"You’ve come to the right place," she says and smiles.

We go about the rest of our morning, Shane showing me where everything is and we plan to meet each other for lunch. I’m in my calculus class, my last class before lunch, when a handsome guy with brown hair and a nice smile looks my way. I smile and look away. After class he catches up to me.

"Hey," he says grabbing my shoulder.

"Hey," I say and continue to walk.

"I didn’t catch your name in class."

"I didn’t throw it," I say sarcatically and smile.

"Well I’m Eric James."

"Tina Kennard," I say shaking his hand.

"Are you new here?"

"Yep, brand new."

"Ok, is your lunch hour next?"

"Yeah I am actually on my way to meet a friend."

"Oh, well, then maybe we should get together outside of school. Get to know one another."

"Maybe," I say uneasy, "see you around."

I walk away but I can feel his eyes on me. I roll my eyes and make my way towards the cafeteria where I see Shane waving towards me. I walk hurridly towards her and she smiles at me. We embrace and we get into the pizza line.

"How was your calculus class?"

"Fine, my last school was a little behind but nothing I can’t handle."

"Shit, I can’t handle cal, it’s too hard."

"Ehh, yeah it’s kind of intense."

"So, have you met any new people?"

"Not really. I did meet this guy in my calculus class."

"Who?"

"Him," I said nodding his way, he was leering at me and his friends smiled, "Eric James, he seems like a douche."

"He is. And his posse of douchers are assholes, they make stupid comments about me and Carmen."

"Carmen?"

"Oh, ha, sorry I forgot to introduce you, she’s saving us a table. She’s my girlfriend, we’ve been dating for a year," she said beaming a proud smile.

"Girlfriend," I asked puzzled, I didn’t know many gay people, "you’re gay?"

"Yeah, is that a problem?"

"No, of course not."

She smiled at me and we kept walking down the lunch line. After we swiped our pre-loaded food card, we walked out. I stopped to get some juice while Shane got napkins and walked outside to the courtyard where Carmen was. Shane failed to mention how stunningly beautiful Carmen was. She was wearing beautiful gold high heels, filled with perfectly manicured feet. Her legs were long and smooth. She wore white short shorts and a frayed pink shirt with Marilyn Monroe on the front. Her brunette hair was long and wavey and she had her aviators on to guard her eyes from the sun. She lifted her glasses to reveal her big brown eyes. She smiled at Shane and squeaked a bit when they hugged which snapped me out of my daze.

"Babe, this is Tina Kennard, she’s new to L.A."

"Tina, so good to meet you," she hugged me warmly. Looking at them, they seemed like the oddest couple.

"Nice to meet you too."

"How are you liking Los Angeles?"

"I really love it, the weather is so nice."

"Oh yeah, we should go swimming later."

"Yeah! We really should. Bette just bought a house and it has a pool. I’ll ask Kit to ask her for us."

"Yeah you really should," Carmen quickly agreed. I was about to ask who Bette was when a stack of notebooks hit the table and I heard a grumble.