Spoiler
Now here is where I am worried it will get confusing. I plan on continuously flipping point of views! Now it's Ali's turn!
Ali
Carmen had managed to get my pop all over the table. I don’t know how she managed it, but she did. I watched as she registered what had happened and was instantly on her feet.
“I am so sorry!” Carmen said, looking around for what I assumed was napkins.
“Don’t get so worked up about it,” I said. “It’s just a can of pop. No big loss.” I walk away from the table and duck past the mob of students outside the cafeteria door. The bathrooms are just on the other side of the hall. I headed inside.
This was a place where a lot of vandalism and crap happened. I had heard that last year, one of the girls’ washrooms had been set on fire. Twice. Now there was a police car that patrolled the grounds all day, everyday.
I glanced around. There were a few girls clustered around the sinks, ooh-ing and awe-ing over the makeup they had in the pieces of luggage they called purses.
It’s easy to ignore them as I pumped the handle to the paper towel dispenser. The sound caused the girls to give me a quick glance. They give me a once-over and I can see the recognition in their eyes. They knew who I was. I couldn’t help but feel a bit amused. Just because there was a good chance I had shot down their boyfriends, they had to gawk at me and plan their attack strategy.
“Those shoes are so last year,” one of them commented, pointing a finger at my rundown pair of white sneakers. “Everyone knows it’s flats that are in.”
I barely managed to stifle a snort of a laugh. “Really? I never knew that. Must be because I didn’t subscribe to Snobbish Daddy’s Little Girl. It’s such a shame, really.”
I turned and listened to them realize that I had just insulted them. But by the time they made a retort, I was already halfway back to the table.
“Thank you,” Carmen said, taking the paper towel from my hands. She started to dab up the pop.
“You stress out way too easily. I mean, it’s just a bit of pop,” I said, sitting back down.
“I am allowed to feel bad,” Carmen said, grabbing all the paper towel. “I know how much you need caffeine to stay in nice mode.” She threw the paper towel in the garbage can near the table. She sat down and threw me a small, teasing smile.
I was about to say something back, when I was interrupted by a speakerphone being turned on. We all looked back across the cafeteria to where a girl is standing on top of a table.
“Attention fellow students!” The girl reads off the paper she is holding. “It’s that time of year again! It’s time to elect your student council president!” There were a lot of cheers from around the room that I hadn’t been expecting. “So come and either nominate yourself or someone else! The deadline is the end of the week and all the action begins next Monday!”
I turned around as soon as she had finished speaking. “That’s so lame,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “Why do they still do things like that?”
I looked to Carmen to see what she had to say, but she was staring over where the girl had been standing, a look on her face I hadn’t seen since the summer: determination.
“Don’t tell me you want to run,” I said.
Carmen snapped back to reality. “No, of course not!” She was trying to laugh it off but I knew my cousin well.
“It’s just…” There it was. I knew it! She did want to run for student council president. “It would be a nice experience. It would look good for when I do want to go to college….”
“But you’re way too shy to even consider it,” I said, not bothering to feel sorry about bursting her bubble. She looked over at me and I shrugged. “You’re not hard to figure out. You’re an introvert person. You don’t like to be outspoken or-”
“Like you,” Richard said.
“Yeah, exactly,” I said, nodding.
“Did you use the word ‘introvert’?” Carmen asked me. I could tell she was trying not to smile.
“I can use big, fancy words too you know!” I said.
Carmen and Richard just laughed.
