I walked beside Mindy, a girl I had met in first period who's had all he same classes as me up until last period. She called me over once I entered the lunchroom. She was showing me the lunch line. I already knew where to go, but I thought the gesture was sweet. We got our lunches and sat down at her table, which luckily had a few extra seats. She introduced me to the four other girls and two other guys sitting there. I smiled, and introduced myself, but couldn't think of much to say to anyone.
"When did you dye your hair?" Asked Shelby, a redhead girl at the table. "I mean it must be pretty recently, it looks flawless, your roots haven't grown in yet." She added. This is by far the dumbest comment about my hair I have heard today.
Mindy looked at me, I glanced at her, and back at Shelby. "Never. It's natural." I answered. Shelby looked somewhere between amazed and dumbfounded for a few seconds, and then, she asked a follow-up question. "Are you albino?"
There it is. The next dumbest question about my hair I've gotten today. "Shelby." Mindy warned, and Shelby suddenly had the urge to finish the rest of her pizza. In one bite. I bit into mine right after. It was good cafeteria pizza, but it wouldn't be good anywhere else besides the cafeteria. "So, first day back and I've already got PreCal Homework, a Writing assignment for English, and a Research Paper for History." Mindy announced. Alex, a girl across the table, and Cody, the guy sitting beside her, were to engulfed in their own conversation to notice what Mindy had said. No one else said anything. I had a feeling I was making everyone but Cody and Alex uncomfortable. "Wow. That's a lot." I said lamely. "Mara." Said Shelby, looking off in the distance. "Is your brother single?" She asked. I looked at the spot where she'd been staring. Darren, carrying his plate, was walking alone to an empty table in the corner of the lunchroom. He looked upset, and I hadn't seen him since first period. I ignored Shelby's question. "Excuse me for a second." I said, as I eyed him sitting down. I got up and walked over to the empty table. Darren was looking down at his food. "Hey, you okay?" I asked. I didn't mention him getting in trouble during first period. He looked up, slowly. "Yeah, I don't know what the hell got into me this morning." He said. I didn't ask, but he clearly knew what I was thinking about. "I know you heard." He said. "Anyways, I'm over it now." He added. There was a short silence. "You're over it? You made an ass of yourself in front of the entire class." I said. "And The teacher too." He added. I shot him a warning look. "Like I said, I don't know what the hell got into me." He said.
"Well whatever it was brought out a side of you that I'd hate to be around. And I sure hope it's gone." I said, and got up to go back to my table. I glanced back halfway there, and saw Darren had resumed looking down at his food. "Hey, everything okay?" Mindy asked as I sat back down.  I glanced around the table, everyone was staring at me now, even Cody and Alex. "Yeah. It's nothing. Everything's fine." I lied. Darren has been acting weird ever since our parents died, but I didn't think he could act like he did this morning. I wasn't going to tell them that.  I glanced back at Darren's table, and was shocked to see he wasn't where I left him two minutes ago. I scanned the lunchroom, and found him at a table full of girls, sitting beside the girl he was talking to on the bus. Surprisingly, he looked like he was acting more like himself. Shyer, kinder, more reserved. Not the careless maniac in first period. I sat through the rest of lunch making mindless small talk with Shelby and Alex, and then, once the bell rang, left for fifth period with Mindy. We once again walked in, settled down, and waited for the teacher to start talking. But before the teacher, who introduced herself to me as Mrs. Robinson, could, we all heard an announcement on the intercom. "Darren Pollen to the Counselor's office, please. Darren Pollen."
What did he do this time? He seemed completely normal at lunch. It could be something from this morning... "Darren." I whispered under my breath. A guy sitting two seats away looked at me. Did he hear that? "Mara. I didn't do anything else, I swear. I'll talk to you at home." Darren replied, in a low voice. Then there was silence. "That boy was quite a topic  when it came to conversation at the teachers' table today at lunch." Mrs. Robinson said. Comforting. "Anyways. I know you all hate the fact that Christmas break is over, and believe me, I'm with you, but let's see if we can all power through to spring break. The next reprieve." She added. "Alright, now get out your literature books. Today we're entering the exciting world of poetry." She said, unenthusiastically. A series of grumbles erupted from the class, and so did the sound of books that were reluctantly being opened. I glanced around the room, to get a feel for where everything was, and I caught a guy staring at me. The same guy who looked at me when I was whispering to Darren. He gave me a small smile. I looked away. Wait... He was cute. Extremely Dark Brown Hair, light, but not quite fair, skin, strong jawline, and brown eyes. I imagined us as a couple for a split second. I'd look weird next to him. My extremely light blonde hair, my fair skin, my blue eyes and soft features contrasted every one of his physical characteristics. I glanced back over at him. He wasn't looking this time, he was faced toward the teacher,  who I have completely zoned out at this point. I let my eyes rest there for a minute, and they were soon caught by his. This time I gave a small smile, and
Turned my attention towards the teacher.