Not So Special

three (alexa)

"I wasn't on my fucking phone!" I yell once we're out of the gym. "I didn't even have a phone!"

Jon, one of my friends from when I first moved here, is trying to calm me down. "Lexie, I know."

"They're still making a whole goddamn assembly about me! And how I was on my "phone" while walking and that's why I got hit! I got hit because that girl was being a freaking idiot and not watching while she was driving!" I shift to my good foot and throw one crutch, then the other. "It wasn't my fault, and now everyone is going to think it is!" I keep yelling, and Jon keeps grabbing my crutches and picking up the trash cans I tip over in rage.

After I'm calmed down enough to listen to him, he has me do breathing exercises. "Okay, lay down on your back." he instructs. I listen to him. "You're going to breathe in for four seconds, hold for seven, release for eight. On my count. Ready?"

We go through it a few times, and I feel like I can talk normally again. Jon helps me sit up against the wall and lean my head on his shoulder. It's nice having him back at school, instead of touring Europe for months at a time.

The last period bell rings and everyone comes flooding out the doors. Jon helps me to my feet and grabs my crutches. People are buzzing with excitement. It makes me mad all over again. It wasn't an exciting assembly, and they were just spreading rumors about me.

Later that night, a video gets sent around me. Jon sends it to the group chat that we have with some of our online friends. That's part of why I was so excited to get a phone: being added to the legendary "mother russia" group chat that he was always showing me conversations from.

I recognize the face and the location instantly. Charlie... took the mic at the assembly?

I click on the video. It starts as he kindly asks the principal for the microphone, and when he gets it, goes on this whole long speech about how phones aren't bad and most people have better peripheral vision than that. It ends with the school resource officer escorting him out.

7:59 P. M.

Alana: Bruh the principal got told

Jon: he straightup got suspended

Jon: not the principal, charlie

Alexa: suspended?!

Charlie got suspended? For me?

I am going to beat him. He got suspended for me by throwing his sister under the bus. Well, not exactly. Most of his two minutes of fame was spent talking about how degrading this whole "phone = bad" thing is.

8:01 P.M. Serenity entered the chat.

Serenity: Hold up whats this about?

Alexa: whomst art thou

Jon: I met her in England at one of the training centers there and we vibed

Jon: Alexa is the girl who got hit with a car and then during an assembly "calling her out" or whatever bs he got so mad that he stood up and started a riot.

Alana: Bruh that's dedication. Lexie i stg if you don't go on a date with him i will castrate you.

Alexa: rip me then

8:11 P.M.: Axl has entered the chat

Axl: If you don't I will, he very cute

Axl: and he got suspended for you. That's dedication, if I've ever seen any man

Jon: you need someone with dedication lol next time you come here lexie you better set him up on a date

Jon: wait actually no he obviously has the hots for you

Alana: omg who ever says that anymore you freaking boomer

Serenity: lol ok boomer imma steal your man

Ugh, ok boomer is such an old meme, but I still laugh at it.

Jon: Serenity you dumb lesbian

Serenity: um rude how dare you assume my sexuality??

I laugh, burying myself in the covers of my bed. Just as I do, the internet cuts out. I don't want to use any of my mobile data, so I frantically try to get it back. We use the old guy next door's WiFi, since it reaches everywhere in our apartment and he doesn't use it. There's nothing much that I can do about it because of that.

I wonder what Serenity looks like. Jon hasn't sent me a picture of her yet. I'll just ask him tomorrow at school. She seems to be cool, except for her use of ok boomer.

"That's her." Jon says, pointing to a dark skinned girl with dreads pulled back in a low ponytail. He's showing me a picture that his dad took of them with some of Jon's relatives.

"Cool." I reply. "But what's that climbing up her shoulder?"

Jon laughs, remembering an inside joke. "She's an animal communicator, and this little rabbit literally wouldn't leave her alone, so she took it home and bathed it and all that. Now, whenever she leaves the house, it cries and her grandpa, also a communicator, can't stand it, so she takes it everywhere but shopping."

"Even to school?" I ask.

"Well, yeah, she's homeschooled, so..." Jon smiles.

I tap his foot with my crutch. "Aww, Jonny has a crush!" I crack a crap eating grin and he glances at me, turning redder by the second.