2009 . 02 . 06 – 11:02PM

“Wow, you’re looking mighty fresh today.”

The bustling noise of students walking in the hallways occurred as time went by.  Students were at their lockers, getting their books and things— others going straight to class in another area.  A tall, androgynous girl smiled to herself, putting a Pre-Calculus book into her bag.

Amber turned her head, “Hey, Erika,” she beckoned her chin at the drink she was holding, “Red bull again today?  Can’t sleep at night?”

Erika nodded as she leaned against a locker near Amber’s.  She sighed, “Yep.  My period’s been killing me lately.”

Amber shrugged and closed her locker, fixing her backpack on herself, putting one of the straps on, while the other one hung loose.  The both of them began to walk to their Pre-Calculus class and Amber patted Erika’s back, “Hey, it’s alright.  You’ll be able to sleep some day.”

Erika chuckled and rolled her eyes.  She took a sip from her can and cleared , “Anyways, I hear that there’s a new student in our class today.  She transferred from the USA.”

Amber nodded out of slight amusement.  They soon began to talk about other random stuff, while they continued to walk to class.  Erika Yang; Amber got pretty close to her after being introduced to her by Jay when she first got to Korea.  She knew that Erika was a lesbian; the thing was, she wasn’t open to it.  Her friends only knew, which was basically there typical “clique.”  Her parents didn’t know and she was already dating someone.  Amber, of course, didn’t judge— nope, she never judged.  Erika grew to be one of Amber’s close friends and she didn’t want to throw that away.

“Did you see Michelle’s dress today?” Erika asked, breaking Amber’s thoughts.  The latter shook her head.

“It’s crazy.  We’re supposed to deliver flowers and whatever, and we had to dress nicely, but she went overboard.  She looks like she’s about to go to prom with Nick,” Erika explained.

Amber shrugged, “It’s Michelle; she always overboards things.”

“I guess.  But hey, like I said, you look fresh today, haha.”

Amber looked at herself, from head to toe, making a brief stop.  She was wearing dark blue jeans, with white Nike low top sneakers.  She also wore a maroon American Eagle long sleeve sweater.  She continued walking with Erika and chuckled, “It’s a simple outfit.  All I did was wear something similar to red.”

“Yeah, but have you seen the way the girls have been eyeing you lately?  Talk about a prince charming,” Erika cackled in.

Amber laughed and rolled her eyes, as they both made it to class.  They sat down in their seats and went on with doing their own thing.  Sooner or later, without any notice, class started and the lesson was soon taught.  Amber drifted off into her own world and twirled her pen back and forth.  She went over what time she had to report to the storage room on the first floor, to when she had to deliver the flowers during the periods given to her.

Apparently, she was the only one in the room who didn’t notice that a beautiful, slender girl walked inside during the middle of class.  Eros, who was next to Amber, kept his eyes on her the entire time.  The room grew silent and the girl introduced herself.

The teacher, however, caught Amber in lalala land.  She smacked her hand against the chalkboard, causing Amber to jump in surprise, “Amber Liu.”

“Uh…” Amber looked around her and then noticed the unknown girl in front of the classroom.  She was light skinned, and she didn’t look pure Korean— or for that matter, she didn’t look pure of anything.  She had long, black hair, passing her shoulders, her hair parting on the right side.  She was wearing blue skinny jeans with black and white Converse sneakers.  She also wore a white graphic t-shirt under a yellow cardigan.  She also had a messenger bag that was beige around her shoulder.  The more Amber looked at her, the more she found a striking resemblance with a Canadian actress named Shay Mitchell, which was weird, since she never thought about actresses nowadays.

“Maybe you can show Ms. Nguyen around the school during your lunch period,” the teacher said through slightly gritted teeth, but still smiled.  As Amber stared back, the teacher mumbled something to herself that was inaudible. 

Amber looked at the girl, and the girl smiled at her.  She smiled back and nodded slowly.  She silently grimaced to herself, realizing that she had to skip her lunch period… again. 

“Yeah, sure.  No problem,” she assured.

“Good.  Well, you can take a seat behind Amber there, Ms. Nguyen.”  The teacher directed the girl by the name to the seat and she sat down.

Amber turned around in her seat.  She turned her head back around to make sure that the teacher wasn’t looking at them; trying to avoid being caught doing something that would cause another commotion.  “Hi, I’m Amber.  Nice to meet you,” she whispered and offered out a hand.

The girl took the hand and smiled, “Nice to meet you, too.  I’m Vanessa; I just transferred here from America.”

Amber nodded, “Ah, so you’re the new kid that everyone’s talking about.  Sorry, I tend to space out in her class a lot so that explains what happened just now.”

Vanessa giggled.  She shook her head, “Don’t worry about it.”  She looked at the teacher, “Is she always like that, though?”

