The New Girl

Chapter 4

Abby sat quietly in class Monday morning history class as she did last week. The incident Friday increased any insecurities she had before she had arrived at the school. She tried to avoid any conversations or any visual contact with Robert. She knew that he would be looking for her to try to explain himself. It was just something she knew about when boys messed up. They would come crawling back and try to butter you up so you would simply give them what they want, even though they would do the same thing once more. 

During history class, Robert had sat next to her and tried to gain her attention. She chose not to pay any attention to him. He poked her, tried passing a note, whispering, and even tried to get into a group with her for the group class work. As Robert moved to sit with Abby, Alan sat next to her. 

"Well, that sucks," Alan grinned. He turned to Abby who sat with a blank notepad in front of her. He had known what had happened between Robert and Abby at the party last weekend due to Nick and a few rumors around the school from the people who attended the party that were sober enough to remember. Alan remained quiet and studied the book in front of him like Abby had done. He kept looking over to her notepad that didn't have a single letter on it. 

"You okay?" Abby nodded without any emotion but the frown that never left. She continued looking at her book, but something gave Alan the feeling she was not really there. That she was only looking at her book to give everyone the feeling that she was reading. He looked at the page her book was opened to and smirked. 

"You know were on page 183 right?" he pointed toward her book. She turned to the right page and continued the same blank stare. "Why are you so quiet?" He asked. She shrugged, which proved his point. "You can talk to me if you like." 

"I'm fine," she responded. Alan remained looking at Abby. He wanted to understand just like the other two, Lem and Nick did. Alan left it at that and the two separated after class ended. 

Abby entered the hallway and walked around lifelessly. Her feet dragged with each step, and her eyes never left the floor. Every day was a reminder to her of why she was alone and why she felt like no one cared. She went to her locker and exchanged her books, and left to go to her history class. She walked in and was immediately waved to by Lem. Abby put her hand up and put it back down to her side and took a seat in the back. Lem scavenged over two desks and sat next to her in the back row.

"Well, well, well, Miss Abby Watson." Abby looked at Lem with the same look she gave everyone else. "I heard you went to Robert's party last weekend."

"For about three minutes."

"Well, that explains why you didn't say hi to me there," Lem laughed. Abby remained quiet and turned back towards the front. "You barely talk. What's the deal?" Abby shrugged. Lem sighed, "You're no fun," as he put his head down on the desk. He remained quiet for the ret of the class which didn't happen often and some how Abby already knew that. But as the last period of school started, Abby was approached yet again. It was Nick this time who sat next to her wearing his midnight green letterman jacket with smile. 

"Hey. How was your weekend?" 

"I've had better."

"Did the party ruin it?" He asked. She nodded. "Yeah, that was a dumb question, wasn't it?" He chuckled. Abby cracked a small smile. "There's a smile," Nick smiling back. She put her head down hoping her hood would stop him from seeing her smile any bigger, but Nick saw it.

"So what made you want to go to Robert's party?" Nick asked. Abby let out a sigh. 

"I got into an argument with my mom and I wanted to get away and ran into Robert outside of a 711. He convinced me to go to the party with him and his friend at his house and I just blindly went along."