Status Quo
The bell rang signaling the start of lunch and Gigi stormed to the cafeteria feeling extremely frustrated. By now the entire school had heard about the callbacks, and nobody else seemed too happy either.
In East High, people knew to stay in their lanes. Well, most of them anyway. If you were a jock, you played sports. If you were a nerd, you read books. And if you weren't Gigi or Gavin, you did not get a callback for the couple in the musical productions. You didn't even try out. That's just how it worked. Nobody dared to differ from the norm or step out of their box.
Gigi quickly found her seat on the deck of the cafeteria, up the stairs and above everyone else, at a table with the drama club. She didn't sit in it though, instead she paced anxiously while looking down at her classmates. Her eyes were drawn to the table of basketball players. She waited to see if Chad would say anything to Kyle, but Kyle was nowhere to be seen.
She continued to watch as a boy named Aaron stood up and began to speak loudly to the table.
"Listen up guys, i have a confession," they all looked at him with interest, beckoning him to go on ,"if Kyle can tell his secret then so can I...I bake. Cookies, cakes, pastries, you name it!"
Chad immediately shot him a look that could kill. This was exactly what Gigi wanted to happen. The entire cafeteria would go into an uproar and Crystal and Kyle would feel so bad that they would drop out of the running for the musical.
"Aaron, we play basketball, it's just what we do! Everyone needs to stop trying to step out of their comfort zone. It's wrong. Stick to the stuff you know!" Chad spoke back to him firmly. At this point much of the cafeteria was listening to their interaction.
A girl with red hair at a nearby table also stood up, clearly being encouraged by what Aaron had just done.
"I know you all think that I'm just a smart girl, but I have a secret hobby too...I love hip hop." A smile beamed across her face.
"Is that some kind of new science thing??" the boy next to her questioned.
"No! The dance style! I love to pop and lock and break. It's my passion!" she did a little dance move as she said this and the cafeteria full of students looked at her in disgust.
“Oh god! That’s practically a crime! Stick to chemistry and physics please, for everyone’s sake!”
Chaos ensued as more and more students from different tables and cliques decided to confess their secret interests. Someone from the film club admitted to loving soccer; someone from the skateboarding club admitted to playing the cello. People were yelling at each other and throwing food in frustration. And Crystal and Kyle, who were the reason behind all of this, were still nowhere to be seen.
"This is NOT what was supposed to happen!" Gigi exclaimed as she marched down the stairs towards the rest of the students and the mess that was being made. The goal was not to start a food fight; she just wanted Chad and Jackie to have a conversation with their friends privately and that to be the end of it.
In that moment, Crystal stumbled unknowingly into the cafeteria with her tray of food in hand.
"What's going on? Why's everyone staring at you?" she asked as she found Jackie.
"Not me, you!"
"What, because of the callbacks?" Jackie nodded. "Oh my god! I can't have people staring at me I just can't!"
“Well maybe you should’ve thought about that before you broke the unwritten school rules. Nobody would be staring at you if you had just joined the art club.”
The chaos continued, the floor now covered in food, as Crystal and Jackie tried to make their way over to their own table. Gigi had now spotted Crystal and was charging towards her, ready to yell at the girl and put her in her place, when Crystal slipped on a pile of mashed potatoes and was sent flying backwards on to her backside.
Before Gigi could react, Crystal's tray of lunch (which consisted of spaghetti and meatballs) was splattering all over her chest and splashing up onto her face.
Crystal quickly collected herself from the ground when she realized that her tray was no longer in her hands, and felt panic rise in her stomach when she saw where it had landed. So much for staying on Gigi's good side.
"Crystal what the fuck! I JUST bought this track suit!"
"Oh my god Gigi. Oh my god. Don't move! I'm so sorry! Let me help you oh my god," Crystal was now frantically rubbing the spaghetti sauce off of Gigi's chest with her tan hands.
Gigi's breath hitched in her throat and her cheeks flushed bright red. This was definitely not the situation she had imagined this happening in (not that she had imagined it at all of course). Her mind roamed for a few seconds, not being able to move. She knew Crystal was doing this on purpose; she was trying to get a rise out of her. Trying to get her to react, to make a fool out of herself. This could not be happening. Not here, not now. "Everyone is gonna figure out the secret that I've worked so hard to keep, all because of Crystal," was all Gigi could think, which snapped her out of her unresponsive state and caused anger to course through her body.
