Survival Of The Fittest

((Continued from: To My One True Confidante))

Clumsy, dopey Tanesha had ridden the bus all the way home from school without a care in the world.  It was when she stepped through the door of the household to the confused expression on her mother's face that she realized that she had forgotten something very important.  She had forgotten the fact that she wasn't supposed to have left campus today because of a wonderful little thing called after-school band practice.

It was one of Tanesha's favorite events, despite the fact that they were oftentimes forced to practice marching in the overgrown field beside the band building because of the football team taking up the entire field for practice.  Tanesha didn't mind, even though her xylophone never pushed well over the rocky terrain of the field.  She had a stationary position anyway, and she got to stand there and play her xylophone while the rest of the band students were forced to march military style around the field playing their instruments.

A quick change of clothes later, Tanesha occupied the passenger seat of her mom's mini-van as Linda rushed her to practice.  The heavy-set girl breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the round and pompous figure of Mr. Allan, the band director, waddling his way onto the field.  She wasn't late after all!  Pushing the door to the mini-van open and waving goodbye to her mother absent-mindedly, Tanesha hurried up to the band director.

He wasn't a good-looking man by any means.  He was very overweight, even moreso than she was, and was short.  In addition, he was balding and the dark brown hair that remained on his head was parted in a noticeable comb-over.  His beady brown eyes squinted out from behind thickly rimmed glasses, and a small smile crept over his mustache-covered lips as Tanesha approached, her arms flailing wildly.

"I'm sorry!" the heavy-set girl yelled as she dashed toward him, "I'm so sorry!  I completely forgot!"

Mr. Allan might not have been a good-looking man, but he was very good-natured.  A chuckle escaped his lips as Tanesha skidded to a halt and doubled-over from the twenty foot run she had broken into from other mother's van.  She was already sweating profusely, she could feel it dribble down her forehead.  Of course, Mr. Allan simply laughed the incident off and flagged her over to her xylophone, which someone had kindly taken the liberty of removing from the interior of the band building for her.

Tanesha was always late for band practice.  It was her favorite activity of the day, but she often seemed to get caught up in the day's activities and let it slip from her mind completely.  As she took her place at the xylophone, absent-mindedly swaying her heavy figure against a rock she was balanced unevenly upon, Mr. Allan signalled to the rest of the band and the loud and somewhat off-sync music, mainly caused by the freshmen that filled the band, began to blast from the instruments of the dozens of Bathurst students occupying the field.

COMING FROM: There's no place like home...

http://z10.PLACEHOLDERLINK/SurvivalOfTheF...=0#entry1336341

Jolie's day hadn't been fun. In all honesty, it blew.  Jolie thought being late for her first day of class in a new school was humiliating enough but she was sadly wrong.  Monsieur Bennet, her first hour French teacher conducted his lectures in French only.  Talk about humiliating.  The rest of the day hadn’t been any better.  She had sat alone at lunch, gotten chocolate milk spilled over her nicest Hollister blouse, a spent the end of the day utterly lost in Biology… photosynthe-what?

After the last period bell had rung Jolie had had it.  Now all that was left was marching band practice.  She seriously pondered skipping it and just going home but realized she couldn’t go through with it..  Her mother had taken the liberty of calling him and setting up an appointment for Jolie to observe a rehearsal after school that day.  Looking at her faithful woodwind she felt like chucking it in the trash.

Jolie had been playing flute since the fifth grade. It was one of the only things she was good at, having stuck with it from a very early age.  She knew she was good enough to be first chair.  Unfortunately, since Jolie and her mother moved around so much that was virtually impossible.

She exited the building with her books in tow and headed towards the field where the band geeks were gathered.  Introducing herself to the large set band instructor she took a seat on the stone steps of the band room door nearby and observed.

