COOKIE CRUSH

The track team was having Secret Santa, with only one rule and that was that everything had to be handmade.

Layla wasn’t really a sports person but at the start of the year Lexi convinced her to try out for the track team for some miraculous reason she got in.

Now Layla had to make something for Kyle Parkinson, the tallest and fastest girl on the team. Layla wasn’t a person with many talents and was stumped on what she could make that would be good enough for Kyle.

Lexi was making a collage of running pics of Leslie, her secret santa receiver. Layla admitted that was a pretty good idea, but she didn’t want to copy Lexi so she had to think of something original.

The Saturday before the Track team’s party Layla still had nothing and was totally stumped, finally she realized she just needed to make something, anything.

And that anything was cookies.

She had been trying so hard to not fall for the cheap and easy cookies, but she had no choice. She just hoped that Kyle liked cookies and wasn’t on some super strict diet or something.

So Layla got out the flour, sugar, butter, and eggs and searched up a recipe on her iPhone. “Perfect Roll Out Sugar Cookies!” the title of the recipe claimed, Layla chose to believe it and started with the baking.

She was grateful that her mom had bought a bowl mixer for an”early Christmas present” to herself. She put in the butter and sugar and let it cream as the recipe told her too. After that went in the eggs and vanilla, the vanilla she almost couldn’t find. Layla didn’t cook, her mom didn’t cook much either. Her dad was the king of the kitchen, and he had a very interesting order to everything.

Which explained why it took Layla a whole ten minutes to find the Vanilla sitting with the canned vegetable. That just didn't make any sense.

After the eggs and the vanilla she put in the flour and baking powder, thankfully that was located right with the flour and that made real sense. Then the recipe called for the dough to be chilled so she wrapped it up in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for twenty minutes.

While it was in the fridge she played some Candy Crush and ended up spending more than twenty minutes playing. She could go on forever on that game.

Finally she tore herself away from the game and got out the dough, but now it was too hard and when she tried to roll it out on her, heavily floured, counter it just kind of fell apart.

“Ugh,” she mumbled to herself. she was smart enough to know that throwing it in the microwave was a stupid idea, instead she kneaded it with her hands for a minute or two and finally she could roll it out into one piece.

Than she simply cut it into circles, as that was the only cookie cutter she could find, popped them onto a cookie sheet and put it in the oven for 7 minutes.

She was also smart enough not to get back Candy crush for that next seven minutes, instead she posted an Instagram picture of the floury mess on the counter and captioned it with “making cookies for the first time #wishmeluck”.

Seven minutes is really short and in no time the cookies were out and miraculously looked beautiful. She took a quick picture and posted to Instagram “i should do this more often #strokeofluck”.

She just hoped that Kyle would like them, but hey at least she didn’t put salt in them like a certain someone she knew ;)

First Day part 1

To Lexi and Honey Bell it felt like summer had lasted far more than three month. Their summer had not been very stellar, because Honey’s mom, and Lexi’s aunt, took Honey on college tours the whole summer so they had barely anytime to just enjoy the lazy summer days.

But today school was back in session and it was back to them spending all their time together.

“You don’t even understand how boring college tours can get,” Honey said on their ride to school. Lexi had gotten her driver's license over the summer and her parents congratulated her with a car.

“Ugh, and I’m gonna have to do them next year,” Lexi sighed.

“I can’t believe we’re so old,” Honey laughed.

“I can’t believe you’re going to college next year,” Lexi said. “It’s gonna be unbearable without you.”

“You can do it,” Honey said, patting Lexi’s thigh, “I believe in you.”

Lexi laughed at Honey’s oh so serious tone, “we’ll see.”

They pulled into the school parking lot and parked.

Honey grinned, “I never thought I’d say this but I missed school.”

Lexi laughed, “I think I did too.”

They joined the crowd of student streaming into the hallways. It always amazed Lexi how things change but stay the same after summer break. The hallways were full with mostly the same people, but they all looked a tad bit different. Or a lot different.

Sadly Lexi and Honey had to split up for homeroom, after a strike of good luck where their lockers were very close to each others.

