Homecoming pt 1

There it was, the orange and blue flyer, sitting on the bulletin board announcing that Homecoming was only a few weeks away.

DaeRi resisted the urge to rip it off the wall. Once upon a time she she was excited for her senior year Homecoming dance, but that was when she thought she had a chance at homecoming queen and now she knows she does not.

She heard people approach from the back and heard the familiar voice of her once best friend Tamarai, yes she was not her best friend anymore. She couldn’t get over that Tamarai had basically pulled an Harriette and dumped her in school, and she was not gonna forgive and she was tired of letting Tamarai think she could be on both sides when she couldn’t.

“Look,” DaeRi heard Tamarai say, to Harriette she assumed.

“Oh, homecoming. I’m excited,” Harriette, DaeRi guessed right, said.

“Who do you think’ll win homecoming queen?” Tamarai asked.

“Oh, you, totally,” Harriette said.

DaeRi bit her lip to stop herself from screaming and making a scene. Tamarai, homecoming queen??? No!

“Oh, you think?” Tamarai said, and DaeRi couldn’t believe she actually sounded excited. DaeRi had told her during the summer just how excited she was about probably being homecoming queen this year, and here she was being happy that DaeRi’s dreams were being ripped apart.

Thankfully by the time she had turned around and was completely planning to tell Tamarai just what she thought about her being homecoming queen, Tamarai and Harriette were already on there way down the hall.

DaeRi took a deep breath and stopped herself from following them. She watched as they met up with Collin and headed towards the cafeteria. Even though it was lunch and she hadn’t even eaten breakfast, the last thing she wanted to do was go into that cafeteria and try get through another long lunch period by herself.

She didn’t understand how other unpopular people did it, how did they make it through school without going crazy or breaking down, which DaeRi felt like doing just then.

They had friends, that’s how they did it, Daeri thought as she watched a group of people she didn’t even know walk into the cafeteria. Those people were losers, no one cared about them but they had each other. And DaeRi had no one, because she was more than just a loser, more than just unpopular, she was a grade A outcast. She didn’t think there was a single person in the school who didn’t hate her, or at least thought she was a snob.

But not going to lunch would be like the ultimate sign that she lost, that they had won and that she was sucumbing to being an outcast for the rest of her high school life. No, she had to go in the cafeteria whether she wanted to or not.

So she followed the crowd into the cafeteria, glad that she had a packed lunch and she didn’t have to brave the lines, and head over to her usual table, on the outskirts of the cafeteria. Just walking over there hurt.

Suddenly she stopped, why was she sitting all the way out here anyway? It wasn’t like she was banned from the inner circle, or at least closer than she had been sitting. She looked over the cafeteria and watched the crowd of people and she saw a few tables that hadn’t been taken yet, the people who usually sat there must be getting their food or just late. What would happen if she sat there?

She felt like everyone was watching her as she walked towards the center and took a seat at the table where Lexi and her friends usually sat. DaeRi knew Lexi and she was relatively nice, and not too obsessed with popularity. Sure she had been at the beach when DaeRi had caused the scene that had caused her to be practically banished from the popular circle, so she probably didn’t like DaeRi much, but maybe she wouldn’t tell her to leave.

Lexi’s table also just happened to be one of the closer ones to Harriette’s, and DaeRi saw Tamarai noticed her and look shocked. DaeRi smiled to herself and opened her lunch, why hadn’t she thought of this sooner?

“Uhm, this is our table?” and there was Honey Bell, Lexi’s cousin and best friend. DaeRi looked up and tried to look as innocent as possible. There stood Lexi, Honey, and Layla. They were like the second tier populars, Lexi was once a cheerleader but quit a few years ago and joined track instead. Normally that kind of thing would cause her to fall lower on the popularity scale but no, she held onto her popularity and even got more popular. And by hanging out with Lexi, Honey and Layla were also second tier populars.

“Yeah, it is, isn't it?” DaeRi said, continuing to keep up her innocent act.

“And you’re sitting at it,” Honey continued.

DaeRi nodded, as if they were the ones being dumb.

“Did we invite you?” Honey said, looking at Lexi.

