The Academy of the Elite

I wake up feeling good this morning. Yesterday, after our tradition of playing flag football every Friday, our group decided to have a late night at the amusement park, so fun. These first three months of school have been great actually. I loved getting to know the other students; plus it is a different experience from my last school. I need to hurry up get myself to breakfast because today is a work day. I shower before brushing my teeth and combing my hair into a high ponytail. I get dressed into the outfit I had laid out for myself last night: light blue skinny jeans with a simple black tank top. Then I pull over an oversized forest green sweat shirt with an orange and blue tribal pattern. I wanted to stay cozy; it is December, which means chilly weather. I lace up a pair of black high tops, and grab a beanie. I slip my phone into my pocket and head out to Menus.

When I get to Menus, I join the group at the table, a routine for me now. I know I wasn't here with this table the first month of school, but ever since Lizzy and I have sort of gotten past our fight, I've been joining them. It’s the best way to spend some time with Lizzy, she is so busy these days. Speaking of Lizzy, she is already with Vic of course. I'm always the last one to get to breakfast, if not I would get a chance to sit with her. I decide to greet Lizzy by licking her forehead which causes her to push me off while calling me a jerk. Once she wipes it off with a clean napkin she laughs, and hits my arm, calling me a jerk once more. I take a seat across from her which is in between Jaime and Mike.

"Great, I get to sit next to you two clowns this morning," I say ruffling their hair simultaneously while sitting down.

"What better way start to the day, am I right Jaime?" Mike jokes while he high fives Jaime behind my back.

"You seem to be in a good mood," comments Vic while stroking Lizzy's hair.

"That's because I am, last night just left me in a good mood." I reply, looking through today's specials.

"Yeah me too, I'm pretty sure that girl I talked to last night is into me," Jaime says, smiling from ear to ear.

Mike scoffs. "Dude, you talked to her for like five seconds, and it was to apologize for stepping on her foot," he says, killing his vibe.

Jaime sucks his teeth. "Shut up man! When I looked into her hazel eyes-"

"They were just brown," Tony butted in from the other end of the table.

"Whatever, it’s the same thing! There was something there, I'm telling you," Jaime says while peering at all of us.

Lizzy and I both laugh at him and dismiss his delusions. We call a waiter over and order a big breakfast platter so that we could share. After we finish eating, we disperse into smaller scattered groups to head to our jobs at the mall. I walk with Naomi since our job are the closest together. We get to the mall and the elevator to the second floor. I walk Naomi to PAC sun and I continue on to Jamba Juice. I get there, Rick is leaning over the counter reading a comic book. Batman, my favorite. I tap on the door so that he would let me in. He comes over and unlocks the door, then flips the 'closed' sign so that it now says 'open'. He pulls up our high stools to the counter while I go to the back room to clock in. I slip off my sweatshirt and hang it up in my small locker, replacing it with my Jamba Juice uniform shirt and visor. It was cheesy, but cute at the same time. I take my seat at register three and wait for the day to commence. The morning went on forever, finally I look at the clock, noon.

"Finally lunch break, I'm starving," Rick says, taking his visor off.

"Me too, where are you going for lunch today?" I ask, also taking my visor off.

"I'm going to TGI Friday's, I would invite you...but I'm meeting my girlfriend there," he says with a sigh.

"Oh, so you guys are good this week?" I giggle and he rolls his eyes.

"I guess so, she hasn't yelled at me about not noticing her new shoes or the color of her nail polish just yet. I'll see you in a bit," he says then leaves.

"Where should I eat today?" I ask myself.

I guess I could go to the cafe; I haven't been there in a while. Before I leave the shop, I put up the "out for lunch" sign. Now, who should I invite to lunch with me? I know Naomi is going to have lunch with Reggie today since they are on that friend stage. I do not want to have lunch with Max, he's a drama case. Maybe I could go to lunch with...man I need more friends. I mean I hang out with the gang but they are more of Lizzy’s friends. She is always so open and glowing happily with them. Honestly, I feel like I don't belong. I mean I have class with those dorks but I don’t know, they just seem more like hers'. I sigh and wash my hands before I go out to eat. I come out, Rick is leaning on the wall next to the exit.

"Come on," he says, and tilts his head to signal me to follow him. I catch up to him, confused.

"What hap-"

He interrupts me. "We broke up, again."

I snort. "Why?"

"I honestly don't know; she just threw a fit and broke it off. Hopefully it’s for real this time." He stops mid-way to the mall entrance and turns to me. "I'm sorry, where did you want to eat?"

I continue walking.

"The café,” I turn my head slightly to look at him.

He catches up to me and lightly punches me in the shoulder.

"What was that for?" He sticks his tongue out at me, running ahead.

"If you think that I'm going to chase after you, I'm not," I shout to him.

Whatever, he can place an order when he gets there. I mean he knows me well enough to at least order my favorite juice. When I arrive to the café, I was just in time for the drinks.

