Part 2 (1/2)
”Not again,” Pia sighed. ”The jock with the black hair is Derek Mendoza, the quarterback. Yeah, he's hot but don't think his s.h.i.+t don't stink. And the hulk with the buzz cut is Wade Stoops. He is a.s.shole numero uno. He's on the football team too, but the reason his face is so red and pudgy like a pervert is 'cause he looks at nasty stuff constantly online. Put a permanent sneer on his face. He is gross, trust me.”
Kaila watched the trashed boy pulling himself out of the dumpster, hitching his legs over the side. He had curly dark hair and adjusted thick gla.s.ses over reddened cheeks.
”Hey dork d.i.c.k, you stink!” Derek and Wade laughed as they sauntered away from the dumpster, their wide shoulders swaying.
The dumped boy furiously wiped his baggy pants to remove pieces of trash.
”That's Douglas Lafarge,” Melissa whispered.
Douglas balled his fist and shouted, ”Eat me!”
Several students in the area mimicked, ”Eat me!”
Douglas glared back at the students with defiance.
Wow, Kaila thought, this is vicious. They all gang up like wolves.
”Forget him,” Melissa said. ”He's a dork. Look. That tree over there is geeks. And over there, techno-nerds. There, gamers.” She inclined her head to the left. ”That tree over there is the gangstas.”
Kaila noted boys with wide pants and baseball caps.
”The ones sitting alone, the loners, um, inside on the bench in black are the Goths,” Pia added. ”And the ones in the parking lot by their trucks chewing chaw are the hicks.”
Why were there all these groups? So complicated and daunting. Was she supposed to come to school appearing a certain way so people could pull out a checklist and say, okay, Kaila is X. But to which X did she belong?
”There's the skaters out in the parking lot,” Melissa said.
”And a ton of wannabes and posers,” added Pia, crumpling her brown lunch bag.
Kaila said nothing, digesting the school groups. Then, she saw way off under a distant tree the mysterious ”cult.” Kaila was dying to know about them and Jordyn. ”What about them?” she pointed.
Melissa and Pia held a hand above their eyes and squinted.
”Weird. I didn't see 'em there before,” Melissa said. ”This is the first time they came out of their area. They usually hang in the back field away from everybody.”
In their silver overalls, the group stood in one line, side by side, looking at everyone on the school grounds, saying nothing, just staring beneath dark sungla.s.ses.
”I met one of the guys this morning,” Kaila said.
”Yeah? What was he like?” Melissa asked.
”Very intense.”
”Really?” Pia said. ”That's the exact word I heard others say when meeting them. There's something weird going on with them.”
”They're weird cause they were raised in that cult,” Melissa said.
”There's more to it than that,” Pia said. ”I was next to one in the office over the summer. She gave me the creeps. Felt like she raped my mind or something.”
Though perspiration trickled down the back of Kaila's neck, she s.h.i.+vered. That was exactly what she had felt. Jordyn had gotten inside her head. Still, she didn't want to admit that she thought he was really hot and was dying to see him again.
”Hey look,” someone shouted. ”The freakin' aliens are out to play!”
Everyone gathered under the shaded walkway and peered at the group way off under the tree.
”That's a good name for them,” Pia said.
”What?” Kaila asked.
”The aliens. That'll be their name.”
Kaila thought this was mean but didn't say so. ”Aliens, prep, gangsta, skaters, hicks, geeks, so then what are you?” she asked Melissa and Pia.
”We're undefinables,” said Melissa. ”And that's what to be because you can hang with everybody and wear and do whatever you feel. There's a lot of us.”
Her appet.i.te near gone, Kaila tore open her Lay's potato chips bag.
Pia's heavily mascaraed lashes fluttered as she touched Kaila's long fingers on her left hand. As if burned, Kaila yanked her hand away.
”I noticed her hand too,” Melissa said, meeting Pia's gaze. ”Since we all live so close we'll have to hang out.”
”This is going to be an interesting year,” Pia said.
Kaila knew there was some sort of subtext going on, but she couldn't figure what. Her nerves were killing her.
A girl with long, white-blonde hair walked up to Kaila.
Kaila shrunk before this G.o.ddess with bright blue eyes. She wore a silk cornflower-blue sundress with a white belt.
”I'm Priscilla. Just wanted to say *hey' and hope you're happy here.” She seemed utterly sincere.
”Thanks. I'm Kaila.”
”Okay, nice meeting you.” Priscilla's face grew even lovelier as she smiled. ”See you around.”
Kaila turned to Melissa and Pia for interpretation.
”That's Priscilla Snowden,” Melissa said. ”She's a prep, but she never backstabs people. Yeah, she's so beautiful it makes you feel like a t.u.r.d. But she's super nice and no one can find one mean thing to say about her.”
Kaila thought they said the preps were mean. How would she figure these people out? And was it necessary to find something mean to say about everyone? She shuddered, imagining what they could say about her.
The bell rang. Kaila slurped her melted smoothie and shoved her uneaten chips in her book bag. She glanced at the far off tree. The ”aliens” had vanished.
As she was jostled with the crowd inside the school, a blast of air cooled her face and neck. It smelled of Pine-Sol and dirty gym socks. She heard some boys shouting: ”Three, three, three!”
Pia, noting Kaila's stricken look, whispered, ”Besides dumping Douglas Lafarge in the trash, that's a lunchtime ritual too. Albert Jackson, the big fat guy up there-see him? He eats three lunches every day.”
Kaila spied a huge boy close to three-hundred pounds. He kept his eyes downcast as three boys hounded him, raising three fingers and shouting ”Three,” like jackals feeding on misery.
This was probably why Melissa didn't want to eat a real lunch. Thinking it was shameful the way these people treated each other, Kaila bustled with the h.o.a.rd in the hall. She had to hurry to make it to her advanced physics cla.s.s in the modular unit in the back field.