“Hello Julie it’s so nice to meet you, I’m Mr. Allen.  You’re welcome to sit in on practice for the next few days although you may want to buddy up with someone so you can get some copies…”

She didn’t bother correcting him, Jolie Sheehan practically lived under the alias of Julie Sheehan.  She was merely happy he’d been close.  She’d been called everything from, “hey you” to “that girl” to even “Heidi”.

Yawning she watched the mediocre marchers as they banged their drums and blew their tubas.  A large, no obese, black girl had shown up to practice late.  Jolie felt pity for her as she tried to explain to the equally fat band teacher her reasons for being tardy.  In Jolie's opinion he hadn't seemed to care, but still the girl was almost hysterical in her efforts to explain.

What a spazz, Jolie thought, tapping her fingers to the beat of the drums.  She could have fallen asleep just then.  She looked at the girl and did her best to form a genuine smile when her stare was met, unsure if the girl known as Tanesha could see her from the distance she was away. Jolie looked away just in case, intimidated by someone who would all too soon be at her social mercy.  The ironic part was that Jolie neither planned nor knew it.

Man, it's hot out here...

The African-American girl had begun to perspire profusely under the hot summer sun, and reached up to wipe a bead of sweat away from her forehead just before it came into contact with her brow.  Tanesha wasn't made for this sort of grueling heat.  She should be at home -- inside -- watching the soap operas her mother had taped for her over the course of the day.  Honestly now.  She enjoyed band, but she didn't care the slightest bit about practice.  They sounded horrendous, there was no way they were ever going to improve and sound even moderately decent.  Tanesha figured that come graduation in a couple of years, they'd still sound just as bad.

And besides, she wanted to know if Jacob had stayed with Kassie or if he'd decided he wanted to be with Shelize -- since she was the one who was pregnant with his baby.  And Katherine was trying to split up the marriage between Robert and Wynona.  And Lucia just discovered she had a twin brother that was seperated from her at birth... and he just happens to be the guy she got drunk and slept with two nights prior at that party at the hotel.  Man, why was she missing all that excitement for this lame-ass practice?  She groaned at the thought, which immediately prompted Mr. Allen to temporarily halt his conducting just long enough to check on the obesely overweight girl.

As her eyes met Mr. Allen's, she could see the sweat trickling down his forehead as well and seeping into his eyebrows.  Come to think of it, the evidence of the sheer heat of this summer day was there -- Mr. Allen's shirt had begun to bleed out all the sweat that had accumulated inside of it -- and she could only assume that hers probably had too.  Becoming self-conscious of the wet spot across her back that she had been previously oblivious too, Tanesha sighed loudly, prompting another look and an encouraging smile from the balding band director.  Tanesha smiled back, but inwardly, she was annoyed.  It was hot, she was tired, her mom had probably begun watching the day's soap operas without her, and the band sounded completely atrocious.

Why was she even here?  She didn't have a part in this number.

Dropping her arms to the side and standing in an awkward manner, she looked on in dismay as her fellow students belted out the notes on their respective instruments, a grin coming over her features as Mark Rhodes hit a sour note on his tuba and caused Karen Peters to jump and squeal her flute in fright.  Mr. Allen cast the two a disapproving glare before continuing the slow monotonous waving he called conducting.  Tanesha, meanwhile, had begun to lean against her xylophone.  Her feet hurt.  And she wasn't feeling well.  It was too hot, the heat was getting to her.  She wanted to go sit down in the cool air of the band building.

From the corner of her eye, she eyed the concrete steps leading up to the band building, as well as the figure who currently occupied them.  She hadn't noticed her before.  Frowning in dismay, Tanesha sized up the girl.  She didn't look familiar -- and definitely too old to be an incoming freshman.  New girl?  Perhaps.  Mild annoyance crossed her features, as she couldn't help but notice that the newcomer to their band practice was quite pretty.  Although she carried a flute with her, Tanesha highly doubted a girl like that could be in band.  She was probably here to pick up her brother or something.  Out of the corner of her eye, Tanesha noticed Bathurst High's first chair trumpet player, a certain boy by the name of Marvin Angell, casting the newcomer a look of his own.