“Nope,” Lexi said slowly, she was obviously thinking about what was the right thing to do in this situation.

“Is it okay if I sit here?” DaeRi said, “It’s gotten terribly lonely at my old table and no one else will let me sit with them.”

Who could resist a sobs story?

Lexi looked torn and Honey and Layla were just waiting for her to say something. Finally Lexi just shrugged and set her food down.

“No, you can’t,” Lexi said, “I’m sorry about you being lonely and all, but you can’t pretend to just forget how rude you were at the beach party. You’re gonna have to actually show that you’ve changed, you can’t just pretend you did.”

DaeRi tried so hard not to yell or call Lexi some rude names as she gathered her food and stood up. She wasn’t gonna argue, arguing would only lead to a fight and fights were not good for DaeRi.

She could practically feel the stares follow her as she went back to the outer circle and to the table she had been sitting at the whole year so far. She could almost cry, if she wasn’t so angry. Mostly she was mad at herself for letting this happen, for letting her temper get the best of her. But at the same time she was angry at everyone else for making such a big deal about it!

She didn’t understand, it’s not like she was the first person to tell people to leave a party. If any other losers appeared at any other party that would have been expected, sure maybe DaeRi had been a little more mean than was called for but still. She was just doing what would have been expected of her if it had been a few years back and the same people appeared at a popular party.

And now she had to find a way to show everyone thats he had changed, or at least make them think that. It was the only way she could get back the homecoming queen title.

"Stop."

Payton watched his sister walk through the gates of the airport and on her way to San Francisco where she was going to college without him.

To be honest Payton didn’t want to go to college in San Francisco with Purity. But it would have been nice if when he wished her good luck in college she could have done the same. But no. Payton was not going to college.

It was a long story and Payton didn’t want to get into it. The point was that instead of college he was staying home with his dads and taking classes at A.L.U. and going to a speech therapist. All because one point in the summer he said a word.

It was after the fourth of July when the house was full of relatives and Payton was annoyed. Relatives meant those annoying question they always ask about college and the future. And the whispering about him being mute.

They always did it whenever they came over and Payton was tired of it, couldn’t they just stop and talk about it out loud?

So he told him to stop.

“Stop.”

That was all he said and it hadn’t even felt weird until afterwards. He hadn’t even noticed until everyone was staring at him weird.

They had thought it was permanent, that he would never be able to talk again. But that one word gave them hope. Which meant more whispering. So Payton locked himself in his room for the rest of the week.

No matter what anyone said or did he did not leave. He didn’t want to. Part of him was scared. He was so used to being mute he didn’t even remember what it was like to talk. And the fact that somehow he said that one word so effortlessly scared him. It made him wonder why he wasn’t talking if he could.

After a week in his room he only left in the middle of the night to eat and take a shower then he went back to his room and locked the door again. His dads were worried, and his grandma delayed her flight so she could stay and help. Payton just wanted everyone to leave.

And that how the rest of July passed by. Payton only left his room at night when he knew everyone was asleep. He almost never saw his dads and Purity. Until one night when Purity was sitting outside his door.

Payton stared at her.

“Why are you shutting yourself in there?” Purity asked, not really looking at him.

Of course he said nothing.

“You spoke,” Purity said. She hadn’t been there when he said “stop” it was just the older relatives and their dads. Whispering. She had only heard about it.

More silence.

“Can you do it again?” Purity asked finally looking up at him.

He went back into his room and locked the door and after a while of him trying to sleep he heard her footsteps go down the hall and her door close.

He felt bad for just closing her out like that. He thought about how they were once so close but everything that had happened lately had slowly pulled them apart and now he felt with her like he felt with everyone else. Like she wanted something from him.

When August rolled around he still didn’t want to leave his room but his dads had figured out that he was only leaving at night and caught him in the kitchen one night.

“We just want to talk,” they had said.

Talking was just what Payton did not want to do.

“We think you should go to speech therapy,” Phillip said.

“And some normal therapy too,” Daniel said, “we’re worried about you.”

Payton didn’t even know what he would say if he could talk. He wasn't gonna go to any kind of therapy. He didn’t want to talk.

