After another boring period of history, it was break time. I went over to the crowded canteen with the smell of cinnamon rolls and coffee flowing in the air. I bought a grilled sandwich and a bottle of coke from a fat, bald Chinese man at the counter. I scanned all the tables to find an empty one and luckily I found one table with four chairs (in which, the other three chairs would probably be acquired by random strangers which I'd definitely regret later.) But, anyway I sat on that table and relished the piece of sandwich while the sip of cool coke soothed my throat. The peaceful moment came to an end abruptly as those two startled me.

"Hey! I'm Jacob. You can call me Jake." said the shorter, curly-haired one.

"And I'm Alex, Alex Wilde." said the other and sat on the chair in front of me. Jacob, or I'll say Jake joined too. Alex looked way older than his age- he was tall, like really tall; he looked as if he was 18 or something and he had green eyes and very thin lips. On the other hand, Jacob looked quite normal- an absolute American face with lots of speckles on his nose, abnormally big ears and a loud sound. They were giving me a look as if they're waiting for me to introduce myself. But they should remember my name, it was not long that Mr. Smith took it. Or maybe, it sounded so pathetic that they wanted to hear it from my own mouth. Hesitantly, I said,

"Um... I'm Daisy Jordan."

As I said the word 'Daisy', Alex gazed at the picture of daisy on my sweatshirt as a slight smile formed on his face and then he quickly looked away. Well, at least someone noticed!

"So, DJ" says Jake (Oh goodness! Did he just called me DJ?) , "when will you teach us math? It's not that we are dying to learn math..."

"It's just that we'll actually die if we have to bear Mr. Smith's two minute lecture stretched into an hour-long one." said Alex, completing Jake's sentence.

I chuckled at that and said, "Okay then, when are you guys free?" I didn't expect that sentence to come out so smoothly from my introverted mouth but it surprisingly did.

"Today after six? In the library, what say?" asked Jake.

"Fine."

"Then, bye bye! See you later." he said and stood up from his seat.

As they left, Alex turned around and whispered to me, "Hope you'll not teach like Mr. Smith!" And that left me alone, smiling into my sandwich.
______________________________

After classes, I took a quick nap which prolonged into a proper sleep and I woke up at 5:55. As soon as I struggled open my weary eyes, I realized that I had a job to do. Some part of me wanted to teach them, befriend them. But the other paranoiac part wanted to stay away from boys, especially the 'oh-so-cool' ones.

Hurriedly, I ate the leftovers from what my mom had packed, wore a plain crimson top with long, wavy sleeves and a black ripped jeans and kept my hair open as I didn't have time to tie them. I grabbed the Math book from the study table and started walking towards the library (which I found out, was downstairs beside the biology lab.)

The Blue Valley High School's library was worth appreciating : a number of huge bookshelves having innumerable books in them; the four ocean-blue colored walls artistically covered with quotations from well-known books (one of them was "I go to see a Great Perhaps" and I elated with pride as if I've written it); and the most important- it was not crowded. Well it was obvious, the Blue Valley kids were not nerds, they were hipsters.

I saw Alex and Jake sitting at the far off table, behaving as if it was their first time in a library. Of course, it is! I walked over to them and said,

"Hey!"

"DJ! Come on, sit" said Jake while motioning me to sit on the empty seat between him and Alex.

I sat while adjusting my spectacles and Alex flashed me a smile which I genuinely returned.

"So, let's start with the basics of trigonometry, okay?" I asked as I opened the thick math book.

"As you wish, Ms. Jordan." said Alex. "We're no one to oppose."

"Fine. So what is the Sin of theta?"

"Hey, I think you didn't hear him right, Mr. Smith told you to teach us Math, not how to copy someone's autograph!" snapped Alex.

"What?" I asked because I felt that his words were totally out of the blue.

Jake slapped his friend's head and said, "Dude! Do you even know what trigonometry is? She's talking about s-i-n "sin" of theta. It's adjacent side divided by opposite, isn't it, Jordan?"

