The Secret Six

Chapter 7: Sans-Scarlett

"A friend is someone who undestands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are." -Anonymous

Chapter 7

“Does anyone care to tell me who Nelson Mandela is?”

The answer popped up in my mind, and my hand shot up like a rocket; as I looked around my History classroom, however, I noticed an absence of volunteers.

“Is Audrey the only one who learned anything in freshman year?” My History teacher, Mrs. Franks, asked with a sigh, rubbing her wrinkled forehead tiredly, as if these children were the cause of her gray streaked hair.

Nobody replied, but in the back of the room, somebody made a farting noise against the palm of their hand in the dead of the silence, and the classroom broke out into a fit of giggles. Silencing them, Mrs. Franks dropped a heavy load of text books on her desk, drawing the attention back towards her.

“Enough foolishness!” She barked sternly. Everyone silenced themselves, and she turned to me, “Why don’t you answer the question, Audrey?”

As if I’d read it straight from a book, I recited all my prior knowledge of the man, “Nelson Mandela was the first black president of South Africa. He was elected in 1994, after the end of the Apartheid, which was the segregation of the blacks and whites in South Africa, according to law. He served 27 years in prison for rebelling against the Apartheid, and he was the leader of the ANC until—”

“Nerd!” Someone from the back of the room hollered, and the room giggled.

Mrs. Franks looked up, her eyes narrowed into slits. “At least Miss Abbott knows what she’s talking about. She’s got a bright future ahead.” She said, “The rest of you will be lucky to work at McDonalds!”

And with that, the bell rang, signaling the end of yet another class period, and the entire room stood up, grabbing their books and rushing out the door before Mrs. Franks could even read the homework assignment to them. I sighed and loaded up my books, exiting the room, hiding myself in the massive tidal wave of students, being poured into the hallway, pushed in a riptide towards my next period, which happened to be lunch. However, after I had had P.E. that morning with Scarlett and I’d seen her nasty side, I wasn’t so sure how lunch would fair.

I reached the cafeteria, hesitantly entering the jungle of students, seeing Scarlett, Erica, Jenna, and Maeve, all sitting their perfect asses down on the benches, chatting amongst themselves. I wasn’t so sure I had the dignity to approach them, so I simply walked past them to see if they’d notice me and usher me over, as I assumed friends often did.

But oddly enough, when I walked by, Scarlett surely made eye contact with me, but instead of a friendly, welcoming look, her eyes were cold and unforgiving. I tried to smile, but she scowled and turned to her friends, motioning towards me. Erica, Maeve, and Jenna each glanced my way, and each one laughed after another and turned back to their leader where they created a symphony of a cackling school girl choir.

With a heavy heart and a furious pang in my stomach, I searched for an empty table to each lunch by myself. But before I could even search for one, I heard a familiar voice in my ear.

“Audrey!”

I spun around, seeing a duo of two memorable faces. One tall, skinny blonde girl, dressed in a vintage ruffled white blouse, yellow cardigan, a brown, pleated, knee-length skirt, black leggings, and dark brown penny loafers. Her accomplice was a tall, slim brunette with tanned skin wearing a casual black lace shirt and skinny jeans accompanied by black leather boots and rosy lips twisting into a smile as she said, “…You lost?”