Stuck Between Two Walls

"Good morning, class. There's some good news today."

The only good news Mr. Varner can tell us is that classes are over and we can go home forever. Or maybe the school has wide wi-fi coverage and you can use your phone in class at any time you want.

But Mr. Varner said none of those, instead he said, "We have a new student. Please welcome, Mr. Ethan Harrison."

The mystery guy went inside and his idea of fashion struck me. Maybe even the whole class since most of them gasped, even the guys.

He's wearing all black. There are some piercing in his lips. His ears seemed to have holes in them and he's wearing a variety of black guy-kind whatever earrings. His nails were polished black. He seemed to be in an electric shock because his hair stood up in every direction possible. Black eyeliner danced around his blue eyes.

Mr. Varner looked at him in shock. "Young man, I don't think the dress code accepts-"

He just shrugged. "Where can I seat?"

His voice is melodic. Like he's speaking music himself. Mr. Varner pointed to a seat next to me. Yes. Put the guy in the back of the class. Way to go, Varner.

He went toward the seat and most of the eyes focused on him. He ignored the weird looks he's receiving and went to sit on the abandoned space beside me.

Mr. Varner kept talking about Trig again and the students seemed to forget the existence of the guy on my side.

Unseen, I glanced at him. He grabbed a pen and notebook from his bag and is writing something on it. Interested, I watched him. He looked different from anybody around here. I don't think there are students who appeared like him. His clothes are weird. He's definitely breaking the dress code with what's he's wearing.

"Are you done staring?"

I just kept looking at him. Then it seemed to dawn on me that he's talking to me. My eyes widened at his playful smirk. Blushing fiercely, I looked away.

I heard him chuckled. "Doesn't speak, eh?"

No response from me. Then I saw from my peripheral vision that he tapped the girl in front of him. The girl looked back, surprised and being the big flirt she is, she smiled at him sugary sweet. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

The girl giggled and nodded.

"What's her name?" he seemed to be pointing his pencil at me.

The girl's expression seemed to dropped ten pounds. "What?"

"Name."

"Oh, I'm Jane. But everybody calls me Janey. Do you want to eat lunch with me today?"

Ethan looked at her weirdly and he shook his head. "Forget it." Then he slumped back to his chair.

Jane smiled at him. "Okay but if you changed your mind, I'll be here."

Ethan ignored her, keeping his focus on his notebook.

He glanced at me a few times and then brought his eyes back to his notebook. This became a cycle as he kept on doing it. Glance at me. Back to his notebook.

And I've managed to ignore all that. Yes, I felt uncomfortable that he kept on giving me the attention that I didn't want since I'm used to being ignore. But I just ignored him. No glances. Keep your eyes in front. If you wanted to understand Trig, focus on the alien words of Mr. Varner.

That seemed to work. I was now unaware of the noises around me. I felt alone in my seat. Alone in this room beside Mr. Varner who looked a little like a hologram, talking. Finally, I am at ease.

All alone. The only moment which shows me how much of a loner I am. Lunch time at its finest moment.

"Hey, weirdo. What do you think you're doing?"

I glanced behind me and instantly regretted it because Jane and her friends were crowded in that spot. Their arms were crossed and they were shooting dagger eyes at me. With their stylish clothes and beautiful features, they looked like a Barbie doll. With my lame shirt and jeans, and boring hair that was hanging freely (more like widely) behind my back, compared to them, I looked like a rag doll.

"Um, getting my lunch?" I answered, shrugging.

"Oh, she speaks!" Jane exclaimed, catching the attention of practically everyone at the cafeteria.

No reaction from me. Instead, I ignored them and walked pass them and went on my way to my usual seat.

"Hey. We're not done talking to you." Jane yelled, grabbing my elbow.

I looked at her with a tired look. "I'm hungry."

"You don't look hungry at all. Aren't you a little fat to be hungry all the time?" a girl on Jane's side said to me, giggling.

Jane's group began to giggle and the crowd joined in. Okay, the invisible Leslie became the laughing stock. How bad can this be?

"Well, I have money to buy food. You got money. Instead of buying make-up or whatever, you should buy food with it. Your faces looked like a Barbie version of a clown and to top it off, you're skinny as a skeleton. It looks unhealthy. Looking at you make me wanna puke since your whole figure and face combined screams The Walking Deathly Skeleton Dolls from Hell – not a good thing, by the way- and that's really unappetizing. So if you don't mind, I'm leaving now."

With a final glance at them, I walked toward my table. I can feel everybody's eyes on me but not even a flinch from me.

I sat on my table, also known as the table no one uses because a weirdo is sitting at it. Yes. That's it.

