That October Night

Chapter 2

Again, Kat laughed at me for whatever reason, asking me for my schedule. Whatever she saw on that paper made her eyes grow wide.

"Omg, your locker is between mine and Ray. Let's talk about coin-ci-dences," she grinned, dragging me to my locker.

"What's your name?" a girl asked me as I was putting some of my belongings into my locker. I was going to answer her but she didn't give me the chance to because she scoffed seconds after asking the question. "Oh, you must be the new tomboy, huh?"

I slammed my locker door, only to see this red-headed cheerleader standing in front of me. We were the same height but she was smaller. Her pretty little fake smile revealed her small dimple on her left cheek.

"And who wants to know?" I asked as I folded my arms across my chest, showing her that this was not another episode of one of those mean girls drama where I was supposed to be the frightened new girl. I've experienced these Deja vú moments too many times to not know how to handle her.

Neither was I interested in outdated clichés.

Her head snapped back, probably not expecting my response which caused me to smirk.

Good, she gets the memo.

She took several steps closer to me, each step filled with pride, confidence, and a whole lotta bitchery.

"Look here tomboy—if you're going to stay here, you better learn to not test my waters." She flipped her strawberry colored hair over her shoulder, reminding me of the cartoon strawberry shortcake.

I don't know if it was because I was new or she's a cheerleader that gave her the audacity to feel all high and holy, but I wasn't accepting anybody's bitchery. I took the last step that closed the few inches away from each other.

"No, you listen to me whoever you are, which I don't give two fucks about. Don't try to intimidate me 'cause I'm new 'cause better believe it won't work now or ever," I scoffed, raising both of my middle fingers at her and walking away.

Kat immediately followed suit with a laugh and linking our elbows together as if we didn't just meet. "I like you already. That was Virginity, by the way."

I stopped to stare at Kat's wide eyes. "Who in their right mind names their child, a female child may I add, Virginity?"

Before Kat got to reply, a voice stopped her. "Shorts!" Ray grinned with his not so straight teeth, glancing down at our linked arm. "I see you've already made a new friend."

"The name's Ray and whatever I do does not concern you."

He touched me with his index finger, and then quickly pulled back as if he got burned. "Little miss feisty." That stupid grin was on his face again. I rolled my eyes, walking off on him.

When lunch came by, I was more than excited because I was already loaded with tons of work, seeing that we were in the second week of January. My eyes wandered around the crowded area, and exactly when it landed on the bench I sat on earlier I noticed a hand waving at me.

I walked closer only to see that it was Kat sitting among a few others. All eyes were on me, causing me to feel nervous. My stomach cramped with frenzied butterflies.

I was never the all-eyes-on-me kinda girl.

Pop.

"Why are you all looking at her as if she's a newly found creature?" one of the guys from the group asked. His skin was fair in color, two shades lighter than the average Indian. He had a nose sharp enough to cut someone.

"She kinda is," the only other guy shrugged. The dark-skinned girl next to him swatted his arm to which he chuckled. "Hey, babe! She's a new creature to this school, Bubbles."

The first guy took his eyes off of his phone for a spilt second and said, "I'm Hakeem K-"

Pop.

"King!" someone shouted at the same tone. Hakeem stood up on top of the bench, putting his index and middle finger in his mouth to whistle.

"Mr. King, get down now," Mr. Davis, our pudgy principle sternly shouted. Not fazed at all,  Hakeem sat down with a smile.

"Hakeem King," I nodded. "I'm Ray."

Hakeem winked at me, biting the inside of his cheek.

Bubbles, the one with the mouth full of gum gave a throaty laugh. She raked her hair to the side, revealing her right shaved hair. I liked how her long sided buzz cut hairstyle wasn't that obvious unless she wanted it to be.

"Who names their daughter Ray?"

I sunk deeper into the bench, not of fear, but because I was getting comfortable. "It's short for Rayya but I prefer Ray."

Pop.

"Rayya it is. I don't like Ray," the guy next to Bubbles told me matter-of-factly. His eyes were steely blue, his hair in every direction.

Hakeem cleared his throat, slapping his friend behind the head. "What Malik meant was that he doesn't like the other Ray, one of his teammates."

"Why Ray out all nicknames?" Kat asked, curiosity lacing her words.

Pop.

"Let me see." I pretended to look through my invisible file, pulling my fake glasses up. "I don't know...uh...because it's short for Rayya?"

Hakeem pointed at me in amusement. "You and me will get along just fine."

"It's you and I, dummy," Malik corrected him with an eye roll.

"Thank you, English teacher?" Hakeem shot back.

Kat sighed as she was about to run her fingers through her hair, probably forgetting her snapback was in her hair, but Hakeem took the snapback before her fingers touch her hair. She didn't even notice.

"Let me give you a proper introduction. I'm Katalina Montego. That's Hakeem but everyone calls him King. Then we have Lola a.k.a Bubbles because as you can see she's chewing that gum and has been popping in for the last ten minutes."

Pop.

"Malik is her boyfriend. I don't know how he deals with her," Kat stated honestly. Lola giggled, running her fingers through Malik's hair. That explains his disheveled look.

"The tall girl heading towards us is Bre. Don't get offended if she doesn't talk to you. She has her moments. Hence the reason we call her mute." Bre came just in time, raising her perfectly shaped eyebrows at her friends.

"That's Rayya, the new creature," Malik told Bre while winking at me.

Bre nodded, tossing a lazy salute my way and immediately dived into Hakeem's fries. In the middle of her eating, she glanced at Malik and Lola, looking almost sad but continued eating before she thought anyone noticed.

Kat's head snapped to Hakeem. "Hakeem, give me what doesn't belong to you!" She reached over Bre to get her snapback, but Hakeem moved the snapback off his head.

Bre moved over to the other side of Hakeem, wickedly smiling, and then he made the snapback travel off his arm unto Bre's.

"You mean this?" Hakeem asked innocently, throwing her a teasing smile.

Because Lola couldn't do what they were doing, she simply caught the hat before it landed on the ground. Before Kat got a chance to snatch it from Lola's hand, Lola tossed it back to a laughing Hakeem.

"Guys stop it," Kat groaned in frustration, pulling her hair but that didn't stop her friends.

Instead, her frustration only encouraged her friends to torture her even more.