“So, what is it that I have to look out for with this new girl?”

“I wouldn’t say that you have to look out for anything from her.”

I’m not saying that because I don’t think there is. It’s quite the complete opposite. There are loads of things to be wary about her. But not for her. 

I have a sinking feeling that a bond would form between them faster than between any of us, and that would not only spell disaster with a capital ‘D’, but would also be the cause of many more headaches to come.

“Is that so? I’m excited to meet her! It sucks that I couldn’t come to school today, so I couldn’t introduce myself to her alongside you guys.” She cheerfully says as she skips in front of me and enters the cafe.

I follow behind her, of course, at my own pace.

“Well, well, well, look who decided to show up.”

“They didn’t have a choice to not show up, Kathrynn. You were forcing them to come here for the past hour.” The new girl tries to talk some sense into Kathrynn. If she wants to get to know her more, she better be prepared for most of the things she says to fall on deaf ears.

“Ehem,” Kathrynn clears her throat, clearly ignoring the new girl. “So, anyway, have you two heard anything from Zander yet? He said that he’d be coming shortly but that was ages ago!”

 I pull out my phone to double-check what he actually said, and when he said it.

< “See y’all there in 10 minutes.” > sent 11 minutes ago.

“Relax, Kathrynn.” I try to calm her nerves as Alexis and I sit down on our usual seats opposite of her. “He’s just a couple minutes late, a minute, to be exact.”

Kathrynn would be an ideal partner for anyone, just like Alexis, but her patience is thinner than a coffee filter.

“Ugh!” she lets out a groan as she impatiently taps on the table with her fingernails. “If I had known he was going to be late, I would have rejected the offer to meet up!”

Typical Kathrynn.

“A-anyways, you must be Alexis Xella?”

“That’s me! It’s a pleasure to meet you,          ! Sorry, for being late with the introduction.” 

“You don’t have to call me by my last name,              will do just fine.”

Alexis called her by her last name. I wouldn’t know, since I can’t hear her name. I guess it’s not just her first name that I can’t hear, huh. How about nicknames?

“Sweet! So, what brings you here anyway? I heard from Mikey here that you transferred from the city? There aren’t many things to see or do here. So what made you want to move here all of a sudden? It’s nearly the end of the school year too.” Alexis excitedly rapid fires questions at her, failing to see that she can’t keep up with the relentless questions. 

“I, uh, well—”

“Aren’t you asking a little too quickly, Alexis? At least give her some time to answer your questions one at a time.” Zander appears from behind Kathrynn and places a shoulder on her. “Did I make you guys wait?”

“Nope.”

“Yes! Now sit your butt down and let’s order up, I’m starving!” Kathrynn raises her voice at Zander as she drags him by his shirt down onto his chair.

“If you find it necessary to blame someone, blame the rest of the student council and not me. I was just there to talk about and make some last-minute planning for the festival next week.” Zander explains but to me, it just looks like he’s trying to shift the blame onto other people like he normally does.

“Gah! Less talk and more ordering!” This time, Kathrynn presumably steps on his foot underneath the table as his face twitches in pain.

To me, and the others, heck, maybe even the waiters in this cafe, all of this is just another normal day in our lives. 

Their constant back-and-forth bickering is normal to me and naturally, my mind drowns their voices out seamlessly as if they were pieces of a puzzle. It may look like I’m having a tough time dealing with them, and they’re right with that assumption. Well, at least at first. 

When Alexis and I enrolled in this high school, it was also when Alexis’ parents decided to relocate to the city for a better chance of life. We both knew that another chapter of our lives would open up in our long stories we call life, but unlike her ambitious and fantastical dreams for the future, I never bothered myself with expectations. 

To put things simply, I just let things happen.

Looking back at it now, the lack of expectations I had and lack of control over what I wanted to do with my life allowed Alexis to influence me in ways that I now find mildly troublesome. Not to mention that she’s the reason why I’m currently sitting at the same table with two of the very few big names of the school: Kathrynn Rose, and Zander Finch.

If I were to have said that I would spend my entire first year of senior high with Kathrynn, Zander, and Alexis, others would definitely call me crazy. And I would agree with them. One look at Zander and I, and you would never for even a moment, expect that we’d end up being this close.

Our personalities contradict each other in more ways than one and we are both aware of that. I don’t know how our friendship was born, but I do recall that it was Alexis who had introduced us to each other. It happened so suddenly. So sudden in fact, that it caught all of us off-guard.

I thought that I was going to get through the year with just Alexis and myself, but on the very first day of school, I vividly remember fixing up my bag, ready to head home, before Alexis grabbed my bag and dragged me out of the classroom with her. I didn’t know where she was taking me, but I still allowed her to drag me around which ultimately led me to Zander and Kathrynn.