“Naw, she’s usually cool with everyone spacing out but since you’re here, she considers it rude for me to just ignore everything going on,” Amber replied.

The latter nodded and sat back in her seat and Amber turned around.  Time flew by and Amber thanked the Lord as soon as she heard the bell ring.  She packed her stuff into her bag and slung it over her shoulder, getting up from her seat.  She turned to the person behind her. 

“You ready?  I’ll show you around now.”

Vanessa smiled and got up, placing her messenger bag over her, “Yeah, let’s go.”

Amber smiled back and turned to Eros, “Hey, tell Krystal that I’ll pick her up at her locker after school today.  We have practice, so I’ll just walk with her.”

Eros answered with an affirmative and everyone left the classroom.

12:23PM

“And this here is the music room; the only one out of three we have in this school.  The other two are on the other floors, but this one is the biggest.”

Vanessa nodded and she and Amber continued to walk around the quiet hallway.  “Sorry for cutting your lunch period, by the way,” she said with a sympathetic smile.

Amber shook her head, “Don’t worry about it.  It’s fine,” she ended her statement with a chuckle. 

“You’re a good tour guide.  Have you been here for a long time?”  Vanessa asked.

“No, not at all, haha.  But I know my way around.”

“Well, judging by your good English accent, I’m gonna assume that you’re from the USA, right?”

Amber nodded, “Yep.  California represent,” she said as she lightly pounded her chest and gave out a peace sign.  Vanessa laughed slightly.

The both of them soon started on getting to know each other, throwing out the question game.  It turned out that the two of them had a lot in common.  They had the same taste in music, same taste in sports, and same taste in literally everything.  Vanessa wasn’t much of a girly girl since she was athletic, but she still had that girly side that attracted people to her.  It was a charm that Amber caught on that most girls didn’t have, and it surprised her.

Vanessa was a New York resident, but because of work, her parents moved to California, then moved to South Korea for business.  As Amber assumed earlier, Vanessa wasn’t pure Korean, but she was one-third of it from her mother’s side.  The rest of her was another third of Vietnamese and the other third of her was Filipino.  Judging by how gorgeous she was, Amber realized that mixing a lot of Asian’s together made good looking babies.

Unlike Amber, however, she was a senior, just like Eros.  Still, the slight age difference didn’t let them get any awkward.  They walked to the library as Amber was soon concluding the tour.

“And here’s the—”

“Library,” Vanessa cut in with a smile, “I can see, too, you know?  The books make it obvious.”

Amber raised her eye brows with a playful pout, “Ah, someone’s got a humorous intelligence.”

They both laughed.  Looking at a nearby wall clock, Amber noticed that there was about fifteen minutes until the period ended, so, Amber suggested that they walk down to lunch in the mean time.

“So, was it hard for you to leave California to come half way around the world?” Amber asked.

Vanessa nodded, “Yeah.  But hey, when you leave things behind, you always gain something, right?” She stretched a little, “Besides, I like starting fresh.”

“Something back at home?”

“Not really; it’s just that California was beginning to feel like prison to me since people changed their views on stuff… that’s all.  Not that it’s bad or anything; and trust me, I miss my friends,” she reasoned.

Amber nodded, “I understand that.  But, views on stuff?  What do you mean?  You lost me there.”

Vanessa contemplated for a minute.  Sure she met Amber no longer than like what— thirty minutes ago?  Amber was a cool kid, but Vanessa was still unaware of how cool she was.  But it was worth a shot.  She shrugged, “Are you a judger?”

The latter shook her head, “Definitely not.”

“Good.  I’m gay.”

As if it can get any more straightforward than this.  Amber caught and swallowed her saliva at the wrong time and it sent her on a joyride through some serious coughing.  Vanessa grimaced slightly as she patted the choking junior next to her on the back.  In no time, Amber managed to straighten herself out.  She fixed her shirt and assured Vanessa that she was fine.

Vanessa scratched her head, “I guess that surprised you… huh?”

“Yeah… but not in a bad way,” Amber answered quickly.  She scanned the girl in front of her from head to toe, “It just didn’t seem like it.”

“Ah, a pretty girl like me can’t be a lesbian?” Vanessa teased.  But Amber agreed, with a serious face.

“Oh, so you agree.”  Amber gave out a questioning look.  “You think I’m pretty,” the latter stated.

Amber could feel her face go hot and she blinked multiple times, “No— I mean, ye— I mean, not like—”

Laughter was heard from the older girl, “Calm down, Amber, I was only joking around.”

Amber gave out a chuckle, embarrassment and relief apparent in her breathe.  “Will your friends be okay with it?” Vanessa asked.  They continued walking to lunchroom, now heading down the hallway after leaving the staircase.

