Taste the Rainbow (Editing/Rewriting, slow progress)

XIII.

chapter thirteen: photos

***

When I finally get to Daphne's the others are already there. I guess they got here right after the practice.

After I ring the bell Carly opens the door and greets me with a smile. "You're here!"

"Of course, I am. I was invited too." I give her a hug and look around. "Are the others in Daphne's room?"

"Yes." She walks ahead of me up the stairs.

"Has Daphne said what she wants to tell us?" I ask and immediately realize how weird the question sounds.

"No," Carly grins and looks at me, "She wanted to wait for you."

"Really?" I cannot really imagine Daphne especially waiting for me to tell us something. We were not friends and I wasn't part of the Scorpions so why did she invite me? Probably because Carly would tell me about the thing anyways.

"Yes. She actually sees you as part of her friend group by now." This was something I had not expected. For sure I could call her something like a friend by now but to be considered part of her friend group is something else. She has this group of girls and boys she calls her friends. They are close to her. The Scorpions are an addition to that group and she considers them her friends the moment someone joins them but being someone who is not part of the team makes this kind of a privilege. Normally I do not make something about that, but it makes me kind of happy to hear something like that.

"Oh wow," I mumble and Carly laughs. She is part of the friend group since the day she joined the cheerleaders three years ago which was early.

We enter Daphne's room and Carly knocks on the door once to introduce us.

All the Scorpions are looking at us and I suddenly do not really feel special for being here anymore. There is no one of them missing so I guess that Daphne demanded them to come here because some of them for sure have some other things to do.

"You're finally here Auden," Daphne says and stands up to greet me. She hugs me and I carefully hug her back.

"I didn't dare to stay away," I answer and really mean what I say, "It seemed to be very important."

She halfway nods and shakes her head at the same time. "You could say it's important. I'll just tell you."

All the girl's eyes fly to her and I can see that Daphne starts to feel anxious. It is new to see her like that because usually she is the most confident person I know, and I know a few of those kinds.

"Maybe I should show you instead of tell," she mumbles after a few seconds of the Scorpions staring and walks out of the room.

"Very good girls, now you made her feel uncomfortable," Carly says ironically.

"Daphne and uncomfortable? These words are like two worlds apart," Nica notices and all the girls nod in agreement. She is true but I am sure that Carly and I were not the only ones who saw that Daphne did not feel well when the others started to stare at her.

"Not today," Amera notes, "We all should be nice because I'm sure that what she wants to tell us is very difficult to say." Immediately I know that Amera already seems to know about the thing Daphne is going to tell us. It is not a surprise because the two of them are best friends and hang out together a lot outside of school. No one else seems to notice that Amera know more than the rest of us or maybe they noticed and just do not want to ask.

We sit in a circle not talking for a few minutes before Daphne comes back. She is carrying a huge box on which the word polaroid is written on. Carefully she places in the middle of the circle we sit in and opens it. As the writing already proposes there are polaroids in the box.