So he walked back up to his room and the next day he figured he couldn’t stay away from his family forever, especially now that they were catching him at night.

So August was spent by Payton refusing to go to therapy and hoping that he could get away when college rolled around. But those hopes were dashed.

“You’re not fit enough to be by yourself,” his dads said.

He couldn’t believe that they weren’t gonna let him go to college. He couldn’t. The one thing that everyone wants their child to do they were stopping him from doing.

He shut himself back in his room.

And now he was saying goodbye to Purity, his dads had to drag him out to the airport, and wishing he could be going off somewhere too.

Shafan's trip to the Mall

Shafan spent her summer working at the ice cream shop at in the strip mall. She wanted to earn enough money for a new laptop, since her last one was on it’s last legs and her dad had decided that she was old enough to buy one for herself.

Spending the summer working in  the only ice cream shop in town meant seeing a lot of her fellow classmates. The biggest repeat customers were Fedora and her friends. They came almost everyday and  would order their ice cream and sit at one of the tables outside and talk very loudly. It was very distracting.

But now that summer was over and she had earned enough for a laptop and something extra if she wanted she was going to mall to get said laptop and something extra. If she wanted.

In front of the mall in the city, which was an hours drive from broad Meadows, she said goodbye to her dad, who told her to be waiting in the food court at three o’clock, which was three hours from then.

Then she was on her own.

Half of Shafan liked the mall, the joyful atmosphere, the smell of fresh baked pretzels, and french fries that always made her hungry as soon as she entered. But the other half thought it was too crowded, loud, and just too much work. That half almost always won over.

And yet again as Shafan walked towards the electronics store she couldn’t help but start counting down until three when she could leave. Why again did she think that going to the mall was a good idea?

Good thing she already knew what she wanted as she walked into the Apple store and it didn’t take long for someone to come up to her and ask if she needed help. She told them what she wanted and then they proceeded to try to sell her just about everything else.

She tried not to get too annoyed, she knew he was just doing his job but gosh couldn’t they just give her what she wanted and let her go?

After saying no to everything they offered she finally paid and left the store, feeling proud of her first ever big purchase. And relieved to be out of the store. But she still had another two and a half hours to go until her dad would be here.

“Might as well get a pretzel,” She said to herself. At the pretzel stand she recognizes some of the popular people from school. Shafan tried not to be a judgmental person, and she usually isn’t, but these people seemed pretty snobby.

Luckily they didn’t seem to notice her and were walking away with their pretzels when one of them stopped, the short indian girl who’s name started with a T.

Shafan didn’t pay attention to them as she ordered a salted pretzel with cheese sauce, her favorite. But when she turned to walk away they were right in front of her.

She jumped and tried not to scream, instead she let out a little squeak. They were looking at her weird, and she wondered if she had done something wrong.

“Hi,” the indian one said. “You go to A.L. High right?”

Shafan nodded.

“Oh, cool,” she said, “I’m Tamarai as you might already know.”

Shafan nodded, “I’m Shafan.”

“Oh, beautiful,” she paused and smiled a little, she then proceeded to rustle in her bag for for something, which was revealed to be a little royal blue notebook when she pulled it out. She opened it up and looked at Shafan.

“How do you spell that?” she asked.

“Uhm, S H A F A N,” Shafan said.

“Ooohhh, nice,” Tamarai said writing something down quickly then putting the book back in her bag.

“Back to the point,” the girl Tamarai was with said, sounding annoyed. Shafan recognized her as DaeRi, the one who she heard multiple people gossiping about at the ice cream shop. Apparently she had done something crazy and rude over the summer and now everyone suspected that she would be kicked out of the popular trio.

Yeah, working in the only ice cream place in town also helped you stay in touch with the latest gossip.

“Oh, hehe,” Tamarai said, “we were just wondering if you happened to have heard any gossip about DaeRi?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Shafan said. She wasn’t gonna lie.

Tamarai frowned, “Oh.”

“Well, then, bye,” DaeRi said, grabbing Tamarai’s arm and pulling her away. Tamarai quickly said bye and waved, then walked along with DaeRi. Shafan stood there feeling very confused. What was that all about?

