Virgin Mary

|8| Hanging out

This is the address Sakura had given me. I looked at her fancy homely house with evenly cut grass and freshly painted walls. I've don't remember my family ever having to boast of having a house like this.

We're nomadic like that.

I walked into the front porche and hesitated to ring the doorbell. What if this was a sick prank. What if she wasn't really up to being my friend? What if she was just as mindless as everyone at school. What if?

With a stuck of courage, I rang the doorbell. Moments later, she emerged out of the house wearing a white blouse and khaki shorts.

"Ethan, I didn't actually think you'd show up. Come in." She smiled.

She actually smiled.

"So, we've got a dilemma in our hands." She started. We were actually debating on which pizza flavour to order and we've decided to go about the right way and vote. Democratically. But it didn't quite work, there's a tie. Two for cheese, two for the vegetarian pizza. It happens all the time."

"We?" I asked puzzled and I got my answer once we walked into her sitting room, and there were three figures already occupying the couch.

Trent, the blonde haired mess, who didn't look happy with my presence.

The tomboy Dylan, who, if you didn't look at twice, looks amicably like boy.

And Yash, the Indian guy who looked amused by me.

"Guys, remember Ethan?" she announced my arrival.

"Hi" I greeted.

"Hey." They said, with little the tiniest enthusiasm in the world.

"Um, Sakura. Can I talk to you in the kitchen?" The Trent asked.

"Sure..." she followed him. It was crystal clear that I was not welcome here.

I sat down on the couch, not feeling very confident and out of place.

"Why is he here? Are you crazy?" I heard Trent say through the walls.

"Don't be like that Trent, be nice, okay?" Sakura's voice was hushed. "Shh. Now grab some chips."

"Wow. Sound sure does travel in this house." I mumbled, not expecting it to be heard by anyone.

Yash began laughing. "Ignore them, everyone was thinking that anyway. But the business at hand is that I can't believe you're actually a virgin."

The Dylan looked at him. "Yash, what are you saying? You are a virgin too." She simply stated.

"I know, but his case is different."

"How so?"

"I don't know. Maybe because of the fact that the whole school knows, and he's trending."

"I'm sure as hell that he won't stop trending after what happened at lunch."

"Yeah, that was crazy. I doubt that he'll survive Nicole."

"Right? He won't make it past the semester."

"Don't be too generous, won't make it past this month." They guffaw.

"Um, you know I'm right here?" I say because they they were talking about me as though they were behind my back.

"Yeah, but we weren't talking TO you, we were talking ABOUT you. I don't know you told you that you had the right to listen to what we have to say about you." The tomboy says.

"I suppose Nicole is not the only mean one at school?" I folded my arms.

"You'll live and learn. But tell me how it feels knowing that you won't make it past this month?"

They both laugh and give each other a high five.

"Do you know what will happen if anyone at school finds out we hang out with him." I heard more of the muffled conversation through the wall.

"No one will find out, Trent."

"But–"

"I said be nice." I heard a huge thud, an indication that she had just kicked Trent.

I hope he kicked him in the shin.

They both emerged autonomously from the kitchen, with Sakura carrying two packets of chips. Trent came out with a limp.

"Sorry, we couldn't decide on the flavour so we just decided to get both." Sakura said holding up two packets of chips.

"Make yourself welcome, man." He smiled and offered his hand. Again. He's now obliged to be nice with me.

"Hey," I hesitantly shook his hand, leaned in then whispered. "I'm sorry that she kicked your shin."

"I wish that was what she kicked." He whispered back in masked pain and I broke into dance internally.

"So, we aren't eating pizza tonight?" Dylan questions.

"We are. We're getting extra cheese right?" Sakura says.

"No!" Trent and the tomboy screamed.

"Guys, I told you this, you just can't keep naming yourself vegan when you keep losing your vegan-ity at the end of every day." She stopped then said to me. "Sorry for the bad joke."

"It's cool." I say nonchalantly. This is my life now.

"So, let's settle the tie. Ethan, cheese or vegan pizza?"

I looked at everyone's faces and they were clearly waiting for my answer and I felt the weight of this decision. If I choose cheese, Yash and Dylan would be mad, but if I choose the vegetarian pizza, Sakura and Trent would be mad. And Trent shows objective behaviour towards me.

"Gee guys." I push my glasses back. "Why don't we just get both."

"With whose money?" The tomboy folded her arms with scorn written all over her face.

"No. I mean, there's this pizza place that we can order from down town. They serve up to more than one flavour on just one pizza."

"That would be a good idea. If we had their number." Yash said sarcastically. "How we going to order? You got a flyer?"

