Set Apart

Chapter 3~

Cristina's POV:

Shawn and I were sitting at our regular lunch table when finally after what felt like forever, Cory finally sat down next to Shawn and I. But he started asking a bunch of weird questions and acting funny. He was touching his hair while looking into his reflection on a spoon.

"What do you guys think of my hair?" He asked looking worried.

Shawn paused for a moment and told him "Guys don't ask guys that question."

I rolled my eyes. "Cory your hair is fine."

"But would this qualify as a brillo head?" He asked referring to his hair.

"Nah." Shawn said as he touched his hair. "You're more like a nerf head."

"You both new this and didn't tell me?"

"You've got curly hair whats the big deal?" I said as I poked my fork at my food.

"Yeah Cory Crissy's right. Can we move on now?"

"Ugh, easy for you talk Shawn, you've got hair. I'm a chia pet." After he said that I couldn't help but laugh and Cory gave me a glare.

"So you think this is funny?"

"I think that it's silly that you're worried so much about your hair when it looks fine." I made sure I made eye contact with Cory when I said this. Cory brushed off what I said and just continued eating.

Topanga, the strange girl from our class came over. She was telling Cory about how her dad was coming to drop her off to his house after school so they could work on a project. Cory was being weird about how she calls her dad by his first name and kept trying to get out of doing the project with her but they ended up coming to the mutual understanding that she was coming over.

"Okay okay okay, i'll see you at my house after school." Cory said.

"Before I leave, can you all sign this petition to save Mrs. Rosemead's job?" She held out a clipboard to us with a pen.

"Who's Mrs. Rosemead?" Shawn asked.

"Our librarian. The school is forcing her to retire. It's blatant ageism." She said nodding her head.

"Maybe because she's blatantly old." Shawn said. I slapped him on the arm and he winced.

"Forget these bozos, Topanga i'll sign your petition."

"Thanks Cristina." She handed me the clipboard with the pen.

"I like your hair by the way." She had long light brown hair and crimped her hair with an iron.

"Shawn, Cory, i'll respect your space." As she walks away I turn to the guys.

"You know you don't have to be so mean to her. I think she's cool."

"If by cool you mean totally weird then yeah Topanga is the coolest girl in the city." Cory said.

"I know she does things a little different than most people but who likes being normal all the time."

"What do you mean? Normal is great, it's safe, it's comfortable. You're normal."

"Normal is boring Cor, and if I was a normal girl I would be sitting at a table with all the other 6th grade girls gossiping and talking about crushes and boys. But i'm not, i'm sitting at a table with my two best friends making fun of all the stupid stuff everyone does. In my book, Topanga Lawrence is a goddess."

"You say goddess, we say 10 pounds of hair." Shawn fist bumped Cory right after he said that.

"Ugh whatever, you guys can talk about being normal all you want but neither of you come close to being normal."

"Okay forget about all this normal talk, what are we gonna do about my hair?"

Shawn and I looked at each other. "My point exactly" I directed my attention back to Cory. "If you're that stressed out about it, i'll get the stuff my mom uses to straighten her hair. I went there last weekend so i'll just stop by and say I forgot something."

"You want us to go with you? We know you don't really like being over there often." The boys were really good rocks for me when my parents were getting divorced when I was 5. If it weren't for them I don't think I would have taken it as well as I did.

"Nah then she would just ask too many questions and the faster i'm outta there the better, and trust me my mother can turn any situation into an awkward one I don't need you guys there for that."

"You know you say your mom is so bad but from when I was little she seemed nice." Shawn said.

"I love my mom and all, and she is nice, but she's just..." it took me a minute to find the right word. "impossible."

"Okay then, what if Cory goes to do his project with Topanga and I walk you there. Once we're there, i'll just wait outside where she can't see me so you can go in and grab the stuff." Shawn said.

"Sounds like a plan."