I find Mia waiting for me right where we had planned and sneaking up on her. I give her side a poke, making her jump.
“Freaking Faith!”, She reaches out to jab me, and I shy away from her.
“How’s your first day so far?” I ask her, leading her to the line.
“It’s fine, but I got stood up by the person they assigned to show me around.” I look at her, confused.
“Why didn’t you text me? I would have come and done it for you?”
“Nah, it’s fine. I told the lady in the office and she is sending someone to show me around in like 10 minutes.”
“Look at you taking initiative.” I toss an elbow to her as we get up to the food.
Mia grabs the quintessential burger and fries with white milk and I reach for the salad and a soda. I have a running club starting in a week, so working on getting my body ready is sorely needed. But mostly because the running club advisor is the lunch lady, and she is giving me some serious stink eye for even looking at the yummy burger that has my name on it. I smile at her sweetly, pretending I had planned on the salad the whole time. We find a seat tucked into a corner near a window and take a seat.
“So how is your day going?” Mia asked through a bite of luscious red meat. I really want that burger.
“It’s been interesting. Somehow I ended up in the wrong class and had to go to the office to figure it out and ran into the cliche hot rich couple and that was weird to say the -”
“I’m sorry, the wrong class?” Mia interrupts.
“Yeah, somehow I ended up being put in AP English without my consent.”
“Wait, so they enrolled you in AP English without telling you?” Mia says confused.
“Yeah! I felt so stupid. Everyone was staring at me. Interestingly enough, they showed me the confirmation email, which did not go to my email. It went to Annoymous352,” I said, annoyed.
“Oh wow, how very sneaky of them,” I nod, equally stunned as she. “And excuse me, why is it so bad for you to be seen, Faith? Would it kill you to not try to be invisible?”
“Mia, how dare you.” I feign hurt. And I lean in to whisper, “I’m on the shortlist to get accepted into the ACN University. I have to practice now if I want to pass the exams.” Mia stares at me, completely flabbergasted.
“Do I even-”
“Ask me!” She shakes her head no “ASK ME!” I say excitedly “you know you want to.”
“Ok fine. What the heck is ACN University?” I beam at her, smiling triumphantly.
“The Accelerated College of Nin-”
“If you say freaking Ninja’s I’m going to punch you.” She warns, cutting me off and taking a swig of her Milk.
“Ninjas.” I finish happily and put my hands up to defend myself. “I dare you to come at me. I’ve been training for years.” She takes another sip of milk while I make a karate chopping motion and high pitched 'Hi-yah' “I’m practically invisible, it was a colossal achievement for me”
Mia can’t help but laugh as she spews her milk and her attention turns to above my shoulder than her milk flies over my head, raining down on me and splashing none other than Cameron Davis.
“Oh, shit,” I whisper, staring at his perfect angular face dripping with white milk as he blinks, stunned.
I look at Mia, who is mortified, and I try to hold it in. I do my best not to laugh in awkward situations, but unprompted and unwanted giggles come, and they come on strong. My shoulders shake until loud gleeful noises flow from me. The whole of the cafeteria turns their attention to us in a deafening silence. After a moment I finally reign my laughing in and grab a napkin and reach out to wipe off the still stunned Cameron who is staring at me with red cheeks and insane fury.
“Hey! I didn’t do it,” I say in defense as he stares into my soul, threatening it.
“You laughed,” He says through clenched teeth. “People don’t laugh at me.”
“You look funny,” I say simply, shrugging, “plus it’s all over me too. Laughing is a defense mechanism.”
I attempt to keep a straight face. “I literally can’t help it.”
Cameron sets his tray down and sits next to my spot, and I stand staring down at him.
“What- no. you can’t sit here.” I rush out. “Get out of here,” I whisper to him as he looks up at me, stunned like a Prince who doesn’t understand why the peasant girl isn’t flattered by his presence.
“No, I’m doing community service.” I look at him, confused.
“The principal wants me to show the new girl around. Apparently, she’s a real Genius,” He grins at me. “I knew you were the new girl,” I look over at Mia, who is seemingly still shaken over the whole event.
