In Luna’s mind, there was sorrow and there was grief, but most of all, there was loathing, loathing for herself, having let time flow away like water in a stream.

Throughout the school year of year 7, almost all of Luna’s classmates have been in relationships, only Luna was left behind. She didn’t know what she had done wrong or what the others have done right, but the outcomes proved it all. 

Brooklyn have confessed her relationship with Chance to her parents and Luna, and they were constantly going out to the mall, to have dinner together, or to simply hang out.

It was completely logical that Luna had given up on Chance, though she prays every night for him to break up with Brooklyn. Perhaps Brooklyn would accidentally show something bad in her, perhaps they realize that they weren’t meant for each other… However, God didn’t seem to have heard Luna’s prayers.

Luna craved to make Chance jealous somehow, and regret that he chose Brooklyn instead of her, but she never shone brighter than Brooklyn in any area.

There were hardly any ripples between Brooklyn and Chance, and they seem to be able to be together forever. Luna couldn’t imagine what can cause them to break up.

About once a week, Brooklyn stayed over at Chance’s house for the night, and Luna was getting quite used to it. She knew what was happening, but was too intimidated to visualize the scene. These were the types of situations in young adult stories, and suddenly, they were so close to Luna’s life.

Brooklyn’s mother have allowed her to stay over, though Luna guaranteed that she also knew what they were doing. Once, after her bed time, Luna overheard her mother telling her father, “Brooklyn’s already 16, she’s grown old enough.”

“Oh, it seems like only yesterday when we had our first child,” Luna’s father laughed.

Luna’s mother exclaimed, “How fast time flies… I can’t believe that a couple of years later, Brooklyn would be going to college!”

After hearing that, Luna fell asleep.

Back at school, Luna was excelling at her courses like she used to. She still had a lot of friends who loved and supported her. Having given up on Chance, Luna began having crushes on almost every boy at school, although for some, she liked them for one day and started to realize that they’re not so good the next day. Usually with a small act of kindness, Luna would fall for a boy.

Sometimes, she wondered if her friends was the same as her, but she never asked.

“Hey, Luna,” Vivian said to her during lunch one day, “I think that I kind of like Ethan, you know, the really cute guy in class 3.”

Of course Luna knew him, Luna knew almost everyone in her middle school, as for Ethan, he’s pretty nice and has good grades.

Vivian blushed slightly as Luna smiled, “Really? Does he even know you? I don’t think that I remember the two of you talking or anything.”

“Exactly” Vivian tapped Luna’s shoulder, “So I’m going to try to make friends with the girls in their class.”

“Good luck then, you can make friends with the really extroverted ones frst, perhaps Melissa or Alice?”

“Thanks, I’ll go talk to them during recess, can you come with me though? It’ll probably be super weird if I suddenly go talk to the other girls.”

Luna agreed, “Sure, I’ll do anything to help you.”

Then, both girls laughed lightly.

As lunch passed on to recess, Vivian had spotted a couple of girls in class 3 sitting in a circle on the soccer field while the boys were playing soccer at the other half of the field.

“There they are,” she indicated the girls to Luna, “Let’s go talk to them.”

Luna and Vivian walked towards the three girls and found out that they were playing Uno. Vivian knelt down beside Melissa and watched the game. Luna did the same.

About a minute after Luna and Vivian had arrived, they three girls have finished their game.

“Hey, I was wondering, can the two of us join your game? I really like Uno,” Vivian said to the girls.

“Of course, you’re Vivian, right?” Sophie smiled, “And you’re Luna?” She then turned to look at Luna.

“Yup,” Luna replied and the five girls formed a larger circle.

Melissa distributed the Uno cards with seven cards for each person.

After the cards were distributed, the game started. One by one, the cards laid on top of each other. Melissa had won the first game, but she was only one card ahead from Luna. Then, they started another game. However, the fun times never lasted long, and after a couple of games, it was time for the afternoon classes.

“Bye guys,” Vivian and Luna waved at the others as they headed to their classroom.

“Bye,” the three others waved back.

Luna could not bear the fact that math class was waiting for her. After suffering through Ms Cissy’s lecture on differentiation for 40 minutes, Luna and Vivian went to the water fountain to refill their bottles, they spotted Sophie and Melissa in the hallways. 

Melissa waved at them and smiled, “Hi!”

“Oh, hi!” Vivian waved back, “We were just having maths, what about you guys?”

“Oh, we were at PE,” Sophie answered, “The coach said that there wouold be a school-wide volleyball competition at the end of this month,” she added.

“Oh really,” Vivian grinned, “So there’s about two weeks left.”

“Yep, but it’s class versus class, so we’re gonna be opponents,” Melissa said.

Vivian laughed casually, “Well, I hope I can beat you then.”

With that, the two pairs of girls left for their classes.

With each conversation, Luna and Vivian were becoming closer friends with Sophie and Melissa. Over the next few days, they have been aquainted with almost all the girls in class 3 and visited their classroom every now and then.

