Hello hello hello beautiful people. Author here. This is one of my favorite chapters so far, because we introduce a TON of new characters. All Spanish in this chapter comes straight from google translate, so if there's any readers out there who actually speak Spanish and find a mistake, let me know so I can fix it. Also, I listened to Tuck Everlasting again, so I have renewed feelings of its greatness and that it shouldn't have closed so soon. NOT THAT IM BITTER or anything. Anyway, hope you enjoy.
Dia's POV
The next two classes passed quickly. Math was uneventful, to the point where I barely remember anything that happened. Oops. Third period was orchestra. I was originally nervous for that class, a bunch of rich kids with their fancy instruments and racist comments. Then the director, Miss Taylor, basically cemented her place as my favorite teacher. Let me paraphrase. Basically her whole rant was;
"I don't care how expensive your instrument is, or how many years you've been taking private lessons. In this class, you will be judged on your playing ability and your work ethic. If you have an issue with this, take it up with me after class, though there is no guarantee I'll actually listen to you. Now, let's tune."
She was really cool. Now the bell rang, I've gone to my locker, and it's time for the oldest test of strength and endurance in the history of high school. Lunch.
So I made it to the cafeteria, great. There are kids everywhere. There's a table full of boys in letterman jackets tossing around footballs. Another table has a couple boys and one girl wearing letterman jackets. Their table is covered in books and papers and at least five different calculators. There's a table full of kids wearing marching band t-shirts, and a blond boy with a lollipop sticking out of his mouth is turned around talking to a short black haired boy sitting at a table with a bunch of girls wearing customized dance team jackets. What is it with this school and customized jackets? At the front of the cafeteria is a smaller table. This is occupied by three girls wearing expensive clothing, who seemed to be silently judging the whole room. Weird. My National Geographic narration of the cafeteria was interrupted by me noticing a silver crutch waving in the air from the back table. That must be Crutchie and his friends. I make my way over to them, and sit in the empty seat that Crutchie saved for me. Alright, let's see what we're dealing with here.
Crutchie is sitting on my left, and on my right is another boy. He has dark hair, and is wearing a t-shirt with a space cat on it under a pink sparkly vest. There are at least twelve different pride pins on his backpack, and a pair of tap shoes is close to falling out of it. Next to the tap shoe boy is a dark haired girl wearing the coolest jacket. It's covered in patches, and the back is custom painted. Ok, I want one. Next to the jacket girl is the only other girl at the table. She has frizzy brown hair, like the kind that could be beach waves if you tried, but she didn't try. She's wearing a theatre tech t-shirt and playing on her phone. Next to the frizz girl is another boy. Santo cielo, he's cute. Come on Dia, no crushes, too late. He's got super curly hair almost down to his shoulders, and lots of freckles. Lots. Of. Freckles. Oh, I'm screwed. Next to Freckles is a blond boy in a blue polo shirt. He's playing with a fidget cube in one hand and talking quietly to the boy next to him. This boy, the one fidget cube boy is whispering to, has long hair also, even though his is pulled back. He's wearing a grey hoodie and painting his nails. The final new person at the table is wearing a beat up newsboys cap, and an art department t-shirt. He's also holding hands with Crutchie under the table. Ahhhh, so THIS is the boyfriend. I can see what Crutchie sees in him. He's cute. Oh shoot, they probably think I'm awkward cause I've been internal monologuing instead of introducing myself.
"Hi, I'm Dia. Thanks for letting me sit here."
Freckles speaks up. "Anyone who calls Eacker a muggle is automatically in my good books." He smiles at me. Gah, shouldn't it be illegal for someone to be that cute?
Then, the dark haired boy to my right stands up and claps dramatically.
"Alright, it's introduction tiiiiiiiiime! Welcome to the freakshow, aka the most fun club of social outcasts and rejects you'll ever be a part of! I'm Damien, drama club president, expert on all things gay and musical theatre-related." He gestured to jacket girl. "Next to me we have Janis, art freak number one, disaster lesbian, probably an alien."
"Hi"
"Alriiiiiiight." He pointed to frizz girl. "Frances Laurens, queen of self-confidence. Resident sound technician for our theatre class."
"Wassup!"
"Next we have our resident golden boy, blessing to teachers, the only person to reject Regina George and LIVE, Philip Hamilton." Damien did a dramatic flourish in the direction of Freckles. So his name is Philip. Cool.
Philip's POV
"Nice to meet you."
Wow, she's really cute. Keep it together Hamilton, keep it together.
