Reconstructing Amelia (unedited)

Chapter 20

October 30th, 2019

"Hey, Mia!" Alan called to me as I was leaving psychology class. I turned to face him, giving him a wary expression. I wasn't sure how to act around him. Last week, he'd confronted me about the injuries I'd sustained from Ben, and it hadn't been a pretty conversation. I hadn't spoken to him or Harry all week but they didn't seem to ease out of the friendship. If anything, it'd driven them closer.

"Ciao," I replied back. Neo paused beside me before nodding at me and heading off to his lunch table.

"Do you want to sit with us?" he asked, his green eyes studying mine. He was sweeping over my face, scanning the remnants of my stitches. They were healing painfully slowly, but I was able to cover them up decently enough.

"Us?" I repeated, confused.

"Yeah, Harry and some of the guys," Alan answered. "I promise they're nice... ish," I had been sitting pretty regularly with Neo since Janie had been studying in the library most lunches, but I supposed one lunch with Alan and his friends couldn't hurt. I figured it was time to move on from the argument and go back to being friends.

"Yes, sure," I told him, falling into step beside him.

"How'd you do on the English quiz?" he asked casually.

"I think I did okay," I replied. It'd hadn't been too hard - just another vocabulary test. Alan grinned cheekily.

"Of course you did," he teased. "I'm pretty sure I failed the whole thing,"

"Did you finish it?" I asked, a playful smile on my face. Alan stuck his tongue out at me.

"I'll have you know I did indeed, thank you very much," he said indignantly, a gleam in his eye. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Well, that's a start,"

We reached the lunch table fairly quickly, and I noticed his table was opposite sides of the cafeteria from Neo, though probably rightfully so. Harry greeted me with a gentle smile, his eyes sweeping over my face just like Alan had done. I forced a smile back, still feeling a little upset from both of their confrontations. Harry had blatantly refused to apologise to me but made sure I knew he'd done it out of friendship. I'd decided to forgive him, not wanting to stir up any more drama.

"Guys, this is Mia," Alan introduced me to a couple of boys sitting around the table. I recognised Eli and Harry but no one else. "Mia, you remember Eli obviously, and then that's Cyrus and Logan," He pointed out two new guys; one with shaggy blond hair and pale skin - Cyrus - and then Logan, with dark hair and freckles. Both seemed mildly perturbed by my presence but gave me salutes in greeting. Eli grinned brightly, welcoming me. I sat down between Alan and Harry, watching the boys completely devour their lunches, trash-talking several of the teachers. I sort of sat there quietly and listened, pitying those poor teachers they were berating.

"Mia, do you not have lunch?" Eli asked, giving me a concerned glance.

"Oh, no, I'm not really hungry," I squeaked, a little embarrassed to be called out. Harry and Alan were already cautious of me, I didn't want a reason for them to get any more involved.

"Nonsense, here," Eli handed me a silver package of something labelled as a 'pop tart'. I gave him a funny look.

"What's a 'pop tart'?" I asked in confusion. Everyone looked at me dumbfounded.

"Only the most glorious breakfast food ever to be made in America," Eli told me. "Try it, it's strawberry," I hesitantly opened the wrapper, finding a small rectangular sweet-looking thing with a glazed top. I broke off a small piece, putting it in my mouth. It tasted kind of disgusting. I wrinkled my nose.

"It's too sweet," I noted, forcing myself to swallow the sticky mixture. "And it doesn't even taste like strawberries," Eli was staring at me, pretending to be hurt by my words.

"You are officially not allowed at this table," he said, snatching the pop tart back and taking a giant bite. I tensed, unable to tell if he was serious.

"He's kidding," Alan told me quickly. "Eli, no one likes your ratchet food anyway," Eli promptly flipped his brother off, purposely chewing closer to his face. While the rest of the table began arguing, Harry leaned closer to me.

"Alan and I are studying for physics later, do you want to join us?" I paused.

"Alan? Studying?" I teased with a smile. Harry laughed, nodding.

"Yeah, we'll see how long he lasts. But seriously, would you like to come?" I really wanted to, but I had work after school. I had to make up for missing so much last week.

"I can't," I told him sadly. "I have to work today," His face fell.

"Oh. Well, maybe we can come to you? Alan told me you work at Java House," I nodded.

"I guess you guys could come study. I could definitely use the help," Physics was not my strong suit. All the weird words and laws made my head hurt - especially trying to translate it in my head. I had a C in the class, which wasn't too bad. Under my circumstances, I was lucky if I got the chance to do homework, let alone study or anything else to help me be even remotely successful. My grades had always been decent - usually low A's or B's. All I really wanted was some sort of scholarship so Javi and I could leave this dump of a life. That's all I really cared about anyway.