Homecoming pt3: The Goodies Showdown.

The next day Honey, Lexi, and Layla were standing in the doorway to the cafeteria handing out lollipops with tags on them that said “Don’t be a sucker, vote Honey Bell for homecoming queen!”

When DaeRi passed through, carrying her tray of cookies, they looked at her curiously and offered her a lollipop.

“What’s the tray?” Honey asked after DaeRi refused the lollipop.

“It’s a secret,” DaeRi said.

Honey gave her a look, but shrugged and said, “have a good day.”

DaeRi went to her table and set down her tray, placed her purse and lunch on the table then headed over to Harriette’s table, stopping by the other tables on the way handing them each a cookie and saying, “Vote Tamarai for homecoming queen, please!” It was all so cheerful.

But when she reached the popular table she found that it was covered with cookies, cupcakes, and chocolate bars that said “Vote for Tamarai, the best in A.L. High!” It was ridiculously cute.

“Uhm.” Tamarai said when she noticed DaeRi approaching.

DaeRi said nothing at first, she didn’t know why she was so shocked. Duh Tamarai was gonna campaign for herself, and duh it was gonna be better than DaeRi’s lame attempt.

But Daeri reminded herself that it was the thought that count and said “hi!”

“Want a cookie, cupcake or chocolate bar?” Harriette asked.

“I’m good,” DaeRi said, smiling sweetly, “I’m actually handing out cookies myself.”

“For what?” Harriette asked.

“For Tamarai,” DaeRi said.

“You’re campaigning for Tamarai?” Harriette asked incredulously.

“Yep,” DaeRi said.

“Why?” Tamarai asked, looking confused.

“To show that I care about you,” DaeRi said, “And since I‘m not nominated, you should win.”

Now Harriette rolled her eyes and looked at DaeRi, “so it’s only because you’re not nominated? Don’t tell me you think that something as small as campaigning for Tamarai, just because you weren’t nominated, is going to get me to forgive you. Now, if you were nominated and campaigned for Tamarai than maybe I would forgive you.”

DaeRi said nothing, she was shocked to say the least. Here she was campaigning for her ex best friend to win something she had always wanted to win, instead of sitting around and being bitter, and Harriette was finding way to call her out on it.

“Thank you,” Tamarai said, breaking the silence. Then someone tapped DaeRi on the shoulder.

“These cookies are terrible,” the girl said as soon as DaeRi turned around.

“They taste like play dough,” another guy said.

DaeRi frowned, “huh? What does play dough taste like?”

“Like this,” another girl said holding out the half eaten cookie in her hand. DaeRi took the cookie and took a bite and spit it right out, and kind of on the first girl. It tasted like salt!

“Ew, what the-” DaeRi said. She tried to think back to making the cookies the other night and remembered taking out the sugar. At least she had thought it was the sugar.

Oh.

She remembered, all of the stuff in her house was labeled in Korean, she didn't know what half the stuff in her house was. When she got the sugar she just took the first thing she saw that resembled sugar.

“Oh, sorry,” DaeRi shrugged. “It was an accident.”

“Didn’t you try them before you brought them in?” The guy said. The first girl had stomped away in disgust after DaeRi accidentally spit the cookie on her, but there was a crowd forming now. All of them wanting to know why she handed out salty cookies. And Harriette, being the strategic girl she is, offered them the goodies she had on display. Reminding each of them to vote for Tamarai.

Which thankfully distracted them long enough for DaeRi to make an escape. She couldn’t believe just how bad that had went. Why couldn’t anything go right for her?

At her table she gathered her stuff up and was prepared to go when the guy from earlier suddenly appeared next to her.

She jumped back and glared at him, “you scared me.”

“Did you make the play dough cookies on purpose?” he asked.

DaeRi stared at him, shocked that he would make an assumption like that. She vaguely recognised him, but wasn’t sure how. He had soft brown curls that hung around his face, a bit too long for DaeRi’s taste, and exotic looking green eyes.

“No,” she finally said, “Why would I do that?”

“To make people not vote for Tamarai,” he said, “Hand out disgusting cookies that say Tamarai on them, make it look like you’re campaigning for her, and then people eat the cookies think that Tamarai had something to do with the cookies and vote for Honey instead. Simple.”

“Wow,” DaeRi said, “I hadn't’ even thought of doing something that evil. Tamarai’s my friend, why would I do that?”

“She’s not your friend anymore,” He pointed out, “The last time I checked you were kicked out of the ‘popular’ circle.”

He said “popular” with just a hint of sarcasm.

“Whatever,” DaeRi said, “I didn’t make the cookies bad on purpose, you can blame my mom for labeling everything in a language no one but her understands.”

“Hm,” He said looking at her thoughtfully, “Okay, I believe you.”

DaeRi glared at him, again, and finished gathering her stuff. “Not that it mattered to me. I don’t even know who you are.”

“Thomas, or Thom for short,” He said holding out his hand.

DaeRi looked at his hand and laughed cynically, “nice to meet you but I gotta go.”

Her voice was laced with sarcasm.

He shrugged and dropped his hand, “talk to you later.”

“Hopefully not,” DaeRi said, shooting him one last glare and walking away.

“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.