Chapter 4: Kelsey's Point of View

Kelsey makes a friend! We also see a lot of our future characters.

Chapter 4: Kelsey’s Point of View

 

                After gym class, my day was pretty easy. I raced to my English class and made it just as the bell rang. I sat down, while our teacher shut the door.

                “Okay, more interview time!” Our teacher declared. “I want you to have these finished by the end of class. I’m going to collect them tomorrow, so if you don’t finish in class, make sure you call your partner tonight.”

                Emmy and I finished the interview quickly, and ended up having another half hour to kill. I tapped my pencil and looked around.

                “So…now what?”

                She shrugged. “Just sit here I guess.”

                Nodding, I looked around the room. “Hey, you know how you were talking about answering any questions I have about this school?”

                “Yeah…why?”

                “Well, maybe you could show me some people. You know, tell me their names and what they’re like. That way I’ll get to know more people.”

                She smiled mischievously. “I can do that.” She turned around and scanned the room. “Okay. You see that girl over there?”

                I turned to see a tan girl, who had long, dark brown hair with blonde highlights. She seemed to be some sort of Latino, and was very pretty. “Yeah.”

                “That’s Gabriella. She’s pretty much your typical popular girl, but she’s smart and actually kind of nice. All the guys like her too. Let’s see…she’s on the pom team, and she’s friends with Katie.”

                “Who’s Katie?” I asked. “Is she in this class?”

                Emmy shook her head. “Katie Daniels? You’ve never heard of her? I’ll point her out to you some time. She’s basically the most popular girl in our grade. Gabriella’s usually nice, but it’d be smart for you not to mess with Katie. She looks harmless, but she can be…quite the opposite.”

                “Okay. Thanks for telling me.”

                “No problem.” She looked around the class some more. “Let’s see…that boy over there, his name’s Allen. He’s one of the smartest people in our grade, so if you ever need help with anything, I’d ask him.”

                Allen was kindof cute in a nerdy sort of way. He had spiked brown hair, and wore glasses. In a way, he looked like a typical geek, but only mildly.

                Emmy searched the room for a little longer, and then pointed. “Oh. That guy right there. You see him?”

                I nodded. The guy she was pointing to had short blonde hair, and a really nice smile. He was sitting in the back talking to Gabriella, and seemed to be having a fun time.

                “That’s Greg. He’s probably one of the only good looking guys who’s also really smart. Otherwise, you’ll find most of the hotties in the normal classes. I had a crush on him in 6^th grade for a while.”

                “So why’d you stop liking him?”

                She shrugged. “It got boring. After a while of a guy not noticing you, it just gets kindof…old.”

                I nodded, and the bell rang.

                “Well, it was nice getting to know you, Emmy. Maybe we could do this more tomorrow.”

                “Alright.” She paused before remembering something. “Hey, what lunch do you have?”

                I followed her out of the room. “C.”

                “Hey, me too! I could show you more people at lunch maybe. Are you sitting with anyone?”

                I shrugged. “Just with Jenny and her friends.”

                “Seriously? I feel bad for you. Well, if you get bored at their table tomorrow, feel free to come find me. I usually just eat with Allen and  his friend, Brendan.”

                “Okay, cool.” I grinned as I headed to my locker. “Bye, Emmy.”

                I walked out of school feeling hopefully. My first friend, I told myself. Maybe school wouldn’t be so bad after all.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

                The next day at lunch, I walked over to Jenny’s table, where everybody was already busy chatting and eating. This is it, I told myself. Hopefully she won’t be mad.

                I came over to her nervously. “Um…Jenny?”

                She turned around and smiled slightly. “Oh, Kelsey. Take a seat.”

                I shifted nervously. “I, uh…I made a friend in English, and she offered to show me some people in our lunch room. That way I can get to know more people.

                She seemed confused, like she wasn’t sure why I was telling her this. “Uh…okay. That’s cool.”

                “Well, I think I’m gonna go sit with her…is that okay?”

                Now she understood. “Oh, so you’re going to sit with her from now on?”

                Feeling nervous, I shrugged. “I’m not sure. But I just wanted to let you know so you didn’t think I’m just abandoning you.”

                She shrugged. “Fine. Have fun.”

                I walked away from her table, feeling a bit guilty. Hey, I’m just trying to make new friends. I mean, I can’t hang out with sophomores all year, right? I wandered through the lunchroom, until I saw a hand waving towards me.

