Her Name Was Asia Ch. 2

Chapter Two: Melissa
And she would be rooted in my thoughts forever. She was a fellow human being and I didn’t treat her like one. We barely welcomed and sort of rejected. We made ourselves blind to something greater than gold. Friendship. I will forever regret what I did. My name is Melissa Castleton, a senior last year with Asia. Here is my story:

Its lunch fifth period and I’m starving. I ate breakfast at what? Five am? Anyways, it’s about eleven and I’m hungry. I slide the famous ‘geek glasses’ up my nose with my lunch tray in one hand and look for a table. Lisa is at a far table in a corner studying and Heidi is reading at a table somewhat near me. Lisa probably came in after Heidi and Heidi was so into her book she didn’t see Lisa and so Lisa passed her by and now they’re both sitting alone. I decide on Heidi and wave for Lisa to come over. Luckily she sees me and comes over.
“So, how was first period with the new girl?” Lisa asks immediately. She always wants to know if she should steer clear or steer near other people. Talking is now one of her weaknesses.
“Fine.” I answer, eating my turkey sandwich. Not the classical lunch, but the best I could do seeing that I left my real lunch on the counter at home. “Her name’s Anna or something. Real quiet. Hardly ever smiles, but quick with numbers.”
As always Heidi is so deep in her book, she barely knows we’re there.
“Heidi, did you have any classes with the new girl?” Lisa asks, giving her a poke in the ribs. “Anna?”
“Her names Asia.” Heidi says without looking up. “She’s from California and her dad just died in a car accident. Her moms work got her here.”
I gape. “How do you know all that?”
Heidi shrugs. “I asked her. This morning in the library before first period. She looked really down so I asked her who she was, why she was here and if she was new. She poured out the whole story.”
I nodded, drinking some milk.
“So she’s nice?”
“Yeah. Tear eyed at points, but was as sweet as candy the whole way through.”
I still don’t understand how Heidi can read, move body parts (like shrugging) and have a conversation all at the same time. Once I asked her and she just shrugged. That’s who she is, a shrugging person and an outcast from everything but the drama club and us geeks. She had tried to fit in. But a lot of people just blew her away. Lisa was different. Her real name is Elisabeth June Calk, but Lisa is more favorable. She had once been popular. I know reader, your laughing or gapping or wondering how the heck she’s a geek. I’ll tell you. Nattily saw her as a threat. Lisa is beautiful. Long blondish white hair that falls a little higher than the middle of her back, no glasses, fresh blue eyes like the sky, an okay to pretty awesome idea of how to dress and pure white teeth that were a tiny bit crooked, but not enough for braces. She’s practically the leader of us geeks and is on homecoming court. She wasn’t nasty like Nattily, Ella, Katrina or Maxine. As a popular person she was liked the most for her share of kindness and less backstabbing personality. She tried to be nice to not so cool people and didn’t mind if someone else got the lead in the musicals or performances. Unlike most popular girls who are in Chorus, this girl was happy in Orchestra and made many geek friends. Including me. Therefore she was liked more and more. Nattily wanted to be liked the most. But she squinted meanly at geeks and people who got in her way, glared at people who barely brushed against her and looked down on anyone not as high as she was. We just couldn’t like her. Slowly Nattily’s power was being drained. We obeyed her less do to the fact that Lisa was proof all popular people were not mean and demanding. We stood up for ourselves and some even dared to dress and act the way they wanted instead of how the popular kids wanted us to. It was like a huge rebellion. A huge rebellion that was crushed. Nattily quickly spread rumors that weren’t true, but somehow believed. She got pictures of Lisa cheating, sneering and backstabbing geeks and orchestra dorks. We never got a chance to ask Lisa if all of this was true, she was absent that week due to the flu. We slowly uncrowned our queen. Nattily showed pictures of Lisa with dorks and geeks to Katrina, Maxine and Ella and she was thereby removed from their group. Now that Lisa was out of power she could not set trends, only follow them. Right before she was told she was no longer popular, The Girls came to her and helped her get rid of the ‘out of fashion’ clothes she had. However, those clothes were still stylish. Lisa had fewer cool clothes and hardly any money and time to replace it all. She didn’t want to lead her geek and dork friends, so she bought more clothes like us and stepped down gracefully. There you are reader, Lisa’s story. Heidi grew up in this school system. She was always bright, always friendly. Before the boundaries were set in elementary school we were all friends, even Nattily, Ella and Katrina. Maxine transferred in middle school. Towards middle school people started to classify us as smarter, not geeks. At the end of middle school the label ‘geek’ finally made it ways to us and smacked us on the forehead. Heidi took it with a smile on her face and book in hand. Ever since that’s what she’s been, a geek that doesn’t try to be what she’s not. We respect her; most orchestra and band dorks do, along with many other geeks. She’s wonderful to cheat off of, according to what Lisa warned. I wondered what Asia would be and how the label would hit. A thought slipped into my mind. She seems fine. I don’t really want her with my two friends, she can make her own. I want this to stay the way it’s always been. Okay, that’s mean. But at the moment, its what I feel. She’s a stranger, different and unlabeled. It’s almost like I’m scared of her.
“Guys, is that her?”
I point over at a girl with wavy/curly blackish hair that comes down to about the middle of her back, pale skin and glasses.
“Yep.” Heidi gives a nod after a glance at her. “Invite her over. Trust me, she’s nice. And lonely.”
I almost snap ‘do it yourself’, but think otherwise. The girl’s holding her tray with a book under it and scanning the whole lunchroom with eyes that say ‘please let there be someone, please let there be someone’. Of course, when Heidi pops her head up to get a drink, she sees her anyways and comes over.
“Hi. Can I sit with you? I know Heidi. Well, kinda.”
“Sure.” Heidi shrugs and flips a page in her book.
Asia smiles, showing nice enough teeth for an unlabeled-possible-geek. The rest of lunch is silent. Lisa is studying Asia and doing evaluations of her in her mind, I’m eating while doing some homework and both Heidi and Asia are reading and eating at the same time. When the bell rings we shoot up, remember to smile at Asia and go on our way.