THE NEW ME VERSION 2.0

Chapter 5

Book a club for your lunch break. named. We have our first meeting next week. We take a brown bag of old, unused reference books to a desk in the back of the library. That's me, Luna, Luke, and these two freshmen. girl who looks like ten years old She transferred from a Catholic school earlier this year. She is dressed as usual, with a scratchy sweater and a button-down shirt glued under a long, awkward skirt. other girl bite it Hair He looks so weird, I don't even know why we're here.

"Coming soon," I proclaimed, praying that I wouldn't ruin everything. Miss Solace stares at me as if she knows as much as I do. This is basically the bottom of the barrel. Then she looks at her watch. Click a small minute.

"There's still time," she said, reading my mind. "Except I didn't have all six on the first day."

At that moment, a stranger came to the table. This crude man has pale white skin and jet black hair with blue highlights. He matched his light blue eyes. He wears fancy large-rimmed glasses and has two silver rings around his lower lip.

"Wow," Luna whispered to me, grinning broadly.

"What?" I whisper back.

“Just… amazing,” she repeated without looking away from him.

"Waylen!" Mrs. Solace greets him.

"I'm really happy that you decided to come."

"Oh," he said, pulling his chair next to Luke.

"That's right. Hey."

"Okay,"

Solace began, apparently encouraged by our new companion.

"Would you like to get started? I thought we should just walk around the table and introduce ourselves and tell everyone about our interests and why we're here. We're getting started. Apparently I'm Professor Solace. it is,”

she laughed. "I am your librarian. But believe it or not, when I'm not here, I'm actually a real human being. spend a lot of time. As a volunteer at the zoo, I take care of rescue dogs waiting to be adopted. Regarding this book club, I said to Mia,

"It's your circle, so I'd like everyone to draw it. I think it's a great way to read in your spare time outside of the regular classroom. There, you can talk, discuss, and argue about things that a normal 40-minute class doesn't cover.”

she waved at me as though you were awake. I'm going to loosen my skin a little deeper. "I'm Mia, or Mie. I think I like reading," I shrugged. "And this book club seemed like a good idea," I said.

Professor Solace muttered and nodded encouragingly. I looked at Luna, stopped me, started talking and quietly asked her to say something.

“My name is Luna,” she said softly, giving us a new smile.

"I'm a beginner. I'm interested in music, I'm in a band. I like animals," she added so naturally. Why couldn't you say that? I'm in a band too. I love animals - I love animals.

"What else? True. A great way to spend lunch time. Much more comfortable and quieter than a coffee shop.” When she adds a little smile to the end of a sentence, everyone smiles at her, especially this newcomer. Luna kicks my leg from below table, example: can you see it?

"Wow, Mara, the zoo could always hire more volunteers," said Miss Solace with a smile. And I really wonder how people can be so normal. they seem to know what to say

"I'm Waylen," said the new man, walking past two other girls.

"I just got here this year. I'm making art. And music," he added, smiling at Luna.

"I like reading too."

"And the dogs, too," he smiled at Professor Solace. Miss Solace smiled at him as if he had something to do.

"I'm Luke," luke mutters.

“When I heard about it from Mia, I thought it would be perfect for a coffee shop lunch. And I also like art," he added, glancing at Waylen. "It's a picture. It's in the yearbook."

"He's a nice guy,"

Waylen says, smiling at Luke. This new guy is all over my neighborhood. First Luna, then Miss Solace, and now Luke. And he starts smiling at me like he's a nice guy. He let me look at him and figure out what game he was playing. He doesn't know what kind of expression to make, but his smile fades and his eyes stare at me too, as if trying to understand why I'm trying to understand him. Somewhere in his brain is telling him to listen to the other two girls introduce themselves, but he can't.

"Thank you for the introduction. That's great. I think this meeting is about building logistics," said Dr. Solace in the fog in my head. Waylen turned his attention to her and I followed suit.

"what Does that make sense? 2 books a month? one? three? don't know. You can vote for the book you want to read together. Free time is spent reading and lunch time is discussion time. What do you think?” Right before I was about to say the same, Waylen said,

"Twice a month would be nice."

"Yes, the two sounds are correct," Luna admitted with a strange wink.

"Why not three?" asks a Catholic schoolgirl.

"I'm not sure she has time to read three extra books, besides the normal schoolwork and such," Luke said anxiously, looking around the table for support.

"I agree." Luke smiles at me. After all, he supported me in Columbus.

"OK. I think that will get us a majority. That's two books a month!" concluded Dr. Solace

"Mia, this book was the best idea you could ever think of!" exclaimed Luna as school was over and she was ready to cross the threshold to the outside world and go home. "This person was really cool today."

"You mean the guy with blue hair and earrings?" I asked in disbelief.

"He's not blue. He's black and has a little blue steak on it. Great, he's great."

"You'll feel better soon, Mia ," she said, touching his hand. "what are you talking about?"

"Me and Waylen, this is just the beginning. We're just getting closer from here, right?" And I know I lost him. He went into obsessive daydreaming mode.

"yes.”

Then she looks at me again with big eyes.

