch or necklace, I could injure them.

I should've realized how right Jesper was though. By third period there was a rumor spreading that I had a contagious skin disease.

Great reputation.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The bell rang. I looked down at my wrinkled schedule and breathed a sigh of relief. Lunchtime. Finally. I left class, looking for the food hall.

"Georgia? Wait up," someone called my name, "Is that your name? Georgia?"

A tall girl with hooped earrings hurried towards me. She had a sun kissed glow and an easygoing attitude. (photo above)

"Yes, what's yours?"

"Cool, I wasn't sure. The teacher called you Lavandra or something. My name's Isla. Mum's a huge Ingrid Bergman fan."

"What's the connection?" I asked, missing the reference.

She handed me her jacket to hold while she scraped her hair into a bun on top of her head.

"Haven't you seen Casablanca? No? Well the main character there is Ilsa but my mum spelt it wrong, thank god, and now I sound tropical. At least you didn't say Frozen honestly," she sighed, fixing her hair and then taking her jacket back. She exchanged it for my pencil case, "You left this in class."

"Oh! Thanks," I took it from her and stuffed it into my bag, "I was too excited to get to lunch."

"Well you're going the wrong way. Come on," she motioned to her left. We walked together.

She was the first friendly person I'd met. Everyone else just went about their own lives with their existing friends like there wasn't room for one more. I was invisible. I guess it's rough being the new kid. I honestly hadn't realized that before – I've been part of the same group of friends since elementary school. We'd all grown up in the same flats, been in the same classes. There was nothing new about us.

"So what's your deal? You just moved here?" she asked, popping gum into her mouth, "You want a piece?"

"No thanks," I said. We're about to have lunch. "I just moved to Swell Valley. It's an hour from here."

"Yeah I know it. I've never been but the hottest guys in school come from there. Some girls visit Swell Valley just to accidentally-on-purpose bump into them. Hey, maybe you know them-"