The Ugly Duckling

Chapter 3: Richie Rich

I don't know how.... but I managed not to die. At least until lunch.

A, was in almost all of my classes, and in two of them he sat close by me. He never spoke a single word to me after the first class. I thought that was super weird. But was even weirder, was the fact that I could feel him staring at me in each of our classes. I caught him one time and he quickly turned away pretending to look at something else. Which of course made me even more confused.

I walked into the cafeteria setting aside my worries and focusing on my food choices. Food a woman's best friend. The one thing in life that will never fail to satisfy my hunger. One thing I knew I was definitely not missing when I left was the school lunch. Let's just say I really didn't think the meatloaf had much meat in it last time I was here. I stared at my options and reached out to grab the burger and fries meal. Just as I was about to grab hold I retracted immediately. I could hear my mother's voice in the back of my mind.

"Healthy Food, Healthy You."

I sighed and looked at the salads, There was a Ceasar Salad ready for the taking so I quickly picked it up and went to go pay for my meal. I knew compared to most girls I was on the bigger side. After moving I knew that I didn't want to get ridiculed and me and my sister fought to try to lose the weight. As you can clearly tell though only one of us was able to succeed. It wasn't like I wasn't trying, I went to the gym every day with my sister and for a period of time, I did see the weight decrease. But the second I took a break it just seemed to all pile back on me. My mother said it was probably because of my eating habits. Despite my demeanor tend to hang out with a lot of guys and if there is one thing about guys that you need to know, it is that they love to eat, a lot. I remember I was hanging out with some of the guys playing video games, there were only four of us, and yet they bought 20 pizzas to the house having boxes to themselves. You had to eat fast and quick. If you try to even take your time with your one slice, sorry about your luck bud, but you're not getting seconds. It became such a habit I didn't even realize I was scarfing down food until my mother brought it to my attention.

After paying for my food I let my eyes search the cafeteria my eyes landing on the person I was searching for and quickly made my way over.

"Took you long enough," my sister commented as I sat down in front of her.

"I forgot about all the choices here so it was a hard decision to make," I said back opening my salad and spreading the dressing packets that came with it.

I saw Gina eyeing my plate with a look of sadness in her eyes.

"What?" I asked taking a bite of my salad that was drenched in dressing.

"You know, mom's not here to critique what you eat right," she looked up at me again with the sad eyes. I know she tries to look out for me, even though technically I'm the older sister. Our mother is a stickler sometimes with me and my weight and I willingly admit that sometimes I would feel down after her "talks of inspiration on health", but I know that it was her way of looking out for me so I accepted it.

"This isn't about mom, I want to be healthy so I'm going to eat healthily. No matter how bad of a salad -" before I can finish my sentence I saw my sister get up from the table and leave. I stared at her as she walked away confused by the sudden motion. My eyes returned back to my tray and I used my fork to move the lettuce around so I could get the croutons. Before I could take a bite the fork was removed from my hand and the tray was pushed aside.

"Hey!" I shouted about to get out of my seat only to see my sister.

Once again before I can speak another word she moved and this time set in front of me a chicken sandwich and a mayo packet.

I looked back up at her and she smiled at me sitting back down.

"Have I ever told you I love you?" I asked her, immediately opening the sandwich and applying the mayo.

"I know," and we both sat there eating our sandwiches enjoying each other's company.

As I was eating I looked around at my surroundings. For the most part the school was the same. The cafeteria was rowdy and there was no clear order to the tables. People could sit wherever they wanted really. Friends sat with friends. Of course there were also your stereotypical tables such as your Weebs, Football players, and Potheads. Nothing about it really stood out. All the tabled were relatively ordinary. Except for one. In the center of all the hustle and bustle of the Cafeteria there was the table exclusively for the Richie Rich.

All the sons and daughters of big wigs that held their hands of power over the school sat at that table. Parents that owned entire companies, hotels, and famous food chains. It was crazy that so many of them came to this school. These kids were the best of the best and they knew it. You either sat there because you were rich or you were friends or in a relationship with the rich. Everyone knew that sitting at that table gave you so much street cred you didn't even know what to do with it.

I looked at that table in disgust because that table also was home to all of my bullies. Carly could be seen eating her salad and laughing with her friends pointing at some girl who just fell over her shoelace. While Derrick James, the hockey team captain, was playing chug it with the school's milk cartons. I did a glance over the table once more and caught someones eye. A, he was looking at me and I at him. I quickly looked away and back at my sandwich. Armstrong caught me staring. I was freaking out.

"He's gonna kill me," I whispered to myself. But nothing came no yell no scream nothing. I quickly looked back at the table to see Armstrong just talking with his friends like nothing happened. I turned back and looked stunned at my sandwich. Had something like this happened a few years ago, he would have gotten up from the table yelling about how I didn't deserve to glance his way. A few years ago he might've dragged me around the cafeteria having everyone call me fatty. A few years ago he might've just dumped a whole bunch of food on my head and tell me to eat it like the pig I am. But now he just looked away like it was nothing? What happened?

I push away the thought and finish my sandwich cleaning up all of the trash and heading out of the doors with my sister. As we walk to our lockers Gina suddenly stops and I turn to ask her what's wrong.

"Oh nothing I just have to use the bathroom really quick go on ahead okay," and before I could even answer her, she dashes into the bathroom. I shrug it off and continue on my way to my locker. After some time I stop myself and realize something.

"I don't know where it is?"

I wasn't paying attention this morning, so I have no idea where my locker is. I looked around a bit frantic.

"Dagnabit!" I exclaimed to the empty hallway "Where is it?"

I tried looking through my schedule to see if it was on there somewhere but couldn't seem to figure it out.

"What am I going to do?" I sad defeated by my excuse for an attempt.

"Need a hand?"

I quickly whirled around to see the one person I didn't want to ever again.

A, Armstrong, the biggest tormenter of them all was standing right in front of me with a smirk on his face.