Until I Met You

4: Until I Met You

Walking out of the classroom, I turned and headed towards my locker and smiled as I saw Olivia weaving her way between groups of people the hall to get to me.

 

“Hey Jessalyn, did you want to eat lunch together again?” she asked with a happy expression on her face.

I had already seen her this morning in functions and we had chatted then, but I didn’t actually take the time to look at her interesting choice of outfit until now. She had on a white chiffon type t-shirt that was decorated with multi-coloured polka dots, a pair of dark green jean shorts that had been frayed at the ends, and somehow her outfit was tied together with a cute and subtle pair of white flats. I guess she liked to show her quirky personality through her clothing because, although I wouldn’t pick this outfit out for myself, it definitely worked for her.

As I continued walking down the hallway with her by my side, I remembered what she had previously asked me. “Yea sure.” I replied. “Just let me drop my books off at my locker and grab my lunch first.”

In my peripheral vision I could see the slight up and down movement of Olivia’s head as she nodded in response while keeping in step with me.

Once the weight of books were lifted from my bag, I grabbed the lunch I had packed for myself this morning, as I wasn’t all that fond of the food the cafeteria had served the day before, and shut my locker.

Both Olivia and I started to talk about our classes as we walked to the back of the school and to the courtyard where they had a few picnic tables set up for people who didn’t feel like eating their lunch in the hustle and bustle of the cafeteria.

As we both sat down and started to eat, I saw that she had also brought hers from home as she had been going here for four years, and probably knew the food they sold here ws no good.

For a majority of the hour we just chatted about random things before she started asking me how my life was like back home. It didn’t hurt to reply to her questions however, as I had only actually known her for a day, I didn’t really go into depth about how bad my life was. I simply told her that my family was really close and I was a shy girl who didn’t have many friends in town, not going on to tell her about my dad’s death or about the bullying I received constantly.

With only about ten minutes left in our lunch period, I reached my hand into my lunch bag and took out a plastic baggy which had been packed with a couple of the chocolate chip cookies my mom and me had made the night previous.

Extending my hand across the picnic table, I waved the cookies slowly in front of Olivia’s face. “Want one?” I asked.

I saw a flicker of excitement in Olivia’s eyes as she raised her left hand off of her lap and reached it into the bag to grab one of the cookies. Not wasting a second, she immediately took a huge bite out of the cookie.

I giggled at her reaction as her cheeks became chubby with the amount of cookie crumbs she had stored in there. “Hungry?” I asked with a slightly teasing tone.

Olivia smiled sheepishly at me before bringing her spare hand up to cover her mouth as she chewed and digested the food. Once her mouth was free of cookie traces, she was free to speak. “These are really good.” she said, gesturing to the half-eaten cookie in her hand. “Did you make these?”