The rest of class passed slowly and uneventfully, as did my history class.

I walked by myself (as usual) to my lunch table in the corner of the large cafeteria. Everyone always seemed to have assigned seats; the popular girl’s table, the football and baseball guys, the band geek table, the punk rocker wannabees, and even the nerds had their own table.

Each one was always conveniently filled.

The only other people at my table were a couple of weird 7th grade girls, but they sat at the far end of the table, far away as possible from me/

So I had the other end all to myself.

I chewed through my homemade peanut butter and cinnamon sugar sandwhich, not really tasting it.

I thought about what my life used to be like, before everyone thought I was crazy. In the early years of elementary school, other kids just thought I was making up stories to scare tem. Later on, I learned to stop mentioning my mirror world. Back then I had friends, a bunch in fact. Not with the popular kids really, but it was a time when I was accepted.

Everything changed when I got to middle school.

I made the mistake of going with my friend Rachael to the bathroom, where of course they had mirrors. I saw one of my ‘mirror friends’ in there, so without realizing it I started talking to her.

Rachael freaked out and told every other 6th grader that I talked to mirrors and saw dead people.

They all turned against me.

My old best friends were scared to even come near me. Rachael was one of Casey’s followers now. God I wished I could go back to elementary school, where everything was so simple. Where you could just laugh something off, and kids didn’t mind if you weren’t “normal.”

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn’t realize someone was standing in front of me, on the other side of the table.

Grudgingly I lifted my eyes from my sandwich to see the boy form my first period English class looking at me.

“Can I sit here?” he asked softly, a shy smile forming on his lips.

I hadn’t realized my jaw dropped, but I quickly snapped it closed and swallowed my mouthful of food.

“Um…sure.” I replied, my voice filled with surprise and confusion.

“Thanks.” I stared at him as he sat down in the bench in front of me. My mind tried to make sense of his actions as I moved my food closer to me so he’d have room, my eyes still fixed on him.

“I’m John, in case you don’t already know.” I nodded my head weakly. I knew it started with a J… “And your Sophiax, right?”

It took me a moment to respond. “Actually, I go by Sophia.”

Neither of us said anything for a minute. I took another bite of my sandwich.

When the silence started getting uncomfortable I finally asked, “Why…”

Before I could finish he interrupted, “Why did I sit here?” I nodded again. “Well, honestly, you seemed kind of…lonely. Figured you could use someone to talk to or something.” He took a bite of his apple, and gulped from his water bottle.

“Don’t I, don’t I scare you? Most kids won’t come near me.” It was still probably obvious that I was utterly confused.

He laughed softly and shook his head. “No, you don’t scare me.”

“Don’t you know what I see?”

“Yeah.” he shrugged.

“Don’t you think I’m weird?”

“No.”

“Don’t you think I’m crazy?”

“No.”

“Everybody else does.”

“But I’m not everyone else, now am I?”

He smiled sweetly at me, causing my heartbeat to accelerate the tiniest bit.

“No, I guess you aren’t.” I paused before continuing,

“Okay, I’m curious now. Why don’t I scare you? Or…repulse you?”

John arched an eyebrow. “What’s there to be scared of? You don’t have two heads, or three eyes.” He leaned forward and touched the space between my eyebrows. “Nope, no third eye.” He chuckled, and I surprised myself by joining in.

“And there’s nothing gross about you. So what if you’re different? Different is good.” His brown eyes bore into mine as we stared at each other.

“How do I know you won’t run away screaming some day?” I shook my head; it didn’t seem possible that he’d actually want to stay around.

John heaved an exasperated sigh. “Like I said, don’t worry about it; you don’t scare me.” He spoke the last part slowly, trying to force me to believe the words.

I jumped a good in the air when the bell rang, signally the end of lunch.

John laughed at my reaction and stood up. “Time flies when you’re having fun, eh?” He neatly tossed his trash into a trashcan almost ten feet away. “C’mon, I’ll walk you to your next class.” He motioned me to follow him, so I quickly stood up and walked over to throw away the remains of my lunch.

He smiled over at me as we walked through the cafeteria doors. “What class do you have next?” John asked, speaking above the roar of the students.

“Geometry with Mr. Cook. Room 704.” I made a face as I spoke. Math was not one of my best subjects.

“Okay, good. My class is nearby anyways.”

We walked in silence, for the surrounding students were too noisy now to be able to talk over them. Before I knew it we were at the door to my classroom.

“Bye Sophia!” He called, trying to be heard.

“Bye John.” I replied shyly. He smiled (wow he smiled a lot) before turning and striding towards his next class.

I stood there frozen, watching him walk away. I ignored my classmates and other students’ stares as I watched him until he turned a corner.

Without having to fake it, I smiled. Maybe today would be so bad after all.