Amelia
I STOOD in line with Mel and Raine as they got their lunches. Going off-campus for lunch had sounded great, up until it started raining. We’d leave another day.
I still had my carrots, and I munched on them as slowly as possible while eyeing the special of the day enviously. Nachos. With all the works. Shit. My stomach tightened, and I focused harder on the carrots.
“Amelia, aren’t you going to get some?” Mel asked. Raine was looking at me as well. Her little blue plastic tray had chocolate milk and a huge plate of nachos on it.
I shook my head. “I’m good.” I held up my baggie of carrots to show them that yep, I did have food. Such that it was. I tried not to be jealous of their lunches, or how they got to eat whatever they wanted. Inside I hated enduring what I had to. It didn’t seem fair, and at times I wondered if it was worth it.
Mel frowned. “If you need to borrow some cash or something for lunch, I’ve got some.”
I hadn’t realized that me not eating much for lunch would make it seem like I couldn’t afford to if I’d wanted to. I shared a look with Raine. She’d never offered to buy my lunch when I wasn’t eating a lot. I shrank back a little. “I’m not that hungry. I must have a tiny stomach or something. I’ll go find us a table while you two get through the line.” I didn’t wait for them to agree with me. I just needed to stop having them focus on what I was eating, or how much of it I had, or whatever.
That was why I never really brought Raine over to my house. Besides how cool her family was, they didn’t really care about my eating habits. My mom was never like that, and I didn’t want her getting on Raine about what she ate either. She hadn’t yet, but I didn’t put it past her.
There was a table in the middle open, and I quickly claimed it by putting my backpack in the middle and plopping down in a chair. Normally we ate near the squad, but all the spaces over there were taken. Some people waved at me. I felt plenty of guys looking me over. It wasn’t a new thing. After an assembly we had to stay in our uniforms for the rest of the day to show school spirit. I was practically on display for anyone who wanted to take a look at me. It didn’t feel good. I wanted to take my carrots and blend into the floor.
A few of the football guys catcalled to me. They were like that with all of the cheerleaders, or anyone who caught their eye to be honest. Most of them were pigs. Sometimes the decent ones would school the dirtbags if they got too out of line, but that didn’t happen often. Maybe all the media attention on sexual harassment these days would change some of that. I wasn’t going to hold my breath. I ate my carrots and pretended not to notice them. Other girls, those who weren’t cheerleaders, could have flipped them off. But we were supposed to make nice with them. Football players and cheerleaders hanging out, smiling, showing school spirit. It was supposed to be all the things movies and stories said it was. And sometimes it was. But for the most part, they were self-important jerks with some vague idea of how to get girls. I couldn’t believe some girls actually fell for that kind of crap where a muscley guy in a jersey simply had to smile at them for her to get all giggly.
I was rolling my eyes at a few girls from the drama department getting all stupid for the quarterback when Mel and Raine walked up with their trays. I pulled my backpack down and tossed it onto the floor by my feet. The table had six chairs, but they crowded in beside me. I was sure I stank from the assembly, but I liked having them so close. Raine, I’d always liked having near me, and it was cool that I was starting to feel the same way about Mel too. Like she was just instantly part of us and things were cool right from the start. When I thought back, I’d taken instantly to most of my friends. Raine had been perfect from the moment we met.
They ate their nachos, and I took my time on the carrots. I only had seven left. I pulled my water bottle from my bag and sipped that as well. The water would fill up my stomach, and then I wouldn’t be so hungry the rest of the day. Too bad it didn’t give me any energy.
I rested my hand on my chin and let out a little sigh. Raine touched my shoulder, and I looked over at her, wondering what I’d missed. “Huh?”
“Did you space out on us? We’ve been talking, and you’ve been kind of faded out. You feeling okay?” She looked concerned.
I hated when I did that, and it only happened when I was hungry and barely making it through the day. I sat back so I could look at both of them and told them the most believable excuse I could come up with. “Sorry, I guess I’m tired from all the jumping and dancing and stuff.” I shrugged, telling them it wasn’t a big deal. I’d be fine later. I was tired from being a cheerleader. That was understandable, I hoped.
“You looked good out there. Super sexy,” Mel said with a grin.
