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VALERIE
"Um, hello."
I look up from doodling at the back of my notebook; I've been rewriting those graffiti messages all day. Once again, it's Gina Fortner.
I know she has come for homework. But I realise I haven't done it. That's crazy. I always do my homework.
"I didn't do it," I tell her, "You'll have to ask someone else."
Her eyes widen, and she shakes her head. "I'm not here for that. I don't want a reputation for asking for homework help."
I furrow my eyebrows. Why else would she approach me?
"You know Fraya Lynn? You guys used to be best friends at school, right?" She asks. I immediately stiffen, and look back down at my notebook. I begin to go over the letters that I've already done.
"Please go away. I don't talk to Fraya anymore."
"I figured that. She wants to talk to you, though."
I shut my book, and put it in my bag. It will be an hour until my next lesson. I can't head over to Marjorie's since she'll be busy at this time. But maybe I could go back to that park. I stand up, swinging my bag over my shoulder.
"She's outside the common room. You should give her a chance."
"Don't tell me what to do." I snap at her. My situation with Fraya was none of her business. Gina had always been like this...sticking her nose where it doesn't belong. Me and Fraya never used to like her. It was just unfortunate we took the same class.
I look around. There is only one large entrance out of this room. I'll just have to try and avoid her anyway. I walk towards the entrance, keeping my head down and trying to walk quickly towards the staircase.
"Valerie."
The voice is behind me, and I stop walking, not turning around. I haven't heard that voice in a long time. It's almost exactly the same.
"Can we at least talk?"
"Stop trying to pull me back in, Fraya. We're not friends anymore."
"I know that. But I think there was a lot of misunderstandings between us, so-"
I turn around to finally face her. She's taller. Slimmer. She used to be way smaller than me. She's grown out her hair, and it's platinum now. Platinum blonde. I remember her saying she always wanted to do something with her hair after I dyed mine. It looks good on her. She's wearing a forest green cropped poncho with a long white dress underneath.
She hasn't changed that mythical style that she's always loved. I used to hate it.
"Stop dressing like a fairy all the time, and wear human clothes for once." I always used to say to her. She'd been into weird spiritual stuff since the day I'd met her.
