Michelle Madow - Diamonds in the Rough

She sniffed, grabbed a paper towel and fixed her makeup, trying to remove the glitter without making it look like more of a wreck. Then the toilet in the end stall flushed, and she froze, her hands propped on the sink. How had she missed that someone else was in the bathroom?

She wanted to dive into the nearest stall, but before she could, the girl opened the door and met her eyes. Luckily, this girl didn’t look like the gossiping type. Her coarse brown hair was pulled back into a boyish bun. She wore thick-rimmed glasses and baggy cargo pants, and her fraying backpack had Japanese cartoon characters stitched into it.

She must be the school weirdo.

“Are you okay?” the girl asked as she washed her hands.

Savannah stared at her blankly. Of course she wasn’t okay. But she wasn’t about to confess her problems to this random girl, either.

“I’ll take that as a no.” She took a deep breath. “You’re new here, right?”

“Yeah,” she somehow managed. “Savannah.”

“I’m Wendy,” she said. “I was about to go eat with my friends, if you want to come with?”

Savannah’s first day of school, and the only person who had reached out to her was the school weirdo. But she didn’t want to be alone at lunch on her first day. And it was kind of Wendy to offer, especially since she knew nothing about her other than that she’d been crying by herself in the bathroom.

“Um, sure.” She glanced at the mirror to make sure the mascara was off her cheeks, picked her Longchamp up off the floor and attempted a smile. “Thanks.”

* * *

Goodman’s cafeteria wasn’t inside the upper school—they had a separate building just for eating. And they didn’t call it the cafeteria, either. They called it the “dining hall,” and everyone bought lunch. Not one person carried a bag from home.

“Upstairs are the normal daily foods—pizza, pasta, sushi, Chinese, salad bar and the hot meal special of the day,” Wendy told Savannah as they entered the dining hall, which looked more like a restaurant than a high school cafeteria. The tables had chairs instead of attached benches, and the walls were covered with giant windows that had views of the swimming pool and the lake. “Downstairs is the deli bar where you can get made-to-order subs and sandwiches, and the grill where you can get hamburgers, hot dogs and fries and stuff.”

“What do you normally get?” Savannah asked, still trying to process that they had sushi and made-to-order subs. That was nothing like the mystery mush at Fairfield High. Why did the seniors need to go to restaurants when they had all these choices at their school? Not that it mattered—she was glad the seniors went to restaurants, since it meant she wouldn’t run into Damien.

“I get sushi almost every day,” Wendy said. “Make sure to stay away from the pizza—it makes the frozen stuff from the grocery store taste like a delicacy. And Thursday is waffle fries day. They’re the best, but you have to get to the grill early or the line will take forever. Anyway, I’m going to grab some sushi—want to come with?”

“I’m actually not a sushi fan,” Savannah said. Well, she’d never tried it—the thought of eating raw fish weirded her out. “I’ll just get a sandwich.”

“The deli’s downstairs.” Wendy pointed at the steps. “I eat down there with my friends from anime club, and sushi is faster than sandwiches, so I’ll save you a seat.”

“Thanks,” Savannah said. Her sisters were nowhere to be found, and sitting with Wendy would be better than sitting by herself. At least she seemed nonjudgmental and kind. But anime club? That was just…not Savannah’s thing.

The line for sandwiches was long, and the last person in it was Alyssa from first period, who didn’t acknowledge Savannah as she stepped into line behind her. Hopefully the line would move quickly, and Savannah could get away from her as fast as possible.

Then the last person she’d expected to see walked through the doors—Damien. He’d gotten tanner over the summer, probably from spending time outside on his teen tour, and his hair was longer—it almost hungover his dark brown eyes. Her heart pounded. Now she would find out whether or not he was going to ignore her and pretend like the time they’d spent together in July had never happened. She took deep breaths and played with the ends of her hair, praying he would notice her.

He waved when he spotted her, and she waved back, trying to keep herself from smiling like an idiot while her stomach flipped like crazy. Was he going to talk to her? At least he’d waved, so her fear of him ignoring her hadn’t come true. This wasn’t how she’d envisioned their first meeting since July—with her dressed wrong for school and her makeup smudged from crying—but he’d already seen her, so there was nothing she could do.

Alyssa was looking at Savannah, her eyes shining with a friendliness that hadn’t been there that morning. “Did Damien Sanders just wave to you?” she whispered.

“Yeah.” Savannah ran a hand through her hair and tried to play it cool, since Damien was getting closer. “We hung out a little bit over the summer.”

Alyssa’s jaw dropped, and Savannah couldn’t help but feel victorious after the way the girl had snubbed her earlier.

“Savannah Diamond,” Damien said, stepping into line behind her. “I’ve been wondering when I would run into you.” Then he studied her closer, his expression morphing into concern. “Are you okay? Your eyes look red.”

“It’s just allergies,” she lied, trying to sound upbeat. She’d never had allergies, but no way was she admitting to crying alone in the bathroom. “Anyway, how was the rest of your summer?”

“I did a Hawaii/Alaska teen tour,” he said. “We cruised through Alaska, toured the Pacific Coast, and stayed at some resorts in Hawaii. It was pretty cool.”

“Is that the tour by Rein?” Alyssa chimed in. “I’m looking into their Europe trip for next summer.”

“That’s the one.”

Savannah nodded as if she knew what they were talking about, even though she’d never traveled beyond California and Vegas. “I saw your pictures on Facebook,” she said. “It looked like you had fun.” She tried not to sound bitter, but when she thought about the album he’d posted, she was reminded of the two tall, tanned girls in lots of pictures with him. Even though it had made Savannah feel like a stalker, she’d clicked on both girls’ profiles. One of them lived in L.A., and the other in Miami, so they couldn’t be a threat, but she hated seeing them draped all over him—even if it might mean he’d meant it when he’d said he was over Madison.

“It was fun, and everyone was cool, but it got old being around the same forty people all the time,” he said. “I was glad to get home.”

“Is everyone keeping in touch?” Savannah asked, thinking mainly about L.A. and Miami.

“For the first few days back we chatted on Facebook and stuff, but most of them are from California, New York, D.C. and Florida, so we’ve mostly split ways,” he said. “But enough about me—what have you been up to while I’ve been gone?”

The real answer: doing mounds of work assigned by tutors to catch up on Goodman academics. But she wasn’t telling Damien that.

“Hanging with my sisters at the pool,” she said casually. She had spent a lot of time at the pool, but she’d usually brought her homework with her. “I’ve also been getting my YouTube channel started.”

“How’s that going?”

“It’s going okay.”

“Cool.” Damien smiled, watching her like he really cared, and a thrill went up her spine. “I’ll check it out tonight.”

Her heart shrank at the realization that he hadn’t seen her videos. “Let me know what you think,” she said. Just because she’d been tracking (stalking?) him online all summer didn’t mean he’d been doing the same to her. He’d been too busy traveling the country—and spending time with L.A. and Miami—to know her YouTube channel existed. Even now, he probably couldn’t wait to get out of the lunch line to hang out with his real friends.