Gigi nodded and it made her hair fall out of its binding. Her hair was dark brown but it faded to a pale golden color at the ends and the strands curled into ringlets. “Right. You can ask us anything. Hashtag judgement free zone here.”
I frowned. “What is…what is hashtag?”
“Yeah, Gigi, what’s a hashtag?” Savannah made a face at her.
“Sorry, Saffie.” Gigi pursed her lips as she thought. “Using hashtag in the context that I just did is just a fun way to emphasize something. So I was really just trying to say this is a judgement free zone.”
“But she had to throw off the girl with amnesia because she can’t stop using hashtags verbally even though they’re typically only used in text messages or on the internet.”
I blinked. Text messages. The internet. These are things I should know. And I still don’t understand what a hashtag is, even though I asked. But they hadn’t laughed at me or given me weird faces. They’d just explained it as best they could, quickly. I liked that.
“So, what do you think?” Landreia whispered. “Want to give this a shot?”
I wasn’t so sure about anything…other than last night I hated the way I felt. Anything had to be better than that. So I pushed my shoulders back and nodded. “I don’t see why not. What’s next?”
“Lunch,” Savannah and Gigi said at the exact same time.
“Oh, dear,” Mrs. Davis pushed her gray hair back and looked down at her watch. “I’m afraid they’re right. That was the bell for lunch.”
Principle Strummer clapped her hands together. “That’s perfect timing. It’ll give you three time to chat before you head into class.”
I glanced over to Landreia. “Okay?”
She grinned and nodded. “Go on, dear. Have a great time. You have my number saved in your phone, so if you need me for anything just call or text.”
My heart fluttered and blood rushed through my body. “O-okay. All right. Thanks. I’ll see you later?”
“Absolutely!” She reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “I’ll come by to pick you up after school, unless you tell me otherwise.”
“Don’t worry, Ms. Night, I’ll make sure she texts you at the appropriate time.” Savannah leaned against the door frame and held two thumbs up. “Come on, Saffie. Let’s grub up before we have to go to class.”
Then she grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the office. I looked over my shoulder and waved to Landreia but then the door shut in my face.
Savannah hooked her arm around mine and led me through the waiting area I’d been in before and into the hallway. “Don’t worry, Saffie, you’re in good hands.”
Gigi hopped forward and copied her, hooking her arm around my other one. “Both literally and figuratively.”
Heat rushed to my face. They were being so nice to me. “I’m really sorry about all this.”
“Sorry?” Savannah scowled and it made the silver spikes on her eyebrow reflect the lights in the ceiling. “What you got to be sorry for?”
I bit my lip and shrugged. “For making you have to tend to me and show me around. I mean, they put me in all your classes—”
“Oh no, ma’am,” Savannah’s thick accent rolled off her tongue. “This may be New England but I’m from the South and this is just what we do. Secondly, this was my idea. Not theirs. They don’t get credit for that.”
“What? Really?” My jaw dropped. I looked back and forth between the two girls as we walked down a hallway to wherever they were leading me. “Why would you do that for me?”
“It’s just who we are as people. We help everything we can.” Gigi smiled and it made me realize that she, too, had a silver hoop on her bottom lip. “Abandoned pets—”
“Raccoons stuck in dumpsters—”
“Bears stuck in dumpsters—”
“Butterfly fledglings—”
“Tired bees—”
“Girls who drank too much at parties—”
“Boys who drank too much at parties—”
“Lost tourists—”
“And one time a confused ghost—”
“Though we have no proof of that last one. Just a gut feeling.”
My neck hurt from looking back and forth between them. “And now me?”
“YUP,” they both said at the same time.
“Plus, we’re definitely the nerdiest kids at school.” Savannah giggled. “She’s the valedictorian, I’m salutatorian—”
“I don’t know what those words mean,” I heard myself say out loud before I could stop myself.
“It means that I have the best grades in our entire class and Savannah has the second best grades.”
“Ma’am. I don’t know why you gotta say it like that.”
“Say it like what?” Gigi frowned and pushed a door open. Bright sunlight slammed into us.
“Like you want me to come for your throne,” Savannah drawled. She pulled a pair of big black sunglasses off the top of her head and slid them over her eyes. “I let you have first because I don’t want that pressure and that’s the hill I’m gon’ die on.”
“Why would you want to die on a hill?”
They both stopped and looked down at me.
Gigi pursed her bright red lips and nodded. “I like her, she asks the important questions.”
Savannah snorted then she winked at me playfully. “It’s just a figure of speech. It means I really, really, really mean it. Like I’m totally freakin’ serious.”
Oh. Okay. Or at least that was what I meant to say. Instead, I said “where is your accent from? Where is the South?”
“Tennessee, right near the Great Smoky Mountains.”
“Oh.” Even though I had no idea what that meant or where it was from. I’d have to look at a map when I got home. “What about you, Gigi? Your accent is different.”
“I’m from Montreal, Canada. That’s north of here. Hi, Nadine!” She waved to a random girl with thick rimmed glasses, then turned back to me. “We left because it’s cold as hell up there.”
“Is hell cold?”
Savannah threw her head back and laughed.
“See, all the important questions.” Gigi chuckled. “Oh, that reminds me. In biology this morning we were talking about this fungus called ergot that grows on like rye bread and stuff and if you consume it consistently it can poison you.”
Savannah shook her head. “Thanks for that little fun fact, G, but why are you telling us this?”
“Because some scientists, and people on reddit, think it’s the real cause of the Salem Witch trials. The poisoning can cause the same side effects as LSD, so like, crazy hallucinations and seizures and shit.”
“Whoaaaaa.” Savannah shook her head. “So they’re saying everyone was just on a bad trip?”
“Wicked bad trip, eh?”
No, no that’s not it. I felt a strange sense of conviction, which was weird since I’d just learned about the witch hunt last night.
Savannah stopped walking just outside a big building. “Wait. I’m in your biology class, where was I for this?”