I was glad she’d apparently accepted my excuse so easily. It was strange being called sexy by a girl. I’d had guys call me sexy before. That wasn’t new, and it wasn’t weird. This didn’t feel weird either. Raine laughed a little beside me, breaking the moment, and I laughed too. “Yeah, right, me, sexy?” I made a show of rolling my eyes. “I’m so sweaty I’m surprised you two can stand to be in the same room with me. It’s so not sexy.”
Mel snorted and kept eating her nachos. I smiled down at my carrots. It had felt kind of nice to have Mel say that I looked sexy. Maybe that meant I was doing something right with all this ‘watching my calories and working out’ thing. My mom thought I was pretty, and now my new friend said I looked sexy. My day was taking a weird, but not unwelcome, turn.
“Ugh, there’s Zach,” Raine said, pulling me out of my happy moment. She totally hated him, and I did too because I loved her and of course hated him for her sake.
I looked up, finding his head full of short black hair easily enough. I shot him a dark look. “He’s such a jackass. Ignore him.”
Mel leaned in closer to me, probably not to be overheard by anyone else. The cafeteria was crowded no matter what time of day it was. “Who’s Zach and why do we hate him?”
I loved how she was instantly on Raine’s side, no questions asked. “At our homecoming dance last year, he asked almost every girl to dance. He made a show of asking me twice. But then for Raine, he didn’t ask her once. It was a big deal, a total snub. And she had this whole crush thing on him at the time. Hence why he’s a jackass and why we don’t pay him any attention.”
“It so was not a crush,” Raine corrected me. “Mild interest, maybe. He was in my painting class at the time. He could have been a friend.”
I nodded, conceding to her, even though it had so totally been a crush. “He could’ve been, except, like I said, he’s a jackass and so very much not worthy of you or your time.”
Mel looked murderous too. Only on her it looked kind of cute. “Raine, for the record, I’d totally dance with you. You too, Amelia. The three of us would be getting down so hard on any dance floor. We’d be so insane together, and it would be so great.”
Raine burst out laughing. “Thanks. Really. I appreciate that. It does mean a lot.”
“We so should. We’ve got prom this year. Not like I was going to go with anyone but Raine anyway. Mel, you should come with us. We could totally go out as a threesome or something.”
I didn’t realize what I’d said until Raine snorted and Mel looked like she was trying so hard not to laugh.
“Not like that!” I quickly squeaked. That made Mel laugh, and Raine shook her head. I swiped her arm, and she stuck her tongue out at me. Mel threw her arm around my shoulders as she kept laughing, and my momentary embarrassment forgotten, I laughed with them.
“OMG, you two are so awful.” I shook my head, but I was still smiling. Mel pulled away from me, and somehow I missed having her arm around me. I looked over at her, wondering what that was and what it meant, because it was like how I felt when Raine stopped holding my hand when we were walking sometimes. I had hoped Mel would share some kind of hidden secret with me of why she made me feel like that after only just meeting her, but she wasn’t looking at me anymore. She was back to her nachos. Raine was licking guacamole off her fingers.
With a shrug I went back to my carrots and my water. Maybe it had been nothing. Maybe I’d imagined it. No biggie. Thinking about going to prom with the two of them had me smiling again. “You know, if we did go to prom, we should do some kind of theme or matching dresses or something.”
“Oh! Like Charlie’s Angels!” Mel sounded so excited.
Raine’s eyes got big. “Totally like that.”
I’d been thinking zombie cheerleaders or something, but yeah, Charlie’s Angels would work too. “Cool.” I was sure three girls had never gone to prom dressed in a theme, but there was no reason we couldn’t. “But no boys. We’re not getting a Bosley.”
Mel snorted. “Hell no, no boys. We don’t need them.”
She gave me a wink, and I wrinkled up my nose. Sure, we needed boys for some stuff, but yeah, not at prom. We’d be good without them. For the rest of lunch, I tried to come up with a single reason we needed boys in general. I couldn’t think of one aside from the whole kids thing, but I’d had Child Development the year before, and that crying plastic monster I had to carry around for two weeks made me swear off kids for life. I’d always looked forward to the school dances with Raine, ever since the first spring fling that we went to years ago, because it was more time with her. But now I was looking forward to dancing with Mel too and to the three of us going to prom together. We’d go arm in arm, looking awesome. It was going to be so much fun. This whole year was, and Mel was definitely going to add to that for both of us.