Telepatía

7 | ostentatious

"Hey, I love your name by the way. It suits you." The nice words leave my mouth before she can even open her mouth, instead, her cheeks redden and she smiles shyly at me.

"Thanks, you're too kind. I hope you had a good day so far," Skye said as she sets her stuff on the table. "How do you like it here in Whitehaven? Have you made friends yet?"

I showed her my social media accounts, where my following increased. She offers a proud smile. "You're already fitting in perfectly."

Jade prompts up, "For real. You should have seen her in class. She was even joking around with our teacher."

"How do you do that?" My eyebrows raise at Skye's question. "I mean I wish I was like you," she sighs. "I can't even talk to people without fumbling. It's embarrassing."

"Skye, you're just not comfortable with other people you aren't close to or you know personally. That's totally normal," Jade disagrees and I open my mouth to acquiesce.

"Jade is right. Sometimes it takes time for you to get comfortable with people," I tell her with a small smile playing on my lips as she slowly relaxes from my words. "It's not necessarily a bad thing to keep to yourself. I mean, you probably have good instincts with people and don't trust easily." Whereas I couldn't tell from fake friends.

"Exactly." Jade hums before softly squeezing Skye's tensed shoulders. "Thanks, girls. I appreciate the talk. But enough about me!" Skye shrugged. "The sports season starts this week, which means I'll be busy again," Skye explained, waving a flyer in our faces.

"Will you be running the program booth, again?" Jade asked.

I sipped my cold water, not particularly interested in sports or other extracurricular activities. That was never something I was particularly fond of at my previous school. In any case, we never won.

"Yup," Skye didn't sound too thrilled about it. "No one else wanted to do it, so I volunteered, again. I mean this is the third time I'm doing it because everyone from Leadership thinks they're better off sitting and watching the games."

"That sucks," Jade chimed, causing the latter to huff and slouch in her seat. "You tell me. I only offered to do it because Mr. Cooper promised to give me extra credit. Plus they're starting off with the boys Soccer team and I promised my boyfriend that I'd come and support them. I can't do that now."

Hearing Skye's last sentence made me want to do something. "I can help," I offered before I could think. Skye's face lightened at that. "Seriously?" Her eyes widened as she looks at me nodding. "I mean, are you sure? I wouldn't want to ruin your first game."

"She's right, Ola," Jade speaks up, taking a hairbrush out of her bag and brushing the ends of her styled hair. I remain rooted in my spot as she continues, "Running the program booth isn't fun at all, and you won't get to enjoy the game," she said before looking back at Skye. "No offense, Skye."

"It's fine. Trust me, I wouldn't do it even if someone paid me. It gets scorching hot and you have to stand for hours, trying to recruit a bunch of snobby people coming down from the Upper East Side."

"That doesn't sound like much fun," I agreed. "But, there is nothing I can't handle. Come on, I like people."

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Jade mumbles pressing her lips in a tight smile. Skye pushes Jade's elbow with a frown. "Stop scaring her!" She exclaims. Jade laughs causing her shoulders to shake. "Okay, okay, I'll stop. But I said what I said. You both can enjoy your little booth while I take my place at the front row with a box of Mike and Ike and extra large popcorn."

I pretend to be disgusted, uttering, "Gross. Mike and Ike should be banned forever. I don't know how people can swallow it. It tastes like straight-up soil and grass."