Since it was so nice out, especially for October, Natalie decided to eat lunch outside for once, not cramped in a bathroom stall. She was sitting just around the corner of the building from where the cafeteria doors let out. Most kids went the opposite direction, where they could run around on the field, play basketball and other games on the blacktop, or just stand around and talk. Natalie went outside before anyone else, so she wasn't likely to be approached by the other kids, but still close enough to quickly get back inside if she had to.

  "I heard she's adopted."

  Natalie's ears perked up. Someone had started talking nearby. She was pretty sure it was one of the girls in the popular clique. Blake, maybe? I know that stuck up voice. Yeah, it's Blake for sure, with all her dumb friends.

  "Come on, where did you hear that?"

  "Isn't it super obvious? She calls her mom by her first name. She never said anything about a dad. She has to take city buses to get around. She's totally adopted for sure."

  More voices joining the first. Natalie assumed it was the entire group of girls, though she was surprised they'd gone outside at all. Usually they stuck to their table at lunch, or occasionally went to the best bathroom in North Hall to try on makeup and talk about boys.

  "Oh my god, adopted and weird."

  "Weird like how?"

  "I mean, she's such a loner! And she talks to animals like she's a Disney princess or something."

  Natalie flinched. So someone had noticed.

  "And that hair. I mean, oh my god, does she know what shampoo is or anything?"

  Natalie picked up a few strands of brown hair from where it lay on her shoulder. That last comment really confused her—her hair was totally fine. She didn't do anything special with it, but her hair was definitely clean and healthy.

  "It's like she's never even heard of styling."

  "Come on, she's just trying to pull off that small town hick look. She does it super great, too."

  She realized what was happening, and for a second she thought she might burst out laughing. The girls kept talking, needling her on her waist, her boobs, her legs. How her clothes seemed constantly caked in dust or dirt, or her out-of-date purse. Anything physical—because they obviously didn't know a thing about her otherwise. Natalie just took it all in from behind the wall, trying not to laugh. Is that all you've got, Blake?

  "Hey, at least she's actually cool," cut in a nasally male voice. Natalie fought the urge to glance around the corner, wondering who the new voice was. She didn't recognize him at all. "Y-you're all just vain bullies."

  "Vain bullies?" Blake sneered. "Careful Tyler, you don't want to have another attack, do you? I don't think the nurse can hear us from here."

  "You don't have to be such jerks," Tyler replied nervously, but his resolve was breaking. Natalie decided that was as good a moment as any.

  She stepped out from behind the wall. As she expected, Blake and her friends weren't in the least bit surprised to see her—but Tyler's eyes widened behind his thick glasses. He hadn't known Natalie was there at all.

  "What's going on?" she asked casually.

  "We were just leaving." Blake tossed her head slightly, and in tune her followers turned away to march back into the school. "I wouldn't want to get between you and your boyfriend."

  Tyler's mouth fell open slightly. Natalie just watched them go, not saying a word. As they disappeared, she sat back down again. She hadn't gotten to finish her lunch, even if it was yet another plain peanut butter and jelly. Lily made them with magic these days while writing emails in the morning, just floating the ingredients and tools around in midair through the kitchen. She was so distracted that the sandwich usually turned out messy and falling apart. Natalie always made sure to wrap them up tight before packing them into her purse, or else the jelly might spill out into the space between pockets and make the whole thing smell funny.

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  Tyler just stood there staring at the ground, and after a minute or two she started to feel awkward. "Tyler?" she prompted.

  He spluttered, a bit of spittle flying out of his mouth and landing near her feet on the concrete. She resisted the urge to flinch. "Hi. Sorry."

  "Wanna come sit down?"

  His eyes widened again. She'd said the wrong thing, apparently. After another painfully long awkward pause, he finally took a seat against the wall a full six feet away from her, gazing intensely out into the field behind the school that jutted up against the apartment buildings on the opposite side.

  Natalie kept eating, unsure what to say next, while he stared in silence. Finally, as she ran out of food and Tyler still hadn't said a word, Natalie gave in and tried to break the tension.

  "Why'd you do that?"

  "Huh?"

  "Why'd you try to stop them?"