"I got you your favorite," he says sticking the straw in for me.

"How kind of you," I say, sitting down.

Rick and I start off telling each other our middle school experiences. Laughing about embarrassing moments from our previous high schools. Things along the lines of that. On our walk back, I decide to ask why on earth is it that he decides to stay with his on and off girlfriend.

"So um, what's the history with you and Janelle?"

"Oh," he chuckles, a pleased smirk on his face, "I thought you'd never ask." We get to the store and I unlock the door and take off the "out for lunch" sign. We reassume position behind the counter and I turn to him, prop my head in my hands. He laughs at me and sighs. "It's refreshing to talk about the time back when we were a steady couple."

Before I let him continue, I ask, "Wait, so, how old are you?"

"I'm 18," he says getting up. A customer walks in, he takes the order. He gives the customer the smoothie, his change, then sits back down. "As I was saying, we started dating a little over year ago. It was great. I was 16, almost 17, that's when I first got into this school. She was new too. We were both art majors, we hit it off pretty well. We always sat next to each other joking around all the time. We always had a good time, you know? Then after four months, I finally asked her out. She was all I could ever ask for in a girl." he waves his hand as if to shoo away someone. "This girl drove me crazy. I just had to give it a try, it turned out good. Really good actually, it was almost perfect." He pauses and I give him an adoring smile. It is cute that he really likes her enough to call their start perfect. "Shortly after we hit our one year mark, everything went downhill." I sit up, laying my hands on my lap. "I remember the first time we broke up, I was devastated. She told me, she was stressed out and she couldn't deal with having a boyfriend. I tried to convince her that I would ease off a bit. I even said that if she needed help with school work or whatever, I would be there for her. She wouldn't listen...this one is yours," he says pointing to the door.

"Huh?" I look at him confused, until I realize that he is talking about Lizzy.

"Hey Ally," she gives me a small smile.

"Hi, what're you craving today sis?" I walk over to the blender, ready for her request.

"Let me get a strawberry banana smoothie for myself and a mixed berry one for Kells-" She stares up at the menu.

"Ugh, his nickname is as lame as his birth name," I say pouring the ingredients into each blender.

"Shut up and stop being mean to him," she demands, drumming her fingers on counter.

I pour the smoothies and give them to her with straws.

"He started it," I sigh, taking her money.

She rolls her eyes. "Whatever, I'll see you later loser.” She sticks her tongue out at me. “Bye Rick," she smiles and leaves.

I take my seat and look up at Rick.

"You can continue," I say, loosening up my ponytail.

"So like I said, she disregarded my pleas to stay together. She completely cut me out of her life, she even switched her major. It was horrible. So that lasted for about a month before I couldn't take it anymore. I went to her dorm one night and told her that I loved her."

"Oh my gosh, really?! And what happened?!" I am so interested in his story, it was like a verbal teen soap opera.

"Yeah, she cried. We sat on her bed and talked for a while. It turned out that she had never been a relationship longer than 2 months, she was terrified." I nod, that did make a little sense. In fact it made me think about Max and I. "So we sorted some things out, and she decided to give it another try. But since then, it's never been the same." I shake my head in disappointment; I would never let such a good relationship like that go to waste.

"Do you still love her?" I ask, sincerely interested.

He stares at me pensively, as if he were finding the words to say.

"To be honest, that's been fading away, and each time we break up" he says with air quotes, "I feel like whatever love I have left is slowly fading."

"So what actually makes you go back with her every time?" I fiddle with my visor.

He shrugs, tightening his lips. "I guess I just haven't found another girl, so I just keep going back to her." He leans against the counter and runs his fingers through his hair.

The poor guy, he won't let go of her until he finds someone else to love, that's sad. He gets up and walks over to the blenders.

"I'm going to make myself a smoothie, you want one? My treat," he smiles.

I nod, no need to tell him what I want. Over the past 3 months I have learned what a gifted smoothie marker he is. I guess he is trying to change the mood though, he could tell that I feel pity for him. He sits back down, passing a cup to me, putting the exact change into the cash register for the smoothies. I take a sip, I'm impressed.

"Today is so slow, very few customers. We're usually uber packed after lunch, what's going on?" I ask desperate for work.

"The year fives are on a trip, and they're our most frequent customers," he takes a sip and shrugs.

"Well don't they work too? Why do they come more often than every other grade?" I ask after a sip of my smoothie.

"Well, they only have half a shift due to class work. Since it's their last year and all." I nod thoughtfully; that makes sense.

My shift ends so I wave bye to Rick and go with Naomi to hang out in her dorm. She talks about Reggie endlessly before we head to dinner. I ask Namoi to sit with us but she declined. She sits with Lizzy’s close friend Emily and the other culinary majors. So I sit with Max and enjoy some delicious west Indian food. We all just talk about work. I notice Lizzy and Vic are mad at each other, again. I frown at them, and go back to eating.