-1Monday morning rolled around and Maria was a little nervous about showing up to school in her new look. She had decided the night before to wear a pair of low-rise, boot cut jeans, with a solid black shirt that stopped at the top of her pants. She then decided to wear her black and white Chuck Taylors. Her make-up was natural and her hair was down and straight. Her outfit wasn't much of a change, but it showed a little bit more skin then usual.
Her mother and father had already left for work, so they didn't get a chance to see Maria all dolled up and she was kind of thankful for that.
Isabel had told Maria that she was would pick her up for school that morning. Isabel was going to drive, pick up Tess, and then pick up Maria. Maria had about ten minutes before they would be there so she went over her homework while she waited. She was about half-way through checking her math, when she heard a car horn. Looking out the window, she saw that it was Isabel and Tess. She put away her homework and headed to the door.
"Maria, you look hot," Isabel said when she saw Maria got in the car.
"Yeah, Maria, you are so going to knock all of the boys off of their feet at school," Tess said with a huge smile on her face.
Embarrassed, Maria said, "Thanks guys, but you don't have to say that."
"But we want to, cause it's true," Isabel said. With that said, the girls headed to school.
Pulling into her usual parking spot, Isabel noticed that the boys and Liz were waiting for them. Maria also saw them and was starting to get nervous. She didn't know if Tess and Isabel would talk to her once they were outside of the jeep. Getting out of the car, Isabel asked Maria if she would be joining them for lunch. Maria said she would, but that she might be a little late. Maria was shocked that she had easily agreed, but she was starting to warm up to the girls. All three of the girls walked up to the guys and Liz.
"Guys, I would like for you to meet Maria DeLuca. Maria this is Max Evans, Alex Whitman, Kyle Valenti, Liz Parker and you already met Michael this weekend," Tess said to the group and Maria.
Everyone said hello and Kyle Valenti started asking Maria questions.
"So when did you move here, Maria?"
"I've lived here my whole life."
Kyle shook his head in disbelief. "No, there is no way you have lived here your whole life. I know all the hot girls in school and I don't know you."
"You'll have to excuse Kyle, he was born without any manners," Max said with a soft smile. "It's nice to meet you, Maria."
"Yeah," said Alex. "Now you can come see my band sometime. We're getting pretty popular. Well, not really but if you came to a show that would mean we would have seven people there instead of six."
"I'll try to make it sometime," Maria replied. Thankfully the bell rang before Alex could try and rope her into a definite date to see the band.
Once the bell was done ringing, everyone headed to his or her lockers and first class of the day. As Liz was walking to her locker, she couldn't help but to wonder if Tess and Isabel had replaced her with Maria DeLuca. She knew that they had taken Maria shopping over the weekend and that they had a girls' weekend without her. She would just have to figure out what Tess and Isabel were up to. Even during Biology Tess sat with Maria instead of with her. The project was over and yet Tess still sat with Maria. Liz just couldn't understand it.
Lunch came faster than Maria would have liked. She had wished for this for a long time, a group of people to sit with, but now she was nervous. She wasn't nervous to be around Isabel and Tess, it was just everyone else that made her nervous. What if they didn't like her? Sure they were nice to her when they met her, but they could just have been playing the nice card for Isabel and Tess's sake.
As she made her way to the cafeteria, she was so busy in her own thoughts; she didn't notice that Michael was walking with her.
"Hey Maria, what are you thinking about," he asked and smirked when he saw her jump a little.
Still a bit dazed and shocked, Maria answered, "Oh hey Michael. You kind of scared me. I'm not really thinking about anything."
"Really? You just seemed deep in thought," Michael said.
"Oh. I was just thinking about some of my homework," said Maria.
"Sounds exciting. I'm going to grab some food. Do you want anything?"
"No, I'm just going to sit down." Maria said as they reached the table.
"Suit yourself. I'll see you in a few." Michael said as he haphazardly threw his stuff in a chair and headed for the lunch line.
Maria sat down and started work on some of her homework as she waited for the others to arrive. While Michael was in line, Tess, Kyle, Isabel, and Alex showed up at the table. Tess sat across the table from Maria, while Isabel chose to sit next to Maria. Alex noticed Michael's stuff in a chair the table and asked, "Hey, where did Michael go?"
"Oh, he went to go get him something to eat," Maria answered.
"Well, I'm going to learn from Michael and get something to eat. Anyone want anything while I'm up there?" Kyle asked, standing up.
"I want a diet soda, and French fries," Isabel told Kyle, while getting out her money.
Tess was looking up at Kyle with her best smile and asked, "Baby, could you get me and Maria both some water and French fries. Please?"
"You don't have to get me anything. I'm not that hungry," Maria said to Kyle in a rush.
Tess looked at Kyle and then smiled at Maria before saying, "Don't listen to her Kyle. Please don't worry about it Maria. You're my friend and I want to buy you lunch. Next time you can buy."
"She's the boss," Kyle said with a wink at Tess. "I always do what she says. Whitman, let's leave the ladies to chat."
"But I wanted to tell Maria some more about my band," Alex protested. He quickly changed his mind when he said Isabel give him the 'one more word about your band and I will kill you' look and dutifully followed Kyle.
The guys hadn't been gone for more then a minute, before Michael came back. Michael had his lunch with him, but he also had a salad with him as well. He sat the salad down in front of Maria and said, "I thought you might like something to eat."
"Thank you. That was really nice of you," Maria said to Michael.
Michael sat down at the end of the table and said, "No problem at all."
"Hey Michael, have you seen Max or Liz?" Isabel asked.
Putting down his fork he answered, "No. Max said he had to talk to one of his teachers and would skip lunch. But I haven't seen Liz since before school."
"Okay. Thank you," Isabel said.
Kyle and Alex came back to the table and handed everyone their food. Hearing Isabel say 'Manolos', they quickly retreated to the other end of the table where Michael was sitting. Kyle was feeling slightly unmanly for knowing what Manolos were so he quickly started in on what he considered a manly subject: his newest video game.
While everyone was talking, they failed to notice that Liz had come to the table. When she dropped her books on the tabletop, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Liz.
Tess was the first one to say anything. "Where have you been all morning? I have been looking for you."
Liz responded with, "Really? What for?"
"I just wanted to ask you something, but now I forgot what it was," Tess said. With that said, Tess continued on with her conversation that she was having with Isabel and Maria.
No one had paid to much attention to the fact that there were only six chairs at the table. Liz was the only one to notice, because she was the one to pull up an extra chair. As she sat down, the bell rang signaling that lunch was over. Walking to class, Liz realized that she was alone, and she was fine with that. Walking alone gave Liz time to think about what has been going on for the past couple of weeks. Liz noticed that over the last two weeks, she had been feeling jealous over something, but she couldn't figure out what. She started to think about what was new in the lives of her friends, and only one thing stuck out: Maria DeLuca. She noticed that her two best friends were starting to replace her with Maria. That's what she was thinking anyways, and she didn't know if it was true or not. She wasn't going to ask, cause then she would look like an insecure freak, and she hated to look bad, even if it was with her friends. Liz would just have to wait and see if her gut feelings were true or not. She would just have to pay more attention to the way that her friends acted and to see if they treated her any different. She just hoped that her feelings were wrong, but she had a feeling that they weren't, and she would have to do something about it.