As if, you pig.  You big fucking... jerk... pig-faced... ugh!  You never look at ME like that.

Subconsciously, Tanesha slammed one of the sticks in her hand down onto the xylophone, causing a high-pitched squeal to echo out from the instrument and causing several of the band members to jump in surprise.  It wasn't unusual to hear squealing instruments in this band, but they'd obviously not been prepared for a xylophone -- an instrument not even featured in this peace -- to squeal out.  Sighing and waving her arms in an apology, Tanesha flagged Mr. Allen over.  A concerned expression appeared on the chubby man's features as he looked at one of the few even halfway worthwhile students in his band class.  She and Mr. Allen talked a lot, and he'd become almost her own personal confidante.  He and his wife were good people, even if the majority of the students and many of the faculty themselves made fun of the overweight pair.

"Mr. Allen," Tanesha began, a whiny overtone taking over her voice, "I'm not feeling well.  Can I be excused?"

A kind and compassionate smile overcame the band director's features and he waved her off, giving her permission to leave without even inquiring as to why.  Truth be told, Mr. Allen had been the looks Marvin had been giving Jolie as well, and he knew all about the past history between Marvin and Tanesha.  After all, she had come to cry on the Allens' shoulder when it all happened.  Although Mr. Allen himself prefered to avoid the world of high school drama at all costs, he always took the time to listen to his students, a quality that the few who got to know him respected and admired him for.

Leaving her xylophone sticks on the instrument and not bothering to pack things up, Tanesha sighed and slowly waddled over to the concrete steps on which the girl she would soon come to know as Jolie Sheehan was seated.  For the second time today, it seemed Tanesha would be sharing confined quarters with someone far her superior in the looks department, and probably every other department, for that matter.  She frowned as she meandered over to the cold concrete, doing her best to avoid looking directly at the much more attractive blonde-haired girl she was about to accompany.

Great, now Marvin can compare us side-by-side and see how fat and ugly I really am.  Stupid bitch.  Why'd she have to be here?

Without so much as looking at her newfound companion, Tanesha took a seat on the concrete, enjoying the cooling feeling it gave her even on such a barbarously hot summer afternoon.  Frowning slightly at the fact that her posterior wasn't quite held within the confines of the step she had occupied, Tanesha scooted up onto the porch of the band building, still avoiding eye contact with Jolie at all costs and instead focusing all of her attention on the incompetent marching of the band, noting mentally that Justin Lachey was marching with the wrong foot.  She held in a laugh at the boy's unintentional mishap and considered pointing it out to the blonde, but thought better of it.  Feeling awkward sitting next to another individual without speaking, Tanesha finally initiated a chat, secretly hoping that she had set far enough away that the girl couldn't smell the sweat and quite possibly body odor that had accumulated from Tanesha's stint in the sun.

"What are you doing here?" Tanesha asked in an almost monotone voice, "Picking up your little brother or something?"

Is that boy marching on the wrong foot?  God this band sucks...

"...picking up your little brother or something?"

Jolie shook her head, torn from her thoughts and forced a smile towards at the obese African American girl next to her.

"Oh me?  No I'm actually new to the band... well not new to band itself, but I mean I just moved here.  I'm new."

God I'm socially retarded...

Jolie continued hurriedly trying to recover, "My mom and I just moved here from Maryland.  We move around a lot... I'm Jolie."

Jolie extended her hand but immediately regreted it noticing how profusely sweaty the mass next to her was.  She braced herself for the sweaty handshake.

Tanesha looked apprehensively at the blonde's outstretched hand, debating a moment before reluctantly offering her own outstretched hand in a conscious effort not to offend the much more alluring physical specimen sitting next to her.  This girl seemed nice, truth be told.  Most of the so-called popular group around Bathurst didn't take the time or the effort to introduce themselves to the lower notches on the totem pole, let alone attempt any sort of conversation.