“We can’t have everything,” Honey said as they split up.

Then throughout the day they would see each other, say hi and then split up again, until Gym which they shared. That was also the first time they saw Layla. They hadn’t exactly forgot about her, how could they after spending their whole year together last year? But they hadn’t seen her all summer and didn’t really try to see her either. Even when Lexi was bored out of her mind.

“Layla!” Honey said after spotting her in the changing rooms.

Layla looked drastically different, her once long fire truck red hair was now short and bleached blond.

“Wow,” Lexi said.

“Hey,” Layla said, she looked a tad bit nervous.

“Sorry about disappearing all summer,” Honey said, “College stuff. I love your hair!”

“No problem,” Layla said, “and thanks.”

“I almost didn’t recognize you,” Lexi said, not bothering to make up an excuse about why she didn’t contact her all summer.

“Yeah right, you totally didn’t recognize her,” Honey laughed, “You looked so confused when I pointed her out.”

“Okay, so I totally didn’t recognize you,” Lexi said. “You’re taller.”

“I am,” Layla said, scrunching up her face, “I wish I wasn’t. If I don’t stop growing I’ll tower over the guys.”

“Tall people are cool,” Honey said.

Then the gym teacher blew her whistle signaling for them all to get to work. It was just laps so they could still talk.

“I like your hair,” Layla said to Lexi.

“Oh?” Lexi said, reaching up and touching her hair. She had dyed it very strawberry blond over the summer. “Thanks.”

“You guys both did excited things with your hair and mine is just brown,” Honey said.

“You could’ve,” Lexi said.

“Yeah right, remember I was out touring colleges all summer,” Honey said.

“How’d that go?” Layla asked.

“Boooring,” Honey said, “And I still have no idea what college I want to go to.”

“You’ll figure it out,” Lexi said, “I believe in you.”

Honey laughed, “We’ll see.”

--

Harriette noticed that this first day of school went a lot like last years. Except this year people weren’t just asking about her summer vacation, but also about DaeRi. She didn’t want to talk about DaeRi and that’s exactly what she told everyone.

It took forever for Harriette, Collin, and Tamarai to make it to their homeroom, which they surprisingly shared. And when they arrived it was just more of the same until the teacher quieted them all down.

Harriette was glad not to see DaeRi for most of the day. She didn’t share any classes with her, plus she shared a lot of classes with Collin which just added more good to her day. At lunch was the first time she saw her.

Of course Harriette, Tamarai and Collin all sat at the “Popular Table”. Tamarai was saying something about her English teacher when DaeRi caught Harriette’s eye from across the room. Harriette tried not to feel too happy to see her sitting all the way on the outside of the popular circle.

“Hm?” Tamarai said noticing that Harriette’s attention was elsewhere.

“Oh,” she said when she looked over to where Harriette was looking and saw DaeRi. She frowned.

“What are you guys looking at?” Collin asked. He glanced around and seemed to stop at something else.

Harriette looked at Collin, what was he looking at? She followed his line of sight and saw a familiar looking face but Harriette didn’t quite know who it was.

“Who’s that?” she asked.

“Huh?” Collin said looking at Harriette.

“Who’s that you’re looking at?” Harriette asked.

“Oh, that’s Amado...” Collin trailed off, “He used to go here before Bentley graduated but he moved last summer. We used to hang out with him.”

“Oh, yeah,” Harriette said. Tamarai was looking at them, kind of confused.

“I guess he’s back,” Collin shrugged, “but what were you looking at?”

“Oh, just DaeRi,” Harriette said, “I haven’t seen her all day.”

“Oh,” Collin said.

“Isn’t it sad to see her all the way over there?” Tamarai asked.

“Sad, after what she did to my friends and herself?” Harriette laughed, “Not really.”

Tamarai frowned.

Harriette shrugged, “I don’t have much sympathy for someone like her.”

--

Earlier that day after English Tamarai ran into DaeRi.

“Finally!” DaeRi exclaimed, “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

Tamarai shrugged, “Sorry.”

“So how’s it going?” DaeRi asked.

