FicWad

Vera drove me to school, insisting on that rather than letting me walk the short distance to school. She beamed with pride as she passed a necklace to me.
“This was mine when I was a girl.” she said, giggling, “I was wearing it when I first met Jack. Maybe it will give you luck too.”
She put it on for me, clicking the two ends together. The noise seemed louder than it should of.
“Have a good day!” she said, waving me out the door.
If it weren’t for Vera’s unhostility and her Grandma-style cuteness, I may have had to kill her. With a gun, not me.
A few students were sitting on a fence and on the hoods of cars, talking about me.
Okay, I got it. I was the new student. But freaking hell! It was a new year. New students were meant to be coming in anyway. But they still laughed about me being dropped off by what looked like my Grandma.
Excellent first impression.
It probably didn’t help that the shirt of my uniform had been tucked in meticulously by Grandma Vera’s expert ways. I pulled it out embarrassed completely.
Where to go on the first day of school? When nobody wants to help you because you got dropped off by your Grandma and your pants were tucked in. I checked the school map and located the library. Perhaps I could find some common ground?
I didn’t even get to the library without being stopped. A classroom seemed to serve as a hangout spot to some people.
“H-h-hey.” a guy said. I guessed he was about my height. Short.
“I, uh, I mean, we heard you were new so, uh, we were wondering if you wanted to, uh, hang out, sorta, uh…” the guy trailed off and dipped his head to avoid eye contact. Judging by him saying ‘we’ I supposed that he had company. Inside the classroom was a group of people, all watching with very intent focus straight at me. I couldn’t tell if they were hostile enough but then again the hat-wearing boy was saying they invited me over.
“Uh, okay.” I said, smiling.
“What’s your name?” I asked, trying to sound polite
“I’m P-Patrick.” he said, “What’s yours?”
“I’m Crystal.” I said
“Actually he is Pattymuffin.” some guy with dark brown hair said grinning.
“I am not your fucking Pattycakes!” Patrick said annoyedly at the (stunning) brunette guy.
“Oh, you remember your real name?” the guy said. Patrick just glared.
“So are you new here or something?” some blonde chick asked. It was completely out of the blue, I guess that comes from Patrick’s awkwardness.
“That’s TRICK-SY.” Patrick said under his breath to me before I could answer.
“Yeah, I am. Nice to meet you.” I said extending a hand. She hesitated but still shook it anyway. It was like touching a goddess, she was beautiful but I was afraid it was Natasha all over.
“You too.” she grinned and I felt relieved, “This is my brother Ryan, he’s a weirdo..”
“Hey!” Ryan said annoyed to ‘Trick-Sy’. She still continued unphased,
“That is the lovely Brendon, the latin Gabe and the… the William.”
I noticed she sort of stopped on the name William. As in her confidence slipped.
“Hi.” I said, feeling like I was mocking Patrick’s awkwardness. They all replied, looking up, smiling and waving. Except for William. Instead he just sat and stared, his legs almost too long to see over the top of because they were up and he was resting a notebook on them. I recognised his face. He was the guy who gave me the weird look at restaurant. He was a lefty. I’m a lefty.
“Don’t be a fucking douche, say hi Bilvy!” Gabe said, whacking his leg.
“Hi Bilvy.” William said looking up for a second then looking down, then looking up.
“Hey, you’re that chick that Bilvy saw in at the diner right?” Brendon asked, raising an eyebrow at William, who kept staring at me.
“Um, I’m not sure.” I replied slowly. Yes, this William fellow was in fact the one who I had a staring match with. I just denied it for some reason.
I sat down with them on the carpeted ground against a desk. William kept staring. Jesus! What is it, like Stare At New Kid Day or something?
“So where are you from then?” Trixi asked. I noticed she was at the highest point of us all. Did she subconsciously think that she was superior? I sat up straighter.
“Palo Verde.” I said. It only made sense I had to lie to these guys as well.
“Oh, that’s where I used to go to school.” Brendon said.
“Really?” I said. I began getting scared that I was going to have to make some stuff up about Vegas.
“Did you ever meet a guy called Brent Wilson?” he asked intently
“Uh, can’t say I’ve ever met him.” I said, afraid of an answer
“Doesn’t matter, he’s a jerk. I was just worried that you were like his biggest fan or something.”
“Nope.”
“What part were you from?” he asked. I stuttered for about five seconds before the bell rang.
“We have assembly.” William said, getting up showing the full extent of his telescopic legs. He smiled at me finally but stopped quickly to catch up to Trixi who was at the front, like the leader of the pack.

