* * Why Bother?/A New Friend * *


“Maria, sweetie it’s time to wake up? You’re going to be late for school.”

With a defiant sixteen-year-old Maria Deluca pulled herself out of the grips of sleep. She rolled out of bed and headed towards her private bathroom. “I’m up mom. I’ll be down in a little bit.”

She looked at herself in the mirror and growled fiercely at her image. She looked horrible; mousy brown hair, boring green eyes, and lips that looked as if they needed their own school bus.

Memories of the dream that she had kept flashing across her mind. She’s had the same dream for the past few weeks. The same dream over and over again. She knew what the dream meant. It was preparing her for the fact that she would never amount to anything. She was just too plain. Sure she had a wonderful singing voice but like all the other plain people in the world without that lucky break she’d just be a bomb that could sing well.

“Maria, hurry up sweetie. You’re going to make me late for work.” Her mom yelled from downstairs.

Her mom, Amy Deluca, was a paralegal at a very prestigious law firm. But for all the money the lawyers were making Amy barely made enough to support herself and her teenage daughter. Maria tried to help out buy waiting tables at the neighborhood Shoney’s. However, even that wasn’t enough to cover the bills.

Maria quickly finished getting dressed and ran downstairs. “Sorry I took so long mom.”

“No problem honey. Did you finish all of your homework?”

“Yeah, I did.” She poured herself a glass of orange juice. “You can just drop me off at the bus stop mom. You’ll be late if you try to take me all they way to school.”

“I don’t know sweetie.” Amy looked skeptical. Maria was the only student of Antaria High that lived on their street, therefore she would be the only one on the bus stop.

“You can drop me off at the bus stop near the Antaria Lakes Condos. A lot of kids catch the bus there.”

“Okay. I’ll do that. Come on.”

Maria walked slowly from the car to the bus stop. She really didn’t want to be there. She would rather have stood at the bus stop on her street or either she should have just let her mom take her to school. She sighed and prepared herself for the looks of disdain that she would be receiving from the popular crowd (pretty much everyone on that stop) and the loneliness she would be feeling as an outsider.

When she reached the bus stop she looked over at the usual crowd of students. They were all standing around a black Lincoln Navigator that was occupied by none other than Michael Guerin (sigh Michael) and Liz Parker. Rather than be a part of the groupies, she stood off to the side and set her book bag down on the curb next to her.

“Hello, is this the stop for Antaria High?” Maria turned startled at the low sexy voice that suddenly came up behind her. When her eyes fell on the owner of that voice she wanted to faint at the sheer beauty of that person.

“Umm yeah.” She managed to squeak out. She wondered why this gorgeous supermodel even deigned to talk to her.

“Oh good all these kids standing in different places confused me a bit. By the way I’m Isabel Evans and you are?”

“Maria. Maria Deluca.”

“Kewl. So, Maria how come you’re not over there fawning over that guy like everyone else?”

“Preservation.” She stated simply. At Isabel’s look of confusion she explained herself. “They’re the popular crowd. I’m not. Why bother trying to be in their group when it’s only going to bring down utter humiliation on me?”

Isabel grinned. “Well, Maria, I happen to know that popularity is not all that they hype it up to be. I should know. I’ve been the most popular girl in my school ever since kindergarten.”

Maria gave a nervous smile. “I can tell. You look like a cheerleader.”

“Yeah I was. I would have made captain this year but then my dad made senior partner at his law firm so we had to move.”

“Where from?”

“Roswell, New Mexico.”

“You’re from New Mexico? So am I. San Juan, Mexico.” Maria was happy to meet someone from her native state. “It’s actually just a little village though. No where near as big as here.”

They both looked up as they heard the sound of an engine being gunned. They watched as Michael sped off leaving a cloud of dust behind.

“Idiot.” Isabel spoke. “He could hurt someone driving so stupidly.”

“Yeah.” Maria said softly as she stared dreamily towards the direction in which Michael had rode off.

“You have a crush on him?” Isabel asked when she noticed Maria’s look.

“Gosh, is it that obvious?”

“Yeah.”

Maria blushed. Just then the school bus pulled up. “Well it’s not like he’ll ever notice me.”

“You never know.” Isabel said with a soft smile.

“Believe me if you were him and you had a girl like Liz Parker, you would never want to stray.” Maria headed towards her normal seat and was surprised when Isabel slid in next to her.

“Just because a person seems to have it all does not mean they are perfect.” Isabel stated simply. “Now tell me more about this place that I will be habiting until college.”

They spent the rest of the trip talking about school and Maria learned that Isabel had a brother that would also be attending Antaria High. “He overslept this morning and my mom let him. She would have let me stay home but I would have died of boredom.”

As they talked and compared schedules Maria realized that she had just made a really good friend. A friend who didn’t seem to care that Maria was not as beautiful as she was or that Maria was obviously not as rich as she. Maria realized that she had woken up this morning with a Why Bother attitude and that that attitude was shot to heck by the making of a new friend.