Girl meets new girl

4

Angelina POV:

When I went to history the next day on the board said, 'people change people.' I rolled my eyes at that. Was it my fault that Lucas suddenly snapped overnight? Well, maybe it was if I had been there for him. I was such a lousy friend. I sat in my seat, still as far away from Zay and Lucas as possible. I didn't want to be near them when this non-hurting phase had worn off. Mr. Matthews started teaching about how people change people the secret of life or whatever." There's the secret to life. People change people. No matter what I teach you here, learning from the people you care about is more important than the words on any page. That's why I let you talk in here sometimes. That's why it's interesting."

I rolled my eyes, and he noticed. "Angelina, do you have anything to add." "Sure, that's not the secret of life." Everyone looked shocked that I would argue back.

"How so?" He asked me while the class watched us intently.

"The real secret of life is that it's all for nothing. Anything we do won't make a difference."  Riley, I think was her name anyway, looked the most affected by my outburst. The four people looked upset that I would say something like that around her.

"Why do you believe it's for nothing?"

"Because everything you do in life will come back to the source it came from."

"How so?" This time it was Lucas that spoke up. I didn't dare answer with the only explanation I knew, afraid he might think it made him look stupid and he and Zay would hurt me. Then Mr. Matthews asked me the same question, and this time I did answer it.

"Imagine a beach. As you approach this beach, you notice the low tide. Your eyes are instantly drawn to the sand when you see three men. The first man is working on a sandcastle. He's putting in all the work to make it look the best, without knowing that the tide would just destroy all of his work anyway. This person is continuously surprised, bruised, and battered at life since they ignore the reality. The second man sees the tide and decides not to build the sandcastle, knowing the result. This person seeing only the destruction makes him miss having the fun of playing in the sand. And finally, the last man. He is aware of the incoming tide, knows that nothing he builds will last forever, yet decides to build sandcastles anyway. This person knowing the end increases his joy of creating the castes now and living in the present. (This is not my original idea. This was from a website called the ultimate secret of life that no one wants you to know about) Therefore, while we know the inevitable and that we all just die and nothing we will do will matter, I would like to also think that we could enjoy the present. However, notice that in this example, none of the men changed each other. What do you think would happen if we were to. Would we follow man's two examples and never have fun again while still playing it safe, or do we continue to let life get our hopes up to only watch them destroy our hope we once had? "

I finished my little rant only to notice the whole class staring at me, and I felt very uncomfortable. Thankfully the bell rang. Now though I had to go to art with the group of friends. I sat down in my seat that I always sat at and watched as the others picked seats around me. The art teacher walked in and said our assignment was to paint how we truly felt when we were with our friend group. I got to work in silence, no matter how many times the group tried to talk to me. As everyone was finishing, the teacher made another announcement. "Today, class, we will present our work to the others and explain our piece." I felt my heart rate start to rise. After everyone else went and had these sweet, nice, and innocent responses, it was my turn.

The teacher made me stand in the middle of the room like everyone else and do a revel and then explain. I took a deep breath and slowly turned the canvas around.

I heard what sounded like a soft gasp from Lucas and Zay, but I knew I heard things. I took a deep breath and then began my explanation. "When I was with my old friends, I felt controlled, like I was a puppet on their strings, and I was never allowed to act a way they didn't want me to. It was actually one of the few reasons I moved here." The teacher nodded, and I was allowed to go back to my seat.

"Well, Angelina, we are glad you are here with us now. " The teacher stated.

I mumbled under my breath, unaware that Lucas and Zay's friend group heard me. "Why I'm not doing much better here. In fact, I might say it was worse."