Shruggin that whole thing off Shafan sat at the nearest bench and ate her pretzel while people watching.

When she was done she was sad to see that she still had two more hours. What had she originally planned to do this whole time?

Shop around, she guessed.

“Might as well,” she mumbled to herself. She stood up and wandered the mall and looked in the shop windows. Occasionally she would enter a store and look through the clothes or whatever it sold.

The only things she bought were a pair of cute socks with bunny’s on it, a oversized sweater with a realistic bunny printed on it, and some bunny earrings. Yeah, she had a thing for bunnies.

Finally it was three and she was waiting at the food court sipping some sweet tea and nibbling on a chocolate muffin. She was relieved to see her dad walking over to her. She almost ran, but stopped herself, up to him and gave him a hug.

“Ready to leave already?” he asked, “I was gonna get something to eat.”

“Oh,” she said, “that’s fine.”

“I supposed you already ate?” he asked.

“Yep,” she said, holding up her muffin and sweet tea, “in the process of finishing these.”

“Alright go find us a table,” her dad said.

“Okay,” she said. She found a table and waited for her dad to come back with his food. As they ate he asked her about her purchases and if she had a good time.

She showed him the laptop and the bunny stuff and told him that it had been great. Then she told him about the run in with the girls from her school, laughing now at how strange the encounter was.

When they finished their food they left the mall and drove home. Shafan thought about how the trip to the mall hadn’t ended up too bad, but she was probably never gonna go back. She can just buy stuff online.

AeGuk's Roomie

AeGuk felt like he was the only person on campus who didn’t have someone helping him move into the dorms. Fedora would have helped, except she had to get back to college herself. Sacia had offered to come but AeGuk didn’t really want her to.

Now he really would have taken anyone offering to help him.

As he found his way to his dorm room through the crowd of people and their parents, or friends, or siblings, or whoever was helping them, he felt incredibly lonely and wonder why exactly he wanted to go to college all the way across the country from his mom. If he was going to college somewhere in California his mom probably would be here helping him.

But sadly he was not, he was in New York and all alone. That is until he found his roommate and his roommates parents already in their room.

“Oh,” AeGuk said setting his bags down, it wasn’t much since he didn’t own much in the first place.

His roommate, a tall lanky guy with dark curly hair cut close to his head, smiled at him.

“Hey, you’re my roommate?” the guy asked.

“I I I... g-guess,” AeGuk said, his stutter becoming very apparent. He had almost forgotten, When he was with Fedora he hardly felt like he stutter at all.

But the guy didn’t seem to notice, or care. Instead he held out his hand and introduced himself as “Roshawn, but everyone calls me Shawn.”

AeGuk shook his hand, “AeGuk.”

His name was the only thing he could say without stuttering.

“Oh, cool,” Shawn said, “That’s like Korean right?”

AeGuk nodded.

“Were you born there?” Shawn asked.

AeGuk nodded again.

“Cool,” Shawn said, then he turned back to his parents, “I guess it’s goodbye.”

AeGuk brought his bags to the bed that wasn’t taken and started unpacking because he couldn’t think of anything else to do.

“Yo,” Shawn said after a while. AeGuk had already unpacked all of his clothes and was in the process of putting sheets and stuff on his bed, but he stopped and turned to Shawn.

“You don’t talk much do you,” Shawn laughed.

AeGuk shrugged.

Shawn looked confused for second then shrugged to, “You hungry?”

AeGuk shrugged again.

“Look, dude, you’re gonna have to give me a straight answer,” Shawn said.

Shawn reminded AeGuk of Bryan, and not just because they were both black and tall, but because they’re both loud and straightforward. But Bryan never made fun of him for not talking.

Just then a sound, like when PAC-MAN eats a ghost, came from Shawn’s pocket. AeGuk was thankful for a distraction, hoping maybe Shawn would forget he was talking to him.

After reading, what AeGuk assumed was, a text Shawn smiled and looked back at AeGuk.

“It’s my cousin,” he said, “You wanna get something to eat with us? The cafeteria is already open, we can see what they got.”

AeGuk shrugged, and nodded.

“Sure?” Shawn asked.

