Missed Me, Missed Me, Now You Gotta Kiss Me

Just Peachy

    Ah, being the new girl at school. It's a lot easier when you're seven years old. My only problem in

  But most of them do; even slight ones.

  I was immediately "out" because of my lack thereof. It didn't really matter; I just wanted to graduate and move back to Arizona. I didn't need any friends. I was starting with no friends here at all-no, not even Liam. We couldn't be friends, I had concluded. It was easy today; I wouldn't see him. He was eighteen, had graduated school.

  I would not see him.

  Although it would have been nice to have one friend, even Liam. But then again, if people remembered me-which I highly doubted-then I'd just be stuck as the same ol' girl I'd been before I moved. No, Liam being out of the picture worked much better in my favor.

  I didn't receive half as many stares as I'd anticipated. I chose to blend in with my plain skinny jeans, a dark blue Ramones T-shirt, and my old Converse. My naturally straight mud brown hair I curled into submission, adding a black knitted slouch hat. Most to all the guys wore trucker's hats and checkered flannels, although it was hardly the season for it. None of them were hardly worth my noticing-they didn't compare with my gorgeous, hazel eyed stranger.

  What I meant to say was, they didn't compare to my brown eyed boyfriend-who I wasn't entirely sure was my boyfriend anymore....The life of relationships is so complicated.

  I had passed first and second period successfully as a ghost. By the time I took my lunch to sit under a MarshalCountyHigh School tree, my luck had run out. As soon as I was comfortably, leaning against the tree trunk and all, my lunch was immediately joined by another girl.

  She smiled brightly at me. "Hi."

  "Hi," I said politely back. To say she was interesting would be an under estimate. I was rather relieved to see her long blonde hair-complete with eccentric, non-country purple streaks-without a cowboy hat. Her bangs were heavy, nearly covering one of her electric blue eyes. Had I looked closer, I would have seen their original silver flecks in the iris.

  "I'm Lucy-but my friends call me Lulu," she said, reaching out a pale-ish, slender hand.

  I shook her hand. "I'm Piper."

  "Oooh, cool name."

  "Thanks."

  Lulu would not allow an uncomfortable silence to ensue. She quickly carried on, as though we were long lost friends reuniting. "So, Piper, where ya from?"

  "Arizona," I answered. "I just moved back."

  "Oh, so you've previously lived in the ol' town of Lewisburg T.N?"

  I nodded. "Moved when I was seven."

  "Miss the atmosphere?" Lulu said with a blissful sigh.

  I rolled my eyes. "Oh. Yeah."

  Lulu laughed. "I'm from California....originally. Moved down here 'bout five or six years ago."

  "Still refusing the accent?" I asked in amusement, noticing she only had the hint of one.

  "Hell's yes!"

  I laughed, staring down at my neglected food.

  "Okay, Piper, here's the deal."

  My heart gave a little kick-start at that. What did I do already? I stared, waiting for her to continue.

  Lulu grinned, revealing perfectly white and straight teeth. "I've pretty much decided we're gonna be friends. Your thoughts?"