During lunch, I could feel my social anxiety skyrocket, but I did my best to hide it.
"Hey, everyone," Kriss greeted as she sat down.
"Hi," Yai and Cherry said at the same time.
(Yai is a 10th grader, two years younger than me and Nacina. She's in the musician program. She's very cute and slender with long, straight black hair that contrasts with her pale complexion. Cherry is a senior like us. She has maroon hair cut into a bob, light brown eyes, and ebony skin.)
"You can't sit there," Cameron stated, pointing at Kriss's seat.
"Uh… why not?" she inquired.
"A ghost haunts that chair, and he'll torment you forever unless you give me a snack as an offering. You see, I am the mediator. You can only calm the ghost by appeasing me first," he explained, holding out his hand toward her.
Kriss reluctantly handed him her pudding cup.
"Alright, you can sit there," he stated.
Nacina flicked his arm.
"Ow!"
"Don't force people to give you their food," she chastised.
Cam poked out his lip and started eating the pudding anyway, only speaking between bites.
"I didn't force her to do anything," he remarked.
(Cam has been friends with Nacina almost as long as I have. He has short, dark brown hair—almost black—light brown eyes, and a tawny skin tone.)
"It's fine if I sit here, right?" Will asked as he sat down next to me, smiling.
I blushed and looked down at the table.
"No... you have to give me an offering first," I replied.
"Damn it, Cam! You're being a bad influence on Akina," Nacina stated, flicking his forehead this time.
Cam winced in pain and retaliated by tickling her.
"Stop it! Please!" Nacina pleaded.
"I'll stop if you give me a kiss," Cam offered.
Instead of responding, Nacina got up from her seat and ran off, with Cam chasing after her.
I was snickering to myself while watching them when someone tapped my shoulder. It was Will, offering me a snack cake.
"You have a really cute laugh," he noted. "I think I'd like to hear it more often."
I blushed while taking the cake from him.
"Alright, your offering has been accepted."
He grinned and started eating next to me quietly.
Well... this isn't so bad.
Once Nacina had run out of breath, she returned to her seat, and Cam sat beside her—he hadn't even broken a sweat.
"Your friend did like 50-speed push-ups in front of the class today," Kriss bragged to Nacina.
"Oh..." Nacina panted. "...Cool."
"Girls are just easily impressed," Will remarked.
"Then how many push-ups can you do in a minute?" Kriss asked.
Will smirked.
"I can do 500 one-armed push-ups with you standing on my back," he answered.
"Prove it," she challenged.
"Nope," he replied, taking a long sip from his carton of chocolate milk.
I took judo and kickboxing classes growing up, and I still regularly work out when I'm free, so the class penalty wasn't actually too bad for me. I didn't feel like telling anyone that and forcing the attention back to me, so I let the topic change naturally before jumping into the conversation.
Today's social interactions somehow didn't end in total failure. I was so happy about this that a permanent smile was plastered on my face as I was walking home. I'm sure all the people who saw me were either creeped out or terrified.
"Hey, let's go to Icy's," Nacina suggested—obviously to ease her sugar addiction.
"Alright... but this time don't steal my ice cream," I teased.
Nacina pouted. "But that's the best part!"
I chuckled slightly.
We took a detour to head to the ice cream parlor called Icy's. We both got double scoop cones so we could eat them on the way home. We were just steps from our neighborhood when Nacina suddenly stopped walking. She finished off her ice cream cone and began staring behind us.
"What's wrong?" I asked, only to be shushed by her. I frowned in response.
"Do you hear that?" Nacina asked.
At her words, I focused on listening, then I heard noises that sounded like muffled thunder.
"Yeah," I replied.
Nacina grinned. "The Guardian is still fighting for us… even now."
She looked at me. "I can't see why you don't like him. He protects us, and he has that otherworldly charm."
I looked down.
"It's not that I don't like him… I'm just sick of everyone talking about him all the time. I'd rather discuss anything else," I retorted.
Nacina scoffed, then started walking again.
"You're so bitter," she stated.
I am so not bitter.
Unconsciously, her words made me sulk. We split up in front of my house, and when I entered, my nose alerted me to what was for dinner—nachos. All in all, today has been a good day.
The rest of the school week went by, and my new friends stuck around. Speaking to them was hard at first, but after the third day, I began feeling comfortable saying hi first and sitting beside them without an invitation. On Friday, Cherry decided to invite me to her house for her birthday party. Note that I've known her for three years, and this has never happened before.
"I already invited Nacina, and she said she's definitely coming. Be sure to show up too. Oh and bw sure to dress up!" Cherry's invite was practically a command. It honestly didn't seem like "no" was an acceptable answer at all.
"Okay, I'll come," I replied.
Cherry smiled and lightly flipped the long side of her asymmetrical fringe over her shoulder after my statement. She then left without saying anything else.
Later, when I told Nacina the news, she said:
"This is great! Now we can go together!"
Nacina gets invited to people's houses all the time, but she only attends half the time to hang out with me instead. And since I'm so bad at socializing, I've always refused to go somewhere I wasn't formally invited—even if Nacina asked me to come. I'm definitely not the party-crasher type.
"We have to go shopping, and we'll pick a dress for you! Jeans are not acceptable!" she declared.
"I don't think anyone else is dressing up, and I'd rather not stand out," I replied, but Nacina waved my statement away.
"Too bad! This is your first party that isn't just the two of us and our families! You will be gorgeous! You will stand out! And you will like it!" Nacina proclaimed, her hands on her hips.
"I highly doubt I'll like it," I stated timidly.
Just imagining lots of people staring at me made me nauseous.
Nacina rolled her eyes. "You don't have a choice! You're sleeping over at my house tonight," she said.
Just like with Cherry's invitation, I knew I couldn't say no. Nacina talked with my mom, and Mom agreed to let me sleep over.
"You girls don't stay out too late tomorrow, and be careful. Oh, and call me if you need anything tonight, sweetie. Remember, I'm right down the street," Mom said.
I nodded and went to my room with Nacina, who rummaged through my closet looking for something acceptable for me to wear. In the end, she decided shopping was the only option.
We walked to the nearest clothing store, and Nacina looked around, mumbling things like:
"You're a winter, so… this shade of blue will look really good on you. But it's about time you found a boyfriend, so maybe red is better…"
As she was mumbling, I eased into the far corner of the store and sat against the wall. I know she's doing all this because she cares about me, but I'm so nervous I don't know what to do.
My thoughts were spiraling out of control, then suddenly, my mini panic attack was interrupted by a large crash outside the store.