"Now that we're all writing this book, we're getting used to him. Be friends first. They always say it's better. But I have to distract him because he could go on like this for hours planning what happens next. Did you notice him looking at me?" I heard her say. Sometimes I wonder if she understands as well as Mrs. Solace and Luke. Most of the time I think so, but sometimes I think so.

We are on different planets. like now. "Should I have blue hair?" ends after a monologue that lasted most of the way to school. "What? No, Miss Luna."

"I just made sure you were listening," she smiled.

"I'm sorry, I'm listening,"

I lie. We are standing in front of a stop sign on the corner of the street. I will leave here. Go straight. he goes left But you can't force your feet to move in that direction. I'll be like quicksand he is standing there. She look at me and maybe she looks like she really gets it. As if she knew something was wrong.

"Do you want to come?" she asks.

"My mother doesn't come home until late." I nodded yes and we walked towards her street.

"Okay, I'm not going to dye my hair blue," she smiled. “But I have contacts.”

“Good,” I told her, sliding her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

The only way to get to luna is through his house. Marco's house. It hardly matters that he's not there. As you get closer, you can see that the legs are getting weaker. All of a sudden, I hate this neighborhood, I hate it, I hate how we're so close to each other's lives that we can't get out. As we approach her house, we see Ella already in the front yard. His sister she always looked much younger than me - I always looked at her like a little kid, but when I look at her now, she doesn't look small at all. she is only one year behind us in school. We played together a lot when we were little until Luna moved here in 6th grade and became her best friend.

Children who were probably neighbors were taking turns playing in the snow. It looks like you're trying to build a snowman, but it's really just a big blob of cool white paint. Ella stands by in a scarf at the top and middle assembly points as two little children scream and throw snowballs at each other. The kids don't know us, but ella sees us coming. she is wearing a scarf Tie her last knot and tuck her gloved hands into her jacket pockets. she stands there staring at us. she doesn't say anything strange. We weren't exactly friends as we were before, but we still talked.

We still get along sometimes at family gatherings. I don't say anything either, and Luna fills in her blank:

"Hi, ella!" ella. We've all called her that since she moved here. she didn't stick. I remember how they introduced her when we first met. Marco and Jameson have been inseparable from the beginning, so at my 8th birthday party, our family started celebrating together. Marco and his extended family were always there. But that would have been a million years ago.

“Hey Ella,” I say with a smile. she crosses her arms and stands a little more upright.

"Hey," she finally replied monotonously.

"Well, did you have a good Christmas?"

Anyway, I'm trying to pretend that everything is normal, but all I can think about is Marco. He looks at me with a slight shrug. Seconds pass. What's special about the Barlowe family is that they didn't just move here when they got here, but I didn't think much of it. You left something else. Something bad happened where they used to be. she heard Mrs. Barlowe talking to her mother

she cried And I heard Mom talking to Dad about it. I could barely understand it except that it was about Kevin's brother and Kevin's uncle, Mr. Barlowe.

"Actually" - I turn to Luna –

"I'd rather go home. To be honest, I'm not feeling well."

"Really, what's going on?" Luna asks with genuine concern.

"Nothing, I just..." But I'm literally withdrawing from them so I won't quit. I turn around once and they are both standing there looking at me. Luna raises her hand and waves her hand, calling out,

"I'll call you!"

I turned the corner and started running. With each step my head beats faster and my whole body stands in a cold sweat. When I get home, it hurts so much that I cry. When I run to the toilet, I quickly knelt down on the floor in front of the bathroom and gasped. After that, I lay on the sofa and didn't even bother to take off my jacket. I closed my eyes.

The next thing I knew, my mother was leaning over me and touching my forehead with the back of her hand. “Is he sick?” I hear my dad ask as he drops the keys on the kitchen table.

"Mia?" Mother puts her cold hand on my cheek - it feels so good.

"What's wrong? Are you sick?"

"I appreciate that," I muttered.

"Now let's take off our coats." She held my back and helped me stand up. And now, more than anything, I wish her to hug me. But she pulled my hand out of my jacket.

"I threw up," I told her.

"Did you eat anything strange today?" she asks.

"No."

Actually, I haven't eaten anything today. I was too busy making sense of this Waylen guy on my lunch break to eat my own stuffed peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"Oh, I'm sorry." she stood there, staring at me as I was.

"If you wear pajamas, I'll make you some soup, okay?"

"Okay," I reply. I went to my room to get dressed, careful not to stare too much at the faded gray birthmark that still covered my thighs. Be careful not to hurt your hips or ribs for a long time. But soon they will disappear. i pull myself forward

I tucked my pajama bottoms and matching flannel shirt up my neck to hide the bruise on my collarbone.

"Chicken noodles?" My mother called me from the kitchen as I was sitting at the table. Before I could answer, he put a steaming cup of tea in front of me. I don't like soup or chicken ramen or anything. But se has the big smile on her face that she always wears when chasing jameson. I think she likes the fact that she cares about the concrete things that are made for me.

“Yeah, chicken noodles,” I agree with my stomach wrinkling.

"OK. You drink it," she said, pointing me in the direction. I nod. Dad is sitting at the table across from me. He built a tent with his hands and said: Some insects have to move. If I was sick all the time, things would look a little more normal here.