“Y-yeah,” AeGuk said, immediately feeling disappointed that he couldn’t even say “yeah” without stuttering.

Shawn nodded, “let’s go.”

AeGuk followed Shawn out into the hallways, which was still busy with students and parents. They walked from their dorms to the Cafeteria, on the way there Shawn stopped and grinned.

“There she is,” he said.

AeGuk looked in the direction he was looking and was shocked to see a small, kind of round, Asian girl with hair as short as Shawn’s. She ran and gave Shawn a bear hug, and he picked her right up and twirled her around.

“Allie,” Shawn said.

“Shawn,” Allie giggled, when he put her down. “You know I hate it when you do that. It makes me feel so small.”

“You love it,” Shawn said.

The girl, Allie, looked at AeGuk then.

“Who’s this?” she asked.

“My roomie,” Shawn said, “He’s practically mute.”

Allie looked at Shawn then back at AeGuk and said, “maybe he doesn't speak english.”

AeGuk frowned.

Shawn shrugged, “He’s from Korea.”

Allie’s whole face lit up, “Really. I’ve always wanted to try out my Korean!”

AeGuk tried not to groan, was she some wannabe Korean?

“Annyeonghaseyo!” She said, “yeong-eo hal jul aseyo?”

Hello, do you speak english.

“Ye,” AeGuk said, smiling. Her Korean wasn’t too bad, she pronounced everything correct and spoke as if she was a native. He could speak Korean much easier that English sometimes.

“Well then why don’t you say something?” Allie asked.

AeGuk shrugged, “I-i...”

He felt his face heat up, why was talking so hard?

“I’m starving,” Shawn said, “You guys can continue getting acquainted in the cafeteria.”

“Alright,” Allie said.

AeGuk followed them, glad that Shawn had brought the attention away from AeGuk’s failed sentence.

He wondered if he had done it on purpose.

Then he remember that he hadn’t even told Allie his name.

Just a bunch of stuff about Popularity

A week into the new school year Harriette found herself with two candidates for her new friend. Ella and Mariah, they were twins just like her and Collin, and they were very pretty, seemed to be very nice and not too obsessed with popularity.

So one day Harriette invited them to sit with her at lunch and of course the graciously accepted.

“Tamarai, this is Ella and Mariah, the girl’s I told you about,” Harriette said as they sat down at the table.

“Hi,” Tamarai said, with a bright smile. Harriette was proud of her, when Harriette had first told her about Ella and Mariah Tamarai had frowned and yet again went on about how she should forgive DaeRi. Honestly Harriette was getting tired of talking about DaeRi with Tamarai. She hoped that her new friends would show Tamarai that she was serious about not forgiving DaeRi.

“Hello,” Ella said, “Nice to finally meet you.”

“Same,” Tamarai said, but Harriette could tell she didn’t mean it..

--

Earlier that morning Tamarai was talking on the phone with DaeRi as she got ready. DaeRi was still mad at her for not talking to her at school, but she needed someone to vent to.

“It’s been a week!” DaeRi said through the phone.

“I know,” Tamarai said, “I really thought she would forgive you, but now I’m not sure. She say’s she’s gonna invite some new girls to sit with us.”

“No, no, no,” DaeRi said, “This cannot be happening, already replacing me?”

“Sorry,” Tamarai said.

“I always dreamed about my senior year and now it’s ruined,” DaeRi said, she said this almost every time they talked.

Tamarai herself wished she could focus on the fact that it was her senior year and enjoy it, but with all this drama between DaeRi and Harriette it felt like she couldn’t enjoy it. She just wanted Harriette to forgive DaeRi so they could get on with their lives.

But now since it didn’t look like that would happen she just wanted DaeRi to stop caring, but that wasn’t gonna happen either.

Her year was looking very bleak.

--

After the first days things got easier for Shae. Everyday she met up with Mariah at their lockers and Mariah would ask how her day went and how her sister was. Then they would walk to homeroom together, sit together and talk some more. It was easy talking to Mariah because Shae didn’t really have to say anything, there was no silence because Mariah talked a lot. Kind of like Matt.