Honestly, though, band nerds didn't usually look like that.  Tanesha couldn't help but be subconsciously skeptical of the girl.  New, huh?  She probably hadn't become acquainted with the so-called social butterflies and queen bees of the school yet.  With this girl, it would probably only be a matter of time before she was swooped away into their vicious clutches and molded into one of them.

However, the awkwardness and uncomfortableness with which the blonde-haired beauty spoke took Tanesha a bit offguard.  Maybe she wasn't another popular-in-the-making.  She certainly didn't have the social grace of one.  Her words came out jumbled and stuttered.  They weren't overly articulate and they didn't flow freely from her lips, nor did they seem spiteful, condemning, or better-than-thou.  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Marvin eyeballing the blonde once again, and she was half-tempted to shoot him the finger.

Quickly ending the almost reluctant handshake shared between the two girls, Tanesha's gaze set back to the band.  As nice as this girl seemed, Tanesha never wanted to give anybody the benefit of a doubt.  It was only a matter of time before this girl would show her true colors, whatever they may be.  This awkward and uncomfortable conversation between the two could only go on for so long before she slipped up and showed what sort of person she really was.

"...I'm Tanesha."

For all of her over-scrutinizing and internal criticism of the girl sitting next to her, those two words were the only ones that dared slip through Tanesha's lips.  The African-American girl was far from being a social butterfly, that much was evident in her voice, demeanor, and even her appearance.  Anyone could tell just by looking at the black girl that she wasn't anywhere near the top of Bathurst High's proverbial social totem pole.  Therefore, the entire conversation, consisting of only a few sentences, that she'd spoken to the blonde had been awkward and forced.

Sighing a bit, Tanesha's gaze stopped at Justin Lachey once again.  What a doofus.  This kid was worse than her.  Honestly now.  Justin was still marching with the wrong foot, and the stupefied look of sheer glee and joy on his face only furthered the idiotic demeanor with which he was presenting himself.  Did he realize he was doing that?  Was he doing it on purpose just to be stupid, or was he really that oblivious to what was going on around him?  Knowing Justin, he was probably just that oblivious.

After watching him a moment longer, a laugh finally slithered its way from Tanesha's lips before she even realized it.  Now that she was sitting there laughing aloud to herself, she figured that she might as well point out the incompetency of the boy to her companion lest the girl determine that Tanesha was insane or something.  Pointing to the spikey-headed individual marching incorrectly and playing the drums with gusto, she continued to laugh, her voice suddenly becoming a little lighter as she addressed the blonde once again.

"I wonder if he realizes he looks like an idiot."

Nice, Tanesha.  Very articulate.  Very well thought-out.  Now she probably thinks you're just a fat black girl who criticizes other people's faults.

"I -- he's probably doing it on purpose just to rag on Mr. Allen's nerves."

Now that was the unadulterated truth.  Many of the band students did various things simply to irk the overweight instructor.  It wasn't right of them, nor was it nice, but this is high school.  When have high school kids ever been nice or considerate of other people's feelings?  Shaking her head, Tanesha retained the grin, her pearl-white teeth shining in the sunlight.  She secretly hoped that Jolie would find it as humorous as she did, or at the very least comment about it and make a conscious effort to strike up a conversation.

Jolie let out a genuine but choked laugh, cupping her mouth embarressed.  She blushed crimson.

"You mean the boy marching on the wrong foot," Jolie said struggling to gain her composure, "I noticed that myself... I thought... I thought the band just wasn't very goo-..."

She giggled but stopped herself.  Had she offended this girl?  A new classmate of hers by calling the school's marching band bad.

"I-I'm sorry.  I didn't mean that," Jolie stood up, her face hot with nervous embarressment, "I should go Ta-tanesha was it?"

Oh shit what if that's not her name... shit Lafonda, Shaniqua, shit...

