An Alienating Secret

Telling the News

--Anith--

"So, was it as boring as you thought?" Mom asked me as I opened her car door and sat down.

I smiled. "No, today was super interesting."

"Oh, really?" Mom's face flashed a look of surprise. "Ok, then. Tell me all about it."

"I wanna tell Dad too. We should wait 'til dinner time."

"Oh, come on. I want to know! You have to tell your Momma." She grinned at me widely.

I made a funny face back. "You'll just have to wait, Miss Alana."

*****

I was excited when dinner time came around. The food was done and the table set by the time Dad walked through the door.

"Woah, why are you hugging me so tight?" Dad laughed at me. "Anith, let me go. What happened? Was the day way more interesting than you thought?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it really was."

"Anith has some big news to tell us." Mom put her arm around Dad. "Abram, she refused to tell me anything before you came. I've been waiting in suspense since I picked her up."

"Well, we can't add a second more to that, can we?" he kindly ruffled Mom's blonde hair.

I turned and sat down in my seat. I heard Dad whisper, "Seriously, Alana, I'm surprised anything happened. I was pulling at straws this morning to make her wake up."

I chuckled. "I can hear you, Dad. And I totally agree. But there was a new student today."

"Really?" Both my parents sat down at once.

"Yeah, his name's Conner..." I then explained what I heard from him in English, Science, and our separate conversations.

"Lobster and raspberries?" Dad glanced at Mom. "Have you ever heard of that?"

"We have to look that up. For sure. It must be so good." Mom gave a big smile, but then frowned. "But if it's a family recipe it might not be online. And I'm not sure if we'll find anything like Conner's version of the dish. What a shame."

"Not everyone thinks it's so cool, Mom. The girls didn't like it."

She shook her head. "I wouldn't be surprised if Jenna didn't like the food idea. But what about Ava? She seems more open to foreign stuff."

"None of the girls liked it. They all think Conner is weird."

Dad looked displeased. "They have a bad first impression of him, that's all. Those American girls are closed off to anything that's new for them."

Mom said, "It's not that they're American, Abram. It's simply the way they were raised. After all look at me. My family's been in the U.S. since way back when and I married an immigrant."

"And I'm so glad you did." Dad smiled.

I spoke up, "Mom, Dad, how do I change their minds? I want them to like Conner."

"Why?" Dad asked. "Let who Conner is speak for itself. It's not a matter of shoving him down their throats until they want more. He is who he is. If the girls don't like that, they shouldn't hang out with Conner."

"But they need to so I can hang out with him."

Mom tilted her head, "So you're scared about your friends getting the wrong idea about you and Conner?"

"What?! No! I mean, yes." I took a breath. "That is a concern. But a really small one! It's more of my friends not liking me. Jenna caught me talking to Conner after lunch. She looked at me with such a disapproving glare, it was awful!"

"So, because they don't like Conner they won't like you if you talk to him?" Dad asked. "That's messed up."

Mom sighed and quietly mused, "Ah, middle school drama. It's like I'm back at my old school campus."

"Mom, what do I do?" I begged. She looked me square in the face.

"Anith, you talk all you want with Conner. The girls should understand. If they don't, that's their problem."

"But I don't want to damage the SuperAwesome 6!"

Mom shrugged. "If they're OK breaking ties with you just because you made a new friend, you shouldn't be with them in the first place. That friend group would be too toxic to breathe in."

I looked at my fork. "Yeah, you're right, Mom. Thanks for the talk, you two."

"Come to us anytime you need advice." Dad gave me a loving nudge on the shoulder.

"Sure will. You can count on that."

*****

I got into bed and snuggled into my blanket. Usually, going to sleep would be really easy for me. Getting up would be the hard part! But tonight, I was having trouble even closing my eyes. What would happen tomorrow? What would happen this year? I hoped the interesting stuff wouldn't dwindle out.

Come on, Anith. Staying up late won't help you one bit.

I had so many questions in my head. So many ideas to shove down.

I quickly knew that sleep wasn't coming anytime soon. So I grabbed my phone from my nightstand. Looking at the bright screen, I decided that scrolling on social media or looking at memes would be a waste of time. Was there anything I had to do on my phone that was actually important?

I went to the search engine and typed in "Lobster and Raspberries Recipe". Immediately, delicious pictures of food came up. All of the recipes seemed to be for fruit salads. Yes, raspberry vinaigrette and lobsters seemed to be these salads' stars, but... it just wasn't what I was imagining. Wouldn't Conner specify that it was a salad?

My eyes widened at an article. "Lobster and Raspberry Pie"? It looked scrumptious in the picture, but I would never want that taste in my mouth. (Of course, if this was what Conner liked, Mom would force me to try it. And I would probably like it... probably).

I should just ask Conner how it's prepared before school starts. And so, I went to bed with lobster and raspberries in my head.