Chapter Two:
Tony
Amy was a weird girl. Strange, odd, unusual, however the hell you want to put it, she caught my interest. Let’s get one thing straight- I don’t like people. Period. If I had it my way, I would be alone in my room reading a good book, listening to my iPod and eating pretzels for the rest of my life. Will was sort of my exception- he was funny and saw the world almost the same way I did. He was my only friend now, since my other friends had abandoned me in sixth grade. He really saved me back then, and ever since he’s been the only one I can confide in. But maybe this Amy girl would change things.
I liked her spirit, for one. She was determined to know me, despite my tendency to act like I know everything and my obvious disinterest in friendship. Her sense of humor had to be good if she liked to hang out with Will, and she’d mentioned siblings- this might just be my new group. She might just be a friend.
It didn’t hurt that she was totally hot, either.
Okay, sure, her clothes were wacky. They kind of creeped me out, especially with the red skull. You didn’t see a lot of normal girls wearing that sort of thing. But she was as different as they get, and I suspected that once you got to know her, he clothes were probably the least of her quirks. I thought about the way they showed her off all the way through the lunch line.
“Tony! Over here!” I looked up in surprise as her voice floated over from a table in the corner. How had she gotten back down here so fast?! Amy was sitting with Will, two other boys and another girl. I made my way uncertainly to the shadowy corner and sat down with my tray in the empty spot to Amy’s right.
“Hey, welcome to our Emo Corner,” Will joked, his eyes sparkling. He hadn’t changed much since elementary school- same short brown hair with the white spot over his right ear, same mischievous blue eyes, same obnoxiously orange jacket. But now there was a girl hanging off his arm. She was cute, I supposed, and she wore almost the same exact outfit on Amy. If they weren’t related, then I was a social butterfly.
“You know Will already,” Amy said. “This is Holly-“, Will’s girl. “Leo-” A pale, freckle-faced boy sitting on the other side of Will smiled. “-and Arthur.” The small, tan boy sitting next to Leo winked at me with his hazel eyes, a wide smile on his face. “They’re the siblings I was talking about,” she continued. I stared in shock.
“You have QUADRUPLETS?” I asked incredulously. I mean really, how likely is that? “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Not quadruplets!” she protested. I could tell this was a well worn speech. “Why does everyone assume that? Just because we’re all the same age-!” She spluttered indignantly aver the words, and Holly mercifully took over for her.
“Just to make this clear, we all have the same birthday. We’re twins,” she said helpfully, glancing at Amy. “Leo is our half brother, but it’s a long story.” She avoided my eyes- they all did- so apparently this was a touchy subject. I pretended I hadn’t noticed, and she either believed me or appreciated the effort because she moved on. “We adopted Arthur when we were three- he was born latest in the day, so he’s by definition the youngest.” Again they all looked away, fiddling nervously with napkins and miscellaneous food items. I decided not to broach the subject, at least not until I was successfully merged into the group. Now I was still an outsider.
Out of nowhere, a short twig of a girl with a mop of bouncing red curls and big green eyes plopped down in the seat next to Arthur with a pink lunch bag swinging from her hands. She poked me in the forehead curiously. “Who are you?” she asked bluntly. “The new kid, right? Anthony?”
“Tony,” I replied in bemusement. This little girl was funny, and I already liked her. “And your name?”
“Theadora Johnson,” she quipped, digging out a bag of chips and half of a sandwich from her bag. “Or Thea. Whatever. For some reason no one seems to like the long version, though I’m rather fond of it myself. Nice to meet you, Tony.”
I stared at her for a moment, noticing out of the corner of my eye that Leo was looking at her too. Then another girl came rushing to the table, throwing her things down and dashing away again with hardly a greeting at all. The only thing I’d seen of her was a tan blur with short blonde hair and an oversized green hoodie. “What the HELL?” I complained. “Who was that?!”
“Oh, that’s just Amber,” She shrugged nonchalantly and crunched another pretzel. “She’s always like that. She’s the socialite around here- she does EVERYTHING, I swear!”
“She’s in the play, on the cross country and track teams, and is a starring member in the Student Council and probably like four other school things,” Leo broke in. “So if you’re wondering where she is, well, enough said. You’ll meet her eventually.”
“Five!” Arthur corrected, blushing slightly. “She said she would join the Gay-Straight Alliance with us this year. She said that she just had to check it out, since it was so new.”
“Right right, but didn’t she drop the Arts and Crafts Club for NJHS?” Amy asked confusedly. “I KNOW she didn’t drop Book Club. Holly would bite her face off!”
“No, she worked it out with her schedule somehow,” Arthur replied conversationally. I felt the whole group shift at once, leaning towards the smallest boy with sparks of interest in their eyes, almost like a single organism. I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to graft myself onto such a close-knit group. Sigh...
“Maybe we should clue Tony in.” Amy said. She’d been watching me carefully, and must have seen the dismay in my eyes. “He’s just a beginner, after all. We’ll teach him!” They all laughed and relaxed, starting to chatter and eat again like I was already one of them. I was startled by the easy way I was accepted as part of the group, but I wasn’t about to argue- I shot Amy a grateful glance.
“Hey, Leo, would you trade that orange for this cookie?” I asked hopefully, trying to act natural and get comfortable in my seat. I sat back and listened to Amy, Will, Holly, Arthur, Leo and Thea relived every story and inside joke they remembered, piecing together the story of their friendship. I listened carefully, absorbing it all. For the first time in years I belonged somewhere. Here, with my new friends.
~
Wow that hurt my fingers the least out of ANYTHING ive ever typed! O_O' Well im like a week behind on typing this story, so gotta go, enjoy the chapter! This is Amylina Horton, signing out!
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