Chapter Text
I'm Jordi. Jordi Florés. I don't know what more to say than that. . .
I'm just an average kid. 17. Junior in school. I get good grades. I have my mom and dad. A dog. Typical stuff. I guess something interesting about me is... I'm a quiet kid.
. . .
Or at least, everybody makes it out to be interesting. Every once in a while, people will push me to talk or act like the fucking sun just exploded when I do. It's annoying, really. Truth is, I'd rather keep to myself. I like to observe people. It's interesting how trashy people can get. Like how some girl cheated on her boyfriend. Or how a teacher got fired for being a creep. Seriously, it's nothing surprising. People suck and do bad things. I hear even worse on the news each day. But still, I find some fun in observing. It's almost amusing. It's like being on a watch tower and watching every move on the battlefield below. Every move becomes almost predictable.
... But enough of that. Today, we're supposed to have a new kid. Her name is De'Laura White. That's a new one. I find it interesting when parents want to give their kids unique names just for them to end up like everyone else.
This is the fated day for most in the class. A dark-skinned, average-height girl walks in. Her blonde, straight hair moved ever so slightly as she walked. She looks around, as if wanting to imprint every detail of the classroom and every person into her mind. There's no special introduction like you'd expect in some story.
Just another day going by, just with a new person in it.
The girl, De'Laura, talked to the teacher for a while. After, she walked through the desks. Students stared, and some approached. They all asked stuff about her. All kinds of different questions.
"Your name is De'Laura, right?
"What school did you come from?"
"Where are you from?"
"How old are you?
"Can I get your number?"
She answered each question. Well, not the last one. I guess she noticed me staring because she turned her gaze to me. I darted my eyes elsewhere. Fuck. That's embarrassing.
...
Why is she walking over here..? Does she have a problem with me staring...?
Of course, she would... but I stopped staring?
My heart is beating so loud. It feels so hot out of a sudden.
"I'm sorry, is anybody sitting here?"
Take a look, genius.
"No. Nobody's sitting there."
She sat down, but she wasn't facing forward, though. She turned to the side in her chair to face me.
"What's your name?"
Oh, great. Maybe she just came over here out of some type of pity. The 'Let me go talk to the quiet kid! I bet she has no friends! She must be so lonely!' mentality.
"Jordi. Jordi Florés.¨
I couldn't help but scan De'Laura down. Like some identity-verification machine in a sci-fi. De'Laura wasn't like the typical person. Not close. Not by appearance, at least. Her hair was blonde with streaks of pink... Was that even allowed here? Her uniform had been modified just enough to still fit the rules but also enough to stand out. Her bag was scattered with cute stickers and keychains.
She might not look like everyone else, but surely, I bet she's just the same as everyone else in this hellhole we call Earth.
She talked to me. Asked me questions to try to get to know me. I asked questions back. That's how a conversation goes.
She looked much less tense talking to me as opposed to when she was answering a crowd of people's questions. She was an interesting case afterall. She said she lives with her aunt. Her parents died in a bad car crash. She lived with her older sister for a while, but when her sister got arrested, she moved in with her aunt, and that's how she found herself here.
...
Isn't that a bit much to be telling to a stra-
"I'm sorry. I think I said too much..."
Yeah. You did.
De'Laura looked down at her lap and absentmindedly fidgeted with the keychains on her bag, which was also in her lap. I'm assuming she has a problem of oversharing. I guess it isn't a problem. Not for me, at least. I don't have anything to do with that information, nor do I have any intention of doing anything with it. Plus, she has a pretty voice.
"... I don't mind. It's fine."
She paused her fidgeting. She looked about as nervous as a system. She turned her head to look me in the eyes again.
"Hey. Since I'm new here and all..." She began fidgeting again, this time with her clothes. Tugging and adjusting her clothes constantly as if they had suddenly become uncomfortable to wear. "I want to make new friends. Would you like to be my first friend here..?"
Huh. Funny. I thought she approached me because she had a problem with me staring, but she really just found me interesting enough to want to be friends with me. I think I let out a small chuckle. It made her smile drop. She looked back to her lap and she clenched her fists there too. She gripped her skirt tightly.
"I-I'm sorry. I... knew you didn't want to be friends with me, I-"
"-Hey. Sorry about that. Of course, I'll be your friend." I tried to smile slightly to put her more at ease. Looked like I didn't even need to do that, though. The words alone made her face light up like a night sky on Fourth of July. Or New Year's.
She was about to explode into joy, but was cut off by the teacher starting instruction. She whispered, "Thank you." Probably because she didn't want to interrupt the teacher. She sat forward in her chair and began to pay attention to the teacher
She was interesting, to say the least.