The bell rang and I noticed the boy putting his belongings into his bag agonizingly slowly. I scowled without meaning to as I clutched my binders to my chest and headed out the door. Once I arrived at my locker, I smiled at Layla who was already opening hers. We got to pick our lockers this year and hers was right beside mine, unfortunately, Jade's locker was down the hall because she was late on registration day.
As Layla shut her locker, she turned to face me excitedly. "What?" I asked with a curious smile on my lips, grabbing my lunch from my locker.
"Phase one of the jealousy plan has been completed." The grin on her face was bigger than I'd ever seen as she proclaimed her victories to me. "I was sitting in front of him in Biology, as I always do, and I looked back at him, and do you know what I did? I winked!" Layla looked so proud as I shut my locker. I matched her enthusiasm on the matter as I beamed at her.
"And what'd he do?" I asked animatedly. We started walking towards Jade's locker as she explained to me the details of what happened.
"...and then I caught him staring at me throughout the class!" She finished just as we arrived at Jade's locker. She wasn't there yet and I looked around curiously.
"That's great, Layla!" I exclaimed happily, grinning from ear to ear. "Hey, have you met that guy in the black hoodie?" I inquired as I pointed to the irritating boy at the other end of the hall.
"No, why? Do you like him?" She answered, turning to look at him rather blatantly. She seemed to be examining him from hood to toe.
"Quite the opposite. I had a rather rude encounter with him this morning. To say the least, he's a dick," I stated, crossing my arms over my chest while holding my lunch bag in my hand.
"Who's a dick?" Jade questioned as she turned the corner. She reached for her lock and entered the combination.
"Blanket guy over there apparently," Layla smiled, looking at me with a teasing glint in her light brown eyes.
"Do you think it's a religious thing?" Jade inquired as she put her stuff away and pulled out her lunch. I shrugged as we started walking to the cafeteria. When we entered, everyone had made a circle around whatever was happening in the center of it. Since I was only 5'5", I could hardly see anything. Layla, however, was about three inches taller than I was so she could see fairly clearly and by the confused expression on her face, she didn't like what was happening. Since I couldn't see, I decided to listen.
"I can't see shit," Jade mumbled, her short height making it impossible for her to see. I patted her on the head as she frowned angrily. Her height adds to the smurf appeal.
"Why don't you take off that carpet, hoodie boy?" I recognized the voice; Damian Pierce. I couldn't hear anything for a moment until something collided with a solid object. "Did I say you could get up?" People laughed in the crowd while it seemed Layla had had enough.
"Move," she barked, reminding me of my encounter with the hooded figure this morning. People parted for her, but she still had to push through a few stubborn teenagers. I was envious of her confidence and will to do the right thing, I could never do what she was doing, no matter how wrong I thought Damian was. Everyone was watching, I'd freeze up. The path Layla had made closed soon after her and I could no longer see her as she reached the center of attraction.
"Leave him alone, Damian," Layla demanded while I stood on my tiptoes to see. An idea popped into my head and I smiled. Acting on the thought, I ran to a nearby table and grabbed two chairs, one for me and one for Jade. She thanked me and we stood on them, I now had a clear view of the spectacle.
"Or what? You're going to wink me away?" He taunted, high fiving one of his friends as if that was roast of the century. Layla however, did in fact look somewhat hurt. At that, I wanted nothing more than for her to put him in his place. I finally noticed the boy in the black cape, sitting at a table alone, right in the middle of the circle. He was looking down, tightening his fist around the top of his brown paper bag angrily.
I caught sight of Layla clenching her fists as she processed his reply. "Maybe not, but I can tell principal Tomkins about your 'reckless' behavior. Let's see how our football team does without their star quarterback for the finals this year." Now she was the one taunting him and his smirk quickly morphed into an angry scowl.
"So you're a nark?" He asked lowly, his voice deepening. Layla shrugged and smiled at him.
"If being a nark is what it takes to make you stop patronizing other kids, then yes," she replied as she began walking out of the circle. The sea of teenagers gasped as Damian grabbed Layla's wrist, stopping her.
"Fine," he said as Layla ripped her arm from his grasp as if he'd burned her. She turned to face him once more and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Fine what?" She inquired, raising her eyebrows, telling him to surrender.
"Fine," he started, but struggled to say the next words, "you win." Layla smirked and patted his shoulder as she leaned in close to his ear and whispered something. He scowled at whatever she'd said as she exited the circle, leaving him there. The crowd hooted and hollered and I high fived Layla as she got back to us.
"What are you all looking at? Go eat!" Damian barked before storming out of the cafeteria. The crowd dispersed as they took their seats, unintentionally following his orders. I just wanted to eat, as did everybody else.
"That was badass!" Jade exclaimed as we took a step down from our chairs. Layla just smiled and rolled her eyes.
"I guess he can't be my jealousy factor anymore, can he?" She laughed and we joined her. I caught my eyes drifting to the mysterious boy at the table, only to find that he was gone. I looked around the cafeteria, but he was nowhere to be found.
"What'd you say to him afterwards?" I inquired as we brought our chairs to a nearby table and sat down with Layla.
To that, she replied, "It'll be my little secret."
