3. Kiss The Morning Air

It was nice being the only one awake in the car. No noises, no being jostled around in the car when it hit bumps in the road. Nothing. It was so peaceful.


All of a sudden I heard someone moving. I quickly ducked down and pretended to be sleeping. Whoever it was, I didn't want them knowing I was staring at them all. I heard a car door open then close. I opened one eye to see which seat was empty. It was Jade's seat, and she was headed towards the diner. I waited 5 minutes, which seemed like forever, grabbed my purse, and went for a walk. I walked out of site, and then stretched my legs. I just thought it would appear awkward if I started stretching right there next to the car. I always felt awkward anyways. They all seemed pretty confident and had their set styles. Basically they knew who they were. Me on the other hand, I had no idea who I was. I mean sure I was Jamie Karlson, but I didn't know what I wanted to be or what I wanted to do. I wasn't good at anything, and I never fit in with anybody. Not even my own family. I wasn't even really a part of their ”family” anyways. I was adopted at birth. My parents never told me anything about my real family, they just told me at an early age that I was adopted. Every time I would ask about them, they would act like they didn't know anything. But finding myself did not include a search for my real parents. Obviously they didn't care enough about me to keep me, so why should I care about them? I just wanted to finally be happy and confident in myself and not feel like the ugly duckling all the time. I'll admit I never really tried that hard to not be the “ugly duckling.” Appearance wise anyways. I just threw on jeans, a tee-shirt, and maybe a sweater if it was cold. I never really did anything with my hair, and I never really wore any makeup. Maybe sometimes I'd wear a little mascara, but that was usually only for special occasions. I also never did much with my dirty blonde and slightly wavy hair. Usually it just went up in a ponytail or a bun. I felt like Mia in The Princess Diaries, always feeling invisible and dorky, but never really doing anything about it.


I was thinking so intensely that I didn't realize I was just standing on the sidewalk, staring at the cars that were going by. Basically I had zoned out everything that was going on and was frozen on the sidewalk with my thoughts. Thankfully I had snapped out of it just in time to see Jade walking towards me.


“Hey! What are you doing out here?” She asked


“Oh, I needed to walk around and get some fresh air.” I replied. “Are the others up yet?”


“I wouldn't know. After I went into the diner to use the bathroom, I decided to take a walk.” She laughed, “Guess I wasn't the only one who had that idea.”


“Yeah,” I laughed back.


“Well you know, 'Great minds think alike,'” She said.


That was a first, I'd never been called “great” before. I just laughed with her. We just stood there looking out at the street and all that was going on. I glanced over at Jade. She had obviously re-applied her makeup and had fixed her hair. Her green eyes really stood out against the black eyeliner. I wondered if that was why her parents named her Jade, because of the green eyes. I was pretty sure that almost all babies' eye color changes though, so her parents couldn't have named her based on that. Oh well, it's not like I needed to know the reasoning behind her name to be friends with her anyways. I did envy her though. Her clothes style totally matched her personality and she seemed to know what colors went with what and which eye-makeup would compliment it. I wondered if she would give me some pointers. I was too shy to ask though.


“I think I'll head back now and see if I can get a fresh set of clothes,” I said.


“Yeah, I need to change too,” she agreed.


“You think we'll go into the diner to eat breakfast or go somewhere else?” I asked


“I don't know.” she answered. “Payton might want to go to a McDonald's or something. You know, save some money.”


“Oh, ok.” I sighed, I kind wanted to go in there. Oh well.

We started heading back to the car. Taking our time and taking in the morning air.