Jolie turned to walk towards the schools parking lot but tripped over an unfortunately placed lead pipe.  Letting out an audible scream she fell nearly face first onto the grass.  Could she have screamed any louder?

Tanesha visibly relaxed as Jolie responded to her remark about Justin with one of her own, even owning up to noticing the boy's failure to comply with the marching of the rest of the band.  As she started to comment on the horrendousness of the band itself, Tanesha couldn't help but swell up inwardly with laughter.  Jolie'd only been here a matter of moments, and she'd already figured out what the rest of the school faculty just couldn't seem to.  Pride and joy of Denton, all right.  As the girl quickly seemed to reprimand herself for her remark and apologize profusely for the accusation, Tanesha was taken quite a bit aback.

Perhaps she should've vocalized the fact that she, too, found the band atrociously incompetent.  As Jolie quickly scurried to her feet and began to scurry off, Tanesha could do nothing except sit and stare in sheer confusion at the events that had just unfolded.  Tanesha was what many people could call socially retarded, but this Jolie girl seemed to be just as much, if not even more so.

And then came the crash.

Tanesha was quickly brought back from her fleeting thoughts as she glanced over at the place where Jolie had taken off toward, following the loud scream that had echoed from the blonde's lungs when she'd tripped on a -- a pipe?  Who on earth left that there?  Shaking the thought from her head, Tanesha waddled over in haste, visibly making an effort to help the blonde to her feet.  Behind her, she could feel the eyes lingering on her back.  They were staring.

The band continued their horrendous tune, a screech emitting from a player's instrument every once in a while, but she could feel the eyes lingering on her back and the snickers being made by her bandmates over the girl's unfortunate accidents.  They were band nerds -- all of them -- bullied and stepped upon by virtually everyone in the entire high school.  Who were they to judge anybody for an accident?  They were people who failed at life in every sense of the word, they couldn't even march correctly or hold their instruments properly.  Who were they to laugh at Jolie?

So Tanesha Lexx did the only thing that seemed fitting at the time.  She turned around, her bulky frame fully facing the band members who looked over at the girl with disgust, and she stuck out her tongue.

Sure, it might have been immature and childish on her part, but it seemed appropriate at the time.  Besides, who cared if they thought she was immature.  They made fun of her all the time anyway, thought they were better than her when they were picked on just as much, if not more so.  Turning back toward Jolie, Tanesha stretched out her hand, offering it to the girl as a means to pull herself to her feet.  Tanesha wasn't used to being kind to anyone, and this was bound to be an awkward situation later on, but she couldn't just leave her to lay on the ground and be snickered at by the band students on her first day.

"You okay?"

Flushing crimson with embarressment Jolie could feel the burning gaze of the band nerds on her.  She looked helplessly at Tanesha, the only one who had shown her any smeblence of kindness at this school and nodded, "I-I'm fine."

Hating this new place she thought about how it was always the same.

Kids can be cruel...

The words resounded in her head.  

"Do you think we could maybe get out of here," Jolie whispered to the large black girl.

Tanesha flashed the blonde-headed girl a visibly uncomfortable smile as she assisted her to her feet.  How pathetic.  This poor girl had been here a sole day and already she was being picked on -- and worse, by the scuzziest pieces of filth on the bottom of every prep's shoe that walked through the hallways of Bathurst -- the band nerds.  People who lost their three-inch thick bottle cap glasses in the hallway and scrambled blindly for them as the jock stepped on them and shattered them.  People who spat when they talked, or snorted loudly when they laughed, or people who walked around school with blood all over the back of their white-after-Labor-Day pants when they unwittingly started their periods.  Who were they to laugh at anyone?