I began to eat. Halfway to the macaroni salad I ordered, I sensed someone approaching. Then I become aware of a tray being placed in front of me.

"That was some show you did there." He said in that melodic voice of his, an obvious smirk plastered on his face.

I just stared at him, with my mouth hanging open. I mean, c'mon. The new guy is sitting across from me. Like, he's not allergic to me at all? What the heck is he doing? He's the one making some show. Everyone was throwing confused glances at us.

Great. They might be thinking: Two weirdoes sitting in the same table. The earth would swallow that part of the cafeteria.

"You seriously don't talk? Or is it just me that you don't talk to?" he asked me, taking a big bite of his salad. I brought my attention to his plate. It contains a lot of vegetarian stuff like tofu and apple slices. No meat.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, levelling my eyes to his again.

His blue eyes seemed to glow a lot brighter. "I heard your voice from a distance a while ago when those pinky beasts were attacking you and I thought it was nice. Now, hearing it from you within this distance, it's actually pretty sweet." He said, nodding appreciatively.

Sweet? My voice is probably the lowest of all lows. Literally. Like it's hoarse and dull. Sweet is definitely not any of the adjective to describe it. Sweet voices go along with pink stuff and high bells. My voice pretty much explains darkness.

"You need to get your ears checked." I told him, shaking my head. "And you didn't even answer my question."

He looked at me innocently which is pretty much impossible to decipher since he's wearing that all black outfit – earrings and piercings and all- but I assumed it is innocent since he looked a little surprised. "What question?"

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, much slower this time. Emphasizing the here.

"Eating, obviously." He answered, lifting his fork filled with green leafy vegetables.

"Why?"

"Why not?" he shrugged.

"What do you mean wh- You know what? Forget it. I'm not speaking to you."I glared at him and then finally at my untouched food.

He chuckled. "Somebody's grouchy."

No response from me.

"Hey."

Still no response.

"C'mon."

I didn't reply.

"I don't even know your name. At least tell me that."

Nope. Not responding. Stubborn Leslie is stubborn.

"Hey, dude." He seemed to have caught the attention of a walking random student since I heard a loud tap at the arm.

I glanced at the guy he just disturbed. The guy's right hand is holding an apple and a notebook is on his left. A guitar was strapped to his shoulder. He looked surprised that the new guy was talking to him, "Um, yeah?"

Ethan looked at me and I automatically looked away. "What's her name?"

I saw from my peripheral vision that the guitar dude looked at me. "Her?"

"Yeah."

"Um, I have no idea."

I fought the urge to smile. Keeping a straight face, I can feel my inside roaring with laughter. Of course he won't know my name. Heck, I'm not even sure if he knows I exist. I'm the invisible Leslie. Nobody around here knows me.

"Can you do me a favor?" Ethan's voice sounds almost pleading.

"Um, depends."

"Sorry. It sounds really rude of me to be asking you to do me a favor when you probably don't even know my name. I'm Ethan Harrison. New guy. Don't let my choices of clothes distract you from the visions of reality. So yeah. Anyway, can you introduce yourself to her?"

What the heck is this guy thinking? Oh wait. Why the hell is this guy not thinking?

"Um, okay." The guitar dude replied and I can sense the suspicion on his voice.

Seriously, like what? Why?

Guitar dude walked toward me. His whole expression was a perfect mask of bewilderment. Then his eyes seemed to spark and he smiled. Once he stopped, he tried a much bigger smile and he looked really weird doing that. "I'm James Lawson. Don't think that I'm only doing this for the guy in front of you. Actually, I've talked to pretty much all the students here, trying to convince them about the Music Club we're having. You know, we lack members. And I'm wondering if you wanna join."

Ethan cleared his throat. "Name."

James rolled his eyes at him. Then he looked at me with a much friendlier smile. "So, are you interested?"

"Um, I can't sing."

"Nonsense. Everyone can."

"No, I mean I really can't sing like I can't. My singing is terrible." I told him the truth. Honestly, I'm the kind of girl that only sings in the shower and I'm not planning to expand that.

"We can help develop your voice." He said, giving me the puppy look.

"Um, I'll- I'll think about it." I finally replied. I can't resist his cute expression.

His smile widened. Honestly, this guy should be the metamorphosis of smiles. From the littlest to the widest, he can actually do that. He placed the apple on the table and took a pen from his shirt pocket and proceeded to write in the notebook. "Awesome. Name please."

I looked at Ethan from across the table and his visible smirk is more pronounced than ever.

Fine. What am I going to lose? It's just my name. Sighing, I looked – glared, really- back at James and told him half-heartedly, "Leslie Diaz."