Psyche

In English class, Jean Paul Karam is the first person to realize that something is wrong, and it is the reason why Jamie bothers to lift up his head from where it lays sleepily on his desk.

“We have a new student.” It’s a big deal because typically South High has more students leaving than it has coming in.

The student – a girl – is talking to Miss Jorgia, and Jamie can just tell she’s going to be this loud-mouth, bright energy brat. Jamie, who has a soft voice and fades in and out of the background, doesn’t like those types of people. They think the crazier they act the more the shy kid will come out of his shell, and who wants to be around all that?

She looks like she just came from a 90s, Grunge-themed party. Awkward long limbs poke out of a green baby doll dress with matching leather patent shoes. Her hair is too bright of a blond to be real, and it makes Jamie feel slightly jealous that he’s stuck with a dull, black color.

When she’s done talking with the teacher she turns to the class and searches for an empty desk. There’s only two: the one in the back by Jamie and the other in the middle right next to Jean. Jamie’s about to put his head down again, knowing she’ll sit with Jean. The boy is smiling at her, a smile that doesn’t show how crooked his mouth is.

The girl hops right over to Jamie and claims the empty desk. Jamie’s confused and even Jean is looking at them in a questioning matter. People might say it’s Jamie’s imagination, but he’s pretty sure the entire class is questioning her decision too.

Jean and Jamie look at each other at the same time. As Jamie always does, he quickly looks away, even though he wants to say yeah, I don’t know either.

“Hi, I’m Alexandria,” the girl quirks and then pauses, waiting for Jamie to realize he’s suppose to respond back.

His voice always sounds like he hasn’t spoken in years, and so he has to say his name three times for her to hear.

She mouths his name, memorizing it. “Nice. Hey, let’s be friends. I just moved here and I’m kind of lonely. You look lonely yourself, so we should just be lonely together, right? Right?”

Jamie can’t come up with a quick, appropriate response for what the hell is this?

She says, “That’s my pickup line. No, seriously, you look like the only nice person in this entire school. Like, everyone else has been grr! And typically people named Jamie are nice, so you must be, huh?”

His terrible reply is, “Sure, sure. Okay.” It’s mostly out of confusion and being stunned. This is probably the first time anyone has asked to be his friend, and he hasn’t freaked them out with his awkwardness in under 5 seconds.

And that’s the entire meeting of Alexandria and Jamie. Short and boring.