"Um.. no, it's opposite divided by hypotenuse."

"Now what Jake?" snapped Alex. Jake murmured a 'whatever' and proceeded to pay attention in the book.

"Okay so sin of theta is..."

"Where are you from Daisy?" Alex interrupted me.

"Oklahoma. So sin is opposite..."

"Do you have any siblings?"

"No. Okay opposite divided by hypoten..."

"Do you ever feel lonely?"

"Yes, but I love it. Now, would you let me speak?"

"No. I'm tired. Let's go to the canteen and get something to eat."

"C'mon, we just started!"

"Yeah but... Please, let's take a break. I promise, I'll study seriously after that. Promise."

"Okay. Go then, and call me when your little break is over"

"What?! No, you're coming with us!"

"No, no, no, noo. I'm not."

"What, you afraid?" mocked Jake.

"No"

"Shy?"

"No"

"Paranoid?"

"You know what? I'll certainly come." I said as I didn't want this taunting to go on anymore.

"That's my girl!" yelled Alex.

We walked to the canteen and bought a packet of Doritos and a can of coke. Before I could open the pack of Doritos, Alex said to Jake, "Hey, you know what, we should take her to our secret place."

"What secret place?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Sure, let's show DJ the most beautiful place in the world!" said, Jake totally ignoring me.

"Then, follow me ladies!" said Alex as he smirked at Jake.

"Oh, shut the hell up!" shouted Jake and well I, laughed.

"But where exactly are we going?"

"You'll see."

We walked few foot to reach a place which had a totally different ambience than the canteen or the school or in fact, the whole San Antonio. This remote place was swarming with wild scarlet red strawberries with bright green grasses encasing them. To add on

to that beauty, a bunch of butterflies were flying round the strawberries and there were a couple of big rocks which probably served as seats for people.

"Smultronställe" whispered Alex as if he is talking to the wind.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Smultronställe. A place where wild strawberries grow." He replied.

"A.k.a the most beautiful place in the world." Said Jake. "What do you think of it, Jordan?"

"It is beautiful." was all I could say.

Alex walked over to sit on one of those rocks and I followed, my eyes still on the butterflies. We three spoke nothing for the next few minutes. And I felt something deep down in my heart, something which was new to me, something which I needed. I felt alive.

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"You don't have any friends here, do you?" asked Jake.

"No"

"Then come be a part of our group. Let's be friends." said Alex pressing down his ring finger with his thumb. I noticed that he did this uncanny action a lot.

"And 'group' here, refers to just the two of us. We should rather call it a 'couple', right Alex?"

"I know you love me, Jake. But sadly, I'm straight." said Alex irritatedly. "So Daisy, wanna ride the stumbling rollercoaster of life with us?"

I didn't know what to say. I couldn't just be friends with someone whom I know for just one hours. That's not how friends are made.

"Sorry but I believe that you cannot become a friend when someone asks you to be their friend and you agree. That's when you "act" like a friend. Actual friends are made when you know the other person's deepest wishes, fears, when you pass through every hurdle of life, together. That's when real friends are made. And I don't want a fake friend in my life." After I said that, I realized that, that was the first time I had ever shared my thoughts with anybody. Maybe it was their vibes that put me in a state where I, for the first time, felt safe and comfortable outside my little room.
But then by looking at both of their faces, I thought I said too much.

After few long seconds, Jake finally opened his mouth, "That...was deep!"

"I'll take it as a compliment." I smiled.

"Tell me about yourself" said Alex.

"Huh?"

"I mean you said friends know everything about each other. So, start. Tell me about your wildest dreams, fears."

"Us" quoted Jake.

"Tell 'us' all about you." said Alex pressurizing on the word 'us'.

"What do you want to know?"

"Why is your name Daisy, Daisy?"

Alex's question really baffled me. I thought they were going to ask about hobbies or dreams. But this was the first time someone asked me about my name.

"Um... My mom loved daisies and my dad loved my mom, so yeah he named me Daisy."

"Do you love daisies?" asked Alex.

"More than anyone does."