EPIC MINI CONTEST 3! Anybody ready to submit/write an entry?

Amelia Prentiss
Fred Xavier

Story:

Amelia shook her hair from her face, shoving her bangs to the side.
She'd only just gotten bangs, and she hated them. Ah, well at least she could stop by the food court...
The only hair-cutting place she knew of was in the mall. The food court was on the top floor, and was half the size of a football stadium, or so she assumed. She'd heard that stadiums were huge, but she hadn't actually been to one.
Everyone always stared at her. She did, after all, have the longest, straightest, blondest hair one could imagine. But why her? There were plenty of long haired Hispanic girls wandering thew mall this weekend. Maybe it had something to do with her ugly face. She never wore make up, and she didn't know why. The thought had never occurred to her before now... And it flew out just as quickly, with a glare at her bangs and a furious tucking and yanking.

Amelia passed by a bathroom. She ducked inside, French braided her hair, then came out with her hair at least half as long as it had been before. Stupid bangs, they kept crawling all over her eyes and tickling her cheek. She'd cut them off when she got home...they definitely didn't match her braid at all.

A ride in the elevator, and presto! she could smell slime from one end (burgers), and chinesey chickeny stuff from the other end. Obviously, she wandered in that direction. A kosher burger place, some bacon and salami pizza, then a sushi bar. None of them caught her nose, or her attention. Only when she spotted the most bizarre sight on planet earth did she decide that a certain Chinese fast food place was good enough. She slipped into line, which was at least 5 times longer than usual. Weekends, bah. Wait! Where had the bizarre thing gone to? Whoever it was had been a midget, looking around 18, but with the height of an elementary schooler. Midgets were entertaining to watch, she thought to herself, although not a little guiltily. Poor guy, she spotted him now. He was pulling a chair up to the front desk. Funny, he had a voice that matched his age, not his height. Amelia's hand drifted to her writing notebook, but she stuffed it in her jacket pocket instead. It would be rude to write about somebody, just standing in line like this. Amelia forced herself to wait.

As she approached the front counter, she kept one eye on the midget. He was albino even, she could see that now. Crazy! He looked lonely. She craned her neck, searching for other possible circus performers, but found no one.
Did that guy go to school, if he was still that young? Bullying was bad enough for people like her, and that was in middle school! This guy had to be in high school, at least. Amelia ordered beef and broccoli, two fortune cookies, and some fried rice. Orange chicken got too strong for her, if there were more than 5 pieces.

After a moments hesitation, she selected a seat across from the albino dude.
He glanced up at her wearily. "hello."

Chills of delight ran down her spine. He was just so ridiculously funny!
And yet melancholy, at the same time. If Amelia had been the equivalent of most of her class mates, she would have sat here too, except to tease him.

"hi, mumbled Amelia, glancing awkwardly down at her styrofoam plate. She jabbed at some broccoli, then watched him chew some noodles.
He cleared his throat. "do I know you?"

He sounded miserable. Like everything she had guessed previously was true. Bullying, school, everything.
Amelia didn't feel so inclined to stare anymore. "um.. N-- I.. I dunno. I.......... Thought you looked familiar.

The guy smiled bitterly. "oh, I'm sure."
Amelia shot out her hand before she could back out. Why had she sat down at a table with a complete stranger, again? And a boy?

He took it lightly, shaking once, then removing his hand from her reach. She retracted her hand immediatley. "Amelia. Amelia Prentiss.. Yours?"

After a long silence, she picked up one of the fortune cookies, and tossed it to him. "want one? Got it at the Chinese place.

He accepted it, and set it beside his plate.

He was now staring at her like she was the weird one. Amelia blushed. What was her problem? The writer inside her had just marched her up to this guy and asked him what his name was! Did she really think that he would be chatting about his personal information, or what??

"Fred."

Amelia smiled politely. "sorry I bothered you..."

She made to get up, but he quickly blurted "that's fine. You don't have to move tables because of me."

She sat back down again, glad she didn't need to humiliate herself by switching tables. Everyone in the food court was sitting down now.
This was her cue to make small talk. "so, I'm... I go to Watercress Junior High."

He squinted at her. "thought I recognized you. Your sister is...?"

"Juliet Prentiss. Watercress High."

Fred nodded in scknowledgement, "I've heard of her at school. I go to that high school, too."

Amelia stabbed some rice onto her fork. It had gone cold. "sounds like you havent really met her yet."

He shook his head. "when youre... Eh.. Like me, you don't take your chances with new acquaintances. I know enough of those guys."

Amelia smiled sympathetically. "yeah... Well. Um.."

She was out out words. He noticed, to her surprise, and continued. "nice place, Dontcha think?"

She nodded, finishing off her soda. "well... I guess I'd better be off."

He scrutinizsed, evaluated, then spoke. "shouldn't you be with an adult?"

Amelia shrugged. "almost. My sister's shopping at GAP."

Fred made no suggestion of being slightly interested in meeting her sister. Amelia didn't blame him. As she exited the food court, she thought of her. Comparison of herself to most of her class mates. Juliet could definitely be described as 'most of her class mates.'

---------------———————

Fred shook his head. Peculiar girl.

Then he remembered his fortune cookie. He opened it.

"you will make new friends."


He smiled genuinely this time. How many times had he gotten that one? At least 5 times. But how many times had it come true?

He watched the girl-Amelia-bounce into the elevator, hair swinging.