"Memorable"

Part Four

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Salem met up with Graciela on Monday morning at student drop off. Salem had his trademark off-white sweatshirt on that day, and Graciela wore a fashionably large, colorfully striped shirt with a pair of white shorts. They had texted about meeting up the previous day, and they soon made their way to the cafeteria so Salem could get his breakfast.

"You really have time to eat at home in the morning?" Salem asked her, after she revealed she'd eaten already.

"Yeah. I've been strangely motivated to wake up early to get ready to come here," Graciela told him. He chuckled.

"I couldn't imagine looking forward to school."

Graciela waited near the cafeteria registers for Salem to quickly grab his daily granola bar and milk. After he checked out, they stopped for a minute before going to where the skater boys convened.

"Did you talk to Isabelle at all this weekend?" Graciela questioned.

"No," Salem responded. "I wanted to talk to her in person about everything, and I want to see her to it alone. Just, so I know how she's really feeling, without the influence from her friends."

"That sounds like a good idea," Graciela said. "You'll keep me posted, right?"

"Yeah," Salem nodded. "Let's go."

The two of them spent their morning beneath the staircase once again, with Salem checking up on his assignments like usual, and Graciela doing a bit of chatting amongst the skaters. Luckily, none of them had brought up her initial stunt on Salem since it happened, which both of them were glad about.

What Salem also pulled up on his laptop was a small, blank desktop sticky note. He typed at the top, "THINGS TO TALK ABOUT." He made a bulleted list of all the points he wished to address with Isabelle some time during the week.

Throughout the morning, he expanded upon each of them, getting more specific in the questions he wanted answers to. He was slightly nervous on his way to Mr. Pherigo's class, knowing there was at least one bullet point he wanted to bring up to her before lunch that day. He talked to Graciela before the period began, and, after he took his seat, he found his gaze drift to Isabelle every so often during the class itself. He was coming up with ways to pull her aside before she left with her friends.

When the bell finally did ring, he simply called for her. Graciela noticed, and decided to wait outside the room for him.

"Hey, Salem!" She greeted with enthusiasm like usual. As she made her way back to Salem's seat, a friend of hers tagged along.

"Hey, do you mind if I have a word with just you?" He asked her.

"Why's that? What are you gonna say to her?" Isabelle's friend chimed in, defensively. Before Salem could try to defend himself, Isabelle took over.

"Nance, can you please just leave us alone?" She turned to her friend, Nancy, with a bit of force in her tone. Nancy was one of the friends who had tagged along the last Friday after classes— Salem had recognized her. Nancy did not look happy, but she did as Isabelle said, walking away; not without rolling her eyes, of course.

Isabelle then said, "I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about like, disturbing you with your family on Saturday, too. Totally uncalled for, I know." She shook her head, her large curls bouncing back and forth.

"Yeah... As far as the outfit stuff, I hope you don't mind if I talk to you about that another time? I wanted to ask about the tickets," Salem began. Isabelle was surprised that Salem didn't appear upset.