“Right, well, I’m not new. The new girl is my cousin Mia.” I point to Mia, who smiles awkwardly and waves. “And I hate to do this to ya Mia, but I just remembered I have to be somewhere that’s not here.”
“Faith!” Mia calls out in a plea as I turn and runoff.
I pull out my phone to text her the world’s best apology for ditching her in a hurry. Mid-text, my arm is yanked hard and I turn to see Angela giving me the devil glare. I internally roll my eyes, cursing under my breath. Why me? Why now? I plaster on the fakest smile I can muster.
“Hey, Angela. What can I do for you?” I say in an almost convincing, friendly voice. She steps back disgusted when she sees my soggy milk appearance.
“Is-is that milk in your hair?”
“Yeppers. Even better, it’s partially regurgitated milk, it’s a great hair thickener,” I wince inwardly.
Where is all this sass suddenly coming from? Is this a senior thing? The whole ‘I don’t give a shit- I’m almost out of here?’ It would be terrible timing since it’s the very first day of school.
“Yeah, I just go to the salon for that stuff.” She says, her eyes slowly rolling over my messy state, mesmerized by my disheveled appearance.
“Did you need something, Angela?” I ask to pull her from her trance. And she clears her throat.
“uh…” She shakes her head. “Yes. I don’t know what you did to Cameron, but he thinks you are someone he needs to have. This is me nicely telling you to stay the hell away from him.”
“Two warnings in one day. Yikes.” I look at Angela’s face as it contorts into an angry cheerleader mode and I put my hands up in surrender.
“Look, like I said before, I want nothing to do with the guy.”
“We’ll see about that,” she says as she flips her hair around and walks away
“There’s nothing to see! Seriously! I don’t even like the guy.” I holler back at her. “What is with this day?” I whisper to myself as I walk to my next class.
*Cameron POV* She runs from the cafeteria as if I have some incurable disease. My face still tingling where she had been so close to touching my cheek, only a thin napkin between us. I close my eyes, trying to calm my beating heart. For years I had watched her build walls around herself, erecting one after the other by ignoring the mean comments from guys angry about her lack of attention to them. Each year she sank further and further from the spotlight and every year I yearned more and more for what she had, invisibility. But this year, when she slammed into me, it was like an emotional barrier falling away as I got lost in her snarky comments and deep green eyes. My life is grand if you like snotty people who like your family’s name and wealth more than you as a person. I’m surrounded by a world of shallow people who use fame and money like it’s the cure-all. And often it is. But money can’t fix a broken relationship. It can’t
*Faith POV* My phone sits on the kitchen table vibrating relentlessly as we eat dinner and I happily ignore the phone calls that are going to voicemail. Mom, who is sitting across from me, is staring as I twirl my spaghetti and spear a meatball, shoveling it in my mouth and moving quickly onto my garlic bread. I can see her nudge Mia in my peripheral vision, who looks up at me and sighs. Placing her fork down and crossing her arms across her chest. I look up at them as I swallow what’s in my mouth. It’s times like these when they are both cross with me that they seem to look similar. Though Mia is more of an exotic beauty, gifted to her by her deceased father, she and my mother have the same slim face shape and stick straight dark hair. And when they both are sitting in this position, even their sour looks seem to be identical. I groan in annoyance and place my fork down and dab my face pretentiously with my napkin. “Ok. What?” I
By the time my alarm goes off at 4:45 am, I’m already fully dressed and sitting in my running gear on the end of my bed. I haven’t been able to sleep since seeing Dad for the first time. My heart and my mind are in a constant battle over forgiveness or revenge. Lately, my hormonal mind has been winning the battle as I snub him every chance I get, intentionally learning his schedule at school and how to avoid him. Running club should help. I hope so. Today is the first day and we are starting with a 5K and then hitting the weight room. I could join the track team, but the running club does all the same things without recognition. No one staring at me. No one cheering my name and drawing the spotlight on me. Just me, working my aggression out and clearing my mind. When I arrive at the track, the lights are just coming on, lighting the way, and I can feel a small smile forming. I’m far more excited than I thought I would be. Maybe I enjoy ru