Tamarai frowned, “Why don’t we talk after school?”

DaeRi stopped walking and stared at Tamarai, “What? Why?”

Tamarai frowned, “It’s just that if I’m talking to you and Harriette’s not people might think it’s kind of weird.”

DaeRi frowned, “No way, you’re the last person I would have thought would do this. Base our friendship on what other people think?”

Tamarai bit her lip,”I don’t know what to do. Harriette expects me to stick with her, and if I’m with her I can’t be seen with you.”

DaeRI shook her head, she could not believe this was happening. Her one best friend abandoning her for popularity.

“I’m sorry, but Harriette has been there for me from day one,” Tamarai said. “she accepted me into her family with open arms. And being her sister has changed my life, I can’t just leave her.”

“But I’m your best friend!” DaeRi exclaimed, calling some attention onto the two of them. Tamarai could hear people start to whisper just as the bell rung. With one last look at DaeRi she turned around and headed off to her next class, leaving DaeRi alone in the hallway.

--

Now at Lunch Tamarai felt terrible about the scene in the hallway earlier. On one hand she knew that sticking with Harriette was what she wanted to do, but on the other hand she felt terrible about ditching DaeRi. She hoped that one day maybe Harriette could patch things up with Daeri again. Even if it seemed unlikely.

Picture: Layla Thompson

An A.L. Halloween part 5

Layla and her friends arrived at the dance “fashionably late” because Honey had a minor melt down about her costume. But nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a couple a pep talks from Lexi. No wonder she was a cheerleader.
Lexi and Honey went straight to the dance floor so Layla followed their lead. They danced for a long time, with people Layla didn’t recognize joining them. Lexi seemed to know everybody though and hugged everyone she saw.
After a while Layla’s feet hurt so she excused herself from the dance floor and went to find a seat. Unknowingly she accidentally sat next to Thomas.
“Hey,” he said.
“Oh,” Layla said, “hi”
“You look crazy,” Thomas said.
“I’m a zombie,” Layla said, “duh. I want to eat your brains, that makes me sort of crazy.”
“Yeah?” Thomas laughed, “well my brains won’t be very helpful, I’m almost failing science.”
Layla laughed, “so what have you been up to?”
“School,” Thomas said, “haven’t found myself anything else to do. I’m a photographer for the school newspaper.”
“Cool,” Layla said. “I didn’t know you took pictures.”
“Well, you talked with me for about fifteen minutes,” Thomas said, “I’ll let that one slide.”
This guy’s sort of funny, Layla thought. Why exactly was she not hanging out with him? Oh yeah because he’s been ignoring her.
“What have you been up to with your friends,” Thomas said. Layla frowned, he said friends like it was a joke.
“Hanging out,” Layla said, “they’re really fun. You wouldn’t know since you jumped ship as soon as I met them.”
“Sorry ‘bout that,” Thomas said, looking sincere, “I don’t have good experiences with the Populars.”
“But they’re not Popular,” Layla said. Sure Lexi knew everyone in school, but that’s because she was a cheerleader last year.
Thomas shrugged, “maybe, but they want to be. Why else would they sit there?”
“It might just be their table,” Layla said, but she knew she was wrong. Lexi had just mentioned how their costume would be sure to get them some attention from the Populars.
“Yeah right,” Thomas said.
“Layla!” Honey said stumbling towards her.
“My feet are gonna fall off,” Lexi said right behind her. They collapsed next to Layla and took their shoes off.
“No way am I walking on this icky floor bare foot though,” Honey said, holding her feet up.
“You still have you tights,” Lexi said.
“Tight’s don’t count,” Honey said.
“Thomas?” Lexi said, finally noticing him.
