Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Handful of Sand Chapter 2 Page 2

When she reached her classroom, Sandy stood in the middle and had a look around the room. There were a few other students there. She recognized the brown-skinned girl near the back of the class. A pair of large golden loops hung from her ears, partly hidden by her free-flowing curly black hair. She wore a white blouse with a blue vest that matches her skirt. Sandy had seen her before in middle school, though she could not remember her name - they had not been in the same class.

The curly-haired girl was speaking to another girl who had similar skin tone. That other girl was taller and had brown hair long enough to reach her waist. Her ponytail was clipped twice, once at her neck and once more near the bottom end. She was dressed in slacks tied with a thin belt and wore a small watch on one wrist and on the other, a pair of bracelets, one thick and shiny black while the other was a slim polished brown.

The taller girl had some form of mature beauty to her. She had the height and the small swell on her chest was a well-shaped compliment to her lithe body. The spectacles she wore made her look intelligent, helped along with her confident speech and pose. Well, Sandy could only guess about the speech from the way she spoke since the girls were not speaking in English.

"Hey, Sandy," Ariel called from beside her after she had deposited her bag, "I guess you don't know where your seat is?"

"Huh?" Sandy turned to her friend. "Um, yeah."

Ariel pointed at a desk in the front row, near the door. "That one."

"It's amazing you..."

Ariel held up a hand to stop her. "It's written in your handout. Seriously, you ought to read the stuff the teachers give you."

"Uh, Ariel, do you know what language they are speaking?" Sandy asked to steer the conversation away from the uncomfortable subject of her ignorance. She nodded in the direction of the brown-skinned girls.

Ariel listened for a moment. "Spanish," she replied confidently.

"You sure?" Sandy asked, hoping to find some fault in little Miss-Know-It-All.

Ariel turned back to Sandy and spoke a few halting words similar to the ones the brown-skinned girls were using.

"I guess you are."

"The curly-haired girl looks familiar," Ariel mentioned.

"She should, she was in our school," Sandy said, happy that she had finally found something that Ariel did not know.

Ariel took out her handout and flipped to the page on class seating. "Ah, she's Esperanza," she said softly, "I thought I knew her."

Okay, so she knew the girl's name too. Ariel had probably heard the name before somewhere.

Sandy stepped over to see the paper. "Does it also say who the taller girl is?"

Ariel shook her head. "No, she could be any of these girls." She pointed at the feminine names on the seating arrangement. "Why don't we go ask?"

"Let's go." Sandy went with Ariel to meet the girls.

"Hi, you're Esperanza, right?" Ariel began.

"Ah, yes. Oh, and you're... um... I know you... don't tell me..." Esperanza held a hand to her forehead as she thought. "You're the 'Air Blimp'!"

Ariel huffed at that. It could not be good sign if the only thing remembered of her was an embarrassing nickname.

The taller girl beside Esperanza hid her laughter with her left hand.

Esperanza was still thinking. "I know your name has something to do with 'Air Blimp'..."

"Take the 'Air' and add some 'Real' to it. It's Ariel!" the blond told her before her embarrassing nickname was repeated for a third time.

"Ah, yes, Ariel. Um, please, call me Esper. Just don't shorten it anymore to 'Ass', okay?"

(Of course Ariel would be seriously considering that after being reminded of the 'Air Blimp' twice.)


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