The girls in class 3 were friendly and seemed to enjoy the presence of Vivian and Luna. Although the boys were always in the classroom while the two visited, they didn’t seem to take much interest in them.

Vivian was disappointed that the boys in class 3 never talked to her and Ethan wasn’t really popular with the girls in their class.

“I mean, we visit almost every day, of course he saw you,” Luna comforted her, “Of course he doesn’t say hi to in the hallways because, well, boys just don’t do that.”

“Yeah, you’re right, then how can I get to know him?”

Luna suggested, “I guess, you can tell Melissa or Sophie?”

“You know, I don’t really want to tell a bunch of people about it, cos then everyone would be whispering it around.”

“True, so, emm, perhaps you can try to talk to him when you see him somewhere alone?”

“Ugg, I’ll try to find the moment,” Vivian sighed.

“I mean, you’re not ugly, when you’re more familiarized with him, you can just confess your feelings, I don’t think that he’ll reject you.”

“Are you sure?” Vivian crunched up her brows.

“Yeah, of course I’m sure, but the first step would be getting near him, so just be brave and talk to him.”

“Ok? But what should I talk about?”

“I don’t know, just something normal? Don’t act too nervous or overthink it though, perhaps you can ask him a bit about himself? So that he knows that you care?”

“But it’s gonna be super weird if I just go up to him and ask.”

Luna shrugged, “Then think of a not-awkward way to talk to him duh.”

“All right then, I’m gonna Google some ‘conversation starters’ later,” Vivian laughed.

“That’s a pretty good idea, but from my experience, Google doesn’t help much with these sorts of things.”

“What about Bing then?” Vivian asked.

“Eh, I think that they’re all kind the same, after all, they are search engines after all, not people.”

“Oh,” Vivian thought about it for a moment, “I can still try to learn a bit Google, then maybe I can get some inspiration.”

“Yeah, that’s a pretty good idea, good luck to you then.”

The next morning, Vivian moaned to Luna, “Google is so useless, I searched ‘conversation starters with boys’ and clicked every single article and video whatsoever but it only told me a bunch of weird questions.”

“I told you Google’s not gonna work,” Luna replied.

“Well I also tried Bing and Yahoo, but the answers were the same.”

Later that day, during break, Luna was at her locker and preparing for the next class while Vivian leaped onto her.

“OMG LUNA!” She screamed, “Omg…I honestly can’t believe that I did that.”

“Eh…What happened?” Luna stared at her in confusion.

Vivian grabbed Luna’s arm and squeezed, “Oh god! I hugged him!”

“What? You hugged Ethan?” Luna asked.

“Yeah…Not really, he was walking in the hallways, and he was alone, and I was walking in the opposite direction, and I just pretended to bump into him accidentally, and I just…I just threw myself onto him. I don’t know why I did that, but I did.”

“Did he say anything then?” Luna couldn’t help smiling.

Vivian looked down slightly, “He was like ‘oh shit,’ and then just walked away.”

“He definitely remembers you after today and take notice when you go visit their class.”

“But will he just think that it was an accident and forget about it?”

“Did you look him in the eye?” Luna interrogated once more, “When you bumped into him.”

“I turned to look at him, and ours eyes met for a mere second, then we both darted away, it was really awkward.”

“I think that if you two made eye contact, he would definitely remember you.”

Luna wondered if Vivian would choose Ethan over her, if after having a boyfriend, she would leave Luna behind. Ethan certainly meant a lot for Vivian, perhaps more than Luna did. For Luna herself, her crushes always meant more than her friends, but only for a few days.

“Friendship is more long-lasting,” Luna told herself. However, Vivian and Luna’s had only began that summer.

In addition, Vivian wasn’t Luna, she might have different thoughts, she might rely on Ethan on all the things that she used to rely on Luna for. Luna had helped Vivian, because she loved her and wanted her to be happy, but perhaps being selfish had its advantages.

Without a boyfriend, Luna seems “un-cool” compared to the other girls. Perhaps soon, Vivian would depart from the “un-cool” girls. Luna had never known what it felt like, having a boyfriend, and feels like that she would never know the feeling. In videos, it seems so sweet to have someone…

Like usual, Luna and Vivian visited Melissa and Sophie during recess. This time, they spot the two at the benches, Melissa waved at them and signaled them to join. Luna and Vivian sat down, and noticed the boys in Class 3 standing a few meters away, laughing loudly at each other.

“I know, boys are the worst, right?” Melissa frowned, “So immature, they never grow up, just like Peter Pan.”

The other three laughed and Luna said, “Especially a horde of boys.”

While they were chatting about school and family and other things, Luna had noticed Vivian’s eyes flashing towards the boys and back. It was really obvious and it seemed like that Vivian is keep rolling her eyes.

Luna was surprised that Sophie and Melissa didn’t ask Vivian what was wrong, but they surely have noticed too, but were just being friendly and it would be rather rude to point it out.

The boys just kept on discussing video games and making jokes which they thought were “hilarious.” Their voices covered up the the girls’ and occasionally, the girls would have to repeat what they have said so that their voices could be heard above the hubbub of the boys.