At lunch break, Sandy ate at the cafeteria with her gossip group. Selina and Esper both finished early and left together. Having nothing to do after she herself was done, Sandy watched patiently as Ariel consumed her food.
"Who would have thought that Esper's adopted?" Sandy asked rhetorically.
Ariel mumbled her agreement as she chewed on her candy bar, the last of her lunch.
"I wished I had adoptive parents too," the brown-haired girl continued, "Kind parents who'd give me nice clothes and good food."
Her blond friend concurred again with uttered grunts.
Sandy stared off into the distance. "Give me a big pretty bedroom, a soft comfy bed, fluffy pillows..."
Her friend was not listening. Instead, Ariel was intent on sucking every little bit of sweetness out of her chunk of candy.
Sandy fixed her brown eyes on Ariel. "Hey, are you done filling the Air Blimp yet?" she asked.
Ariel immediately stopped and glared at her. She swallowed. "Gosh, Sandy, you really know how to spoil a good thing, you know that!?" She wrapped up the last bit of her candy bar and shoved it into her skirt pocket. She stood up with with her lunch box in her hand.
"Sorry," Sandy said unapologetically as she also stood up with her own blue lunch box.
Ariel breathed an irritated snort. "You always say that, you know. And yet you still call me that! Sometimes I think you call me that just to irritate me. It's like you always look for the perfect opportunity to spring that on me." She kept complaining as they walked to the washroom.
"What's it with you and Esper? You both know I don't like being called that yet you two keep calling me that," Ariel continued her complaint as she did her business, locked in a toilet stall, while Sandy did hers in a neighboring one. She griped loud enough for the other girls in the washroom to hear.
"Are you two having a contest to see who can call me that the most times or something?" Ariel whined on as the girls washed their hands.
Sandy caught a glimpse of the view outside through the washroom windows. It was drizzling again. The treetops rustled in the light wind. She shivered involuntarily. She zipped her jacket up tighter as she left the washroom behind Ariel.
As they approached their classroom, Sandy realized that it was quiet. Other students around were hurrying along, keeping their eyes down. Even Ariel had stopped making noise.
In front of class 9-C, Sandy saw Connie and Annie facing each other. Neither spoke a word but each gave the other a hard stare. As Sandy approached, she stole a look at the girls. Neither girl gave her a glance, each intent in their staring contest.
Sandy felt the temperature drop even further. The air felt thick and stuffy. The environment felt even more hostile as she passed the girls. It was as if Connie and Annie had summoned a suffocating presence between them though they did nothing and said nothing.
The air was breathable again once Sandy entered her class. She realized that she had held her breath the entire time.
***
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