“Are you guys friends again?” Honey asked.
Thomas shrugged, “I gotta go. See you later, Layla.”
“‘See you later, Layla,’” Honey and Lexi repeated at the same time when he was out of hearing range.
“He likes you,” Lexi said, poking Layla on the arm.
Layla blushed, maybe they were friends. Maybe he wasn’t ignoring her. Whatever it was, he wanted to see her again so that was good sign. But why did Layla care so much, it wasn’t like she actually knew or cared about him.
“You guys should totally dance together,” Honey said.
“Go, before it’s too late,” Lexi pushed Layla, causing her to almost fall.
Layla sighed, there’s no use trying to argue with them so she walked towards where she saw Thomas go. It hurt with every step she took, why had she let them talk her into heels?
“HI,” Layla said when she found him at the snack table.
“OH, hey,” Thomas said, “ditched your friends for me? How sweet.”
“Actually they told me to come and ask you to dance,” Layla said.
“Oh?” Thomas said, “Well then, I’m waiting,”
“I’m not gonna ask you to dance,” Layla said, “I don’t do everything they tell me to do.”
“You came over here,” Thomas said.
“Because there is no arguing with those two,” Layla said.
“Well, why not dance then?” Thomas asked.
“Are you asking me to dance?” Layla asked.
“I think I am,” Thomas said.
“Then why not?” Layla said.
So they went out to the dance floor and danced. Layla noticed Lexi and Honey pointing to them and giving her a thumbs up. Layla laughed and rolled her eyes, pointing them out to Thomas. He just shook his head, laughing.
After a while Lexi and Honey came to join them and Thomas mysteriously disappeared but Layla didn’t really care. He didn’t have to like her friends.
---
Purity waited in the living room with her family the night of the dance. She really didn’t want Daniel to meet her parents just yet, but they insisted on waiting with her. She tried to tell them that it wasn’t a big deal. But they said that they wanted to meet whoever she was going on a date with, even if it “wasn’t a big deal.”
So far the first impression wasn’t good, he was a good forty five minutes late.
The doorbell rung and Purity jumped up and ran to the door to get to it before her parents did. Daniel looked dashing in his costume, well as dashing as you can look as Frankenstein.
“Hi!” Purity said.
“You must be Daniel,” Philip said behind her.
“Yep,” Daniel said, looking nervous. Purity understood, it was only their first, sorta kinda, date.
“I’m Philip, Purity’s dad,” Philip said, offering his hand to shake. Daniel shook his hand.
“And I’m David, her other dad,” Her dad said.
“Uhm, hi,” Daniel said, shaking his hand to.
“”Let’s go, don’t wanna be late,” Purity said, although they already were.
“Okay,” Daniel said.
“See you guys later,” Purity said.
“Eleven o’clock,” Philip said.
Payton waved bye.
“Who was that other guy?” Daniel asked when they got in the car. Which was nice by the way, everyone who was old enough to drive at A.L. High had nice cars. Purity was pretty sure there wasn’t a single poor family in town.
”You mean Payton?” Purity said.
“Yeah?” Daniel said, “your twin right?”
“Yeah,” Purity said.
“He was silent,” Daniel said, “does he not like me?”
“Oh, no,” Purity said, “he’s mute. He hasn’t talked since last year.”
“Oh,” Daniel said, surely feeling awkward now.
As soon as they got to the dance Daniel ditched. At least he had the manners to tell her.
“Hey, look, I gotta go,” Daniel said when they parked the car outside of the gym. “I promised my friends I would do something with them tonight. I’ll be back by eleven to drive you home.”
Purity didn’t have anything to say, she was shocked. Why did he ask her to the dance if he was just gonna leave.