Sighing exasperatedly as she cast a glance back at the band -- and at Mr. Allen -- who was fiercely attempting to round up the group of band students and refocus them on the practice that they so direly needed to be performing.  For his actions, Tanesha couldn't help but be thankful.  Bathurst really was a horrible school for people like her.  It's sad when you get picked on by even the band nerds, and Tanesha certainly did.  She'd heard them talk about how fat she was or how she looked like a bull dyke.  Now that they were picking on poor Jolie as well, Tanesha felt that she could sympathize with the girl.  On some level, the large, round black-girl found it humorous that people like that would have the nerve or the guts to pick on someone like Jolie... someone who was their superior in looks, someone who could probably send the populars to massacre them by the end of the week.  If only Tanesha knew how right she'd be...

"Yeah, let's split," Tanesha agreed, nodding her head slightly.

Of course, she'd have to call her mom before she ever left the premises of the school.  Her mom was just like that, she constantly worried what Tanesha was doing or where she was, like she was some delinquent or something and was getting ready to go out and rob a bank or getting ready to go to a party and join in on a gang bang.  Tanesha wasn't like that.  Oh no, she was so far from being "that sort of girl" that it wasn't even funny.  She was no Ali Grayston who would sleep with the entire football team to be able to walk in the Homecoming game or anything like that.  She may have secretly resented Ali for a while when that vicious rumor started, but that was beside the point.  Tanesha had her urges, of course.  All girls did, right?  It was normal, right?

Walking away from the band building with Jolie in tow, she could still feel the eyes of several of her bandmates bearing holes into her back.  Were they mad at her for standing up for this new girl and actually rushing to her aide?  Probably.  Was it like Tanesha to help someone out -- especially a girl like that who was probably three times her superior at life in general?  Probably not.  Did Tanesha care that the band geeks would probably now gossip about her being in love with Jolie and about how Jolie and Tanesha were new "bestest friends" in more ways than one?  Of course she did.  Did she let it show?  Not a bit.  Holding her head high, Tanesha exited the area of the band building, vainly attempting to shut the incident from her mind as if it had never happened.

"Don't worry about them," she muttered under her breath to Jolie, "They're nobody important anyway.  Their opinion of you doesn't matter.  Not even a little bit.  In fact, you don't want them to like you, it makes you a loser by definition."

Letting out a nervous laugh at her comment, and knowing full well that she was "one of them" and probably shouldn't be talking so harshly about people who she would normally be the best of friends with, Tanesha shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.  It didn't really matter right now, did it?  Besides, somebody would bend over and accidentally let one rip during band practice and the whole incident with Jolie tripping over a metal pipe would be ancient history, along with Tanesha's compassionate actions in helping the girl to her feet and the nasty rumors that were sure to follow, especially since everyone in band seemed to convinced that Tanesha enjoyed the fairer sex -- even though they all knew about the incident with Marvin.  Everyone knew.  He'd taken the liberty of informing the entire school.  Tanesha pushed the thought into the back of her mind, turned toward Jolie, and cast her a sympathetic smile.

Jolie chose not to chime in with even the slightest chuckle in response to Tanesha's comment on the band geeks.  Instead she attempted to make light of the situation

"How humiliating," Jolie muttered, "would you believe me if I told you that this isn't a typical first day at a new school for me?  Usually people don't even notice that I've enrolled and withdrawn from a school in the average three mo-mo-monthes that I'm there.  My mom and I have moved around a lot to say the least, ha.  I'm sort of invisable to the naked eye."

Did I just say naked... naked eye?  Loser...

Jolie ran her fingers through her hair, unaware that her habitual mannerism emitted enough sexiness to rival the massive libido of her soon to be best friend and worst enemy, Ali Grayston.  Needless to say the only one around was Tanesha and her flicker of unadultered hottness was more than likely left forgotten.

"So... Ta-ta-... Tanisa... no Tamyra..."

Fuck... just be honest... play it cool...

"I-I'm sorry was it Tanesha?  Would you like to go grab some caffeine?  Starbucks or a good coffee place that you know of perhaps.  I-if you don't have a car I'm sure I could drive."

And for the first time in her life, instead of being invisable, Jolie Sheehan was halfway to making a new friend.