"Better." I said. "I have the number in my head."

"Who does that?" Trent says.

Apparently, me.

We ordered the pizza and Sakura told me to write down the number for her. She claimed that this restaurant is the answer to most of the problems of this group.

We waited on the pizza while we played a game of assassin's creed. It was a completely different playing along with people for a change, even though they did not exactly like me.

"I hate losing, this game sucks." Sakura sighs.

"You know. If you want, I know how to make the game interesting."

"How so?" She asks.

"I can hack the game and do some coding. Maybe incorporate some genetic material from my other games."

"That does sound interesting. How do you intend on doing so?" She replies.

"Easily. I always change the genetic state of this game, which will be easy."

I take the computer and suddenly, everyone leans in while I hack the game. It felt odd being the centre of attention. I mean in a good way, not the evil-girl-calling-me-her-b***h way.

"Done."

"What exactly did you do?" Dylan asks.

"Let me demonstrate." I say as I pick up my controller. And everyone oohed and aahed.

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"That was so cruel." Yash said, his mouth filled with cheese pizza.

Pizza arrived. Nobody dared to touch the vegan portion of the pizza. So much for vegan-ity. I ate only from the vegan side of the pizza because if we all ate from the cheesy side, we wouldn't all get enough.

"That was very cruel." Trent says after I beat at another game for the hundredth time now.

"Not as cruel as Ethan's current predicament." Dylan says and everyone agrees simultaneously.

"Did you see that meme. Comedy. Gold." Yash says and everyone laughs.

"Okay guys, I get it. I'm a loser, can we change the topic now?"

"Sure Virgin Mary. How's emo chick treating ya?" Trent jokes, while he shoves at my shoulders.

"No, but seriously. How is it? Being her b***h? I mean, is she skipping the good treatment phase because... dude." Dylan drags the last word in the sentence.

"Actually, I'm pretty confused. She hasn't really bullied me yet, but again, we've only been at school for like a week, so..."

"Ethan, if a girl that hot decides to bully me. I'll let her. You let her bully you, man. You let her." Yash advises me, it came out more of a warning though.

"Don't you guys have some anger management class or counselling session she could attend at school? I believe she needs serious psychological help."

The group laughed.

"I'm serious, I think I should have this matter to the principal. Any intellectual can see that what she does is not of moral or ethical standing."

The group laughed even harder.

"You want to report her?" Trent says. "Where do you even begin? The hierarchy does not support your statement."

"Hierarchy? What is this hierarchy I've been hearing about?"

"Oh, it's just the law that everyone at school abides by." Dylan says with a shrug. "Everyone is under that law. It was first an unspoken law but some genius decided to make it into a actual thing. Curtis Bullard."

"I'm still not understanding what it is."

"So initially, every school is divided into cliques. The popular kids, the jocks, the cheerleaders, the outcasts. But this school has a very specific category of people in the social hierarchy." Sakura explains.

"See," she draws triangle on the pizza box and divides it into five sections. This is now starting to feel like a cult. "The top represents the person with the highest power in school."

"Let me guess, Nicole?"

"You guessed it."

"The second is the second highest person with power."

I squinted my face, trying to figure out what group of people lie in the second rank. Jocks maybe?

"Heather Wallace." She says.

"Who's that?" I questioned.

"Only one of the hottest girl in school. She's almost at the same level of social standing with Nicole. Except she's not quite that rich and not that mean." Yash jumps in to explain.

"The third is the jocks. Put on pads and a helmet, you automatically become a football god here. The world is yours. They are the schools prized possession for their winnings and Nicole inevitably controls them."

"Doesn't she control everything?"

"She sure does. But she uses them as bouncers and hitmen."

"She sleeps with them. Doesn't she?" I asked.

"Nicole? Hell no. She's way to good for high school boys. There was a rumour going around that she dates President candidates, but of course, that rumour was a little outstretched."

"The next is the cheerleaders because, well, they are hot. And this category consists of the popular kids too. The year book committee kids and stuff."

The fourth is the general population, norms and stuff. And the fifth one is the outcasts and the rejects. The burnouts, the losers, the freaks. You know, people that do not conform to the cliques of the high school hierarchy."

"Oh. So which category do you guys fit in? I asked.

"The same as most. The general population."

"So, I'm part of the general population too?"

"We don't know for sure. Her b***h usually takes this spot on the hierarchy."

She draws a small block on the side of Nicole's triangle.

"Wow, that's so much power. It's such a tiny block, but it's so much power."

"True. But for now.... you're in the outcasts list."

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