I still remember that feeling I felt when I first laid my eyes on them. It wasn’t a strange feeling it was a feeling I grew accustomed to before that day. 

I was surprised, and, for the lack of a better word, repulsed.

Zander Finch. With his bleached, white hair, and small scar underneath his left eyebrow that looked like it was recently acquired, I knew the moment that I met him that he was the type of person I never wanted to get close to.

Even though we never exchanged anything more than a couple of glances and hello’s, I already knew that getting mixed up with him was a bad idea. But of course, Alexis being Alexis, she stuck with them and dragged me around and I eventually grew more trusting of Zander as he can be reliable if he feels like it.

Because of his obvious attractiveness and talent in academics and athletics, he instantly made a name for himself in the school within the first week. It may sound exaggerated, but I’m fairly certain that in just the first two weeks of our first year of senior high, every student, and every teacher knew his name. 

Some call him an academic prodigy, some an athletic prodigy, but I’m sure that everyone can agree on one thing, that he is a confident boy with the skills to show for, and has a natural talent to reach the very top of every ranking as well as into every girl's hearts.

Despite having said that, he still can’t seem to get into Alexis’ and Kathrynn’s. They keep shooting him down and it’s hilarious at just how many times that has happened thus far. I’m sure with the addition of the new girl, there will be many more rejections to come.

“I know you weren’t at the council room the entire time, Zander.” Kathrynn remarks.

“Oh yeah? Where’s your proof, KitKat?”

“I don’t need proof since it’s written all over your, Zander. Plus, do you really need to ask for proof? I’ve known you for much longer than you think. The reason you were late was that you were with some other girl, isn’t that right? Also, KitKat? Ew.” She cringes in disgust, not going to lie, I would do the same if someone gave me such a nickname.

“I... don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Caught red-handed. To be fair, it was obvious from the get-go.

Kathrynn Rose. If I were to describe her in one word, “erratic” would be the most suitable for her. I guess, “eye-catching” would work just as well. 

Just like how Alexis is always with me, Kathrynn tends to always be with Zander. But compared to how Alexis and I are to each other, those two have a weird bond connecting them. Over the year, I found out that they are just as close as each other like how Alexis and I are to each other. But instead of the extrovert-introvert duo, they are a weird extrovert-extrovert pair that strangely works, albeit, with non-stop bickering over the simplest things.

From afar, even from the opposite of the table, it’s clear that they should be anything more than friends, especially with the way they act towards one another, but for some reason, they aren’t. I still don’t know why that’s the case, but I guess they have their own reasons that they don’t wish to share, and I respect that. 

“Right! Before things get too heated and too awkward, now that we are all here and it looks like you guys have already introduced yourselves to              , should we start talking about more important things?”

“About Lexxy’s hair?”

“What? Oh. Oh! You cut your hair, Alexis?!” 

He… didn’t notice?

“Dang, that is something that we should talk about, but no, that’s not it. I’m talking about the festival.”

Oh right. It completely slipped my mind since it isn’t something that I would ever want to be part of.

“The festival!” Alexis cheers with her mouth stuffed with her vanilla caramel sundae. “Do we have anything planned for that? We only have a week left to prepare.”

“That’s the reason why I asked you guys to gather here. I need your ideas. Especially yours,                  .”

“Uweh? M-me? Why me? I’m not well versed when it comes to these things. Especially with planning big events such as these.” She laughs nervously.

“Well, you can help us by pitching in a few ideas, we really can’t be picky when it comes to these things. We need all the ideas we can get, no matter how simple or outlandish it may be.”

“Zander’s right, we need all the ideas we can get! Especially before he gets any funny ideas.”

“Wha— How did you know?”

“See? I told you!”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that a maid-outfit catwalk is a perfectly viable idea—”

“Zander.” I jump in. “What is wrong with you?”

There is nothing fun about watching people dressed in strange outfits and walking back and forth in a lane. I just find it repetitive and boring. But still, I know why a person like Zander would love to see one.

“Wait… Zander could be onto something here…”

“Alexis?! Do you have your mind in the same gutter as Zander?! And you, what did you do to Alexis?!” Kathrynn speaks up as she turns her attention towards Zander whose eyes are sparkling.

“No, no, hear me out.” She takes another spoonful from her sundae. “A maid-cafe!”.

… Maid-cafe…?

Before I could physically react to and muster a disgusted face in response to the idea, I don’t remember much else of what happened other than hitting my head on something hard, probably the table.

I don’t know what happened exactly, but I did feel something strange, something overwhelmingly powerful, and something a little bit too—

“—?”

— abnormal, slowly swallowing me whole.