Claire And Summer Ch 2

"Well considering the fact that I'm the only person with dyed hair, my style of dressing, piercings and every girl here talks like a valley girl, no. No I don't." She shifted her weight to her other foot and looked to the side.
"I know my friends aren't exactly up to par…but there's a seat for you if you want it. Come eat lunch with us." Summer shrugged
"Oh common, it's not like you know anyone here." She half shrugged and walked away.

Claire waited at lunch with Stephanie Cary and Amber, people that had been there for her always.  Melissa showed up again and claimed a seat before anyone could take it. Claire had her feet propped up on the last chair and looked around the lunchroom for Summer. Suddenly she saw her. It was hard to miss a girl wearing all black with red hair. She was holding a lunch tray and looking around. She quickly caught sight of Claire and she nodded at her. She started walking forward and Susan showed up.
"Hey Claire! Anyone sitting here?-" She moved to sit and Claire was forced to jerk her legs off the chair so she wouldn't be sat on. "Great, thanks." Shit.  She looked at Summer annoyed and Summer swerved at the last second and headed out the doors to the outside of the school. There were huge windows in the cafeteria to the outside and Claire watched as she planted herself down on top of the concrete wall. She started to eat her lunch looking unbothered and propping her legs up on the wall. She took her book out and kept reading.
"Clairrreee….Claire!" A hand waved in front of her face and she blinked. Cary looked over at her with a worried expression. "You okay?"
"Yeah." Claire replied after a while.
"What were you staring at?" Cary turned around and tried to figure it out. "Her?" Cary was one of the few people that actually believed and supported Claire. "She's gorgeous…are you interested? I've never seen her around before." Claire's face flushed and she shook her head.
"No..I just, I don't know. She's different somehow and I can't place why." Cary poked her cheeks deliberately and smirked.
"You're blushing dear." Claire swatted her hands away and laughed.
"Look, she's a hot girl..and I like girls, not a big deal okay?" Cary held up her hands in surrender and smiled.

She saw Summer again in drama class. She stood in the corner picking nail polish off her nails. Summer looked up briefly and caught her gaze then looked down deliberately. Claire walked up to her.
"I'm really sorry about the whole seat thing. Susan seems to think that she can have anyone's seat whenever she pleases, it's stupid really." Summer shrugged looking up at her.
"It's not a big deal, I liked sitting outside anyways." The class started and the teacher began assigning scenarios to be improvised in groups. Summer was put in a different group. Claire watched Summer act out the scene with the other group. She was so good and Claire was mesmerized by her performance. She was such an extrovert on stage but the second she was off it was like she was a different person. Claire was determined to figure out what kept drawing her to Summer. She decided to leave her alone for the rest of the day and walked home after school by herself. The neighbours upstairs were fighting again and Claire stepped outside her window onto the fire escape and sat down. It was a lot quieter and she let herself stare at the passers-by below. She came out to the fire escape a lot to think. She had told her parents that she was a lesbian but they dismissed it as "a phase" and never questioned her about it ever again. That was 3 years prior and now she stared down at the sidewalk wondering why this girl struck her so differently than the rest of the girls she knew. It's not like she had never had a girlfriend before. She had, several in fact. None of them ended well. Maybe it was because this girl was new and didn't flag her down for attention that she admired her. She felt almost selfish admitting it, but she really wanted the girl to take notice of her.