A nervous expression passed over the African-American girl's features as Jolie failed to even involuntarily smile at her snide comment toward their fellow band members.  Instead, the blonde girl spoke up in what seemed to be an attempt on her part to perhaps comfort herself and make light of an embarrassing situation.  Tanesha listened absent-mindedly to the girl's words on how she usually failed to make any impact whatsoever on the schools she had attended prior to enrolling in Bathurst High.  She'd made a heck of an impact here, that much was certain.  It was her first day and she was already being made fun of by the lowest notches on the proverbial high school totem pole.

Tanesha's head cocked to the side ever so slightly as Jolie stuttered over a word, and she was honestly taken aback by somebody with potential beauty that rivaled some of the Queen Bees at Bathurst High School was so... well... lame.  She was as clumsy as the day was long, it seemed.  How else to you randomly trip over a pipe laying on the ground in front of the entire marching band?  The way she talked, laughed, and even the manner in which she presented herself screamed "spaz", and in a way, Tanesha could sympathize.

In a way, Jolie reminded Tanesha a lot of herself.

"It must be hard having to move a lot," Tanesha stated solemnly in an attempt to break the morbid mood that had formed after the accident, "If it makes you feel any better, I've gone to school with half these kids since third grade and some of them still wouldn't have a clue who you were talking about if you asked them about me.  That, or they'd bring up some nasty rumor about how I was a lesbian or something."

Tanesha let out a nervous chuckle before quickly stopping to add, "B-but I'm not.  I don't know why they'd even say that.  I guess it's the way I look or something.  But whatever, right?"

Tanesha rubbed her arm slightly as Jolie exhausted ran a hand through her hair,Tanesha being completely oblivious to the fact.  As Jolie once again spoke, calling her various different names before finally remembering the correct one, Tanesha couldn't help but laugh.  At least the girl knew her name, it was more than half of Bathurst High knew.  In fact, Tanesha wasn't even sure if some of her tormentors knew her name or if she was just "that fat black girl" to them.

Even her friends acted like the was invisible a lot, come to think of it.  Richard Rorie, clarinet player extraordinaire, as he had dubbed himself, had even jokingly listed her in his cell phone under the alias of "Some Black Girl".  In a way, it was funny.  In another way, however, Tanesha couldn't help but take offense to the fact that her friends felt her unimportant enough to even list her by the correct name in their cell phone address book, of all things.

Tanesha perked up a bit at Jolie's mention of caffeine.  Caffeine sounded great right now, even if her mother didn't allow her to have it.  She could already hear the stern voice echoing in her head when she asked.  You know it makes you sick.  I don't want you sitting up all night because you drank too much pop.  But it wasn't pop, it was coffee.  Still, she'd have to call her mother and at least tell her where she was going.  She couldn't stand the fact at times, her mother treated her like she was still a small child.

"That sounds great," Tanesha mused, "Oh but... you'd have to drive.  My parents won't let me get my license until I turn eighteen... lame, huh?"  The emitted another short laugh and shook her head in embarrassment.  "There's a great little coffee shop called Sweet Bay down by the park.  It's usually pretty empty, and it's quiet.  I go down there a lot to do my homework.  You want to head there?"

Jolie nodded, "yeah sounds grood..."

Jolie's face became red with embarressment, "I started to say great but then I said good.  Anyways Sweet Bay?  Do you need to call your parents, my mom honestly won't care she's at work and then she's going to her boyfriends, but..."

Jolie stopped, was she talking to much?  She'd never really tried to make a friend before and because of this she had no idea what to say or do in this particular situation, she could only go on what she had seen in the countless teen dramedies she'd rented from the local video stores of every town she'd ever lived in.

She looked back towards the band and sighed, maybe she should have just stayed in her shell of a world and not bothered with band or friends.  If Jolie had known the tragic results of her impact on Bathurst, she would have run away from Tanesha and never looked back.  Unfortunately hindsight is 20/20.

((Continued in: Sweet Aromas and Budding Blossoms))