Thin as ice

4: Florence

The girl next to me elbows me. I look up from my textbook. 'Hey, Aphrodite, right?' I nod. 'Wanna sit with me at lunch? My name is Florence, my mom was so in love with the city Florence that she named me after it.' I laugh. 'Be happy your mother didn't  fell in love with Amsterdam.' Florence and I both burst out laughing. The whole class was silent and looked weird at us as we laughed. 

Florence and sit outside on the grass as we eat, laugh and tell each other stories. When I tell her about my mom, who died when I was only six months old and my dad who left when he found out that his first child wasn't a boy she was shocked. 'Who have you been living with since then?' she asks. 'I live with my grandmother, she's a sweetheart and gives me everything I want. She changed her life just so I wouldn't have to go to an orphanage.' I put a strawberry in my mouth. 'Who chose your name? Your mom, or your grandmother?' she asks. 'My mom chose it, when my dad left she decided she wasn't gonna name me Belle but Aphrodite because she knew I wasn't going to be a princess like princess Belle from beauty and the beast, she knew I was going to be a goddess like Aphrodite. Anytime when people said something disrespectful about my name she would say: she's named after a goddess because she ís one.' Florence smiled: 'I already like your mom.'

At the end of the day William comes up to me. 'Hey, how was school?' he asks. 'Hi, pretty good actually. I already made a friend. This is Florence.' I introduce William to Florence and Florence looks at him like he is a dirtbag. 'Be nice.' I whisper in her ear. William introduces himself to Florence. You can hear that he is not from here. 'Were are you from, not from the US, am I right?' Florence asks. William shakes his head. 'I'm from France, like Aphrodite. Have a good day girls' William winks and walks away as Florence turns to me and gives me a strange look. 'Your from France?'