Chapter Three - Freckles

As school begins, Carla meets the friends of Mallory, and becomes acquaintanced with a new, freckled face.

September 6th, 2012


Carla spent much of her summer with Mallory. She couldn't help but wonder what had drawn the other girl to her; they didn't know each other for very long, but they were already inseparable during the long summer days. But as school approached quickly and without warning, Carla wondered if it could last. From their talks on the phone, it was clear that Mallory had many friends at school. She liked talking about them and telling stories about them. Carla hadn't met them yet, but from what Mallory had said about them, they seemed nice. But then again, Carla was much too shy for her own good, and doubted that she would befriend them very easily. 

On the first day of school, Mallory appeared at Carla's doorstep. 

"We should walk together!" She exclaimed excitedly as Carla struggled to pull on her sneakers in the doorway. "I know all the shortcuts." 

"Do you bike?" Carla questioned as she finally tossed her backpack over her shoulder, and shouted a farewell at her father as she closed the door behind her. "We should bike there sometime, while the weather's nice."

"Not often, but I'm sure my mom can let me borrow hers every once in a while!" She replied. Her eyes then lit up. "Oh! We should bike on the trails too! I don't think I've ever biked there." 

Carla gave her an odd look. "What? You mean you've lived here in Sunflower Shores all your life, but you've never biked on the trails?" She laughed as Mallory flushed in embarrassment. "Isn't that like, the main attraction here?" Mallory gently punched her shoulder. 

"It's not the main one…" She huffed defensively. "I guess I just never got around to it." Mallory shrugged, as she turned onto a small trail. 

"Well, all the reason why we should do it together sometime!" Carla exclaimed with a grin. 

"Yeah! It'd be fun!" Mallory replied with equal enthusiasm. 

They trotted along the dirt path, birds chirping almost obnoxiously in the background. Alongside the path was a small creek and tall trees that casted a shadow over them, with only the occasional sunbeam peeking through the leaves. The morning air was cold, despite the vast blue sky above them. But Carla knew that by the time the afternoon came around, the summer heat would become relentless once again. 

The two girls cut through a park with a sad looking playground with rusted swings, then finally the school came into sight, slightly hidden by a small branch of stores. Carla had come by with her father during the summer, but with school finally in session, the place seemed completely different. As they crossed the road, it became less obscured and Carla took a long look at the large, sand-colored building. Groups of kids loitered in front of the school, and cars rushed in and out of the parking lot, most likely in a hurry to work after dropping off their children. Kids sat along a brick wall that sat in front of a group of hedges that most likely needed a trim, talking loudly and enthusiastically. The school was much smaller than what Carla had expected, especially compared to the one she had attended previously, and if Carla had to be honest, it was very underwhelming.

"Well, here we are!" Mallory chirped. "Looks pretty boring, huh?"

Carla flushed as she realized that she was wearing a somewhat disappointed expression. "It's not that bad," She replied defensively. "It's just… I dunno. A bit small."

"Well, it's a small town!" Mallory reasoned with a grin. "No need to have a big school if you're not gonna have a lot of kids attending." Carla nodded in understanding.

As they approached the groups of kids, many of them seemed to light up at the sight of Mallory, waving at her enthusiastically, yelling out greetings, to which the blonde responded to with a wide grin. Carla could feel some stares wandering towards her as well, and edged a bit closer to Mallory as she trotted up to a group of a few kids their age.

Most of them had their backs turned to the pair, and it was a fairly androgynous kid who noticed the two first. The kid had scruffy brown hair and freckles, and bright green eyes that gave Carla a somewhat cautious look before they focused on Mallory.

"Oh, it's Mallory!" The kid called out. 

"Hi, guys!" Mallory called back, picking up speed as she ran up to the group. Carla stumbled behind her awkwardly, on edge around so many unfamiliar faces that immediately faced them.

Alongside the freckled kid was a girl with long black hair, a tall boy with glasses, and another girl with short hair that was intricately braided. They all greeted Mallory enthusiastically, with Carla trying her best to hide behind the blonde.

"Carla, these are my friends!" She exclaimed, moving to the side so that Carla was no longer obscured behind her back. "And guys, this is Carla, she just moved here."

Carla shuffled her feet uncomfortably and stared at the ground. "I didn't just move here…" She barely whispered. "I moved here i-in March." She stuttered nervously as they all trained their eyes on her. 

"It's nice to meet you, Carla!" The girl with the black hair said cheerfully. "I'm Olivia!" She gave Carla a bright smile, which Carla tried her best to return. 

The braided girl stepped closer to Carla, and she tried not to take a step back. "I'm Lauren, and this here-" She proceeded to elbow the tall boy in the side, "- is Jake!" Jake recoiled, then playfully tried to jab Lauren in the ribs as well, but she danced out of her reach with a teasing smirk. 

He huffed as Lauren then hid behind Olivia, who laughed. "C'mon Lauren, at least let me take my revenge!" He complained, trying to get back at her. 

She smirked, jumping to the other side of Olivia when the boy lunged at her. The two ran in circles around Olivia, who seemed completely oblivious to the commotion happening around her. Mallory jumped into the action, trying to grab at Lauren, who let out a started yell as Mallory gave her a tight hug. But before Jake could exact his revenge, she squirmed out of Mallory's embrace, sticking her tongue out at Mallory, who laughed. Carla watched the scene in bewilderment, before she noticed the scruffy haired kid approach her in the corner of her eye. She expected the kid to give her an introduction as well, but instead she received an odd stare. 

"You seem pretty close with Mallory," The kid observed, not taking their green eyes off of her dark brown ones. She couldn't pull her gaze away, and tried her best to meet their stare. "How did you guys meet?" 