"Get off of me! What are you, a lesbian or something? Don't touch me you freak!" Gigi's words stung as they escaped her throat. She then ran out of the cafeteria and straight to the bathroom.
Crystal stood there for a second, taking in the words that Gigi had just spat at her. Why would she think that of her? A puzzled expression spread across her face, trying to figure out what she had done to make a Gigi call her that, when she realized where she had just been rubbing. Her hands then tingled and felt like they were on fire where she had just been touching her. Touching her in a place that maybe she shouldn't have. Why did her hands feel like that? She didn’t have time to think about this right now. She did her best to push the questions to the side and ran after the girl. Crystal felt the need to fix what she had just done. She wasn't sure why, but she wanted so badly for Gigi to like her.
"Gigi, wait! Please open up!" Crystal knocked on the stall that Gigi had locked herself in.
"What do you want Crystal? Haven't you done enough damage already?" Crystal didn't respond, just leaned against the door. Gigi leaned against it from the inside, trying to catch her breath for a second before opening it to face her.
"Why don't you just get it over with already Crystal? Just get it over with, please! I don't care anymore! Just stop torturing me!" she begged.
"What? What do you mean?" Crystal's tone sounded genuinely lost and hurt, which confused Gigi even more. Did she really not know what she was doing to her? Was Crystal actually clueless about Gigi's secret? Was this all in her head?
Gigi chose to ignore the question, pushing past the shorter girl to walk up to the mirror. Her velvety pink tracksuit had a big red splotch across her chest, and there was little splashes of sauce on her pale cheeks as well.
Crystal ran over to the sink, grabbing a paper towel and wetting it before turning to Gigi.
"Let me help, please, it's the least I can do," Crystal said reaching out with the wet paper towel to try to clean Gigi again.
"Stop Crystal! I can do it myself! Just stop!" Gigi snatched it out of her hand harshly and began scrubbing her own chest. Crystal's eyes fixated on her motions for a few seconds before snapping back up to Gigi's face to ask:
"Why do you hate me so much?"
"What? I- I don't hate you Crystal." Gigi sounded a little defeated. She knew she had been harsh with Crystal, but didn't think she would actually be upset by her words and actions.
"Well then why have you been so mean to me? It is because I've been hanging around Kyle? Because there's nothing going on between us, I swear! Or is it because of the callback? Because if that's it then I'll just—"
"No...and you don't need to lie about Kyle," she laughed slightly at the girl's attempt to cover up her obvious feelings towards Kyle just for her sake. Crystal seriously thought Gigi liked Kyle; she truly was clueless despite Gigi's paranoia. Crystal stayed silent, urging her to continue with her answer.
"It's just...it's just easier this way, okay? This is just how it has to be." Crystal stared at her, beyond confused now. Gigi proceeded to wipe her face gently, her eyes coming up to meet Crystal's through the mirror. They held the eye contact for a few seconds before the hurt look on Crystal’s face became too much for Gigi and she forced herself to look away.
She pushed past Crystal again, this time going towards the bathroom door, and taking one last glance at her before turning and walking out. Once out of Crystal's sight, Gigi found the nearest door and barged inside, slamming it behind her. "How ironic," she thought as she realized that she was now inside of a closet (a janitor's to be exact). The smell of chemicals stung her nose as a single tear trickled down her cheek. If Crystal wasn't on to her before then she definitely was suspicious now. Gigi was usually a professional at keeping her emotions bottled inside and keeping a stone cold exterior, but having the beautiful new girl basically feel her up made it a little more challenging. She wanted nothing more than to let Crystal help her clean up, but she couldn’t let herself give in to those urges. She had made it this far; she wasn’t going to let some silly little crush, especially on a straight girl, ruin that now. At least this interaction would probably discourage Crystal from trying to talk to her again.
Meanwhile, Crystal was also left with only her thoughts. The thick air that had formed between the two remained in the bathroom even with the blonde gone. What did that even mean? Easier?? And what did she mean about Kyle? Crystal liked Kyle, sure. But she didn’t feel a different way than how she felt about Jackie, or her friends back home. She didn’t want Gigi to think she was lying to her about trying to get with the guy she liked because that was really not the case. And why would being mean to her be easier? Did she think that way about everybody, or just Crystal? She had a million questions running through her head and nobody to ask.
Every word Gigi said to Crystal only left her even more intrigued by the girl. She decided that no matter what it took, she was going to make it so that it was no longer "easier" for Gigi to be mean to her.