Mocha Latte

Chapter 4

I sit down in Ms. Luts' Honors World History class, my favorite of the day. Instead of sitting with Lila, like I usually do, I take the seat next to Violet. Normally, it doesn't take any effort to pay attention to Ms. Luts. Today, it's different. All I can focus on is her. Her smell, her face, her personality. Just her. I stay in this sort of daze for the rest of the class. I barely hear the bell when it rings, until I hear "Hey. Bella." whispered in my ear. It's Violet! "Come with me. I wanna show you something." I follow her to the library.

"Where are we going?" I ask as she leads me through the library. New book smell washes over me as we reach the other end of the room. We are in the Reference section. No one ever comes back here. 2-inch dust covers the shelves. She leads me back to a big vent in the back. Odd. I didn't even know that was there. How does Violet know?

"Go inside. It's really cool!" Violet says, eyes sparkling with happiness. I crawl inside. My first thought is that it's a lot wider than I expected. Then I realize that Violet crawled in behind me.

"I come here a lot. It's a cool place to do homework and stuff," Violet says, with a touch of embarrassment in her voice. "Kirsten can't see me here, so I can actually express myself."

"It's super cool! I had no idea this was here!" I say, sincere for once in my life. I check my watch. "Shoot! I have to go! I'll see you tomorrow Violet! "

"Bye, Isabella!"

I half climb, half fall out of the vent and onto the floor. I grab my bag and sprint to Mrs. Kuhver's Calculus class, getting weird stares from a couple of the other outcasts. Wow. Now there's a weird thought. I slide into my seat next to Kat Johnson just before attendance begins. I absentmindedly tap my pencil, until Mrs. Kuhver hands out the homework. Ugh. How do these teachers expect me to keep up with school, work at the coffee shop, and get 8+ hours of sleep a night? Answer: they don't. How could I have forgotten? I look at the paper and sigh with disgust. Limits? Really? Ugh.

I work on the paper until the lunch bell rings. I know I won't be able to sit at my old table. I'm considering eating in the library when Violet waves me over.

"Hey, Isabella! Come sit with us!" She says, smiling. There's a group of kids sitting at her table. I recognize them as other outcasts that I've never really spoken to. I shrug and slide into a seat. A girl I don't really know, a paintbrush stuck through her ponytail, smiles at me and introduces herself as Hope. Everyone else takes the hint and introduces themselves, though the names and faces blur.

"Lucy," says a girl with hair dyed blue.

"Alex," says a guy holding a pencil and a notebook. He has an artsy look about him.

"Grace" adds a chick with one earbud in and a fruit salad open in front of her.

I guess these are the other outcasts. Why are they all so artsy? I'm bad at literally everything! Oh well, guess I sit here now. I sigh and sit down on the cold, hard seats in the cafeteria. We spend the rest of lunch arguing about things and quoting Vines at each other until the bell rings. I grab my bag and sprint to the gym, once again ignoring weird stares as Lucy and I laugh about whatever it was that Alex did at lunch. It involved tater tots and an empty water bottle. We sprint into the locker room, pull on our gym uniforms, and come back out to run laps. Coach Casta blows the whistle and announces that today is a dodgeball day. Josh whoops.

"The team captains," Coach begins, "will be Josh and Hope".

I turn and stare at Hope. I didn't know she was athletic! I hurry and get into line, waiting to be picked for a team. The teams go like they normally would, all the athletic kids going first. However. I am not last this time, getting picked by Hope somewhere in the middle. I high five Lucy, who ended up on Jack's team, and jog over to Hope. We start playing, and I'm lost in the game, just thinking about hitting Josh.