What a great first impression, I thought to myself. Sarcastically. I hadn’t smiled properly to one of them the entire time, so they probably thought that I was some emotional trainwreck.
I missed Pete.

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At lunch we were back in the classroom again. By then the uniform felt like a leash, incredibly boring but then again, I didn’t have very many other clothes to wear. I bet Trixi did. I admit, despite her slight self feeling of superiority I did like her a lot. I thought she was awesome.
“Cool lunchbox.” Ryan said, noting my Beatles lunchbox
“Holy crap! That’s so cool!” Brendon said, pulling a sandwich out of his bag. That disappeared in about 10 seconds.
“Is that like a new record for you or something?” Ryan asked
“No, Gabe and I are competing, do any of you guys have a stopwatch? Gabriel, let’s make this official.”
Brendon pulled another two sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly by the smells) out of his bag. I was astounded. How was a guy of Brendon’s form able to eat that many sandwiches. They were also white bread sandwiches.
“Okay, one, two, three… GO!” Ryan said, timing them off his phone.
The sandwiches didn’t even make a mess and Brendon won by about half a second. Brendon finished in about 5.4 seconds flat.
Gabe reached into his bag and pulled out a gigantic slice of vegetarian pizza. He smiled at me before stuffing it into his mouth. I really hoped this sort of competition didn’t happen everyday.
“So, how are you liking it here so far?” Trixi asked, who was filing her nails.
“It’s really good.” I said earnestly. There was no way I was going to humiliate myself in front of HER.
“Really.” she said, looking at me, “You haven’t even touched a bite of your lunch yet.” she smirked and returned to her nail grooming.
“What the hell Trixi!” Ryan said, picking up his bag and walking out the door, “Do not assume things like that!” he said, slamming the door behind him
“What was that about?” I asked, trying to sound as clueless and oblivious as possible. Trixi was definitely onto me, I was sure.
“Nothing. They’re just going through a little sibling rivalry.” Brendon answered after Trixi ran out after him.
“Oh.” I said. There was a long awkward silence. William was staring again.
“Do you wanna come to a party?!” Gabe said, piping up.
“OK.” I answered. I was sure that I was living out Vera’s teenage years again for her, “Where?”
“Not far from here. By the lake. I’ll pick you up if you want.” he told me, smiling.
“Sure.” I said. William was glaring at Gabe.
“What are you even writing Bilvy?” Brendon asked, unphased by the glaring match going on.
“Nothing!” he said, snapping the book shut and sitting on it. Without the notebook, he looked a lot different. He smiled in the awkward way again, just to be polite I think.
“Are you still kind of hungry?” Brendon asked Gabe
“Yeah, have you got anything else?” Gabe asked back
“I’ve got these.” Brendon said pulling out a fruit bowl’s worth of fruit. A giant’s sized fruit bowl may I add.
William took a bite out of the apple in his hand.
“Sorry they’re all… different.” William said after he swallowed.
“No worries.” I said, trying to sound nonchalant and carefree. But I still felt tense. The guy who stared at me in the diner was now face to face with me. It was extremely unnerving.
“So who do you have last period?” he asked
“I have English, Mr. Collins.”
“Oh really, I’ve got him too. I think it’s just y-you and me.” he said. I guessed that he intentionally mocked Patrick. Patrick had remained completely silent the whole breaktime until that point. Seriously.
“Are you okay?” Brendon asked Patrick, like he was trying to seem the situation more… normal.
“Yeah, sorry. I’ve just been thinking about stuff. Sorry.” I figured that Patrick often repeats himself.
Trixi and Ryan didn’t return the whole break.