You’re not from here, are you?

I was like any other high schooler in the sense that I hated freshmen; especially when they show up in your Algebra 2 class, they just go off at the mouth and act as if they hold all the knowledge in their little minds. There was one that caught my attention though, he was different from the rest, he sat quietly and simply wrote I couldn't quite tell if it was because he didn't understand or if he knew so much that he didn't even bother with the other souls in the classroom. I remember walking out of class that day, I was greeted by one of my close friends, Fletcher Houston, as I made my way to lunch. I guess I must have been staring at the freshman because Fletcher looked at me bluntly and asked, "why do you keep looking at a fish." He asked me such a simple question, yet I couldn't find the answer to give him. Back then, I didn't want to be known as the sophomore who hangs out with freshmen, so I made up a lie and said, "he was going off about square roots and who knows what, it was just annoying. I guess I wanted to see who would hang out with him," "makes sense, I hate when freshmen try and show off, it's like stay in your lane," Fletcher said this part rather loud which caused a few heads to turn. We made our way to the cafeteria and sat at our famous booth. We sat down and placed our lunch on the table, shortly after Savannah showed up Fletcher flashed her an award-winning smile to which she simply laughed, "Hey, it always works on making Anastacio putty in my hands," he said laughing. "Well, unlike my boyfriend, I am not fooled by your little smile," she retorted. I laughed and smiled, "well that's good, I wouldn't want any funny business going on with you all" at the moment, I didn't realize that maybe you don't need a cute smile to get a girl, however, that's a different part of this story. We all ate together in silence, with the occasional sound of Fletcher laughing at his jokes and Savannah sighing at the thought of doing extra practice. I checked the time and announced to the table that the bell would ring soon, we would all go on our ways and see each other in fourth, which meant there would be a lot of gossips. I headed into my Physics AP class and sat towards the back; this was always usual for me because my mind would drift, and I would draw. I took out a sketchbook and went to work, I was drawing my favorite idol till I was interrupted by a voice, "hey, is anyone sitting here," I looked up, and my eyes met with the freshman from earlier. He looked at me blankly as he waited for his answer, "not to my knowledge" I replied simply; he nodded and sat in the seat right ahead of me. I sighed to myself and wished for the fourth period to come quickly. After being mentally tortured by Mrs. Wallace, I headed to the fourth period and found a spot for three; Fletcher arrived first then Savannah. We all sat in that little Spanish classroom, me and Fletcher already knew some Spanish but decided to take monolingual in hopes of an easy grade and getting a class with Savannah. Our first assignment was to do simple translations, we zoomed through it and earned ourselves some free time. Now this was the time for gossip, "Anastacio, I saw that girl who was hanging with that annoying fish from your second," Fletcher started. "Wait what annoying fish? Why didn't you tell me about him, babe" "it was nothing, he was just trying to prove that he was the smartest person there." I said calmly. "Anyway, his name is Cedric Palmer; the girl is Tamara Flores," Fletcher said this with pride as if he was a detective who cracked the case. "So, I'm Savannah Williams, and you're Fletcher Houston, and he is Anastacio Cortez, names mean nothing unless they have a story with them," Savannah stated before rolling her eyes. "Hey, he was just trying to be nice, calm down okay," I said, as I rubbed her shoulders and gave her a kiss on the cheek. At that, she smiled and sighed, "I'm sorry for being rude Fletcher, I guess I was just expecting something major." "It's okay, but I didn't get to finish; I heard that dear little Tamara likes to go around with boys and girls!" He said the last part loudly to which I shushed him, however, this news plastered a smile on Savannah's face. "Wow, well I guess you can tell she isn't too choosy if she goes around so it's not a surprise that she is bisexual, but to already be branded as that while a freshman. It is a shame." Savannah said the last part almost as if she truly did feel bad for the girl. "Yeah, she must have met some upperclassmen during the summer and started working on her reputation," I don't know why I said that not even to this day it could have been because I wanted to seem cool with my friends or maybe I just was appalled by her or something I didn't even dare to consider that day, maybe I was jealous. Fletcher's eyes looked as though they would pop out of their sockets the moment those horrid words left my mouth, "Anastacio, of all the years we have been friends I never would have pictured that you would say something so," it was this pause that scared me, would he call me disgusting or say that he hates me; every idea of losing our friendship rushed through my mind before I heard his voice start up again, "so cool, I mean come on Stacio you're always the sweet dude without a bad bone in your body, but here you are calling out this girl for the loser she is. I am so proud of you." He said this with a big smile on his face, like a father who just watched his son making his first touchdown. Savannah simply laughed at my comment, "yeah babe, I have to agree with Fletcher. We've been dating for a little more than a year and I don't think I've ever heard you say something so vulgar." She said the last part in a tone that was disgusted yet proud like she was glad I was changing. "I don't know, I guess I just wanted to speak my mind," I sighed as I ran a hand through my hair. Fletcher placed his hand on my arm and smiled gently, "hey we're not judging you or anything, I'm glad you can be like this with us. So if you want to insult fish, then do so." I honestly don't know why I trusted him so much at that moment, maybe it was because I knew how full of himself he was that his belief in me must've meant something. I opened my mouth as if to speak until I was interrupted by the loud ring of the school bell; everyone in the room rushed out of as they swung their bag over their shoulder. Fletcher let out a small "goodbye," and left running out; Savannah gave me a kiss on my cheek and left. I sat there for a second and racked my brain, as I reached for my bag I got up and asked myself a simple question. "If I have a perfect girlfriend and an amazing friend, why am I tempted to leave them for him, for Cedric?"