                “Hey! Kelsey! Over here!” It was Emmy.

                I smiled and walked over to her table.

                “Hey, I didn’t know if you’d actually show up.” She motioned to the kids around her. “I’m getting kindof sick of being the only girl at the table.”

                I looked around at the kids she was referring to. Across from her were two boys; one of which was the boy she had shown me in English, the other I had never seen before.

                “Okay, introduction time.” She announced. “Kelsey, this is Allen. He’s in our English class, remember?”

                I nodded, and smiled politely at him. “Hi.”

                He nodded back, smiling. “Nice to meet you, Kelsey.”

                “And this is Brendan.” Emmy continued. “I haven’t known him long, really. He just started sitting at this table on the first day.”

                I gave him my polite smile too. “Hi Brendan.”

                He looked up from his lunch and waved. “Hi.”

                “Okay! Now that introductions are out of the way!” She set down her sandwich and looked at me seriously. “Ready for some more people lessons?”

                Smiling, I shrugged. “Why not?”

                She grinned. “Good. Now let’s see…” She stood up for a minute, surveying the lunchroom. “Okay, I got one. You see that table over there?”

                I followed her pointed finger to a table across the room. “Yeah.”

                “That’s the popular table. Okay, I’ll point out some of the one’s I’ve actually met.”

                Brendan laughed. “Have you ever talked to any of them?”

                “Yes, Brendan, I actually have!” Emmy shot back, sounding proud of herself. “One time, Katie asked for a pencil, and I gave her one.”

                “Oooo, you sure are popular!” he replied, laughing.

                She threw an orange peel at him. “Hey, shut up! I don’t see you hanging out with any of the popular guys!” She turned back to me. “Anyway…where were we?”

                I nodded toward the popular table. “You were telling me about their table.”

                “Right. Okay, the girl sitting at the end of the table. That’s Katie Daniels, the girl I told you about.”

                I stared at Katie for a minute. She had long blonde hair with highlights, and was wearing a black tank top with really short shorts. And, I noticed, she was way too tan for September. “Wow. No wonder she’s popular.”

                Emmy sighed. “I know. Makes me feel hideous.”

                Allen, who had remained quiet, suddenly perked up. “Are you guys talking about Katie?”

                We nodded, and Emmy continued talking. “Look at her hair. I wonder how much she paid for that.”

                Allen sighed. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

                Emmy shrugged. “Well, I’m not a lesbian, but she is lucky to be so pretty.”

                Allen continued staring at Katie, and Emmy turned back to me. “But yeah, that’s Katie. The girl next to her is Paige, and the two of them have been really close since, like, 3^rd grade or something.”

                I looked toward the table again to see who Paige was. Paige was pretty too, but in more of a cute sort of way. She had shoulder length blonde hair, which was so blonde it was almost white. At the end of her hair, it sort of flipped back up, giving her a bubbly, perky look.

                I looked back to Emmy. “Is she nice?”

                Emmy shrugged. “Nicer than Katie, yeah. I mean, not that Katie’s evil or anything…just really superficial.”

                “Paige is a huge ditz too.” Brendan added, chewing loudly on his sandwich.

                “And super rich.” Allen added.

                I laughed. “Wow. Sounds like you guys know the school pretty well.”

                “Well, we’ve known most of these kids since middle school, and even some from before that.” Emmy explained.

                I shook my head in disbelief. “Wow. I’ll never be able to get used to that.”

                “What?”

                I shrugged. “Just…so many people. I’m used to having 30 people in my grade.”

                 She laughed. “Oh, trust me, Kelsey. You’ll get used to it.” She turned around again and searched the room for more people to point out. “Okay, well you can probably tell, but most of the tables have their own labels. There’s a lot of average people who don’t have labels, but there’s a fair amount of people that you can tell what they are.”

                “What are we?” I asked her.

                She considered this for a minute, then shrugged. “I guess we’re the nerds. I mean, we’re in the normal people group…but most people would consider us unpopular. There’s tons of other kids in the same category as we are.”

                I nodded.

                “So let’s see…” She continued. “Over, there…that’s the punk/goth/emo group. They’re pretty obvious to spot out most times.”

                Looking over, I noticed David and Rick were sitting there. This confused me, since they had not come across as being that type of person. I wonder what he’s doing over there…