What spawn of Lucifer devised this hell? Who in their right mind would ever subject someone to the hell on Earth known as high school? Okay, maybe a bit melodramatic, but it is a fairly accurate description.
Pearl sighed. Oh well, she thought. Might as well go through with it.
She was simply daydreaming to herself about these kinds of things with her friends at her everyday lunch table. The atmosphere wasn't very good for thinking, and the shitty food didn't help much. Still, Pearl found a way.
"Hey, P." Her noisy friend/enemy Amethyst snapped her out of her trance. "You gonna finish your hot dog?"
"Ugh, I don't understand how you can even swallow this stuff, let alone digest it." She unceremoniously slid her tray over.
Amethyst muffled something unintelligible with a mouthful of meat, ketchup and bread, spewing food bits onto the table.
Pearl's other friend, Garnet, decided to make this easier on her. "Amethyst, chew with your mouth closed please."
Pearl then resumed daydreaming and pondered everything about that exact moment. She was one of the few lesbians in the school, including Garnet and Amethyst, and they were a strange group. Pearl had vitiligo, which nearly crippled her if she ever went outside without copius amounts of sunblock on, but it made her have milky white skin and cream hair. The boys had fantasies, but they had no hope at fulfilling them. Amethyst was the one tomboy to rule them all: loud, vulgar, unkempt, and eats like a hog. She was a hot topic among other guys, who idolized her as a friend rather than as a walking sex toy, rare among girls. Garnet was the most unusual, with dark, almost reddish skin, thick curls styled into an afro, and a height of about 6 and a half feet. She towered over everyone, and that deep British accent was comforting, made you think of her as a guardian.
Then Pearl saw something that made her do a double take.
A girl with dyed blue hair was sitting alone at a table, drinking bottled water and reading a book, ignoring her (possibly literal) shit sandwich. She was wearing a knee-length flowing skirt and a blue tanktop, which were tied together by silk straps.
She didn't know how long she was staring, but it was at least long enough to broadcast her "crush" as clearly as walking up to someone and screaming 'Love me!' into their face.
Garnet spoke up first, jolting Pearl out of her thoughts yet again.
"Um... Pearl? You okay?" That accent broke her concentration like an icepick. She jumped a mile, yelped slightly and flushed almost red.
"Me?! Oh, I'm fine, no need to worry!" She tried her best to calm herself down, but when your face is bright red and beaded with sweat it can be hard to manage.
Damn, why am I such a bad liar? She cursed herself mentally.
"Yeah. Sure you are. Definitely not fantasizing over Lapis." Amethyst started giggling, still with a mouthful of food.
Fantasize? "First of all, I don't 'fantasize' over anyone. Second, please do not talk with your mouth full. Rude, and gross." Pearl was getting sick of this conversation already.
"You should go talk to her," Garnet said, to which Amethyst started choking on her food and coughed out bits of bread for about fifteen seconds.
Lapis looked over at their table, the episode a little hard to ignore. Pearl fluched and turned away, trying to avoid eye contact.
Luckily, it came off as embarassment rather than a Code Red, which is fancy talk for when Pearl can't think anything except Fuck, this is going bad, shitshitshit...
After the choking incident ended, Amethyst whispered, "Yeah, go do it! All you have to do is say, 'I'm Pearl, I'm a lesbian, let's scissor now!" This made Pearl flush even more, almost to a red color.
"But what if she isn't a lesbian?" This thought raced through Pearl's head multiple times, but she couldn't answer it herself.
Garnet at least tried to comfort her. "If so, at least you will have tried. Besides, there's plenty of fish in the sea."
Pearl rolled her eyes. "Cliche encouragements won't help here. I may enjoy emotional support, but this is not doing much good."
"Oh, get over it," Amethyst whispered. "Just go and talk to her, you nerd!"
"Fine..." Pearl got up and slowly walked over to Lapis' table.
"Garnet, bet you your lunch for a week plus five dollars that Pearl fucks it up. You in?"
While Garnet wasn't in the mod for bets, she did have an almost uncanny ability to predict relationships. She had planned out every single couple in the school in three days. Garnet beleived in Pearl.
"You know what? I have a hunch. You're on," Garnet said, anticipating the outcome.
When Pearl walks over, she mulls over the situation in her head. I just walk up, introduce myself, become friends, and then reveal I'm gay... no, no. But by the time she had finished this thought, she was at the table.
"Oh, hello!" Lapis says.
Oh, her voice. It was gentle, smooth, sounded like the voice of a loving mother.
"H-hi. I'm Pearl. Could I sit down?"
"Oh, I know your name. Sure, have a seat." She knew my name? Luckily Lapis couldn't see the storm brewing behind Pearl's forehead.
"So," Pearl began, "I noticed you have been sitting alone pretty often."
Stupid, stupid! Why would I remind her of her lack of friends?
"Eh. I just came here this year, and I don't know anyone yet."
"Would you mind telling me about yourself?" Pearl asked.
"Sure. I moved here from Delaware, and I live with my grandmother. She runs a beachside shop with a suite on the second floor. I am a pretty avid reader, as you can tell, I must have read eight books since I got here. Also, I have a sort of... obsession with the ocean. I'm generally just a bit wierd. But why don't you tell me about you?"
Well, Pearl thought. Now or never. "Well, I am a straight-A student, I enjoy dancing... and..."
"What is it?" Lapis sounded genuinely concerned. "You don't have to censor yourself. I keep an open mind when I meet people."
"Well, I'm..." Pearl broke off, then resumed. "I'm a lesbian."
She closed her eyes and prepared herself for a mean comment, or a shocked answer, but was greeted with a warm hand on her shoulder.
She opened her eyes, and saw Lapis almost in tears. "Thank you, Pearl. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one here."
Pearl was absolutely stunned. "So... you-you are-?"
"Yeah..." Lapis said. "I like girls too."
Well,it didn't crash and burn. somehow, Pearl thought.
"Well, you could come sit with me," Pearl said. "We aren't the only ones in the school."
So, they got up and walked over to the other table. It was nice to have a fourth seat filled for once. "I'm glad we got to talk," Pearl said.
"Thanks, again, Pearl. I hope we can be friends, and maybe go further than that someday."
They both flushed slightly, knowing what that meant.
And, under the table, Amethyst handed Garnet five dollars.