The Café
Briarwood Octavian Country Day
Wednesday, September 1
11:20
The first sound Ripple heard when she stepped into the cafeteria doors in her snakeskin manolos was a tinkling hysterical laughter that rang clear from the center of the room. There were other sounds of course, like the chit-chattering and giggling between friends and the "Hey! Watch it!" that happened whenever some scrawny kid accidently bumped into a jock, but this laugh stood out. Turning her head toward the direction where it came from, Ripple saw a group of gorgeous tanned blonde cheerleaders from the Briarwood Babes flirting, eating lunch, and joking with the hawtest players of the school's male soccer team the Briarwood Tomahawks. A beam of sunlight from the window shone over them perfectly like a spotlight from the alpha gods. The table that they sat at was directly at the center where everyone can see them.
Ripple instantly knew that this was going to be her 7th grade lunch table. But it was already claimed. So what does a girl who wants a table do? Fight for it, of course.
She walked over to them in her best model walk, the one that Gwen had practiced with her in the summer, and tried to set her face into the fearless expression that Massie Block so often used. When Ripple looked at Gwen walk like this, Gwen had definitely looked like an alpha, so Ripple was sure the way her hips swayed were oozing confidence.
Trying to imitate an alpha's pose, Ripple stopped with one hand on her hip and the other dangling by her thighs. Her chin was lifted up to add some bonus points for a snotty attitude aura. In Ripple's own opinion, she thought this was definitely alpha.
But as Ripple stood there, the Briarwood Babes didn't even give her as much as a glance. Being totally ignored while standing there in that position, Ripple became more and more self-conscious. Why didn't they see that someone more important than them was waiting in front of them? But Ripple couldn't wait for them much longer. This pose that she is using right now is nawt one made for a beta. So she decided to take action.
"Ex-kyoo-zuh me," Ripple said coolly.
Everyone at the table stopped talking and turned their attention towards Ripple, the two blonde cheerleaders with bored and annoyed expressions while the jocks looked like they just wanted to know why Ripple was here.
Finally, the tanner blonde with gold, layered hair and light brown highlights spoke up.
"Yes?"
"Do you guys mind if I told you to moov-uh to another table?" asked Ripple.
The blonde raised her eyebrows and turned to her friend with pastel robin egg blue eyes. Then they both burst into laughter. Through giggles, the girl with pastel robin egg blue eyes said, "Come back later when you've mastered your totally fake confidence."
The boys at the table kind of chuckled and exchanged glances because none of them really understood what she had said. The tanned blonde, on the other hand, high fived Blue a deep breath to calm herself from punching the blondes, Ripple shot back, "I'll be back once you master your sense of humor.""Don't worry hon, I already have," said Blue Eye, "But I'll see you around once you master your comebacks."The tanned blonde broke into hysterics, and the people sitting at tables around them turned to see what was going on. Biting back tears, Ripple turned on the heels of her manolos and speed-walked toward the door.
From behind her, she could hear the tanned blonde calling after her saying, "Hey, girlie, what's the rush? Don't you have time to waddle away like how you came?"
Everyone sitting at the table and around laughed this time and Ripple broke into a run, not caring that she was wearing super expensive heels. Embarrassment did a lot more damage to the ego than ruined high heels to wallets.
Why wasn't Gwen here? Where was her best friend when you needed her? Ripple remembered clearly that she had instructed Gwen to come to the café and find a good table with enough seats for a clique.
Then as she neared the exit from this horrible place, she saw her best friend sitting with that girl. The one she saw that morning climbing out of a silver Toyota Corolla and carrying a Jansport.
Ripple felt a wave of dizziness and a rush of abandonment. Gwen had befriended that totally middle class girl before confiding with her. Gwen, the one who promised to make a clique with her. Gwen, her best friend who could have saw that she was in a tight situation and come stand up for her. But her best friend had chosen someone else over her.
The last thing Ripple saw before her vision was too blurred with tears was Gwen staring at her with her with lips slightly parted and the girl sitting next to her smiling a mocking grin.