Yes

The day goes about as should be expected. I really didn’t meet anyone. Though people treated me nicely for the most part, there wasn’t anyone who was really interested in being friends with me. There were a few guys who tried to hit on me, but I quickly turned them down, knowing it could never amount to anything.

When lunch rolled around, I headed to the cafeteria and started looking the pink-highlighted-hair girl. Since Rose had been willing to offer to have lunch with me, I figured I might as well take advantage of it.

After getting my lunch, I headed over to the table at which I’d spotted her before getting my food. She was with a guy who looked a little bit like her, who I was assuming was her twin, and another guy who was rather cute. Actually, both of the guys were rather cute from my perspective.

I took a deep breath and then headed over there. Rose gave me a smile and invited me to sit down. “This is the new girl, Violet. Violet, this is my twin brother, Roman, and that’s our friend, Ryan.”

I exchanged niceties with the boys and then we settled into some decent conversation for the rest of lunch. I learned that Rose and Roman went to another church in town. They weren’t quite as Christian as I knew my parents would have wanted them to be, but it was still a nice relief.

“Okay, I can’t believe that no one else has asked you yet, but why did you come here to this town?” Ryan broke the silence that had descended upon us after a little while.

I hesitated before deciding that I might as well be honest. “My dad’s a pastor and he just got a new church here, so we moved here about a month ago.”

“Well damn, I was not expecting that. I mean, you don’t seem like a bad girl, but you also don’t seem like the daughter of a pastor.”

I shrugged in response. “I’m not trying to be a daughter of a pastor. I mean, I am and I’m a Christian, but I’m not something else just because my dad is a church leader.”

“Fair enough,” Ryan responded. “Well, I’m gonna head out and steal a smoke before the next class. I’ll leave all you Christians to talk about whatever it is that you all talk about.”

“I’m gonna join you,” I said getting up, not looking at Rose or Roman to gauge their reactions. Though I didn’t want to care what they thought, I also found myself worrying about their opinion on me smoking. So, it was easier to just ignore them and follow Ryan.

“Maybe you are a bad girl after all,” Ryan said as I lit up a cigarette next to my car and blew the smoke out.

I shrugged. “I’m just who I am. I much prefer not to place labels on it. You can think of me as whatever you want, but I’m just simply Violet.”

“Well, Violet,” Ryan said, heavily emphasizing my name, “do you go to parties ever?”

I blew a stream of smoke out before answering him. “I’ve gone to a few before in my time. I’m not allowed, so I try my best to be smart about it when I do, but yet, I do go to parties sometimes.”

“Well, Heather, one of the really rich girls here, throws a back-to-school pool party every year. It is the party of the year, so if you want to go to the best one you can find, I’d suggest going to that one. It’s on Friday, so you won’t have to worry about being up early the next morning.”

“I’ll definitely see if I can find a way to swing that.” I blew out the last stream of smoke, stomped out my cigarette and then walked off, not waiting for a response from Ryan as I headed to my next class.