She nodded, “Definitely.  We’re not judgers.  You’ll be good; trust me.”  Vanessa smiled at the response.

“So…” Amber started.  She put her hands in her pockets, “Did you leave a girlfriend back home?”

The latter shook her head, “I’ve been single for two years.”

Amber’s eyes widened slightly.  To think that this girl would be single for that long… is shocking.  “Really?”

“Mhm.  My last ex was annoying and I just focused on school since the break up.”

Amber whistled after hearing the statement.  A silence aura now walked with them to the cafeteria.  But it wasn’t a bad thing; it didn’t make Amber uncomfortable— it actually gave her time to think.  Amber questioned to herself in her head why Vanessa suddenly came out to her like that.  Not to mention how easy it was for her to just say it.  She took a glance at the girl next to her at the corner of her eye, and she found that Vanessa was thinking, as well.  Too bad that she couldn’t read minds; her face was pretty much unreadable.

There was something about Vanessa that… actually attracted Amber to her.  Amber couldn’t find the exact thing to what it was, but the more she thought about it, the bigger the headache developing in her head soon began to grow.  This was what she hated— finding something she couldn’t explain.  She her teeth subconsciously.  The frustration built up inside her; making the bar rise higher and higher.  Amber just met the girl in her math class, and it hasn’t even been a full day.  Yet, she feels as if she’s known Vanessa ever since she was little.

She never opened up to people easily, but she had the feeling that maybe she would end up spilling a lot into the older girl.  That, however, made her afraid.  Then again, she found herself liking it; the thrill of it all in taking a chance somehow increased Amber’s adrenaline.

The both of them soon got to the cafeteria and entered.  Heading to the usual table, Amber found her friends sitting down and chatting, as always.  They caught their attention and when Amber and Vanessa reached the table, they smiled.

“Guys, this is Vanessa.  She has Pre-Calculus with Erika, Eros, and I,” Amber said.

“Hi,” Vanessa said with a bright smile.

“This is Michelle and Nick.  You already know Eros and Erika from class.”  They all greeted the new kid with a smile and wave and soon, Vanessa was part of the crew.  Amber smiled to herself, noticing how well Vanessa and the others were getting along.  In the long run, Vanessa came out to them, and the response that everyone gave out was a positive one— no one really cared who was gay or not.  It made Vanessa feel extremely comfortable and assured that she had friends on the first day of school.

“Hey, have you seen Jay?” Amber asked, finally realizing that one of their members was missing.

“Oh crap, I forgot to tell you,” Eros shouted as he snapped his fingers.  Amber looked at him, “What?”

“Your shift for delivering flowers was shifted to his time; you should go to the storage room now.”

Amber groaned, “Great.  Work.  Alright, I’ll see you guys later.  Bye.”

“Work?” Vanessa asked with a confused facial expression, as Amber got up from her seat.  Amber stared at her for a bit, finding the facial expression slightly cute.  But before she could speak, Erika beat it to her, “The juniors have a fundraiser for Valentine’s Day where they deliver flowers to whomever people send it to.”

Vanessa nodded, now realizing what the event was going on.  “It explains why she and some others are wearing red, right now,” Erika added.

“Yeah, so I’ll see you later.  Bye, guys,” Amber said, jogging out of the cafeteria.  Just as she exited the room, the bell rung and she bit her lip.  “I better get to that room quickly before the halls get crowded,” she said to herself.  She switched her jogging into real running and in time before it got chaotic in the hallways, she made it to the storage room and found Jay with other students getting classrooms, names, and flowers.

Jay saw Amber enter and he smiled, “Yo, Amber.  Come on, I was about to go and find you; you’re coming with me.  We have the same rooms, again.”

Amber nodded and dropped her bag in the corner, leaving with Jay.

“So, I hear that there’s this hot new senior in your math class,” Jay began.  Amber rolled her eyes.  Jay was always like this— Amber wondered if he was that desperate to find a girlfriend older than him or if he was trying to get a higher reputation by getting an older girlfriend.  Both didn’t make sense, but either way, Jay was still asking for someone to be with.  He had admirers, that’s for sure, but never girls that were his age, and certainly not girls that were older than him.

“Wanna hook me up?” he nudged Amber at the side and winked.  Amber laughed, “I don’t think she’s your type man.”  Technically, it was true.  Amber was just never good with coming out with the truth right away sometimes.

“Not my type?” Jay asked in disbelief.  He stopped walking, followed by Amber.  He pointed at himself with both hands, “Dude, I’m gorgeous.  Come on.”

