𝐢 𝐝𝐨 ; s.c.

𝚗𝚞𝚎𝚟𝚎

melissa popped another grape into her mouth. "what's the big deal? i'm sure you asked for another answer, right?"

"well, yeah, but only steve really helped. soda... his answers were useless." she twirled her pencil between her fingers and winced when the pencil harshly scratched her palm.

without a word, melissa handed her best friend a bandaid.

"thanks," ellie said, putting the bandage over her cut. "do you just carry those around?"

"have you seen me?" she raised an eyebrow. "just look at my fingers. they're dotted with lil holes."

"yeah, you're right," ellie sighed, going back to spinning her pencil. she wrote down a word. rejection. "that's a good start, right?"

melissa peered over at the word. "yeah, it really is. you never fail to impress me, ellie."

ellie rolled her eyes playfully, shaking her head. "you always say that."

"and it's always true."

the girl stared at her paper for a few moments, spacing out. melissa didn't think anything of it, sometimes ellie did that while she was just thinking about anything, really.

mr. hall walked by the two girls, whistling a tune. he nodded his head in acknowledgment to them, receiving a small 'hi' from melissa. he did a double take after noticing ellie's silence, furrowing his eyes quizzically.

"your friend okay, miss coleman?"

melissa shrugged. "maybe? she's doin' some thinkin'." she turned to face her friend. "you okay, ellie?"

ellie slowly turned to face melissa. "do i look okay, melly? cause if i do, well, i'm not. thanks for askin," she smiled thinly.

melissa looked back at mr. hall. "she's not okay," she shrugged.

"hm." he glanced down at ellie's paper. "rejection." he read, "what class is this for? or is it just for fun? creative writing?"

"no sir, it's for your class," ellie sighed. "i dunno why this assignment is so difficult for me."

mr. hall pulled up a chair and sat across from ellie. he looked over at melissa, who was still eating grapes. "food in the library, miss coleman?"

melissa slowly moved the plastic bag out of his sight. "no. why would i do that?"

mr. hall just shook his head. "wasn't going to alert the authorities or anything," he joked, folding his hands. "so, miss mathews, what do you think is holding you back from making any progress?"

"my friends that i interviewed are stupid," ellie mumbled glumly.

"well, i never said you had to interview a smart person," he assured.

"yeah, if he did, i never woulda interviewed my sister," melissa joked, placing another grape in her mouth. "kidding. kinda."

"but, mr. hall, most of my friends don't take school seriously. all they really did was goof off and cause trouble." ellie began to spin her pencil again.

"then write about that. and if it bothers you so much, i'm sure there are others you could interview." he stood up and put the chair back. "i think you're onto something, though. friends who don't live up to expectations and do what they want to instead. 'rejection.' good luck with your paper," he said as he walked away.

"see, it ain't that hard, ellie. i'm basically done with mine." melissa crumbled up her now empty plastic sandwich bag and brushed her hair away from her face.

"let's not lie, melly. you haven't even started writin'."

"yeah, okay, but that's besides the point. the point is, you don't see me stressin' about this, especially when we still got a month to do it."