“I’m sorry, but I needed an excuse to go to the dance,” Daniel explained, “See, my parents weren’t gonna let me go, but when I told them I already asked someone they had to let me go. But I didn’t really want to go to the dance, it was just an excuse so I can go see this band that’s playing out of town.”
“Oh,” Purity said. So he didn’t really like her.
“Yeah, so can you... uhm, get out of my car?” Daniel asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Purity said, “Bye.”
“I’ll be back at ten forty.” Daniel said.
Now out of the car as Daniel drove away Purity felt like crying. She didn’t want to be at this dance, she hated Halloween. Her night was ruined. She sat down on the curb and sighed, it was cold. She couldn’t stay out here all night. The only other choice was the dance. That’s when she noticed someone else standing outside of the gym.
It was that Popular boy. Harriette’s twin brother. What was he doing out of the gym? Not inside hanging out with all of his friends. She pondered that as she passed him to go inside the dance.
Inside the dance was even worse. It was dark, with gimmicky Halloween decorations everywhere. Plus it was crowded and loud. She wandered over to the snack table and poured herself some punch. She heard some girls giggling and she was sure she was the cause. A lonely Bride of Frankenstein.
But looking back she saw that the girls were pointing to the middle of the dance floor, so she guessed it wasn’t about her. Gosh, how self centered was that thought?
“Uhm, excuse me?” someone said. It was the Populars.
“Oh, yeah,” Purity said, realising she was in front of the punch.
The petite asian one, DaeRi, rolled her eyes at her. Purity frowned, what had she done? She moved out of the way as soon as they asked, hadn’t she?
“You’re being the Bride of frankenstein, alone?” Harriette, the Queen Popular, asked. It didn’t sound like she was making fun of her, just like she was genuinely curious. So Purity decided to answer honestly.
“My date ditched me,” Purity said.
“Aw,” Harriette said, look honestly sympathetic. “Well, none of us has dates either, so it’s not like it matters.”
“Yeah,” The Indian one said. Purity thought Tamarai was her name, but she wasn’t sure. It’s not like she memorized the Popular’s names.
“Well, thanks for the pep talk,” Purity said, feeling slightly better. The Populars were talking to her. It’s not like she strived for popularity, but having the Populars notice her was good.
“You’re welcome,” Harriette said, then she turned to her friends, “Where’s Collin?”
Collin. That’s the guy outside.
“He’s outside,” Purity answered, though Harriette wasn’t really asking her.
“Really?” Harriette asked, turning back to her looking upset. “Oh god. I gotta go.”
Purity watched with Tamarai and DaeRi as Harriette rushed through to crowd to the door.
“What’s up with her?” Purity asked.
“Her and Collin’s relationship is falling apart,” DaeRi said.
“But their twins aren’t they?” Purity said.
“Yeah, their friendship is falling apart,” DaeRi said.
“It is not,” Tamarai said.
“Collin hates being Popular and Harriette lives for it,” DaeRi said, “they just don’t mesh as well as they used to.”
“I live with them,” Tamarai said, “I would notice if they weren’t meshing.”
“You don’t notice anything,” DaeRi said.
Tamarai frowned, “They’re perfectly fine.”
---
Out front Harriette found Collin sitting on the curb.
“What are you doing out here?” Harriette said.
“The dance is boring,” Collin said.
“But it’s even boring-er out here,” Harriette said.
Collin shrugged, “are you having fun?”
“Yeah,” Harriette said, “I would be having more fun if you were with me.”
“Sorry,” Collin said.
Harriette didn’t know what to do. She was borderline distressed. Collin was obviously upset and Harriette didn’t know who to fix it. She wanted everything to be okay and quite frankly she felt like crying.
She sat down next to Collin.
