By her twentieth birthday, there are a few things Valarie Ricci knows for certain.
She knows that her waitressing job barely covers the costs of living out of a beat up old van. She knows she's stuck in the dead end hometown her high school friends...
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Valarie walked into the cafeteria for the first time that school year. As usual, the whole experience was pure sensory overload. Two hundred hungry, overexcited teenagers were carrying out four hundred different conversations over the sound of pop music blasting from a speaker at the far end of the room. The student council had petitioned for the music as a morale booster or something, but it just added to the cacophony that was quickly giving Valarie a headache.
It probably didn't help that she hadn't eaten anything since the night before. She really needed to go grocery shopping. In the past, she had relied on a free lunch program the school used to have, but they'd discontinued it after the funding got pulled. It had something to do with the most recent election–or at least that's what she'd heard somewhere. She really couldn't justify spending $6.25 on a single sandwich from the school cafeteria when she could stretch that money into food for her and Nonno by buying in bulk.
Either way, she wasn't there to eat.
Rachel Kim was surrounded by her typical flurry of people, all wearing neon pink t-shirts that said Valentine HS Spirit Council printed on the front and their last names across the back. It seemed like the kind of detail Rachel had probably come up with. She was seated at one of the long, foldable lunch tables near the back of the cafeteria, and her group was drawing over huge bristol boards with sharpies. When Valarie approached, she peered over Rachel's shoulder to see FALL CARNIVAL RAFFLE TICKETS written in bubble letters. Rachel was in the process of colouring in a cartoonish, green Frankenstein in the corner of the board.
"Spooooooky," Valarie said.
Rachel twisted to look up at Valarie. Her brown eyes were framed by their usual elaborate makeup, which Valarie knew she woke up ridiculously early every morning to perfect. Long, silver hair tumbled down Rachel's back in shiny waves. Without a word, Rachel pulled Valarie in for a hug.
Rachel was a hugger. Valarie didn't mind in the slightest.
"I missed you," Rachel said in her ear, as if it had been years since they'd last seen each other instead of four days. She pulled back to look at Valarie's face. "Have you eaten yet?"
"Uh, well—"
"Do you have a lunch?"
"I didn't have time to—"
"My Dad packed me some extra food." She was already reaching under her chair for her bag. "We had pizza for dinner yesterday. It's cold, but you can probably warm it up in–"
"You don't have to–"
"You can probably warm it up in the microwave by the kitchen," she continued like Valarie hadn't spoken. "Personally, I think pizza tastes better cold, but I won't judge you if you heat it." She shoved a plastic tupperware into Valarie's hands.
