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tiny hearts on the ends. “Well I don’t like her,” she added without taking her eyes off her work. “She creeps me out.”
    I glanced back at the Jeep as it slowly pulled away from campus. I wasn’t the only new girl at school. This was a good thing.
    “Hey, Adria,” said Harry, “Do you skate?”
    The question caught me off-guard. “Ummm, what like regular skating, or skateboarding?” I hoped this wasn’t some kind of dating inquiry.
    “Do I look like someone you’d find at a rink?” He laughed. “There’s a skate park not far from here. If you want, you can go with us after school.”
    I looked first at everyone else, waiting for them to confirm or deny that they were going.
    “You don’t have to skate,” said Julia, jumping in to save me. She likely saw the expression on my face that I didn’t realize was so loud. “Harry’s the only one that skates; Sebastian doesn’t even do it.”
    “Yeah, he sucks at it,” laughed Harry.
    Sebastian reached over and playfully punched Harry on the shoulder. Immediately, the act reminded me of Alex the night in the park. Already that memorable night was proving to be just that. Unfortunately, the night air and smell of honeysuckle and pine was eclipsed by the more terrifying event afterwards.
    I shook it off quickly and turned my attention back on my friends.
    I realized Harry was the only one among us that looked like a skater. In fact, I realized something different about all of us. We each looked as though we belonged to a totally different group of people, except Julia and I. Tori was a girly-girl with a dash of rebellion in glittery eye shadow and a cutesy pink baby doll shirt. Sebastian was more difficult to categorize; one of the individualists. His black Doc Marten boots could almost place him in with the rocker guys, but only almost . And it was Julia’s brazen, playful personality that made her different rather than her wardrobe choices. I could never be as brave as her. Maybe ‘brave’ wasn’t the right word. Somehow I got the sense that ‘careless’ was more like it.
    I started thinking about the girl from the Jeep with white-blond hair. I felt bad for her, maybe because she was new and I knew how that felt. But also, I was intrigued by her and I couldn’t figure out why. It was a strange but insignificant curiosity. I let go of it until I met up with her in the hallway after school was over.
    Her locker was on the same wall as mine.
    She glanced at me once and nodded. Her features struck me instantly. She had an ethereal look about her. The white hair and perfectly applied array of gray eye shadow brought out her rounded angelic face. It was as if a painting had come to life in front of me.
    I felt so inadequate, so plain.
    For a moment, it seemed like she was going to say something, introduce herself, spark up conversation, but instead closed her locker and walked down the long hallway in the opposite direction. She went toward the bright sunlight shining in through the double glass doors at the exit. I could hear a small fashionable chain hitting softly against the back of her jeans as she walked.
     
    ~~~
    Uncle Carl and Beverlee were both sitting in the den when I got home. The house smelled of pork chops and Macaroni & Cheese.
    “So,” Uncle Carl began, “do I need to ask?” He was not too great at the parenting thing, but he was trying.
    “What he means to say is,” Beverlee said, “was your first day a good one?”
    “Yeah, it was nice.”
    “So then you made friends easily?” Uncle Carl added.
    “Uhhh, yeah. I didn’t have to eat lunch alone on the first day, so that’s good.”
    He just nodded and buried his nose back inside his Scientific American magazine where it felt more comfortable.
    “I’m going to...well; I mean if it’s alright, I’d like to go to the skate park with them later.” I wasn’t used to having to ask permission to go anywhere. My mom let Alex and I go wherever we wanted and not because she was