“What can I do to make you feel better?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” Collin said.
“You’re not, “ Harriette said, “I don’t even remember the last time I saw you really happy.”
“Harriette, I’m always happy,” Collin said, smiling at her.
That’s when Harriette couldn’t hold it anymore and just burst into tears. “But you’re not right now.”
Collin hugged her as she continued to sob, probably getting her makeup all over his shirt.
“It’s okay, I’m happy as long as you’re happy,” Collin said.
“Stop saying that,” Harriette sobbed.
A couple of people left the dance, giving them strange looks. This was gonna big a big topic of gossip on monday.
“Come on, let’s go home,” Collin said.
“We need a ride,” Harriette said, trying to calm down.
“I’ll go ask around,” Collin said.
“That’s embarrassing!,” Harriette said.
That’s when a group of girls came out, saw them, actually stopped and looked concerned.
“Are you guys okay?” the one with crazy blond hair, Collin recognized her as a cheerleader from last year.
“Uhm, yeah.” Collin said. harriette was covering her face, no doubt super embarrassed.
“Do you want a ride?” the girl with equally crazy brown hair who Collin didn’t recognize asked.
Harriette sniffed, “Okay.”
“Cool,” the brunette said. “Come on, our cars over here.”
Collin helped Harriette up, “I have to let our friends know we’re leaving.”
“Yeah,” Harriette said, “you go do that.”
Back in the dance Collin found Tamarai and DaeRi over at the snack table talking with someone he didn’t recognize.
“We’re leaving,” Collin said.
“Is mom here already?” Tamarai asked.
“Harriette doesn’t feel well so we’re getting a ride,” Collin explained.
“Oh, is she alright?” the other girl said.
“Yeah,” Collin said, “she just wants to go home.”
“We’ll wait for mom,” Tamarai said. “You guys go ahead.”
“Okay, see you later,” Collin said.
“Bye,” DaeRi said.
Outside the girls had pulled the car up and were waiting for him. He got into the the back seat with Harriette and saw that she had mostly fixed her makeup, borrowing some of the girls stuff.
“By the way, this is Lexi, Honey and Layla,” Harriette said, pointing them out respectively.
“Hi,” Collin said.
“You guys are so nice to do this for us,” Harriette said, obviously fully recovered from her breakdown now since there were other people around.
“You guys live on Victoria lane right?” Lexi asked.
“Yep,” Harriette said, “in the big yellow house. We just painted it this summer, I love the new color.”
“The Big Yellow house,” Honey laughed, “that’s what I'll call it from now on. Harriette and Collin live in the Big Yellow House.”
Harriette laughed, “that’s cute.”
It didn’t take too long to get to there house since everything in this town surrounded the schooled. when they arrived they thanked them again for the ride and then went inside.
“You guys are home early,” their mom said when they entered the kitchen.
“Had a minor meltdown,” Harriette said, “but I’m okay now, you still need to pick up Tamarai and DaeRi though. And take DaeRi back to her house, I don’t feel like a sleepover.”
“Okay,” her mom said, looking concerned, “if you need anything, you know where to find me.”
“Thanks mom,” Harriette said.
They went upstairs to Harriette room.
“I need to shower,” Harriette said, “you should too.”
“Uhm okay,” Collin said. He didn’t really want to shower, so he went to his room and changed into some pajamas and waited for Harriette. He wanted to make sure she was okay.
“I’m fine,” Harriette said when he checked on her later. “I’m tired and I want to go to sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Collin left the room and went back to his own. He didn’t feel like sleeping, everything from that night kept him awake. He didn’t ever want to see Harriette that upset ever again. He fell asleep eventually, thinking that he was just glad that this Halloween dance stuff was over.

