The New Girl

3

New Friends (With a twist)

“Love you,” her father said absentmindedly as they pulled up to the great, imposing, gray stone structure. His mind was clearly already occupied again with his job, where it seemed the workload piled on him was never ending. “Do you need any help with your stuff?”

“No, I’ve got it. Thanks anyway. Love you,” she said as she kissed him on the cheek and popped the trunk. 

When Alexa had finally unpacked everything and her stomach was beginning to growl, she opened the door to her dorm and went out to the lounge, where she found a large group of girls; probably all the other girls on her floor and some of the girls from some of the other floors. As she saw this big group of girls, all who were clearly good friends, she was about to go back into her dorm, feeling she was intruding, when a relatively short blonde girl waved her over.

“Hey newbie!” the girl called. “Come sit with us. We won’t bite!” And then an athletic-looking red-haired girl said, “Hard!” All of the girls laughed. Alexa sat, feeling rather uncomfortable, in a comfy chair next to the pretty blonde girl that had noticed her. The blonde girl said, “Hey! I’m Lissy! What’s your name?”

“Um, Alexa.” she said, “Lexi, I mean,” she corrected herself. Lissy was such a cool nick-name, so she went with the coolest Alexa-related one she could think of.

All of the girls in the lounge introduced themselves. There was dark-skinned, bookworm Nia Patel, with her cool lime-green glasses; short, curvy, punky Lizzie Comines and her thick brown ponytail; bleach-blonde California surfer-looking girl Kendall Quinn; Maxi Dalzell, who was bleach-blonde, like Kendall, but much paler, who was wearing a pair of really cool skinny jeans; and black-haired, massive-jewelry-wearer Kelsey Gonzalez.

The girls from the other eighth grade floor were: large and cheerful Anna Lipmann with slightly messy curly black hair; Juliana O’Neil, with her curly copper hair and pink braces; a pretty girl with curly, chocolate-brown hair and eyes, named Rachael Hearthstone; red-haired, athletic-looking Megs Elliot; short Carter Young with even shorter, dirty-blond hair, who was wearing a Penn State hoodie; short, loud-mouthed, funny African-American Kristal Tenby; and Leah Perris, whose big brown eyes made her look like a Japanese anime character, and whose long brown hair was so light, that it looked almost silvery.

When the introductions were over, Lissy pointed out that it was just about time to go down to the cafeteria for dinner. As everyone was filing down the spiral staircase, Lissy said to Alexa that everyone who shared a floor also shared a cafeteria table. The food was set up buffet-style along one wall, and anyone could just pick up a plate or a bowl and get whatever they wanted. So Alexa found herself at a round, seven-person table, sitting in between Lissy and Kendall. Everyone was chatting as they ate. Lissy told Alexa that their group of friends called themselves the Girlz. Alexa was about halfway through her first plate when Lissy said loudly, “Oh snap!”

A group of boys had just walked in, and sat themselves down at the table right next to the one Alexa and her new friends were sitting at. One of them whistled at the Girlz. Another one of the boys, a short boy with long blonde hair and big brown eyes, turned his chair around to face Lissy, and said, “Hey, Liss. Have a nice summer?”

“What do you want, Bradley?”

The boy, Bradley, held up his hands, as if in surrender, and said, “I just wanted to say hey. What’s wrong with that?” then he caught sight of Alexa. “Who’s your new friend?”

“Lexi,” Alexa answered.

“Nice to meet ya. I’m Bradley, and these are the Boyz.” He pointed to each of his friends. There was a cute brunette whose hair kept falling into his dark, dark eyes, “Alex,” an incredibly tall African-American boy, “That’s CeeJay.”

“CJ?” Alexa asked.

“No,” the boy answered, “C-E-E-J-A-Y. CeeJay.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m CeeJay. Why else?” Alexa glanced over at Lissy, and both laughed.

There were two other brunettes, one who was tall and had really dark brown hair in a Justin Bieber cut, but a lot cuter, named Dominic; another boy who was just as tall, but had longer, lighter hair, who had a wide, easy smile, named Ryan. There was also rather cute Jason, whose nick-name was ‘Captain of Team Blonde’ because of his long, bleach-blonde hair.

When Bradley finished the introductions, he glanced around his table, and his eyes rested on a seventh chair, which was empty. “Wait, where’d he go?” Bradley asked.

“He said something about having to go to the bathroom,” Jason answered. “You’d think he’d be out by now.”

“Oh, here he comes,” Alex said, looking at the door.

 By now, all of the Girlz had turned back to their table and continued chatting and eating. When the seventh boy got to the Boyz’ table, Alexa wasn’t even paying attention until she saw the newcomer out of the corner of her eye. He was tall, blonde… she turned around so she could see him better, and found herself staring into those brown eyes she knew so well…

“Lexi,” Bradley said, “meet my friend Charlie.” 

That night in the North Tower’s third floor lounge, all of the Girlz were just hanging out, chatting, and in Nia’s case, reading a thick novel. Alexa was talking with Lissy about schedules (they had been passed out at dinner), when Alexa asked, “You know Charlie?”

“Mmm-hmm,” Lissy murmured.

“Well, we had been, like, best friends until he transferred to a new school in the middle of fifth grade.”

Lissy looked at her. “Charlie transferred here in the middle of fifth grade!”  

Alexa woke with her obnoxious alarm clock at six-thirty. She flicked the light switch, and light flooded the apartment-like room. She pulled off her pajamas and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. When she was done her shower, Alexa picked out her favorite outfit that was Durmon uniform, a three-quarter-length-sleeved plain black shirt with a purple vest over top, black leggings, and a purple-and-green plaid skirt. She admired herself in the mirror, and then sat down at the vanity to blow-dry her hair. She gathered together a small backpack of everything she would need for all her classes, including a green tank top and purple shorts for gym class.

Alexa went outside to meet her friends. Lissy was lounging on one of the couches; Nia was sitting on the floor, reading a novel. Chelsey, Maxi, Kendall, and Lizzie were all discussing their crushes. As Alexa’s wristwatch beeped the hour of seven, all seven Girlz filed down the spiral staircase to breakfast.

Alexa’s first class of the day was one of her language arts classes, with a woman named Mrs. Timmons. All of the Girlz were in it, because the whole eighth grade was made up of twenty-eight kids, so they had all the same classes.  Lissy, Nia, Kendall, Lizzie, Kelsey, and Maxi were all in it with her, as well as Bradley, Alex, Dominic, Ryan, Jason, CeeJay and Charlie of The Boyz, Rachael, Carter, Juliana, Anna, Kristal, Megs, and Leah, and some other guys she didn’t know.  Alexa tried to catch Charlie’s eye, to see if he still liked her as a friend, but he ignored her.

Alexa’s next class was her science class, and right away, her seat was assigned right next to Lissy. Behind them sat CeeJay, directly behind Lissy, and directly behind Alexa sat Bradley- super short, super cute Bradley.