Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Two

Chapter Two: Change

Annie walked through the parking lot away from Steve's car and towards the middle school. As soon as she had left his car Nancy walked up. She had waved at Annie, who waved back, before taking the seat Annie had just been in.

Then, as she walked away, a loud screeching noise rang through the parking lot. Annie turned quickly and made sure she wasn't in the line of fire when she saw a blue sports car coming into the parking lot.

It came to a sudden halt in a spot before the doors opened up and the people came out. From the passenger side, a girl around Annie's age with long red hair. From the driver side, a guy about Steve's age with a blonde permed mullet.

Rather than staring, like almost every teenage girl in the vicinity, Annie turned and kept walking to school. She could ask Steve about all of it later.

Inside the middle school halls, there wasn't much chatter about the new people. Instead, lots of people planning their Halloweens and thinking up who might have the best costume. When she arrived at Holly's locker, her and Meghan were doing the same thing.

"Ooh! Annie! We were thinking up when we should meet at your place. Do you know when Steve is leaving?" Holly asked the second Annie got up to them.

She thought for a second. "I'm not entirely sure, he still hasn't mentioned if he's doing anything. But you know he won't care if you guys come over and we all get ready," Annie said.

Holly closed her locker and the girls got into their formation as they walked down the hall to the next locker: Meghan's. "We know, but there's still the question of what time are we going to meet," Meghan mentioned as she turned the lock.

Annie nodded. "Well, we could all just go over to mine after your soccer practice? We can just hang out and stuff before we get ready," Annie suggested as she shrugged.

As Meghan opened the door and grabbed her stuff, Annie heard a couple girls walking past talking about a new kid at the school. "Did you guys here about the new kid?" Annie asked, turning back to the others.

Meghan closed her locker door and they started walking to Annie's. "Yeah," Holly answered. "Apparently they came in this really cool car and there's two of them."

"I only know that much, too," Meghan added. "Hope they're cool. I mean, they're going to be the center of attention anyways so might as well look good doing it."

Annie's gears were turning. "Maybe we should be friends with them. Whoever they are, they moved to a small town and might not know anyone. And, they might be cool," she brought up.

Holly looked thrilled. "Ooh, yes! I love meeting new people," she said.

Annie had to appreciate Holly's ray-of-sunshine attitude. It was nice and refreshing no matter what was going on in Annie's life. Her parents' issues were bad enough to deal with so it was good to have Holly there being positive. Meghan and Annie talked one day when Holly was out of town about how they really needed her positivity to function.

"You literally just... adopt people and create happy little families," Meghan added with a small laugh. "I mean, I love it, but I hope this new person understands what they might be getting into."

Annie laughed and stopped in front of her locker with the two behind her. "I'm pretty sure that's how I met you, Meg- through Holly." She looked back and Holly nodded her confirmation.

They talked a bit more while Annie grabbed her books when the bell rang. "We better get going," Meghan mentioned. To save time, Holly and Meghan started walking to their class and waved a short goodbye to Annie.