Carla opened her mouth to give a nervous response, but was cut off by the shrill ringing of the school bell. She felt Mallory tap her shoulder, and finally managed to break her eyes away from the freckled kid.

"Carla, your homeroom is with Mrs.Walker, right?" The blonde asked as the group started to make their way inside. "I have her too! I can show you the way."

"Thanks!" Carla replied cheerily.

As the group dispersed and made their ways to their separate homerooms, Carla couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt when she realized that she hadn't responded to the freckled kid's question, or even know their name. 

"Oh, Mallory," She piped up as they squeezed through a group of kids who were standing still in the halls. "Who was your other friend? The one with the freckles?"

"She didn't introduce herself to you?" Mallory asked as they started ascending the stairs, which were already getting stained with dirty footprints. "That was Jesse! She's nice, but can be a bit prickly. But I'm sure you two will get along great!"

Carla recalled the sharp green eyes glaring daggers at her. The girl hadn't seemed very nice at all, but she nodded anyways. "I hope so," She hummed hesitantly. 

#

Carla couldn't help but feel like an outsider in her new school. Sunflower Shores was such a small town that it seemed like everybody knew each other already, while she knew nobody. Many kids seemed intrigued by her at first and would ask her all sorts of questions about her life, and the city that she had lived in previously. Though within a month, those questions died off as her answers were mostly nervous mumbles that barely satisfied their curiosity. During the lunch breaks, Carla stuck to Mallory like a lifeline. Mallory's friends were nice, but didn't seem to know how to act near Carla. Olivia, Jake, and Lauren barely acknowledged her aside from the occasional forced friendliness that was most likely out of pity. 

Jesse, on the other hand, acknowledged her almost too much. Unlike most of the other students in the school who had given up, Jesse's questions never seemed to run out. 

"What was your old school like?"

"What's your favorite subject?"

"Do you have any pets?"

"What are you reading?"

"Do you have a favorite author?"

"How many books have you read?"

Carla understood that this was probably just her way of being friendly, but every interaction with Jesse seemed like the freckled girl was interrogating her. Every once in a while Carla would sit in the library to do homework; Mallory understood that Carla needed space, so she would leave her alone. Jesse, on the other hand, didn't seem to understand what it meant to be introverted, and would always somehow find Carla, plop down in the chair across from her, and start chattering away.

"What are you working on?" She asked one day, her voice a little too loud and earning a nasty glare from the librarian.

"English." Carla replied curtly.

"Is it fun?" She asked, taking out her lunch box.

"Well, it's Shakespeare." Carla stated, tapping her pencil on the table as she struggled to concentrate.

"So…?"

"It's no fun at all."

"Oh. What story is it?" She pulled a bag of chips from her bag, clumsily opening it.

"Midsummer's Night Dream. Aren't you doing it too?" Carla tried to filter out the loud crinkles that the chip bag was making.

"No, I don't have English until next semester." 

"Cool."

"This semester I have Drama, Social Studies, Gym, and Math."

"Cool."

"Did you know we're doing a Christmas play in Drama? We'll be playing it before the break." She scooped a handful of chips out of the bag, and shovelled them into her mouth.

"Cool."

Among the loud chewing noises, she still somehow managed to talk. "Though I'm not playing an acting role, I'm doing the lighting instead." 

Carla took a deep breath. "Cool."

"I like acting, but I'm just no good at it, y'know?"

Carla didn't know. "Yeah."

"Do you like acting?" Jesse leaned across the table, cupping her face in her hands and staring intently at Carla. 

"No." She did her best to ignore the way the girl was staring at her. 

"How come?" She leaned in even closer.

"I just don't." Carla huffed, looking up to meet her eyes. Jesse must have finally detected the mild irritation in Carla's voice, because she finally leaned back, then continued to eat her chips in silence. 

Finally finding her concentration once again, Carla glanced back down on the half-done question sheet. And just as her pencil touched the paper, the school bell rang.

#

"I just don't know why she's so fixated on me," Carla huffed to Mallory one day as they walked home from school. Autumn was changing to winter and the trees around them were becoming bare, and the sky above them was becoming gray and dreary. "Is she always like this to you guys too?"

Mallory laughed, "Not at all! She must have really taken a liking to you." The two walked through the sad-looking playground, which now looked like some sort of setting in a zombie apocalypse movie in the gray autumn day. "She's always been a bit strange and doesn't fit in, maybe she feels like she can relate to you?"

Carla let out a long breath, watching the foggy cloud disperse in the air. "I fit in just fine," She retorted, elbowing Mallory in the side. Her friend laughed, but didn't reply. They both knew it was a lie. She got along with her new classmates, but she was clearly not close with anyone besides Mallory; she was often on edge around them, and still stuttered and hid behind Mallory at any chance she got. 

"Maybe you should give Jesse a chance," Mallory offered as they walked along the dirt path, kicking up dead leaves as they went along. "She might seem a bit overwhelming, but she's not a bad person."

Carla shrugged. "Yeah, I just…" She trailed off, then shrugged again, in a more exaggerated manner. "I just wish she'd understand personal space!" Mallory laughed, and the path came to an end.

"Well, maybe she'll grow on you!" Mallory exclaimed as they reached the point where they usually parted ways. "I'm sure you two will be good friends in no time."

"I wouldn't count on it!" Carla called over her shoulder as they started going their own separate ways. 

Mallory laughed one last time as the distance between them grew. "Yeah, yeah. See you tomorrow!" Carla turned and waved, but Mallory already had her back to her.

As Carla walked the rest of the way home, she wondered if there was some truth in Mallory's words.