An A.L. Halloween Part 2

The Halloween dance was only a week away which meant the first school event since Layla came to school. Well, the first one she could make it to, she had been sick for Homecoming.
Layla, Lexi, and Honey were going to the dance dressed as zombie princesses. They had just spent the whole day shopping to find the perfect dresses, stopping at every thrift store in town. Which wasn’t much, only two since they lived in such a small town. Finally they each had a dress and were stopping for lunch at the Deli.
“This is gonna be major,” Honey said, sipping her milkshake. The Deli had the best milkshakes in town.
“Totally,” Lexi said, “I can already see myself all dressed up, it’s gonna be fab.”
“Yep,” Layla agreed. This whole zombie princess thing was a little out of her comfort zone, the last time she had really dressed up was for her sister’s quinceanera.
“Hey, look,” Honey said suddenly.
“What?” Lexi asked, looking around.
“Isn’t that the guy Layla was eating with the first day?” Honey asked.
Layla looked where Honey was pointing, sure enough it was Thomas sitting alone reading. Layla shrugged, “yeah that’s him.”
“Oh,” Lexi said.
“Do you guys still talk?” Honey asked.
“No,” Layla said. They hadn’t even said hi in the hallways.
“Oh,” Honey said, looking thoughtful.
“We just sat together because we didn’t want to sit alone,” Layla said, “it’s not like we were friends or anything.”
“He’s all alone,” Honey said, “how sad.”
“Oh god, Honey, don’t do this again,” Lexi said.
“I’m not,” Honey said.
“She has a habit of ‘falling in love’ with the less fortunate,” Lexi said to Layla.
“Thomas isn’t really less fortunate,” Layla said, “he’s just alone.”
“Being alone is sad,” Honey said.
Layla shrugged, “maybe he wants to be alone.”
“Who wants to be alone?” Honey asked.
“A lot of people,” Layla said, “introverts.”
“Ugh, introverts,” Honey said, “I hate them.”
“Honey! Rude,” Lexi said.
“Introverts are no fun, fact.” Honey said.
Lexi shook her head, “there’s no getting through to you.”
Suddenly Thomas looked up and saw them staring at him. He quickly looked back down, gathered his stuff and briskly walked out of the Deli.
“Oh,” Lexi said, “we scared him away.”
“Oh, well,” Honey shrugged.
Layla had the admit sometimes she thought about Thomas, he seemed pretty interesting when she first met him. But he brushed her off completely as soon as she made friends with Lexi and Honey. She wondered why.
Mean while Lexi and Honey had gone back to talking about Halloween and the dance.
“Should we dress the same for actual Halloween night?” Lexi asked.
“No way, I’m not walking in those heels,” Honey said.
Layla agreed, “my feet would hurt after only ten minutes.”
“We could just wear sneakers with them,” Lexi said.
“But then we’d look like hipsters,” Honey said, making a face that made it obvious she didn’t want that.
“Okay then,” Lexi said, “We could just be cute zombies, wear whatever we have in our closets.”
“Ooh, like stereotype zombies,” Honey said, “one of us could be a cheerleader, one of us could be a hipster and the last one could be... a nerd?”
“You are the best,” Lexi said, putting an arm around Honey.
“I like that,” Layla said, “as long as I can be the hipster.”
“I’m the cheerleader,” Honey said, “Since I was actually a cheerleader it only makes sense.”
“Okay, nerd for me,” Honey said.
“Perfect,” Layla said, by now she had completely wiped Thomas out of her mind. He didn’t matter anyway.

“Your hair, it’s gorgeous.”

