Lovley Fire

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

        “There she is” was the first thing I heard when I walked into the cafeteria like a scared little mouse. I looked over at all of the tables and saw people glancing and whispering to each other. This is the moment I hate most about the first day of school. Everybody looks at me like I’m some kind of freak knew girl and they point and whisper loud enough for me to hear it, like it isn’t already obvious enough that I was the outcast. I still don’t understand why people do this to me every year; they already see me nearly every day it’s not like they don’t know me. I wasn’t born yesterday.

“This is a crappy lunch,” Chastity said sliding her plate of hardly cooked French fries, stale bread, and tasteless chicken away from her. We sat in the same table as every school year in the far corner of the cafeteria all by ourselves where we couldn’t’ hear people whispering about us. I tried to focus on her and not my two month expired milk that smelt like it had already been sitting in the dumpster for weeks. “Either we’re going to starve to death from not eating this crap, or we’re going to die from eating this crap.”

I laughed thinking of how true her statement was. “I think my meatloaf is about to come to life and eat all of us, it looks like something is crawling inside of it,” I said poking it with my fork. Chastity stuck out her tongue in an ‘ew that’s gross’ gesture. I looked around the room watching people come in and go out. The Lipsticks were staring at us from three tables away, talking to each other while glaring at specifically me. Chastity noticed me looking at them and stabbed me with her fork. “Hey come on, let’s get outa here. This Food isn’t worth eating anyway.” Chastity grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out of the cafeteria, leaving people staring.

We took Chastity’s brother’s car after escaping from the school. She said that he wouldn’t mind and that he’d probably get a ride with Caiden, his best friend, and my ex-friend. Caiden Wolfe and I used to be closer than a flower to its stem. We were brother and sister at heart, that was, until the fire. After that he faded into the crowd that blamed me for the death of my parents. We hadn’t talked in years, nor have we looked at each other. I’ve seen him sneak glances at me time to time just like everyone else, but there were no emotions in those bright blue eyes. He was just another ghost from my past that I’ll never forget.

“Hey, are you really okay?” Chastity asked poking me with one hand while the other controlled the wheel. I nodded quietly and stared out the window. Trees surrounded us as we drove down the lonesome high way that nobody took anymore, mostly because there was nothing to drive to on this road. The grass was coming back to life as the Mississippi heat started too cool down so the grass wouldn’t have bake in the sun every day. Winter had passed again, another Christmas without my parents there too. In Mississippi I don’t know if you can ever really call it a winter, it never actually gets all that cold. Maybe a few chilly days here and there but we don’t ever have major snow storms or bone freezing winds. It’s Mississippi, don’t ever expect cold winters, much less a real winter.

“You know you can’t let those idiots get to you. Stella and her dumb guppies are just a bunch of fools who think they know what they’re talking about. They’re just jealous,” Chastity went on.

“What is there to be jealous about?” I said so bluntly, I surprised myself.

“Uh, Emrey I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not but you’re like seriously pretty. Your hair is such a beautiful color, like a rose.” Just like mother used to say. Your hair reminds me of the roses we pick in the forest, so beautiful and radiant. “And your eyes,” Chastity continued, “They’re so blue, not like exactly bright blue but dark, ocean blue. And you’re skinny and everything. They have every right to be jealous.” I smiled at her for her admiration for me, but if I’m so pretty, than why do people ignore me so much? If I’m as pretty as she says I am, then wouldn’t people forget about what happened years ago and like me because of my looks like Stella?