Not That Perfect

I walked down my street towards the school, smiling at how perfect the weather was today. The leaves on the hundreds of trees were all a beautiful shade of orange or red and I couldn’t help but watch as the light breeze shook a few of them off, sending them quietly to the ground. The warm sun was partially hidden by a few small clouds, making the air around me the comforatable temperature.

I stopped walking for a second, closing my eyes as I let the perfect day surround me.

“Rae?” I quickly reopened my eyes, looking over my shoulder at the car that had stopped besides me. Morgan rolled down the window, placing her elbow on the edge as she looked back at me, “What are you doing?” She asked.

I shrugged, “Walking.” I answered, smiling at the blonde girl playfully.

Morgan laughed as Dylan leaned forward from the drivers seat, “Why?” He asked, returning my smile, “Get in the car. We can drive you.” He commanded.

I shook my head, “No, no, it’s fi—“

“It’s not optional Rae,” Dylan interrupted me, encouraged by Morgan’s cheerful laughing. I heard as Dylan unlocked the car doors, looking over at me expectantly as he did.

I laughed as I slid into the back of his car, dropping my backpack onto the carpeted floor, “Good,” Morgan said, rolling her window back up as Dylan started to drive away, “Ok, lets go get Aaron and then we’ll go to school, right?” She asked Dylan, leaning towards the handsome boy as she spoke.

Dylan shrugged, “We have half an hour, why don’t we stop at The Zip before school?” He asked, looking over his shoulder as he switched lanes.

Morgan nodded, turning around to look for my approval before she said anything, “What’s The Zip?” I asked, leaning forward to get more into the conversation.

They both looked at me as if I had just spoken another language. Their faces echoed their shocked feelings and Dylan’s mouth hung slightly ajar, “You don’t know what The Zip is?” He asked, looking back at the road as he made a quick right turn, “Screw Aaron,” Dylan mumbled, his voice almost inaudible, “This is more important.” He whispered, driving quickly down the street until a gas station sign came into view. ‘The Zip’ it read, ‘Gas and Grub, in a Zip!’

“This is what was so important?” I asked sarcastically, smacking the back of Dylan’s head as I sat back in my seat.

Morgan nodded, opening her door as she jumped out of the car. “Come on Rae,” She whined, opening my own door as she bounced impatiently on the balls of her feet. I sighed, following the blonde girl into the store as Dylan filled up his car.

I was shocked to see that The Zip was actually pretty impressive. The food mart was a lot larger then any other ones that I’ve seen before, filled with isles and isles of candy, drinks, liquor, chips, ice cream, caffeine, and so on. Morgan quickly headed to the drink section as I quietly roamed around the store. Unfortunately, I still wasn’t hungry and the items placed in front of me didn’t hold my interest for very long.

“Find anything that you like?” Dylan asked as he walked into the store, watching as I ran my fingers over the candy section. Quietly, I shook my head, sliding my hands into my jean pockets. Dylan sighed, grabbing a bag of Skittles and a Three Musketeers bar as he said, “Rae, the number one rule of The Zip is that whenever you come in here, you have to buy something.”

“Even if you don’t want anything!” Morgan called as she grabbed a Vitamin Water from one of the many refrigerators.

Dylan nodded, “Even if you don’t want anything Rae, you have to get something.” He smiled at me as he looked down at the two candy items that he held, debating which one he wanted more.

I looked back down at the candy, running my fingers through my long hair as I thought about what I might want for later. Eventually I just grabbed a bag of gummy worms, heading towards the counter as Dylan picked up a roll of Mentos, now debating if he wanted that too.

The cashier was a twenty-something year old boy with dirty blond hair and some acne littering his forehead. He smiled at me as I dropped my candy onto the counter, reaching into my backpack in search for my wallet, “Don’t worry about it,” He said as I unzipped the front pocket, “It’s your first time here. The gummy worms are on the house.”

“Thanks.” I answered, dropping the bag into my backpack as Dylan walked up to the counter, the three items still in hand.
_______________________________________________________________

We arrived at the school five minutes early with Aaron rather annoyed that we put off picking him up to go down to The Zip.

“Come on,” Dylan whined, “You know that you would have done the same thing to me.” He said, pulling at Aaron’s long hair as he walked away.

I smiled, looking down at my schedule as I wondered where I had to go first. ‘Period One: Algebra 2’ The paper read, ‘Room 128’ I looked over at Morgan’s schedule, smiling when I saw that she had the same thing. After a few minutes, we said our goodbyes and headed towards our first period.

I was surprised to see how many people stopped Morgan to say hello or to ask about her summer. We were stopped by at least two thirds of the student population at our small high school. Morgan acted like it was completely normal, like this happened often. And, truth be told, I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

What did surprise me though was how many people introduced themselves to me when they saw that I was walking with Morgan. At some point, I lost track of the several names that were thrown at me, eventually just smiling and nodding whenever someone came up to say their hellos.

When we finally got to our classroom, I was happy to leave Morgan to go and sit down in an empty corner, watching as Morgan was, once again, flooded with hellos.

Connor walked into the classroom a few minutes later, smiling over at me when he saw me sitting alone. Instead of walking towards my desk though, Connor went to the far back of the room, sitting in a desk there. I stared at him for a moment, confused by his actions, when I noticed Morgan walk over to me.

“Connor just smiled at you.” She whispered, looking over at Connor as he pulled out his books. I nodded as I bent down to open my backpack, pulling out a gummy worm as she continued to talk, “God, he probably thinks that he has, like, a chance at making a friend since you’re the new girl and all. I mean—“

“Connor’s nice.” I interrupted her, taking a bite of the piece of candy as Morgan looked down at me in shock, “He drove me home the other day,” I explained, “And he’s really nice.”

“You hung out with Connor?” Morgan asked, her tone sounding as shocked as she looked. She was about to say something else, when the teacher came in saying that everyone needed to take their seat.