Speaking of Matt she only saw him once after the first day, he was with his drama friends, as always, in the cafeteria during lunch, which was the only thing they shared. At the time he had waved to her and she, being unprepared, simply ignored him and went to her table.

He didn’t wave at her again.

The first week Shae sat with Ella and Mariah at lunch, and listened as Ella talked about her encounters with Harriette. Harriette was the most popular girl in school, everyone loved her. Especially Ella, who seemed to worship her.

“Today we talked about shopping,” Ella would say, “She totally shops at the same stores I do!”

Shae didn’t know how she felt about Ella.

Not that she had to worry, because a week later they were sitting with Harriette and she was sitting alone. She hoped that Matt didn’t see her pitifully reading during lunch all alone. At least when she was with Ella and Mariah it looked like she had friends.

Mariah apologized to Shae profusely the day after they sat with Harriette.

“She invited us, and we couldn’t say no,” Mariah explained.

“It’s okay, really,” Shae said, though she didn’t understand why they couldn’t give her the heads up before lunch when she saw for herself that her only two friends had ditched her.

“Maybe she’ll let you sit with us too,” Mariah said.

Shae doubted that, and she wasn’t quite sure if she wanted to sit with them anyway. Sitting with Harriette meant everyone looked at you, it meant  a crowd of people listening to your every word.

It was weird actually that being popular made you so important.

---

DaeRi hated that she had to sit at a table all alone outside of the Popular circle. It was painful to watch everyone pass her, giving her looks full of sympathy or disdain. But no one sat with her.

She really had believed that Harriette would forgive her quickly but after a week of sitting alone at lunch DaeRi realised she really needed to take action. First step was finding new friends, make it seem like she was moving on.

So at lunch she watched the people pass her and wondered who was fit for her, and that’s when she saw the inseparable Heather and Tracy. It wasn’t a secret that they wanted to be popular, they sat on the outside of the popular circle but acted like it was the center. No one liked them much ever since Heather spread a rumour about Harriette a few years ago.

DaeRi thought they seemed good for her, they wanted to be popular like her and they hurt Harriette in some way, like DaeRi had. But maybe it wasn’t the best idea to befriend other outcasts.

But would anyone else give her a chance? Probably not.

So she picked up her lunch and moved to their tables, which they shared with the Drama Geeks. They weren’t drama geeks at all but they always sat with them at lunch for some reason.

Everyone stared at DaeRi as she sat down.

“Hi,” DaeRi said, ignoring the drama geeks and directing her “hi” at Tracy and Heather.

“Uhm, hey?” Heather said. Tracy just stared.

“It’s okay if I sit here, right?” DaeRi asked.

Heather laughed, “sure. If you think we’re popular enough for you.”

DaeRi resisted the urge to pick up her lunch and leave, or throw it at Heather, and smiled.

“Gosh, I don’t think I’m popular enough for myself,” DaeRi said, she didn’t even know what she meant by that  but it sounded right in her head.

Tracy shrugged and Heather stared at her, obviously confused.

DaeRi was second guessing her choice.

“Look, I’m not gonna sit by myself for my whole senior year, okay?” DaeRi said.

“Whatever,” Tracy said, “Sit wherever you like.”

Heather nodded then took out her phone and started looking through it. Completely ignoring DaeRi.

DaeRi sighed, this wasn’t working. These girls wanted nothing to do with her. She couldn’t believe these loser girls were acting like they could be picky about their friends.

She contemplated her other choices, sitting alone or finding someone else. She looked around the cafeteria. Lexi and Honey were probably stupid enough to let her sit with them. But Lexi was at the beach party and was one of the unfriendly faces after DaeRi’s scene.

DaeRi couldn’t believe that this was her life now. Last year anyone would have wanted her to sit with her.

She couldn’t believe it, but she wouldn’t be surprised if Tracy and Heather were higher on the popularity scale than her.

---

Back at the popular table Harriette was telling Ella and Mariah about how Collin had entered a piece of art in “an art thing” and won first place. She told everyone she saw this, she was very proud of him.

Ella couldn’t keep her eyes off of Collin, after only a week of knowing him she was sure she was in love with him. His gorgeous deep blue eyes, his perfect lips, slightly chubby cheeks that made him look so much younger than he was. Ella was convince he was perfect.  And it didn’t help that he was so genuinely nice to everyone.