I bust through the weight room doors laughing as Berry comes in just behind me. I toss my hands up in victory. “Victory is mine!” I spin to look at berry who inches closer with a suggestive smile on his face. “Ooh, Woah there buddy. Victory means a date. Not a kiss.” he chuckles loudly, tossing his head back and I’m kind of enjoy the sound. I look up at him with a grin on my face. “So that means you’ll finally go out with me?” he asks happily. “Ugh. I guess.” I roll my eyes with intense exaggeration as he wraps his muscular arms around my waist and hugs me tightly, spinning me around in a circle. “Yes!” He hoots “Freaking finally!” The door opens behind us as Mariah and Ari walk in and stop dead in their tracks, watching me come down from the spin and release myself from Berry’s arms. I clear my throat and look at Berry, who is grinning from ear to ear, and I elbow him in the gut. “So... what’s going on?” A
I was standing outside Mia’s first class waiting for her to come out to regale to her with my dubious morning. The bell had rung over 3 minutes ago and she still hadn’t come out of the room. I stepped up to the door and peeked through the little window and I could see her talking to someone of similar height. I could see her shoulders moving in a giggle and I couldn’t help but think she was getting someone’s number. My impatience gets the better of me and I rap on the window. She spins around and, seeing me, she smiles brightly, waving for me to come in. Hesitantly, I step back and open the door, peeking my head around. “Hey Mia,” I call to her “Dude, I was going to walk you to your next class and tell you all about my morning!” “Yeah, just a second, ok?” She finally turns enough out of the way for me to see that seated in front of her is a cute guy with crutches to the side. He looks familiar and I try to place him when he catche
“Are you ready for our date tonight?” Berry asks, pulling me in for a quick hug. I feel a moment of hesitation. It feels wrong to go out with him now. The only person I can think about is the mysterious hoodie guy who I haven’t seen or well heard from in over a week. I’ve finally decided I need to find out who he is, but it’s very hard to do that when there’s zero contact. “Yeah, I guess so. When are you picking me up?” I look around, making sure no one is watching us. And Berry laughs at me. “Everyone knows we are friends. A hug between friends is nothing new.” “I know, I know. I’m just being-” “Paranoid, you’re being paranoid.” He bops the tip of my nose and I crinkle it in distaste. A shadow grows behind me and for a second my heart flutters in excitement, thinking it’s my mystery guy. Much to my dismay, it’s the ever annoying Cameron who has taken to randomly popping up and talking to me. I groan inwardly. “Par
Since dad’s been back, I have actively tried to avoid him. Just the sight of him often triggers my anxiety, though it’s not been as bad as the first few times. Yet for the past few days, my nightmares have rocked my nightly sleep schedule. I wake up covered in sweat, reliving the hatred in his eyes as he kicks me, punches me in the stomach. My right shoulder aches from all the abuse it took, phantom pains to remind me I’m awake, that it was all real. That these memories are still too fresh. I walk into AP English with my hood up, hoping it shields my red puffy eyes. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in the last week so my mood is about as good as my appearance. Which was enough for Mia to comment on and drop when I scowled at her. Mrs. Smith wasn’t in the classroom yet, so I decided to try my hand at a small nap. If I don’t hit a REM cycle, I won’t dream. Or is it the other way around? Ugh! This brain is not cooperating. Just lay your head down for a
*Cameron POV* Faith sits staring at the wall, her legs pulled tight to her chest as the nurse looks at her head. She looks so different now, so small and broken. Gone is the strong snarky girl, replaced with the real, raw version. Seeing her like this is hard, especially since I’ve only ever seen her on the defense. When I saw her lay her head down, I couldn’t help but smile. The way she hides, trying to avoid detection. Watching her jolt and shake and whimper and ultimately fall back and hit her head had been nothing compared to her after dream state where she sobbed for death at the hands of some illusion only she was witnessing. I couldn’t bare her pain. I had to walk away and yet, when I got to the door, I found I couldn’t leave. The new teacher had sent another student running for Mia. I felt useless not being able to leave but having no real reason to stay. I wanted to help her. The need to just do something was so strong. S