Secrets

Chapter Two

At lunch the next day, Seth, Aria, Spencer and Chloe sat at their favorite table. It was by far the nicest table in the cafeteria, and they had basically claimed it since 7th grade. They even had Owen, Spencer’s wood loving boyfriend, carve each of their initials in the bench so they would have an excuse to make someone leave when they were sitting there. 

“Look,” Seth said, “new kid, five o’clock.” Seth pointed to a mulatto skinned girl that was about five feet tall.

“God, look how short she is. She’s probably a 7th grader that went to the wrong lunch,” Spencer pointed out. 

“Guys, no she’s probably really nice!” Chloe said. “Hey! Wanna come sit with us?” Chloe made room on the bench and patted the empty spot. The new girl looked around shyly and eventually sat down in between Chloe and Spencer. 

“Hi!” Chloe said, holding out her hand for her to shake. “I’m Chloe Moore. These are my friends.”

“Spencer.”

“Seth Richardson.”

“Aria Marae, M-A-R-A-E Benson.” Spencer rolled her eyes.

“Ignore, Ari,” she said.

The new girl laughed and said, “Hi. I’m Keisha Brown.”

“Oh my God, Spence!” Seth shouted to Spencer. “Now we’re finally even with the bitches!”

Spencer laughed and then filled in a confused Keisha, “See them over there?” She pointed to the table across the cafeteria filled with three blondes and two brunettes telling a story, glancing over at their table every few minutes. “That’s Carrie, Rachel, Macy, Eve and Paige.” She counted them off her fingers.

“And, basically, each of us used to be friends with one of them, then Paige called me a stupid bitch,” Seth said.

“Carrie called me a stupid Asian,” Chloe said.

“Macy and Eve called me a fat asshole behind my back,” Spencer said.

“Oh and Rachel’s just their weird follower,” Aria finished. 

“Well, that’s, uh, interesting,” Keisha said, taking a bite of her apple. She finished chewing before she said, “I was in a clique like this at my old school, back in the Bronx.”

“You lived in New York?” Spencer said, almost choking on her food. “I’ve always wanted to move to New York! My mom said she wouldn’t even take my there though because one of her old ex-boyfriends said that we was gonna move there. Turns out, he didn’t. But she still won’t let me go!” 

Seth roller her eyes and said. “Spencer’s mom is really not right up here.” She tapped her head.

“Yeah, because yours is so normal, Seth,” Spencer retorted. 

“Spence, you’re just mad cause your mom isn’t as awesome as mine!”

“Guys!” Chloe shouted, “Enough! You were saying, Keisha?”

“But yeah,” Keisha continued, “back then we used to get a little crazy. It was nothing really, no one was killed.” Spencer and Aria exchanged weird glances, then shrugged. 

“Hey, new girl!” Paige shouted from a table across the room. “Wanna come hang with us?” Paige flipped back her blond hair and smiled. Spencer rolled her eyes, mouthing, “Ignore them.” Chloe slapped her then said, “Neutral territory!” 

“Keisha, if you want to hang out with them, you can,” Chloe said, being her nice self. Spencer and Seth groaned.

Aria was the first to agree by saying, “Yeah, it’s really no big deal.”