Adopted by Superfruit *ANCIENTLY OLD*

Chapter Fifteen: Making Friends

I walked to my locker, my backpack heavy with new things from my birthday. I was dawning the shirt Tyler gave me. Of course, it was some of his merch. Always shamelessly self promoting, but I thought it was cute. I also wore my purple beanie with cat ears Connor gave me, but I knew I had to take that off.

I put my backpack in my locker, and took out my new sketchbook and little bag of Prismacolor colored pencils Kirstie got me. Scott must have told her how much he knew I wanted those. I also got a pack of seventy-two Copic Markers, but I doubted that I could bring those in a classroom.

The whole day was a blur, until it got time to go to lunch. I put my stuff in my locker, when Abigale almost shut it on my fingers for no reason. "Ow! What the hell was that for?" I shouted at her. "That's for getting me suspended! I would've done something earlier, but I didn't want to cause trouble too quickly."

I lunged for her to push her away. Nothing too agressive, just something to make her back off. But before I could touch her, she pinned me against the lockers with her forearm on my neck, as if she'd already predicted what I was about to do. I tried prying her arm off my throat, but when I did, she pressed harder.

Her other arm was raised, and her hand was clenched in a fist. I almost wished I could've had an episode right then so I could beat her up and get off nearly scot free. But as usual, I wasn't going to be so lucky. The muscles in my face tightened as I saw her reach farther and farther back.

"Hey, Abigale! What the heck do you think you're doing?" I shifted my gaze to the left of me. It was that new girl. "Going to pound the living s**t out of the toddler, what does it look like?" The brunette glared at Abigale with disbelief. "I thought you said she was the bully. Not you."

She came up and shoved Abigale away from me. "Come on, let's go." She gave me no choice but to follow her when she hooked her arm with mine. I immediately pulled away. "Ah-ah, no touching!" My body language immediately became closed off. "Okay then." She seemed a little weirded out.

"Well, I'm Amari, but you can just call me Mari." She smiled kindly to me. "Uh, I'm Caroline. You can call me Carrie or Carol, whichever you prefer." I responed in an equally polite tone. "So what's your story? Why is everyone afraid of you?" It was almost funny how naive she was about the situation.

"Have you ever heard of IED?" I expected her to be a clueless idiot, but her expression remained neutral. "Oh, that's it?" I stared at her with an astonished expression. "What do you mean, that's it?" My tone was perhaps a little too harsh. "My cousin has that. I know what happens." Mari responded matter-of-factly.

"Oh." That's when I noticed her shirt. It was the shirt Tyler gave out when he raised money for the Trevor Project. "You like Tyler Oakley?" I started a conversation with that to go off of. "Honey, like is an understatement." She was overexaggerating, but that made it funny.

"What do you think of," Before I finished my sentence, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and went to my gallery of photos. "This?" It was a selfie Tyler and I took together at my birthday party. "Holy crap! You met him?" She hovered over the phone like a bee would over a flower. She also started to get all grabby.

"Yes I have. He is amazing." I made it seem like I was just another fan, and that I had no personal connections to him. I wanted to establish a real friendship with her first, instead of her just using me to get to know other Internet celebrities. "You look gorgeous in that photo." She commented.

"Thanks. I felt, not lazy that day." It made me feel bad to have to lie to her, but it wouldn't be forever. "So what other YouTubers do you like?" Mari asked before we got to the lunch line. "I am one-hundred percent obsessed with Pentatonix." I tried seeing if she knew who they were.

"Oh my gosh, yes! I love their cover of Can't Hold Us! Scott is absolutely amazing!" Mari tried her best not to flip out in the middle of the lunch line. "You have no idea." I accidentally said it out loud. I really hoped she didn't think I was hiding something.

We sat down at an empty table at the edge of the cafeteria. "Who's your favorite member of Pentatonix?" I was silent for a moment. Scott is legally my dad, and that's what he is to me, Mitch is like my brother, Kirstie is basically my older sister, and Avi and Kevin are like my uncles.

"I can't choose. They're all too majestic." I put myself out of that position. "Ha, the best answer!" Mari chuckled. "Hey, Mari! What are you doing sitting with her?" Peyton didn't even mention me by name as she addressed Mari. "Caroline is my new friend." She defended me.

"Just come on! Caroline's not someone you want to be seen with." Peyton shot a snooty glare at me. "Yeah, I tried seeing things from your perspective, but I couldn't get my head that far up my *ss." I was slack-jawed after Mari delivered that comeback.

Peyton just huffed, and walked away back to her group of friends. "You didn't have to do that for me," Mari just shrugged. "Eh, they were all basic b*tches anyway. Not a single one of them watched any YouTubers!" I couldn't agree with her more.

~*~

Scott was pulled up at the side of the sidewalk for me as usual. I hastily tossed by backpack in before getting in and shutting the door. "Hey! How was today?" He asked when he started to drive. "Good, actually. I made a new friend." I smiled to myself.

"Carrie, that's great! What are they like?" Scott looked at me after he pulled out of the school parking lot. "Her name is Amari, but I just call her Mari. She loves YouTube, including you." I poked Scott on the nose. "Am I going to have to prepare for a fan to come over soon?"

I silently nodded my head for dramatic effect. "You had no problem adopting one." I reminded him. "You got me there," Scott agreed. "Hey, everyone is going to discuss details of the next tour when we get home. You want to be there, or do you just want to sit and draw in your room?"

A new tour? The last tour they had ended nearly seven months ago. "I can help with some stuff, if you'd like." I offered. "Sounds good to me." Scott was almost interrupted by his phone buzzing. I took a look at it for him. It was a text from Avi.

"Caroline's going to make more popcorn, right???" I laughed, shaking my head. "What? Who's it from?" Scott tried leaning over to me, but he quickly sat back up again when he realized he was still driving. "We need to go to a gas station or something. Avi wants more white chocolate popcorn."

Scott smirked and rolled his eyes. "Okay. But you're making it." I didn't look away from the highway, but I still smiled. "Like always."