And as Harriette told them about his win he was blushing and shrugging it off as if it was nothing, so he was modest too. But all Ella could think was that he was so cute when he blushed.

Every time he even glanced her way she felt her heart explode. She was in deep.

“That’s amazing,” she said, which earned her  a shy smile from Collin. She almost fainted.

Harriette was silent for a while, and Ella didn’t catch the look she was giving her because her eyes were glued on Collin who was now looking at Harriette with a confused looked on his face.  He was so cute.

“So what do you guys do?” Harriette said, sounding oddly flat.

“We dance,” Mariah said.

“Oh, really?” Harriette said, “What kind?”

“Ballet,” Mariah said. Ella watched Collin’s face for a reaction but he was still staring at Harriette.

“Yeah, we’ve been dancing since we were four,” Ella said, still watching Collin. Again no reaction.

“Oh, cute,” Harriette said. “My friend once tried ballet, but it wasn’t her thing. She’s done just about every type of dance, she liked hip hop and jazz the best.”

“Nice,” Mariah said, “Does she go here?”

“Nah, she’s in her second year of college,” Harriette said, “at Harvard.”

“Oh, wow,” Mariah said.

“Yep, she’s very smart,” Harriette said, “She was valedictorian.”

“How come she danced so much and isn’t actually pursuing it?”  Ella said, finally taking her eyes off of Collin and looking at Harriette. She was taken aback again by how similar they looked, they had the same eyes, the same lips, the same chubby cheeks. But somehow Harriette looked like a girl and Collin looked like a boy.

Harriette shrugged, “She wanted to be a lawyer.”

“That’s nice,” Mariah said.

“What do you want to be?” Ella asked.

Harriette frowned, “I’m not sure.”

“Oh,” Ella said, “isn’t it around the time you figure that out, junior year?”

Harriette shrugged and looked at Collin as if asking him for help, “I don’t know.”

“Not everyone knows what they want to do at the same time,” Collin said, “And anyway, she still has a whole year to decide before applying to college. That is if she decides to go to college right after school.”

Ella nodded, his voice was so smooth.

Harriette was beaming at Collin and Ella wondered why the girl was so obsessed with her brother. She’s not nearly that obsessed with Mariah, so it’s not just that they’re twins.

“Speaking of what we do,” Ella said slowly, “What do you do?”

“I cheer,” Harriette said.

“Oh,” Ella said, Trying not to laugh. Of course the most popular girl was a cheerleader, what else could she be?

“That’s nice,” Mariah said. Ella had to admit, she wished she could be as nice as her sister, Mariah always had something nice to say.

“Yeah, IDK if i’m gonna do it this year though,” Harriette said, “But it’s kind of expected of me isn’t it?”

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” Collin said.

“Of course,” Harriette said.

“I understand,” Ella said, “The pressure of being popular.”

“Oh?” Harriette said, “Were you popular at your old school?”

“Oh, of course,” Ella said, “We had so many friends.”

“Why’d you leave?” Harriette said, looking genuinely confused.

“All girl private school, boring,” Ella said, dragging out the word boring.

“But why would you leave all your friends?” Harriette asked.

“That’s what I asked her,” Mariah said.

“Oh,” Harriette said, “so she made the decision on her own.”

“Just because we’re twins doesn't mean we have to do everything together,” Ella said, “She made the choice to follow me completely on her own.”

Mariah shrugged, “I guess, I just didn't want to leave Ella. She’s my best friend.”

Harriette grinned, “Of course. That’s sweet.”

Ella frowned, why did everyone always think Mariah was so sweet. Okay, Ella knew why, because Mariah was so sweet.  But still people always seemed to like her better. Ella happened to know that their friends always talked about her behind her back. They said she was too shallow. And fake. Which was the worst, every time she did something “sweet” they all called her fake. Like what did they want from her?

Then the bell rang and Harriette looked all upset to have to go to class and Ella wondered if Harriette was fake.

No, Harriette always looked so genuine.

But she could have been a good actor.