Title: Slits
Author: Sen
Notes: Another piece of fic written when I was sixteen. The description matches my high school, though, minus small details of the updates they've made to the building in the past two years. This is probably my favorite fic on here.

Florinda strolled down the narrow isle between the gray and white benches and the round and square brown tables. The octives were separated by years. The juniors were much louder than the seniors, who have all had a year more to gain a higher level of self-control and maturity. Little bits and pieces of conversations floated past her, mostly about who was dating who, who stole whose boyfriend, what happened last night at basketball practice, and which teacher was leaving the following school year. Finally, she reached the trash bins and clanked her multi-colored food tray on the inner edge. Crimson sauce slowly dripped down like syrup. Florinda wrinkled her nose and placed her tray delicately on top of the ever-growing pile. She tossed her silverware in the blue plastic tub, making the soapy water solution splash lightly. The middle-aged blonde washing the dishes glared icily as it missed her, her look of contempt confirming Florinda's best friend's, Anna's, theory that the cooks all hated the students for more reason than jealousy of their youth. Florinda smiled innocently in retaliation and walked off on the other edge of tables and chairs, students and other students.

"Linda!" someone called out, as if in greeting. Curious as to who it was because only her closest friends called her that, Florinda turned.

"Dude, you know her?" Jake asked, his light blond curls shining in the overhead light. The other boy nodded, still staring at her as if she were a new person, someone he'd never met before. Florinda squinted, her big brown eyes confused. A moment later, she brightened and grinned. "Hi, James," she replied, late. James, a tall, dark and handsome-ish kind of guy, had tanned skin, brown eyes, and black hair that was just long enough to curl over his eyebrows, which he raised, pretending to be hurt. "Took ya a sec to remember me, huh?"

Florinda tucked back a stray lock of her long, waist-length, dark brown hair behind her ear. "Not remember, recognize," she returned automatically.

"Ahh," he said, attempting to be sly. "And, it's Jim, now."

Florinda pursed her lips. "Is it?" she asked.

"Yep," he confirmed.

She took all her hair in both hands and swept it up in a pony tail, so neatly, no bumps remained. "Well, you're still James to me."

"Florinda, don't you have somewhere to be? Like, away from here?" Seth demanded mockingly, his spiked brown hair sticking up from his head like bristles.

"Shut up, man. She's actually talking," Jake ordered, kicking Seth in the shin under the table.

"Asshole," Seth called him, and turned to Florinda, waiting for her to leave. James watched them, wondering how things would turn out, an amused expression on his face. Florinda, making good eye contact, said, "And the itsy bitsy spider killed them all." And Seth turned away, creeped out. His face turned into a dark scowl as he said, "Do you try to scare people?"

She sighed and began stalking off into the crowd of tables, but James grasped her forearm and she whirled around, glaring. "You know, Seth, you shouldn't be scared. At least not of me. So don't waste your energies. When opportunities arise, you might need them. Besides, there are much, much worse things to be afraid of, like that spider." She turned again. "And you," she started, narrowing her eyes, "you should be careful. You don't want to get lost. I mean, it is your first day here." And with that, she left, leaving a trail of confusion in her wake.

Mark, the silent spectator of the table, his brown hair gelled in a popular style, laughed briefly. "I think that means you're too easily intimidated. You phobic. Niiice." James nodded in agreement. "She didn't mean anything by it; she'd never hurt anyone."

Seething, Seth replied through gritted teeth, "I wasn't scared."