The Wonders Of You

3

The sound of laughter and yelling comes from inside the cafeteria as I enter. I feel my heart rate speed up as I search for a table. Where do I sit? Is Sasha here? Please let her be here. As I pass by, people look at me but mostly in a curious way.

 I consider leaving and eating in the library but right then my eyes fall upon a laughing Sasha. I let out a relieved breath. I quickly make my way over to her table.

"Hey, can I sit here?"

Sasha looks up at me and her eyes widen in recognition. 

"Oh my God! Yes, of course. Sit." She pats the spot beside her. I take a seat and look at the people she's sitting with. There's that short, quiet kid from Mr. Jansen's class that opened the door for me, along with that Asian goth looking girl. Beside her, a curvy Latina girl with long hair and tan skin.

An awkward silence passes before Sasha clears her throat and introduces me to them. 

"Guys this is Malysa. She's new and totally chill," she continues, "This is Matteo, Lin, and Osana."

Matteo says "Hi" quietly then looks down, bashfully. Lin gives me a curt nod. Osana is the only one who actually speaks. 

"Don't worry about them. They aren't much for talking. Especially Matt. Lin, she's just a bitch."

Lin scoffs and gives her the bird.

"Hey, come on! Yall better behave. I mean it," Sasha says crossing her arms.

Osana holds back her laughter and Lin sticks her tongue out childishly in response.

"You two were in Mr. Jansen's class this morning, right?" I ask, looking between Matteo and Lin.

"Yeah and you looked like you were gonna pee yourself when Mr. J introduced you," Lin chuckles, earning her a disapproving look from Sasha.

"Yeah... it was the worst feeling. I've never been the new kid before." I blush and let out a tense chuckle.

"So, where you from?" Osana asks before taking a bite of her burger.

"I'm from Atlanta. Moved back here to Allenton. It's my moms hometown."

"Dang, you moved to Oregon, all the way from Georgia?" Sasha asks in awe.

"Yeah. I know its pretty far."

"Well, yeah that's on the other side of the country," Lin chimes in.

"I'm kind of relieved that there's another black girl here now. Well, there's Ella but she's a trump supporter. Definitely because of her parents, though. She's adopted." Sasha says this then nods over to a pretty black girl with glasses. She's surrounded by a bunch of spray-tanned blonde girls.

"They look like they'd call me a slur," I reply, jokingly. 

They laugh and agree.

Thankfully, they don't ask why I moved to Oregon. 

Eventually everyone starts to talk about other things and I start to feel more comfortable. I never really had a friend group at my old school. I had a close friend but he moved without warning and I just kept to myself after that. I think about him from time to time. 

"So, do you like the school? You meet anyone else?" Sasha asks.

Right then, bookworm walks by the table, my eyes follow her tall figure. She makes her way over to the farthest table in the corner, greeting a boy with red hair and large glasses. No-one else is sitting with them. They're probably dating. Lucky guy.

"Hey, Malysa. Malysa?" Sasha tries to get my attention, waving. I snap out of it and look at her.

"You okay?" she asks. 

"Yeah, who's that?" I ask nodding towards bookworm's table.

"Oh, that's Benjamin. You think he's cute or something?" Sasha teases.

"I- yeah, sure. Who's that sitting with him?"

"That's Arden. Don't worry they're just friends and I'm pretty sure she's a lesbian." Sasha replies.

"Really? oh."  I hold back a smile.

"You wanna hang at the park? We're all going after school." she says.

I nod. "Sure, the one with the skate area?"

"Yeah, the one down by Sally's Snow-cones."

"Okay, cool."

"Is everyone gonna ride with me?" Ohana asks looking around the table.

"Pretty sure you're the only one with a car, so yeah," Lin answers, rolling her eyes. 

Osana flicks her arm, smiling.

After exchanging numbers with them all, Osana goes on to talk about this new song that came out. Sasha and Lin chime in.

 I can't help but zone out though.

 I look back over at Arden's table. Benjamin is talking animatedly while Arden chimes in every so often. He looks like a ball of energy and she looks...the opposite. Not boring or mean but more like calm and contempt. 

Arden says something and smiles. 

That smile will be the death of me.

I can't seem to pull my eyes away from her. So, I continue to stare.

Suddenly she looks up from her tray and turns her head toward my table then her eyes land on me. My eyes widen and I look away almost exploding from embarrassment. My cheeks hurt from how hard I'm blushing.

I pretend I'm focused on what Sasha's saying but I can still feel Arden's eyes on me. I fidget nervously. 

She probably thinks I'm a weirdo. 

The bell rings and a feeling of relief washes over me. 

"Meet you guys later. Bye!" I say this and rush out the cafeteria, not looking back.

You're hopeless, Mal. 

I know.

Hey! I hope you liked this chapter. I have some really exciting plans for this story. :)