Behind the Café
Briarwood Octavian Country Day
Wednesday, September
11:30 a.m.
Rustle rustle.
Hearing those sounds, Ripple stopped mid-sniffle. If someone was coming, it was better if she hid.
Due to her fast reflexes developed from skateboarding and surfboarding, Ripple quickly crawled behind a prickly bush (while avoiding the pain of thorns scraping her perfectly toned-from-boarding calves) and slouched down as low as she could without scarring her back.
Shutting her eyes and trying to remain as still and silent as possible, Ripple prayed to Gawd that the sound of footsteps heading this way was Principle Burns taking the shortcut to the parking lot to get something from her car, not some classmate who wants to rub the previous 10 minutes in her face.
But no such arms parted the bush, and Ripple looked up to see a girl with luscious, voluminous chocolate light brown eyes met the girl's honey chocolate brown one's and Ripple felt a tingling sensation as if all time had stopped.
Kaitlin felt the exact same electric connection when she stared into the girl's light brown eyes which were brightened with childish innocence despite it being red and swollen from the crying.
The brunette blinked, and Ripple was snapped out of her trance. "Oh great," thought Ripple glumly, "Now she probably thinks I'm a spacing off lunatic other than just being a big crybaby. Great start on making progress as an instead of making fun of her, the brunette just smiled and crawled behind the bush too, just not nimbly as Ripple had, seeming as if not caring that the branches were snagging at her designer sat next to Ripple, and an awkward silence passed between them. Ripple wasn't sure whether to a) make eye contact, b) say hi, or c) ask the brunette why she was here. She wanted to do d), run away, but unfortunately, running away was not an option for an alpha, so she had to go with the next best answer.
Kaitlin heard a cracked "Hey" from the girl sitting next to her. So she swiveled her head and made eye contact with the girl. The electric feeling wasn't there anymore, but in its place, Kaitlin felt a warm, fluffy feeling dragging her towards the girl. Not literally, of course, or else she might as well have been insane. But you know, more like how you had always belonged together. But don't mistake it as a lovey dovey feeling either, because Kaitlin knew that she was definitely, definitely not lesbian.
"Soooo, why are you here?" Ripple asked the mysterious brunette as she tried to pump confidence into her words. The girl smiled shyly and said, "Well, I saw your, uh, let's say, cafeteria performance. That was so brave of you.""Thanks," Ripple replied. Hearing those words had brought a real smile to her face. Ripple felt alpha confidence slowly starting to flow back in through her pores.
"I'm Ripple," she told the brunette.
"Kaitlin. Nice to meet you," the other girl said while smiling sweetly.
"Wanna hang at the mall after school? I can give you a ride home after."
"Really? But we just met…"
Ripple saw hesitance in her possible second real friend, and quickly tries to reassure Kaitlin. "Of course! How else do you make new friends? We should exchange numbers too."
"Thanks," Kaitlin said and Ripple thought to herself behind all the happiness from meeting Kaitlin in that tiny, not-so-nice corner of her brain, "Gwen, you found a beta without me, now I did the same. Two can play at that game."