v.

a/n:

Not sure how to do dedication so here's a shoutout to loooody for being the first to vote and comment the chapters of this book. What you said honestly means a lot to me. Thank you. ♡

1st September

School

Zelda

"How's your first day school so far?"

I whipped my head to the side, where the voice came from. Karen was now standing next to me, closer to me than expected.

"Pretty good," I said incisively. "I met a lot of nice people, and the lessons are fun."

She smiled. "That's good to know. Are you off to have lunch at the canteen? Do you want to have lunch with me and my friends?"

"Actually," I said, hesitant to decline her offer, "I already told someone else I would join them for lunch. Thanks for the offer, though."

She looked taken aback, but she didn't look disappointed. "Really? Who's that?"

"Someone called Jenna."

Karen's eyes widened. "Jenna? As in, wavy blonde haired, brown eyed, doll-like Jenna?"

I was going to disagree, but coming to think about, she wasn't entirely wrong. Jenna did remind me of a doll. With her loose but neat blonde waves, doe eyes, and straight nose, she looked just a bit too perfect to be human. She also happened to dress like a hipster today, which made her look like one of those Tumblr and Pinterest girls you could easily find everywhere.

"Yeah, that Jenna," I ended up saying anyway. "Do you know her?"

Karen snorted. "Of course I do. I'm sure the whole grade does. She's probably the prettiest girl in town. I heard she's kind of dumb though."

I thought of the way the girl frowned at the equations and how she kept working on the same question in the whole AP Calc lesson. I had offered to help her look through her answers with great hesitance, but she was quick and grateful to accept my offer. "Really? She didn't seem like it."

"That's just what I heard," Karen cleared up, a bit defensive. "Okay, we're here. Your friend is over there. I'll be on the other side of the canteen. Just find me there if you need anything, okay?"

I thanked her and went my way towards Jenna's table. She was already sitting there with two of her friends, all of them chatting animatedly about something. I slowed down as I approached them, giving them time to notice me.

"Zelda! Hey," Jenna said enthusiasticaly, signalling me to sit down with them. "I was just wondering when I'd see you. These are my best friends, Katherine and Ellie. Katherine, Ellie, this is Zelda. She is new here. I had Calc with her this morning."

They probably knew about me already. The Principal made an announcement through the PA system this morning, telling the whole school about my existence, much to my horror. The two girls both flashed me polite smiles, which I returned. My gaze then took a quick swept at their lunches on the table, and I couldn't help but wonder how they could make it through the afternoon with so little food. I was smaller than them, and I already thought I didn't eat a lot, but they ate even less than I did. I hadn't counted all the evening and midnight snacks that I ate, either.

I pulled out my lunch from my backpack and started eating as well. As I was leisurely munching on my banana, Katherine, with obvious curiosity, stared at my lunch box. "What do you have in there?"

"Pasta," I said after swallowing.

She looked sort of disappointed, for some reason. "I see."

Well that was weird.

"So how long have you been here, Zelda?" Jenna asked me, changing the subject.

"Just around two weeks," I said, swallowing again. Two weeks in, I was still not quite used to having to engage in a conversation while I was eating. I was more used to eating alone, or staying quiet while eating with others. "I came here in mid-August."

"You are from Hong Kong, right?" Katherine asked, remembering what the Principal said this morning. "My mum had worked there for a while. She came from Singapore, though."

I was smiling then. "Really? That's cool. I love Singapore. My grandmother used to live there."

Katherine's smile seemed to have dimmed again, for some reason unknown to me.

"How are you liking this school so far?" Ellie asked me on the side, supporting her chin with her hand.

"It's pretty cool," I said with a smile small. "Still not quite used to how big the campus is. Or how big everything is. But I'm liking the classes and the teachers so far."

"This girl is so good at Math, it's not even funny," Jenna informed her friends, her tone dead serious. "Everyone was struggling in their first AP Calc lesson of the year. She wasn't even sweating."

I squirmed sheepishly in my seat, uncomfortable. I wasn't good at being praised or taking compliments. "It wasn't exactly like that. I just read through the book a bit before school started."

"I admir you, girl," Ellie said, shaking her head with a smile. "Really, I do. I can't even get myself to touch any book during summer. What class do you have next?"

"Wait, let me check." I took my schedule out of my binder, scanning it. "It's... English. Do I need to have anything prepared?"

"Oh, English. Me and Katherine have that too. We can go to our next period together," Ellie said, excited. "We don't really need any materials in the first lesson. Mr. Lin usual just warms us up with an introduction of the year or the term. He's a really nice teacher."

"Aw man," Jenna whined. "I have Pysics next. This is so sad." She stuffed some more food in her mouth.

Just like that, they proceeded to inform me about different subjects and their teachers. It was fun to listen to them, and they looked like they were enjoying it too. Except for maybe Katherine. She didn't seem quite happy, and just decided to only supply to Jenna and Ellie's description. Usually to remind them the other side of the con, the things to complain about, I noticed.

Little did I know, she would continue to act like this for the rest of the month, her attitude getting better only later on. She was the one person I couldn't quite get along with, no matter how hard I tried. It didn't help that she reminded me why I was scared of befriending girls in the first place, either.

I never thought this could lead to a bigger problem in the future.