"Nice to meet you Dylan! Your hair is absolutely stunning by the way, I wish my hair looked like that. I could never pull of that red but you do it so well! Anyway, I just wanted to come over and introduce myself and ask if you'd like to join my friends and I for lunch!"
I looked at the girl I didn't know and back at Claire and Emma who were gesturing into the building. Only the really popular kids sat on the met steps to eat, the rest ate at the courtyard in the middle of school, with the stone picnic tables and glass ceiling.
"Sorry," I said, "I'm sitting with my friends over there. I hope you have a nice day. Have fun on the met steps, Claire said that's where all the really popular kids eat."
"Oh," Isadora looked a little disappointed, but she quickly brightened up. "You too."
I put my turquoise coach bag back on my elbow and went back to join Claire when my phone beeped. I checked the message, and so did everyone else on the steps.
"Uh, Claire," I hesitated, reading quickly through the post.
"Yeah, I know. I'm reading it too," she murmured.
"Great," Emma said sarcastically, "Just great."
All eyes were on us and Claire gave a devious grin and stared back at everyone openly.
"Can we go inside now?" I asked, my breath feeling short. Between that creepy guy making those stupid comments about my "womanly curves", Avery and her queen bitches calling me fat, and Gossip Girl's brand new nickname for me "big red", I was done. I was self conscious and uncomfortable in my own skin, and I wanted to not be stared at.
I turned around and rushed back in the building, my red hair jumping behind my shoulder after I ran back in.
"Dylan?" Claire exclaimed and she followed me, but I ran into the first bathroom I could find and slammed the heavy, wooden, polished stall door behind me and locked it. I heard the door open and heels clicking on the bathroom tile and I assumed that was Emma trailing in.
"Dylan, what's up? The post wasn't that bad," Claire said, and I huffed.
"Not that bad? She dubbed me Big Red. Do you know how many people have commented about my weight today? First this creeper talking about how I'm supposedly a real woman, then Avery and her merry band of bulimics and now this. It's only day 2. How would you feel if you had people constantly criticizing your size?" I demanded, holding back tears. I was already "the fat girl" at this school, I didn't need to be the raccoon either.
"Gossip Girl has posted much worse, really," Claire said softly, "Nobody is going to think anything of it."
"That's the point! She's vicious. I want to go back to California. Don't get me wrong, there was a crap ton of drama at Lincoln Wood and a lot of the kids did stupid stuff like get pregnant or in car accidents or get pregnant and get in car accidents but at least there wasn't some omniscient asshole behind a keyboard writing shit about people anonymously under the guise of a name that happens to use clever alliteration," I gasped for air, both out of the anxiety and the long sentence.
"Was Lincoln Wood your last school?" asked Claire.
"No. School before last. My last school required me to have my uniform custom made because they didn't do anything about a size 8. How accommodating of them." Now the tears were flowing and I had to pray my mascara wasn't going with them.
"Go get Declan Irving," Claire whispered to Emma.
"From the post?" Emma asked,
"Yeah, go," and Emma ran out of the bathroom.
"You can't freak out after every time someone mentions your weight. It's not healthy for you, and you're beautiful just the way you are."
I slid down to the floor of the stall and tried to push away the hateful thoughts. We sad in silence for a second and I sniffled, trying to stop crying when the door to the bathroom opened.
"What's going on?" it was Declan's voice. "How long has she been in there?"
"Some girls were making comments about her weight and then Gossip Girl..." Claire trailed off.
"Who are you? Were you making comments? If you hurt my sister I-" Declan's voice was getting angry but then Claire cut him off.
"No, Dylan and I are becoming friends. I'm Claire."
He sighed and I imagined him running his pale hand through his red hair. "Dyl? This always happens when we move to a new school, you know."
I sniffled.
"Kids are cruel. They're gonna tease. In two weeks everybody will stop caring about your body and move on with their meaningless lives. You know this."
"I know," I admitted, "That doesn't make it suck any less."
"You've been working so hard at the gym and even if you weren't, you are beautiful just the way you are," he paused, "You are my twin after all. How could you not be hot?" This made me smile a little bit, Declan rarely joked. He was kind-of a serious guy but he really cared about me. Not many brothers were so focused on their sisters.
I reluctantly unlocked the stall door and I had been right before, Declan's red hair was tousled from him running his fingers through it out of stress. "People probably think I'm gay now because of you," he teased, "Either that or they think I'm secretly female. Do you have any lipstick on you, by the way?" A smile tugged at the corner of my lips and I swiped my fingers under my eyes to wipe away any rogue mascara.
I flicked his ear. "Perv. Get out of the girls' room."
He held up his hands as if to surrender, "Going, going," and then he backed out of the restroom.
"So that's your brother?" Claire asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yup." I exhaled. "He's my best friend, too."
"Good brother then," she said, still gazing at the door.
"Yeah he's the best. Please try to avoid putting him in the Gossip Girl crossfire. I know it's tempting but, restrain yourself."
"Hey, I can't help it if other people are watching you two carrot heads, but I don't turn my friends in. Unless of course, you give me permission." I shot her a look. "Okay," she conceded, "No tips. Got it."
I nodded my head, rolled my eyes, and then strode out of the bathroom, half expecting everybody to be photographing me with their phone cameras. I could just picture the next Gossip Girl headline: "Whale Drowns in Her Own Tears in the Bathroom After Being Called Big Red."
Claire was right behind me and we quickly found Emma. "You okay?" she asked, "I didn't want to follow Declan in. It already seemed kinda crowded there." Emma brushed a lock of platinum blonde hair out of her face.
"Yeah," I replied, "I'm fine now. People here are brutal."
"You're telling me," Claire said and groaned when the bell rang and students started moving from the courtyard/met steps to class. "We didn't even get to eat."
"I'm sorry," I said, legitimately feeling badly. It was my fault, after all.
"You're good. Let's just get to class and pray this day ends soon." And that was that.
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