Page 35 of As the Rain Falls
She makes her way across the cafeteria, holding my right hand like we did back in second grade, and pulling me.I just follow, tracing after her.
“Nobody talks to me around here.”
“Well, that’s because your dad is the principal.” I give her a long look. She quickly adds, “No offense, really. He’s actually kind of nice.”
I shake my head. The principal’s daughter is always hated. It’s a rule in the high school popularity contest, or something. They read my name and immediately think that I’m stuck up, which I kind of am.
“That’s not it, Kayla.” I press my books tighter against my chest. “They think I’m weird.”
“They think you have an advantage because Daddy has contacts.”
Contacts who might help me with getting early admissions into some very fancy international universities by the end of the school year.She’s wrong, though. It’s not just that I am my father’s daughter; that’s not the only issue. I’m just not the best at first or second impressions.
I’m shy and introverted. I like all the things other kids my age do, but I tend to like them obsessively.Books are never just books. Movies are never just movies. Bands are never just bands. Everything I love consumes me forever and becomes my entire personality, and I can never crack the code on how to make myself seem cooler.
I don’t know how to talk to them without feeling nervous, which means that I just… I just say nothing and stare, hoping they’ll get the memo.
What if they hate me?
What if I sound too stupid?
“I’m just saying.” Kayla stops and smiles confidently. “It’s simple-minded people’s jealousy, Cassie. You’re way too pretty and too kind to care about them, so don’t let it get to you.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“Of course, I am.” She steals an apple from the fruit trail and hands it to me. I take it. “You know I’d never lie to you about it.”
“I don’t want another teacher. I’m happy with the one I have right now. Nobody is better at adding numbers than you are.”
“Beckett Evans is. He even won two awards for it.” She shows me two of her fingers. “Isn’t he literally your neighbor? You could ask him for help.”
My stomach does a weird flip.
I take a bite, considering the idea.
“This is really sweet.”
“Is it? Then, I’ll take one for me too,” she smiles, showing perfect white teeth. “So? Are you going to ask him?”
A second later, I shake my head.
“I don’t think so,” I admit.
“He works at the farm, right? It could be a side hustle or something,” Kayla presses, biting her apple and humming with satisfaction. “So sweet!”
“Right.” I take another bite, hiding my mouth with my hand as I chew. “I should distract him from the impending doom caused by the death of his sister and show him high school-level equations.”
Kayla winces, certainly thinking of Lucia Evans now.
“I kind of forgot about that part.”
“Let’s just find a table, okay?”
She points at an empty table in a corner, close to food trails. “This one?”
I shrug my shoulders. “Sure.”
Once we’re sat, I open my books and try to find the chapters I was supposed to read for our history assignment. I feel Kayla’s gaze over me, like she’s thinking about something.