Amber leaned on one side and put a hand in her pocket.  She scratched the back of her head with her free hand, “Well, if ‘lesbian’ is your type, then I guess I’ll consider it.”  That sure left him in a dump.  Jay’s mouth dropped subconsciously, which caused the latter to chuckle.  Amber patted his arm and continued walking to their first classroom.  Jay caught up, though, “Are you serious?  She’s gay?”

Amber nodded and exhaled, “Yeah.  She told me when I was giving her a tour around the school last period.”

“Wow… that .  Ugh, why do all of the hot girls need to be gay…” Jay muttered.

Amber heaved a laugh and looked at her list.  Her eye brows scrunched together as she squinted, reading the first name.  She looked at the flowers Jay was holding.  A smile crept up upon her face and she shook her head.  Amber switched around the cards she was holding and made sure she got the designated card for the right person ready to hand to, before getting to their destination.

“Give me the 3 white roses, will you?” Amber asked as she read over the card.  Jay obliged and gave them to her just as she asked.

“Who are those for?  Those are the only ones in the room, I heard.”

“Yeah, I ordered them.  I totally forgot about it until now.”

“Oh, but— wait, you ordered these?  Everyone else ordered like, daisies and regular roses, but you got white roses?” Jay questioned with a raised eye brow.

Amber nodded.  Jay eyed the girl next to her as they continued walking.  What is this chick thinking?

Before Jay could bring himself to ask or say anything else, they made it to their first classroom.  And to Jay’s surprise, it was a familiar classroom in the middle school area.

Amber knocked on the closed door, waiting for a teacher to open it.  Jay gave out a small smirk, “You did… didn’t you.” It was more of a statement than a question.

The door opened before Amber could say anything and the teacher welcomed them inside.  “Hey, guys,” Amber began.  “We’re here to give the flowers to some fellas here,” Jay said with a smile.

Without any signal, Amber searched for a special person in the room.  She happened to lock eyes with her and she gave out a small smile.  With the three white roses in hand, and the card, she walked over to the familiar friend she knew and handed them to her.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Krystal.”

Krystal smiled but punched Amber, as the latter gave out a breathless laugh from the gesture.  She looked at the card, trying to hide the face she thought was blushing.  “You dork,” she stated after she finished reading it, “I should’ve bought something for you.”

Amber shook her head, “Naw, don’t worry about it.  Just think of this as a peace treaty for all the fights and violence we cause each other whenever we practice or hang out, haha.”

Krystal laughed and nodded, “Well, thanks.  I appreciate it.”

“I’m sure you do,” Amber responded slyly and turned back around, heading back to the front.

Once Amber reached the front, Krystal watched both her and Jay give the flowers out one by one to everyone.  She looked at the flowers resting on her desk, and then at the ones she received from Amber.  Her eyes moved to everyone else’s in the room.  And then, it hit her— she was the only one who got white roses.  She swallowed the small lump developing in from the mere excitement she felt inside of her, but she still felt… weird about it.  Krystal couldn’t necessarily jump to conclusions since she didn’t really observe anyone else outside of the classroom that got white roses; she decided to herself that she would once class ended.

Jay and Amber thanked the teacher for taking time from the lesson and left the room.  Without herself noticing, Krystal’s eyes were still on the roses she got from Amber.  It was a Valentine’s Day/Flower Day thing; everyone was giving flowers to everyone; it didn’t mean anything.  She was sure that Amber got her friends flowers, too, that was just how Amber was.  She was too nice to not give anyone else flowers on this day.  If there was anyone that would blow out their bank account on their friends, it was Amber.  She always offered to pay for food whenever she hung out with anyone.  So, getting something from her wasn’t special, right?  At least, that’s what Krystal kept telling herself.

“Yeah, and you say that nothing goes on between you two, right?”

She turned her head to the back and was met with one of her guy friends, Aiden.  He knew about the situation regarding Joanne having a school girl crush on Krystal’s best friend.  Thankfully, Joanne wasn’t in class to see that Amber gave her the flowers; it was one of the moments where she was glad that Joanne didn’t have English with her.  Despite what was going on within their group, Aiden was okay with Amber and Krystal hanging out.  Krystal knew that Ashley felt some type of discomfort, along with Joanne, whenever she was seen with Amber.  But Aiden was actually okay with it; maybe because he was a guy and he didn’t mind seeing a girl on girl WWE smack down if a random truth was given out.  That, however, was unlikely.

Still, every one of Krystal’s friends knew that she wasn’t shady to do that type of thing to Ashley.  That was just beyond the definition of wrong.  But to make things worse, no one knew that Amber was a girl; they just knew Amber as the “upper classman that Krystal always hung out with during school and after school”, who was a “guy”.

She rolled her eyes at Aiden’s statement, “Shut up.  I’m serious.  There’s nothing going on between us.”

He scoffed.  “Whatever you say, Krystal.  Whatever, you say.”