Riley stuffed her hands into the pockets of her faded black jeans. She had just gotten to school and already she was bored and tired. She thought about skipping, but it was no fun when no one was with her. So she headed to her first period, History. That was just not a way to start the day. She sat down at the far end of the classroom watching everyone come in. As soon as the bell rang everyone ran to their seats. She noticed out of the corner of her eye Elena and Alex sitting beside each other. The best friends and most popular girls of our grade. Everyone adored them and tried to be friends with them. Why? She had no idea but she had no intention of doing so. Our teacher Ms. Rivera wrote down “End of year project”. Everyone groaned. Ms.Rivera just ignored it and said, “In this Project you will group up and together you will make a constitution for your made up country. I shall be picking the groups.” Everyone groaned again. In the corner of my eye I saw Elena and Alex hold hands underneath the table as if to say it would take a chainsaw to split them apart. After she called the first two groups I finally heard my name. “Riley Sanchez, Juliet Rivers, Alexandra Mendez, and Elena Garcia.” I slumped in my chair. Of course I got paired up with them. Just my luck. I saw a couple girls give me the evil eye and I shot them a look back saying, ‘I don’t like this just as much as you do.’ When I looked over at Juliet the jock she didn’t seem very comftorable either. After she finished calling the groups she told us that for the rest of the class period we would split up into our groups and start working on it. I sighed got up and headed over to Juliet. She stood to and we both walked over to where Alex and Elena were sitting. Elena smiled and Alex attempted one. “Hi guys. Okay so I say we get this over with as fast as possible.” Elena said. Juliet nodded agreeing. Elena looked at me. I sighed and said, “Well I kinda like doing things at last minute, but I guess this could work too.” She smiled and looked at Alex. Alex just nodded and went back to wondering off into space. “M’kay so let’s start now and then we can work out on what day is free for everyone.” So we worked on the project with Alex zoning in and out of space. At the last five minutes Elena stopped us so we could work out the schedule. “Okay so Juliet what days are you free?” Juliet answered almost immediately. “Mondays, Tuesday’s, and Friday’s.” Elena nodded and turned to me. “Every day of the week.” Elena smiled and then said, “Both me and Alex are free every day except Wednesdays and Sundays.” Alex nodded and went back to her lala land. “Okay next order of business. Where do we meet?” Elena asked. Juliet spoke up and said, “We could meet up at my house. My parents won’t mind.” Elena nodded. “Okay lest exchange phone numbers, and emails. Oh and Juliet exchange your address. Can we meet up tomorrow?” She nodded and wrote it three times for each of us. We all quickly exchanged phone number and emails just as the bell rang. “Hey Elena.” She looked up waiting for me to continue. “You are the most organized human being I have ever met, and I say that in the nicest way possible.” She smiled and thanked me while heading out the door with Alex who faked a smile at me. I didn’t try to put one on back. No way was Riley going to smile at her. When you smile at someone it’s showing that you recognize them and you saying hello or goodbye. If she wasn’t going to mean it why should I plaster on a fake one back? I grabbed my bag and headed outside to go to the next torturous class.

Juliet sat next to Elena. She figured that she since they were going to work on this project together they should at least get to know each other or hang out. The only thing that made it a little bit more difficult was that the girl Riley was in there group. Not that she had anything against her, but she seemed a little bit intimidating. Like a young version of Avril Lavinge. She even had a fake piercing in her nose. Well at least she assumed it was fake. She wasn’t exactly sure, but she thought she saw her slip it off once in the girls bathroom. Anyways as she sat next to Elena she noticed that Elena was drawing something in her notebook. It looked like a picture of her being swept up by the wind. She sighed and noticed Juliet watching and quickly closed the notebook. “Sorry. I didn’t mean too.” Juliet said quickly. Elena smiled slightly saying, “Don’t worry about it. Not your fault.” She said blushing a deep red. The bell rang and there Drama teacher was nowhere to be seen. A couple seconds later an unfamiliar teacher came into the class. “Hi guys. Listen Ms.Kaplan was very sick and had to go home early. She didn’t give me any specific instructions so just do what you normally do.” Even Juliet knew she had said the wrong thing. Everyone started to chat amongst themselves. “So how do you like our group project so far?” Elena asked Juliet smiling. They talked for a little while about our opinions on how the country should be. “So how do you like the people on our group?” Riley asked carefully. Elena was known as the nicest girl in school. She never talked behind people backs. But she knew there could be no way that she was just happy about getting stuck with her a Riley. “I like it. You and Riley seem to be pretty cool.” She nodded to herself. “Really? Your okay with having Riley?” Juliet asked. She didn’t want to sound mean, but Juliet really wanted to know how she really felt. “Why wouldn’t I be? I mean sure Riley is a little different than the rest of us, but that doesn’t mean she’s not the same on the inside.” She sounded so humble. It made Juliet feel guilty for trying to get her to talk bad about Riley. “Sorry, it’s just your so nice. I guess I was trying to test it.” Juliet laughed. “Trust me I’m not always so nice.” Juliet said with a sly smile. They continued talking drifting slowly through different subjects until the bell rang. “So I’ll see you tomorrow?” Juliet asked. Elena nodded and smiled saying, “Definitely.” She watched Elena walk out to the hallway waiting for Alex. She wished she had a best friend. Not that she’s never had one before because she has. But unfortunately she moved away in seventh grade leaving Juliet alone. She missed her like crazy and hasn’t talked to her for months now. Juliet roamed the halls alone and was about to get a drink of water from the water fountain. But then she remembered what happened this morning and jumped back almost crashing into one of the seniors. She would try to stay away from it as much as possible. That would e extremely difficult but she had to try. She walked off quickly to her next class shaking off the thought of what happened that morning.
Alex watched as the girls around her breathed heavily. She was perfectly fine after running two laps. There P.E coach agreed that they all deserved a free day. Alex sat on the grass breathing in the fresh air. She intertwined her hands into the grass loving its soft feel. She would love to walk around bare foot but she knew people would give her weird looks. She noticed the grass looking a little greener than usual. The flower had a little bit more color. Even the dead grass seemed to be regaining some color. She ignored it and got up reluctantly to go walk with some of the girls that kept begging for her attention. She didn’t get the chance to talk much. Mostly the girls talked to her. They were about to get into some serious gossip, but before they could Alex stopped them by saying, “No-no. If you’re going to talk about gossip then I don’t want to be a part of this little group. They quickly changed the subject. The girls droned on and on about their lives. Alex thought she was about to die when she saw Riley across the field reading. She decided this would be the best time to make an escape. “Excuse me ladies.” Alex said walking towards Riley. When she stopped in front of her she saw the book was that Percy Jackson series her little sister was obsessed with. Riley raised her head and then an eyebrow. “Can I help you?” She asked Alex. “Well hello to you too.” Riley sighed. “Well then hello there Ms. Alice in Wonderland.” She said turning her attention towards her by setting the book down. Alex smiled. “Yeah I tend to zone out when Elena goes into her work mode.” Riley laughed. Alex sat next to her. They talked for a few minutes and surprisingly there were no awkward silences. They got along a lot easier then Alex would have ever guessed. When the coach blew the whistle they both headed back together laughing at each other’s stories all the way to the locker room. After the bell rang, just as the girls were about to go their separate ways Riley said, “See you tomorrow.” In spite of herself Alex smiled too. “Yeah. I can’t wait for tomorrow.” And it was true.