  "I…" He paused, then finally looked over at her. Natalie noticed he had very nice brown eyes, magnified massively by his thick glasses. "They were being mean for no reason."

  Natalie shrugged. "I don't care."

  "Huh?"

  "If all they're gonna do is make bad insults, I don't care." She'd dealt with way worse than that. A few girls her own age who wanted to try and make fun of the way she looked? If she really got angry, she could beat them all up no sweat. Plus, Blake's got nothing on Ryan or Rika. They'd tear her apart if she tried making fun of them. "They don't scare me one bit."

  "They scare me," Tyler said, looking away again quickly.

  "Thanks, then."

  "For what?"

  "Saying something." Natalie stood up and pulled her bag over her shoulder. "How long til lunch is over?"

  "Uhh, like five minutes I think."

  "Tyler!"

  The door swung open and out walked Quinn, flanked by the other two boys in his usual group. He spotted the two of them and made a beeline for them. Natalie felt an urge to flee, still uncertain how she was going to talk to Quinn now. She realized belatedly that she did recognize Tyler as one of Quinn's friends, but she hadn't gotten to know any of them since Blake had scooped her up so fast (and discarded her just as quickly).

  "Tyler, what are you doing? You forgot your bag, dude." The boy—who could not be more opposite of Tyler if he tried—tossed the bag over, which Tyler promptly failed to catch. Pencils spilled out all over the ground from an unzipped ouch.

  "Nice throw, Mitch," said Quinn. Mitch groaned and got down to help Tyler gather up his things. Where Tyler was pale, taller than average, long-haired and awkward, Mitch had incredibly dark skin, short black hair, a strong face—and was shorter than all of them, Natalie included. She was pretty sure he was even shorter than Cinza, who was the shortest person she knew. The only thing they had in common was that they both wore glasses, but Mitch had cool thin frames while Tyler had thick black frames that made his eyes look gigantic.

  "We missed you at lunch," said the last boy in the group.

  "Sorry, Steven," Tyler said, finally gathering up his bag again.

  "So what's up? Are you two friends now?" Quinn asked.

  "No," Tyler answered uncomfortably, at the same time that Natalie said "Yes."

  "Uh oh," said Steven, grinning.

  "Hi, Quinn," Natalie said, her cheeks heating up.

  "Blake and her friends were saying mean things about her," Tyler suddenly shouted.

  They all looked at him. "Oookay," Mitch said. "So, totally normal Blake stuff?"

  "I thought you were part of Blake's fan club," Steven added, with a nice smile at Natalie. He seemed okay, but there wasn't that special quality Quinn had.

  "Guess not," she replied.

  "She's too cool for them," Quinn added with his own smile, which made Natalie's brain go all fizzy for a moment. "She'd be way better in the Glasses Club."

  "The Glasses Club?" Natalie asked, confused.

  "Well, we used to call it the Glasses Gang," said Mitch, "but they told us we weren't allowed to."

  "But… Steven doesn't have glasses?"

  Steven reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a case, revealing a pair of thin-rimmed brown glasses. "I got contacts last year."

  "Traitor," added Mitch, punching him in the arm.

  "You should come sit with us tomorrow," Quinn continued. "Instead of eating all alone in the bathroom."

  Natalie's whole face flared up. "You knew?" she asked, mortified.

  "Whole damn school knew," said Mitch.

  "Mitch!"

  "Sorry, man," he replied sheepishly. "I just thought she should know."

  Natalie shook her head. "I didn't think anyone would notice."

  The bell rang, startling them all. The rest of the group walked inside, making fun of Mitch for something Natalie couldn't hear, but Quinn held back a second.

  "If you want to," he said. "You don't have to."

  She'd been craving new friends, and suddenly they'd been dropped on her out of the blue. It seemed too good to be true—and she hesitated. Something about them made her nervous, but she couldn't figure out what. It wasn't like Quinn or his friends seemed like bad kids, but when she was suddenly confronted with the option to finally connect back into the real world again, Natalie wasn't sure if she still wanted to.

  Quinn saw her hesitate. "All right. See you around, Jenny."

  He went inside. Natalie sat back down against the wall in the empty school yard, trying to work through the emotions cluttering up her head.