Walking into the cafeteria Layla Thompson was shocked to see that it exactly the way people talked about it. She hadn’t believed it before, but seeing it now it was very obvious that everyone rotated around the Populars.
The Populars were sitting  on the outer corner, while everyone crowded around them. Sitting close so that it would look like they were popular too.
Layla, being new, had no idea at all where she was supposed to sit. Secretly she wanted to be like those other people, crowding around the Populars trying to look cool. but that would look shallow, and she didn’t want to look shallow on her first day.
Someone bumped into her from behind, almost sending her tray flying. She caught herself fast enough though, so no embarrassing mess was involved. She was so relieved about that that she didn’t even notice the boy apologizing profusely.
“Oh, it’s alright,“ she said, she said when she finally noticed him. She tucked some of her crazy curly hair behind her ear. She had dyed it bright red for high school. The boy was only slightly taller than her, which was still tall since she was almost six feet. He had bright green eyes, slightly tan skin and light brown curls that were almost waves.
“Your hair,” the guy said pointing at it, “it’s gorgeous.”
“Thanks,” she beamed, the first compliment she had gotten for it.
“I’m Thomas,” the guy said.
“Layla,” she said. “are you new?”
“A freshman,” Thomas said.
“Same,” Layla said, happy to run into another freshman. Someone just as confused as she was.
“So, where are you sitting?” Thomas asked.
Layla frowned, back to the dilemma she was in. Where do freshman sit? People who haven’t been organized yet.
“Ah, I see,” Thomas said, “confused?”
“Yep,” Layla said, “I don’t know where I should sit.”
“Where do you want to sit?” Thomas asked.
Layla paused, not sure if she should answer honestly. What if Thomas hated Populars, and anyone who wanted to be one of them?
“Hmm?” Thomas asked.
Layla pointed to the corner where the Populars were and waited for his response.
“Ah, the Populars,” Thomas said, “I didn’t exactly peg you as a Popular girl. I was thinking something like a rebel, with your red hair and all.”
“Red hair doesn’t always equal rebel,” Layla said.
Thomas shrugged, “sit where you want, I’ll follow.”
Layla was surprised by this, why was this random guy she just met going to follow her to her lunch table? I guess freshman have to stick together. She led the way to a table with only a few other people at it that was pretty close to the Populars.
“Oh, you were serious,” Thomas said sliding in next to her.
“Uhm, yeah,” Layla said. She looked over at the Populars, at the legendary Harriette Brown who seemed to turn this school around after becoming popular and her lackies, the Indian and the Korean. Layla didn’t really know their names.
Next to their table were the cheerleaders, just another level of the Populars. They all wore their cheerleading uniforms all day, even on the first day when cheer hadn’t even started yet. They were talking loudly making up about half the noise in the cafeteria.
Layla looked down at her food, for a school lunch it was actually on the better side. She had a small salad, yogurt, a hamburger, and a brownie for dessert. And all of it looked like what it was supposed to be.
She looked over at Thomas who was listening to music on his iPod. Layla wondered what he was listening to, and if it was polite to ask.
She decided that her burger looked pretty good and took a bite proving that it was pretty good. She finished her burger and moved on to her yogurt. This is how she always ate, one food at a time.
Suddenly she noticed that that the other girls sitting at the table were staring at them.
“Hi?” She said.
“Hi,” one of the girls said, this girl had crazy blond curls. Not crazy like Layla’s, but crazy nonetheless. “What are you doing here?”
“Eating?” Layla said.
“Yeah,” the girl said.
Layla just smiled hesitantly.
“You’re a freshman?” Another girl asked, this one with dark brown curls. Layla noticed that lots of people had curls here, weird.
“Yeah,” Layla said.
“Cute,” the blond one said. “I was a freshman last year.”
“That’s nice,” Layla said.
“Yeah, she was a freshman and already on her way to popularity,” the brunette said.
“Yeah?” Layla said, wanting to know more.
“She was a cheerleader, but this year she wants to play a different sport,” she continued.
“Like soccer or track,” the blond said.
“I played soccer in elementary,” Layla said. And she was pretty bad at it.
“Oh,” the blond said, “it is a pretty old school sport? I’ll go with track.”
“I’m Layla,” Layla said.
“Layla,” the blond one said. “cute. Your hair is amazing.”
“Thanks,” Layla said. It was obviously a good idea to dye her hair.
“I’m Lexi,” the blond one said.
“And I’m Honey, “the brunette said.
“Honey? that’s cute,” Layla said
“Thanks,” Honey said, “my real name is Elizabeth but I hate it.”
“You know what?” Lexi said, grinning, “you should be our friend.”
“Really?” Layla said.
“Sure,” Honey said.
“Your super cute and you have curls like us,” Lexi said.
“Well a lot of people have curls,” Layla.
“But not naturally,” Lexi said, “ and I can tell that those are natural.”
Layla shrugged, “okay then.”
“What about your friend?” Lexi asked, gesturing towards Thomas who was not paying any attention at all.
“Oh, that’s Thomas,” Layla said, “I just met him.”
“Well he’s cute, he can be friends with us too,” Lexi said.
“If he wants,” Honey said.
Layla poked Thomas to get his attention. He jumped as if he was asleep and then looked around slightly confused.
“These are my new friends, Lexi and Honey,” Layla said.
“Honey? That can’t be her real name,” Thomas said.
“It’s not,” Layla said, “she doesn’t like her real name.”
“What is it?” Thomas asked
“Elizabeth,” Layla said.
“That’s like ten times better than Honey,” Thomas said. “Honey sounds like a stripper name.”
Honey looked hurt.
“Don’t be so rude,” Layla said.
“So these are your new friends?” Thomas asked.
Layla nodded.
“Well, then I guess you don’t need me anymore,” Thomas said. Before Layla could even reply to that he was up and walking across the cafeteria.
“Huh?” Lexi said.
“Wow, rude,” Honey said.
Layla shrugged, she had only just met him. It wasn’t that big of a deal. And now she already had two almost popular friends on her first day of high school.
This looked good.