Outcast

Watching the other teens file familiarly into Scott’s house from a distance, Amanda had mixed feelings.
Partly, she was happy – she was being welcomed into this group of friends, and they were people she liked, people who accepted her.
That had been a virtually non-existent occurrence for the last few years, so things seemed to be looking up.

But there was another side.
For all her bravado, and the true fierceness that came with being different, Amanda was worried – scared that something would happen to shatter her brand-new friendships; and never forgetting that nagging dread telling her that she would only have to go back ‘home’ to her parents when the day was over.

“You alright?” A voice from behind her made Amanda jump, as Scott appeared from the back of Jamie’s van, his bass slung over his back.

“Oh, yeah, I’m okay.” Amanda shrugged, regaining her composure and attempting to appear nonchalant.

Scott raised an eyebrow just slightly and stopped in front of her, looking her straight in the eye.

“Sure?” he offered again, without a hint of condescension.

Amanda sighed and turned away, debating with herself in her head, then finally gave in.

“…I’m just worried about being in the way,” she sighed, thinking again, then decided to be completely honest, “I haven’t had many friends, to be honest, so I’m nervous about screwing something up.”

Scott didn’t move – didn’t even laugh, as you might expect at such a brutally ridiculous confession.
He just nodded slightly, and when he spoke again, it was with serious tones.

“You know something?” he asked rhetorically, “we’re not that different. Even though we’ve all been friends for a while, that’s all we’ve had. And, besides,” he added, smiling now, “We all think you’re cool, even Ebony – and she’s the most wary of us all. I think you’ll be fine.”

Amanda smiled despite her worries, mollified enough that she didn’t even think about how stupid her fears might have sounded.

“I guess we’ll find out,” she said quietly, shrugging and moving towards the stairs with Scott behind her.

“Just don’t worry so much and you’ll have fun,” Scott said conclusively. “Oh, and another important thing,” he said suddenly as they descended the short flight of stairs to the basement.

“Yeah?” Amanda paused and half-turned on the steps.

“What kind of pizza do you want?” Scott grinned as Amanda looked relieved, knowing full well that, given the previous conversation, she hadn’t expected the innocent question.

“Uh, anything vegetarian,” Amanda said quickly as they reached the door to the basement.

“Okay, then you get whatever Ebony’s having,” Scott smirked as he stood his guitar against the wall upon entering the basement.

Inside, Jasper and Jamie were already playing a car-racing videogame, and Ebony was perched on a recliner beside the couch they were on, an old acoustic guitar on her knee.

Apart from the chairs around television and games setup, there wasn’t a whole lot in Scott’s basement except some odd music gear and speakers, and a bookshelf full of CDs and a few books.

Amanda took all this in as she walked behind Scott to the couches where everyone had congregated.

They hardly glanced up as she and Scott found seats around the screen, Scott dropping down between Jamie and Jasper, and Amanda finding another recliner near where Ebony was playing tiny snatches of songs on the guitar.

“You having fun?” The dark-haired girl asked, still picking at notes without looking at her hands. “Don’t want to run away from us weird people yet?”

“Haha, no,” Amanda managed a still shy but genuine grin, and relaxed a little in the chair before going on. “In case you hadn’t noticed I’m kind of used to being the weird kid.”

Ebony chuckled and tilted her head, looking more closely at the blue-haired girl.

“So, what’s your story anyway?” she asked, finally setting her guitar down, within arm’s reach of the chair. “If you want to talk about it, that is.”

Amanda shrugged and looked down, wondering how to explain her completely normal life that had made her so different.

“Its not much of a story,” she began, “I grew up in Louisiana, with the most boring, normal parents ever, and I just really didn’t fit in. There was no one else like you guys in Baton Rouge – they’re all too stiff to even think anything different – so I was alone, and sick of how straight everything was.”

Amanda paused for a second, remembering the unmentioned depression and hopeless frustration that had darkened those days, and noticed that Scott was listening as well now, though Jamie and Jasper were still playing their game.

“And then my parents decided that my dad could get a better job here, so I got dragged along, and I figured it’d be pretty much the same here.” She finished with a sigh, then smiled as she thought how wrong she had been.

“And then you met us, and you have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into,” Ebony finished with a slightly manic grin, tilting her head.

“Yeah, probably,” Amanda returned the grin, feeling a sense of acceptance as she looked around and noticed that Scott had a sympathetic, but not pitying, look on his face.

“Well,” Ebony said after a friendly silence, “anytime your boring life gets too much, you can come hang out with us – we only bite sometimes,”

“Ebony more often than the rest of us,” Jamie randomly interjected, not looking up from the videogame as he easily beheaded Jasper’s character.

Jasper just shook his head and got up, handing the game controller to Scott, who swapped seats with the other boy and promptly shot Jamie’s character with a cry of success.

“And of course, you’ve got free tickets to our gigs,” Jasper added as he sat down, his lip rings glinting under the dim lights as he smiled at her.

“…um, if you usually play in parking lots, aren’t all your gigs free?” Amanda asked, raising an eyebrow but grinning.

“Well, we do get a lot of gatecrashers,” he shrugged noncommittally, smirking.

“Right.”

Amanda was still trying to come up with a retort when the videogame controller that had been being passed around was pressed into her hands.

“Your turn,” Scott grinned from his spot on the floor, while Jamie moved away to make a place for her.

“I don’t think-” she protested, having no idea how to play the game, and disliking being put on the spot.

“Basically,” Ebony said from behind her, pointing at a large red button on the controller, “use that to shoot the fuck out of his character before he shoots you, got it?”

“Fine,” Amanda sighed and smiled despite herself at the other girl’s method of winning, and sat down in front of the old television. “But I swear,” she went on, narrowing her eyes and rising to the challenge now she had been pushed into it, “once I get the hang of this, you are so dead.”