Good Life

Chapter 3

{Character in picture: Vanessa Marano as Remi Marino}

{Song in video: Ashley Tisdale - Crank It Up}

I picked up Lauren and our other best friend, Remi Marino, on the way to school.

"So how's it like at the bakery?" Remi asked us as she put her thick curly dark brown hair over the top of the car seat.

Me and Lauren glanced at each other and laughed. I explained to her about the Raj incident and she burst out laughing, which made me and Lauren laugh all over again.

"That's hilarious." She said in between laughter.

I noticed Lauren having a funny smile on her face. "Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah!" She blurted out and quickly nodded.

I squinted my eyes. She only acted like that when something major was up. "Spit it out, Lauren. I know you know something we don't." I gave her a glance.

"Uh...you'll see." She was trying not to laugh.

Me and Remi exchanged glances and she shrugged. I also decided I should shrug it off. We got to school a few minutes later and walked into the building.

"I love your outfit, Kaci!" Lauren exclaimed, grinning at me. "Where did you get it?"

"You say that every time she wears that outfit," Remi pointed out and we laughed.

It was true, every time I wore my flower printed blouse, blue jean shorts, and neutral colored heels, Lauren would always compliment me and ask me where I got it from. I didn't know if she forgot each time or just said it for the heck of it.

"I still don't know how you can wear heels to school," Remi said, giving me a strange look. She usually wore an army green jacket parka, jeans, dark shirt or blouse, and Doc Martens, Vans, or Converse for shoes.

A lot of girls thought it was strange that I dressed up and wore heels, makeup, accessories, and sometimes even dresses to school. I honestly just liked dressing up so I didn't look like a twelve year old. A lot of people said I was lucky to look younger, and that I'd look twenty when I was actually forty, but it was an unfortunate thing really.

The bell rang and we went to class. Fortunately, the three of us had the same first period class together, which was English class.

Our teacher, Mr. Bentley, wrote our syllabus on the board. He turned to us and said, "Class we have a new student here today."

We looked at the student who came in through the door and my mouth dropped open. "That's Raj!" I gasped to my friends, pointing at him.

Lauren burst out laughing. "...Yeah," she said as she kept on laughing.

"You knew about this, didn't you? That's why you acted strange earlier!" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"That's the guy? He's really cute," Remi said, looking impressed. "We should show him around."

"Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?" Mr. Bentley said to Raj.

"Sure," Raj said, smirking in my direction. "My name's Rajesh Singh, but you can call me Raj. Yes, I'm Indian, and no, I don't speak Hindi or any other languages."

"Nice to meet you, Raj. You may have a seat in front of Kaci." He pointed at the empty seat in front of me.

"Which one's Kaci?" Raj pretended to look confused.

"The tiny girl with the bright red hair." Lauren and Remi turned to me and snickered, including Raj.

I groaned and put my head down as he walked over to his seat. "Kaci, please put your head up," Mr. Bentley said to me. I sighed and slowly out my head up.