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they were too
wrapped up in their own conversations, so I decided that it was
beyond time to confront Maria about her lack of attention to the
things going on around her.
    “Mrs. Nielson is simply horrid.”
    “Hmmmmm.”
    “She assigned fifty pages of reading, that
monstrous project AND a test, all due next Friday.”
    “Ah.”
    “And then I saw Jack Well’s with his tongue
half-way down Darby Shaw’s throat.”
    “Mm-hmm.”
    “I also heard that the Board of Trustees
voted to have the school painted with Sparkly Glitter in honor of
Twilight.”
    “Wow.”
    “ . . . And I was abducted by aliens and
impregnated so that I’m going to have Elvis’ baby, which will most
likely claw its way out of my abdomen and leave me dying in a
large, gory, bloody mess.”
    “That’s nice.”
    “MARIA!” I snapped, pleased when my friend
jerked in her seat and looked at me. I frowned. For just a moment,
Marie’s eyes had looked strange, milky and flat, almost like they
were dead.
    “WHAT?” she snapped back at me.
    I blinked. What I thought I had seen must
have been my imagination, because Maria’s eyes were their usual
warm honey brown . . . Or they would have been had they not been
snapping in anger.
    “You weren’t listening to a single thing I
was saying,” I complained.
    “I was, too, I was just multi-tasking,” Maria
said and rolled her eyes for good measure.
    I snorted. “All right, what color did I say
they were going to paint the school?”
    “They’re painting the school?”
    “I rest my case.”
    Maria stuck her tongue out at me before she
started to giggle. I smiled at the sound. I hadn’t realized until
then just how long it had been since I last heard Maria laugh.
    “Really, Maria,” Jessica said. “You need to
start paying more attention. It’s almost like half the time you’re
not here anymore, you know?”
    The table got quiet as everyone first stared
at Jessica, small, petite with short brown hair and exotic green
eyes, then turned and looked at Maria, who stared at Jessica like
she had never seen her before. My heart sank as I saw Maria visibly
change again, this time from my grinning, giggling friend to a very
angry stranger in a matter of seconds.
    “So?” she snapped. “I have a lot on my mind.
I guess I’m not allowed to try and figure things out like the rest
of you, oh no, heaven forbid. Instead I just have to sit here and
pay attention to everyone except myself.”
    “Maria,” Danny started, only to sink back a
little when she turned her glare onto him.
    “You know what,” she said as she grabbed up
her books, “Forget it. I don’t have time for this.”
    We all watched in silence as Maria stalked
off, shocked by her sudden temper and uncharacteristic “Grand Exit;
Stage Left” maneuver. Once she was out of sight, we all turned and
stared at each other.
    “What the hell?” Danny asked. He sighed and
ran his hands through his short black hair, which gave him an even
more artfully tousled look than before. Danny was our designated
“GQ” boy, a nickname we gave him because he always dressed nicely
in slacks with some type of collared shirt in the warmer months,
turtle necks, sweaters and blazers once the weather turned
colder.
    “What did I say?” Jessica asked, her voice
small and worried as she gazed off in the direction Maria had
vanished. Poor Jessica, she was the most sensitive of our group of
friends, and I could see her trying to fight back tears and put on
a brave front despite the fact that her lower lip trembled
slightly. Danny reached over and took her hand and squeezed it as
she took in a deep breath. She sighed and the tears retreated as
her lip steadied, though she was still visibly rattled.
    “Wow, Jane, I thought you were the only one
with a major temper. Perhaps all the years ya’ll have been friends
has finally caught up to her,” Jeff said. We had nicknamed him “The
Professor”, and his absent-minded habit of pushing his wire frame
glasses on