Back to Dia's POV
Damien moved on to fidget cube boy.
"Evan Hansen. Human personification of anxiety, bisexual ICON, tree hugger."
"Hi, it's nice to, it's nice to, nice to meet you."
Then Damien moved on to the boy who was painting his nails earlier.
"Connor Murphy, reformed school bully, Evan's boyfriend, so emo that he paints his nails."
"Damien Hubbard you hypocrite"
"You paint your nails black, Connor."
"You paint your nails PURPLE, Damien."
"Excuse me, it's Lavender, and it compliments my skin tone. Anyway, "
He seemed to return to the topic on hand, but I beat him to it when it came to the last person.
"Jack Kelly. Gryffindor, bisexual, artist. Does all the set designs for theatre. Wears a newsboy cap all the time until it gets confiscated by teachers, has an odd obsession with New Mexico and old Western movies." Both Jack and Damien looked slightly shocked.
"Once Crutchie figured out that I wasn't homophobic, he wouldn't stop talking about you." This made Crutchie blush, and Janis burst out laughing. She could barely talk.
"I-I knew I was gonna like you."
From that point on, lunch went smoothly. Ok, so I may have stolen way too many looks at Philip, but he was right across from me, so I'm justified! Once I had finished eating, I pulled out the container of leftover dessert my mom had put in my lunch as a surprise. Damien looked at me questioningly.
"What's that stuff?"
"Arroz con leche." He looked very confused. Philip laughed.
"Damien, have you never heard Spanish before?"
"Why would I have heard Spanish, I only speak English?"
I laughed, then decided to mess with him a little.
"Damien, ¿cómo vives en la ciudad de Nueva York, también conocida como el crisol de América, donde cientos de personas hablan español a diario y nunca han escuchado español?" (Damien, how do you live in New York City, also known as the melting pot of America, where hundreds of people speak Spanish daily and have never heard Spanish?)
He looked completely lost, and the rest of the table burst out laughing. Phillip, to my surprise, responded.
" Honestamente no lo sé. Se podría pensar que lo habría escuchado en alguna parte, con vivir aquí toda su vida. Al menos hay alguien más con quien puedo hablar español ahora." ( I honestly don't know. You would think he would have heard it somewhere, what with living here his whole life. At least there's someone else I can speak Spanish with now.)
That took me off guard. Ok, so he's cute AND speaks Spanish.
" ¿Tu hablas español? Realmente no esperaba eso." ( You speak Spanish? I wasn't really expecting that)
"Mi padre es de Nevis, en el Caribe, y habla español y francés junto con inglés. Además, estaba en clases de lenguaje dual desde jardín de infantes hasta sexto grado. Soy casi fluido." ( My dad's from Nevis, in the Caribbean, and he speaks Spanish and French along with English. Plus I was in Dual Language classes from kindergarten to sixth grade. I'm almost fluent)
"Eso es realmente genial. Mi padre es dominicano y mi madre puertorriqueña, así que crecí hablando tanto." (That's really cool. My dad's Dominican and my mom's Puerto Rican, so I grew up speaking both)
Damien was looking more and more confused.
"Ok, so Phil speaks Spanish now too? And what were you saying about me?"
" I said, Damien, how do you live in New York City, otherwise known as like the melting pot of America, where hundreds of people speak spanish daily, and have never heard Spanish?"
Now he looked kind of embarrassed, but soon the whole table was laughing. Damien soon returned to his original question.
"So, what is arrows con whatever you said anyway?"
" Puerto Rican rice pudding. My mom's Puerto Rican, and she made it for dessert last night. It's my favorite."
"Ohhhhhhh."
The rest of lunch passed quickly, and then it was time for class. Now that I actually had friends in some of my classes, the rest of the day was pretty fun, especially because my English teacher is Frances's mom, and Philip's Aunt Peggy. I also have both of them in that class, which is pretty cool. I had a study hall period with Philip, Jack, and Crutchie last period, and then it was time to go home. I had a short walk through the school grounds to get to the subway, a contact list full of my new friends numbers, and a backpack full of beginning of the year paperwork. I told the boys bye, then started walking to the subway. Good first day, check. I survived my first day of junior year, and the rest of the year should be great.
"Shoot, we forgot to warn her about the Plastics."
Aaaaaaand that's a wrap. I put the translations for the huge Spanish conversation after it, so hopefully that's helpful. Stay safe and healthy out there everyone, and don't drink from unidentifiable water sources that could accidentally turn you immortal. Keep on smiling and keep on surviving everyone.
Peace out ✌️
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1620 words