Overly Energetic

4: Sarah's Crush

Evelyn left her third period class feeling tired and frustrated. Jason seemed to be all anyone was talking about. It wasn't like the school wasn't used to new students. Just a few months ago, Evelyn's friend Grace had come to Shasta High school all the way from Tennessee. Grace was the topic of conversation for a while sure, but nothing compared to the level of social hum Jason was stirring up.

Evelyn stomped down the hallway towards the cafeteria, ignoring the hushed conversation that followed as she passed B bay. Her lost theater game had sparked more conversations than she thought it would.

Someone grabbed her arm. "Hey!" Sarah said in her normal happy chime, bending down in front of Evelyn so her face was directly above hers. Evelyn gave her a quick glance. "Hey." She mumbled.

Sarah furrowed her brows. "Well you seem down in the dumps." She put her hand to her chin. "Luckily, I know what will cheer you up!"

Evelyn felt the side of her mouth start to pull into a smile. "And what is that?" She asked, already knowing what her friend had in mind. Sarah laced her arm around Evelyn's. "You want to skip down the hallway singing The Wizard of Oz?"

Evelyn let out a chuckle, noticing the character flip. This was something she would usually drag Sarah into doing when she felt down. "Nothing would make me happier." She replied.

Evelyn and Sarah skipped down the hallway, arms linked yelling about visiting a wizard. "Were off to see the wizard! The wonderful wizard of Oz!" They sang as students jumped out of their way, giving them odd stares as they passed. Some students chuckled at the absurdity of the two, while others gave annoyed scoffs at the teens who were acting more like young children.

Evelyn felt her spirit lift as she glanced at each face staring her way. Her confidence was beginning to find its way back as she and Sarah broke through the hallway doors and out in the courtyard. The two skipped all the way to the cafeteria, and didn't stop until they had found their place in the long lunch line that nearly spilled out the cafeteria doors and into the courtyard they had just crossed.

"So" Evelyn began, remembering her conversation with Sarah earlier that morning. "It's lunch, are you going to tell me who you like now?" She poked Sarah in the arm teasingly but Sarah didn't move, she just stared blankly across the lunch line. Evelyn followed Sarah's gaze to a Junior boy she remembered from last year's talent show. Evelyn glanced back at Sarah. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was scrunched into a small dot on her face that was now tomato red.

"Ooohhhh." Evelyn breathed. "So, I take it Andre is your mystery man?" Sarah shot her a glare. "I swear Evelyn, if you do anything to embarrass me in front of him I will attack you." Evelyn gasped, placing a hand on her chest. "Me?" She said adopting a British accent, "Why would I ever do such an outlandish thing?" Sarah deepened her glare. "Because you're you and you always do embarrassing stuff."

Evelyn waved away her comment. "I just say things that are...entertaining." She said and punched in her school number into the number pad used to pay for school lunches as her and Sarah passed through the double doors to the kitchen portion of the cafeteria.

Sarah rolled her eyes and grabbed a tray of chili with cornbread. Evelyn let out a grunt of frustration as she grabbed the same chili option, wishing not for the first time that she could just stomach the taste of meat like seemingly everyone else. The other meal of choice was meatloaf and it was a lot easier to pick out the meat from chili then from a loaf.

Evelyn traveled next to Sarah over to the salad bar and began piling heaping bunches of lettuce directly onto her tray. "You know, he's actually pretty cute." Evelyn offered as Sarah dumped a glob of ranch on her small side salad comprised entirely of baby carrots.