She.

Chapter 1

It was exactly 11:00 am when she walked in. I didn't know who she was, no one did. We didn't know how she got there 2 hours late or why she wasn't wearing the red and black uniform. She walked like she didn't care that no one knew about her. She walked like she was ready for lonely walks in the hallways. She stopped walking. She looked at Ms.Lambert.

"Take a seat, Ms?"

"Francis"

"Francis, what?"

"Valerie Francis"

"Perfect. Ms. Valerie Francis, take a seat next to, um, Julie. Julie, can you raise your hand?"

I raised my hand.

She started walking towards me, but turned to say, "Sorry for being late."

The teacher responded, "Sit, please"

Valerie took the seat right next to me and smiled.

"Julie?"

"Ya?"

"Um. Can you catch me on this stuff later?"

I nodded and looked away.

"Julie?"

"What?"

She smirked and asked, "What are you writing?"

"If you got here a week and 2 hours earlier you would know."

"Julie?"

"First, that's annoying and you don't need to say 'Julie?' before asking me a question. Second, my name isn't Julie, it's Juliette."

"Oh okay."

That's where the conversation ended. We sat and listened to the teacher for another 25 minutes until we heard the bell ring. I packed up my stuff and walked past a couple of dozen rows of lockers to get to Ethan's, him and Bobby were coming to the spot, but so was Valerie.

"Hey, babe," Ethan said while they came closer

"J, what are you looking at?" Bobby asked

Ethan tried to kiss my lips but missed and landed on my cheek. I was too busy looking to
my left.

"What is she doing? She just got here and I've seen her like 10 times."

"Who?" they both were so confused

"That girl. Fishnets. Blonde. Out of uniform."

"Perfect skin?"

"Um, ya, I guess."

Valerie saw me looking and started jogging towards us.

"Heyyyyy"

"Hi," I said

"So, about catching me up?"

"What about it?"

"Do you want to send the notes to me or...?"

"Hello. Who are you?" Bobby interrupted

Valerie stuck out her hand and Bobby shook it with a flustered look on his face.

"Valerie. Nice to meet you,?"

"Bobby"

"Okay, Bobby. Who are you?" She directed the question at Ethan

"Ethan. J's boyfriend"

"Cool. Anyway, my locker seems to be right next to yours. Juliette... send me the notes, please. I'll write my number down."

"Give it to me later. I'm busy."

"Well, fine. What's your locker number? I'll slip it in."

"103"

"Okay, hopefully, I get to see, Ethan, Bobby, and Juliette some more this year."

For some reason, that sentence made me mad. Why did she say my name like that? Why was she even talking to me or offering her number? I wasn't her friend. I was a classmate, someone who saw her because it was necessary. I wonder what made her think that she could just befriend people without even knowing them. I wonder what was going on in that girl's head.