After five long and stressful class periods, it was finally 12:30. Lily anxiously waited for Whitestorm, her head ducked low so she wouldn't meet anyone else's eyes. Finally, she saw the old sneakers that Zachary used to own, belonging to none other but a bright-eyed Whitestorm. She looked up, smiling in relief.
"Whew, I had no idea school was so hard!" Whitestorm grinned, standing beside her.
"Why, did someone tease you?" Lily fretted, concerned. Whitestorm's brow furrowed.
"No…. It's just the assignments are hard." He explained.
"You didn't do anything wrong, though, did you?" Lily asked him, staring up at him with wide eyes.
"Just a few slip-ups. Nothing major, though." Whitestorm said, and nodded at a freckled kid who passed by with a friendly wave.
"Make some new friends, I see?" Lily commented casually, but inside was a little jealous. She couldn't make any friends in three years, and he could make a few easily in a couple of hours.
"Oh, just some people I chatted with. They have most of the class periods that I do, and their last names start with W so I sit with them." He smiled. Lily groaned.
"Yeah, I can't believe they still arrange our seats by alphabetical order. I mean, what is this? Third grade?" Lily scoffed. Whitestorm gave her a blank look. "This is ninth grade." She said slowly.
"Oh, right. Right." He said quickly, pursing his lips together.
"Hey, you're doing fine." She nudged his shoulder. "C'mon, let's go get lunch." He nodded and brightened up.
"Using my brain makes me hungry." He chirped. His snowy eyebrows shot up, and he smiled. Lily giggled.
"You'll find that happens sometimes." She twisted her long brown hair over her shoulder, and they joined the long line waiting for some fake-looking lasagna roll-ups. Their togetherness caused many raised eyebrows and whispers, but most of them were really staring at Whitestorm himself. His yellow eyes and his freakishly pale hair were quite interesting to look at.
"What's a boyfriend?" Whitestorm asked after a comfortable moment of silence. To Lily's bewildered look, he said, "The mean guy at the locker, who's hand I might've squished. He said you have a 'boyfriend.'" Whitestorm said, his yellow eyes solemn.
"Oh, right. Well, when two people like each other, they go out on dates. Dates are when people take each other somewhere nice, like out to dinner or to watch a movie. A movie's a moving picture." She explained to Whitestorm's furrowed brow.
"Oh. So when they go out, they're boyfriends?" He asked. Lily laughed.
"No, the boy is a boyfriend and the girl is their girlfriend." She explained. "The same goes for anybody else. People can be girlfriends, or boyfriends, or girlfriend and boyfriend." He nodded slowly.
"At home when people like each other they become mates." He said softly.
"Mates? Like wolves?" Lily asked, surprised. Whitestorm shrugged.
"Don't know much about wolves." He frowned. They moved up in the line and Lily handed him a fork and a spoon, along with a paper-thin napkin. "Oh, this again." He held up the fork, scowling at it.
"That's a fork." She explained. "And this is a spoon." She pointed to each one.
"Oh, right." Whitestorm caught a few bewildered stares from other kids as Lily patiently explained to him the significance of cutlery. Whitestorm felt the tips of his ears get hot. "They all think I'm an idiot." Whitestorm mumbled.
"Who cares what they think?" Lily snorted. She didn't meet his confused gaze.
"You're the one who do-" He started to say, but Lily cut him off.
"I might not care, but they care, ok? That's why they pick on me. I just want to avoid it all." She roughly jerked out a fork that had gotten stuck and the whole plastic container spilled, the silverware falling around their ankles. Whitestorm kneeled down and immediately began to pick them up, ignoring the titters of laughter it brought. Lily stood there, momentarily paralyzed, before also bending down to sweep up the forks. The lunch ladies scowled at them.
"Great, more dirty dishes!" A graying-haired lady snapped, grabbing the container once they had put them all back.
"Sorry." Whitestorm flashed a brilliant, yellow-eyed grin. The lady looked quite frightened.
"Dude, your teeth are sharp." Lily gasped with concern and amusement. He stopped grinning and felt his teeth.
"Eh. Maybe that's what happens when I don't use a brushtooth, or whatever it's called." Whitestorm waved a hand dismissively. Lily smiled weakly but continued to stare at his mouth, noticing his lips and—she quickly tore her gaze away and dropped it to the tray she had picked up from a lukewarm stack to her right. Whitestorm copied her, grabbing a tray and staring at it with a hard look in his eyes.
"You 'kay?" Lily lightly touched his shoulder and he jumped, his eyes widening.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Just contemplating my past." He plastered a fake smile on his face and watched as the same graying-haired lady scooped an unappetizing lump of pasta onto his tray. Lily punched her numbers in and when Whitestorm looked confused, she told the lunch lady to count it twice.
"That's how we pay for our meals." Lily explained, leading him through the cafeteria.
"Oh. Wait- what do you mean by pay?" He tilted his head.
"Oh, good lord." Lily breathed out a melodramatic sigh and they took a seat at a deserted lunch table. "Um, well. We pay in money. Money is what we earn by doing jobs. Money is used to pay for food and clothes and basically everything." Lily thought about how to explain currency.
"Hey." The freckled kid that had waved to Whitestorm earlier stood next to the table, his tray hovering indecisively.
"Hey, Luke. Feel free to sit." Whitestorm smiled, patting the seat next to him. Lily watched in astonishment as two more kids, a mousy-looking girl and a boy with large glasses, joined them at the table. Whitestorm acted as if nothing had just happened, but chattered away happily with them. Lily smiled slowly. Maybe happening upon Whitestorm in her yard was one of the best things in her life. For the first time in years, she had a friend, and maybe more.
