Before long, Jenna, Emily, and Karen find me. It’s like they thought someone else might snatch me up for their friend group. They’re all happily linking arms, with Karen’s borderline brownface spray tan in the coveted middle position. When Jenna grabs my arm to link with hers, I jump. I hate that I jumped, because Jenna’s adorable, and I do like her. It just surprised me that they don’t all hate me for being confrontational with Karen.
“Oh my God, you’re so cute, Jumpy!” Jenna says, and her voice squeaks a little on the word “cute.” No, you’re cute. God I’m so gay. Stop being so gay, Yami. Stop that shit right now.
Jenna guides me to their usual lunch table inside under a massive crucified Jesus statue in the corner of the cafeteria. It’s staring me down. I can feel it—lording over us all, judging me for ditching my detention duties. I avoid looking at it the best I can. I don’t know how anyone has any fun around here with overlord Jesus watching.
I don’t like Karen, but Jenna and Emily seem nice, aside from the fact that they choose to hang around someone so openly racist. Besides them, there’s one other guy at the table. I’m assuming he’s Karen’s boyfriend, based on the fact that they’re sucking face instead of talking to the rest of us, which is fine. Karen might not have been the one who made the abortion comment, but I’m still not cool with anyone who asks where I’m from as if I don’t belong here. Maybe I don’t belong here, but she can go and choke for pointing it out.
I don’t have many options yet as far as friends go, so I pretend to pick up their trash in case the detention monitor walks by while I’m with them. Before I know it, they’re all interrogating Jenna about her mysterious crush.
“Come on, who is it?” Emily nudges Jenna’s shoulder.
Jenna shakes her head, pretending to zip her lips shut.
“We’re just gonna keep asking,” Karen sings. Her boyfriend’s eyes glaze over and he checks out of the conversation by staring at his phone.
I know there are plenty of reasons to be tight-lipped about a crush, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s a girl. Either way, I can relate to Jenna for not wanting people to know who you’re crushing on.
“If she doesn’t want to tell anyone, she doesn’t have to,” I say, possibly overstepping the New Friend boundary.
“Thank you!” Jenna says emphatically, squeezing my arm.
“What about you, Yummy? We saw you talking to Huuunter! Do you like him?” Karen taunts.
“That boy is a whole meal,” Emily says, fanning herself. “He was talking about you in trig. Pretty sure every girl in that class is jealous of you.”
“Really?” I ask. I don’t want to be making any enemies, but I guess it’s good everyone thinks I like a boy. Still, it makes me want to squirm away from the conversation. “I mean, he’s cool, but we just met.”
“Guys, leave her alone. Emily’s just exaggerating. No one hates you.” Jenna comes to the rescue like I did for her.
“Ugh, fine,” Karen says before turning to her boyfriend, back to ignoring the rest of us. The subject finally changes, and I go to turn in my vest.
I only get ten minutes to eat after detention, but I could definitely get used to Slayton’s food. There are sections of the cafeteria that have their own cuisines: Mexican, Chinese, Italian, burgers, fries, milkshakes. . . . You could eat something different every day of the month without repeating.
Karen might not notice me, but to Emily and Jenna, I’m still the center of the universe. They walk with me through the lunch lines and spend the rest of lunch asking me questions about my old life. I tell them I like it better at Slayton. Here’s the thing. I don’t particularly feel like thinking about Rover, or anything that happened there. I’d much rather think about how cute Jenna is and how they all keep calling me cute. I’d rather think about Bo, and how she likes me. I want to think about anyone but Bianca.