Chapter 1: Lunch
My pencil flew across my sketch book. I’m pressing too hard. The page ripped slightly as the tip broke. Third time this period. I sighed as I looked at the frog I drew. The bowtie was ruined. It had a giant smudge on it that made it look sort of sad. I tried to erase it. The eraser made a sound that sounded like sand paper on wood. A sort of annoying but also calming sound that felt a little familiar when you really listened to it. In the background, my math teacher was talking about something that had to do with the area of a cylinder. Her voice felt like white noise bouncing off the walls of the small room, barely reaching my brain. I looked at the clock. 10:36. Four more minutes. I scanned the room. There were math posters and inspirational sayings hung on the wall, of all different colors. It was entertaining to look at, like anything is when you’re bored. I blew the strand of short-ish auburn hair with a fade of blue at the end out of my face. Suddenly, I heard the class start to chatter again. I looked up at the clock. 10:38. Finally, pack up time. I grabbed my stuff and headed to the door. When the bell rang, I plunged into the cascade of kids all walking in the same direction. I felt a tap on my shoulder, and turned around. It was Carmen.
“Your pin is distracting me. I don’t like it, take it off.”
She was referring to a pin I had on my messenger bag that had the lesbian flag on it. Jack said I should try to be more open about my sexuality ever since someone leaked that I liked girls.
I tensed up when someone hit her in the forehead with a ball of crinkled paper.
“Get out, Carmen. Don’t be mean, you soggy cheese stick.”
She scoffed and walked away.
“‘Soggy cheese stick’? That’s new.”
Jack laughed, “You’re welcome.”
I still felt a little shaken though. I’ve never had anyone comment on my stuff in such a negative way, but I guess it’s better to just take it off to avoid that happening again.
After that, we had science together, which was extremely anticlimactic. Jack talked about raccoons and how cute they are. He rambled on about how they look like little burglars, and how their ears are adorable, and how they are so brave the way they break into peoples trash cans with no restraint. It was somehow the funniest thing I ever heard, but he was completely ignoring the fact that we had work to do. I doodled stars on my hand to the point where it was a galaxy.
As soon as the clock hit 11:30, we all went to lunch. The lunch room was big, with tons and tons of tables everywhere. I sat down at our usual table, despite the fact someone was already sitting there. She seemed new. I had never seen her before out of all years I’ve been at Clearmont Middle School.
She perked up when I sat down. “Uh, hi, I’m Callie but I like to go by Cal. I’m new,” she exclaimed.
It took me a second to register what she said, but then I introduced myself, “Um, I’m Sam, and I’ve been going here for three years.”
Just then Jack walked over to the table, lunch tray in hand. He said something and Cal said something back. I doodled polka dots on Phil’s (the frog) bowtie while they talked, feeling like a little kid half listening to two adults talk. I tapped the pencil on the paper, thinking of what to draw next. I giraffe wearing a top hat? No. A dinosaur with a party hat? No. What about a bird with rain gear on playing in the rain? That might just be it.
I started on the head of the little bird drawing a small circle with a small triangle on the outside when Cal asked, “What are you drawing?” Her voice was genuinely curious.
I could tell she wasn’t being sarcastic. “Uh, I’m drawing a bird playing in the uhm…the rain.”
She smiled at me and went back to whatever she was doing on her laptop.
I wanted to ask her a question back so, “Uh, what are you writing?”
“I’m writing an essay for my English class. I didn’t quite finish and I forgot to do it for homework,” she said, looking at the screen as she typed.
I decided to get back to my sketch. I looked back up at her to really catch a glimpse of her, and I realized how beautiful she was. She had dirty blonde hair, tied up into a braid, her nose was small, but not too small, it was a perfect kind of small, and she had freckles all over her face. They look like stars. I thought. She wore a blue and green flannel, with a t-shirt underneath, that said “Why?” on it. She seemed nice. I took a bite of my peanut butter sandwich and sketched the rest of my bird. Then the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.