Flaws And All

Joanna's POV

ONE MONTH HAS PASSED since the first day of school, and other than the occasional glares Tony and I exchange whenever we cross paths, our two groups of friends managed to tolerate each other and maybe even exchange pleasantries on the good days.

I shook my head, vaguely remembering a teacher talking about a test scheduled for today.

I started walking through the hallway, I noticed a low buzz among the groups of students huddled together and muttered quietly.

"What's are they buzzing about?" someone whispered in my ear, completely startling me.

"Holy shit!" I jumped, ready to attack the intruder invading my personal space.

Only the intruder turned out to be a buffoon named Tony.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I hissed.

"Hey, watch it with the feisty attitude before you damage something."

"Oh sorry, your high and ugliness, I didn't see you there because of your dumbness," I clarified sarcastically with a smirk.

"What the –" he trailed off in shock. "Bitch, how can you call this ugly and dumb? Tell me are you blind or something? Can't you see how my skin is glowing? Oh, wait, maybe you are blind."

"Are you deaf?" I grimaced. "Didn't you hear me call you ugly and dumb, dude? I suggest you visit your ear doctor because I can tell you need it."

"All of my body organs are in good functioning order!" Tony shrieked incredulously.

"They are not!"

"They are!"

"I said are not."

"Are too."

"Are not."

"Are too."

"Hey, hey calm down, you love birds," Harmony interrupted impatiently. "I've been standing here for a while now. And despite the fact you both didn't notice me, my eardrums are about to explode. So shut the hell up before I do something drastic!"

Tony and I whipped our heads in his direction so fast I was surprised we didn't crack our necks.

"What did you say? And when did you get here?" I asked disgustedly.

"Love birds?" Tony repeated, giving me a weird look. "You didn't tell me you were into me."

"Oh please," I scoffed. "You? No way."

"How the hell can you not be into this exceptional advertisement of manliness?"

He dramatically swept an arm up and down his fine body.

"I'm currently seeing a cockroach standing," I smirked, tossing him a challenging look.

"Argh! Quit it, you two! I said my eardrums are about to explode," Harmony screeched again only louder before slapping both of us upside the head.

"Ouch!" Tony and I yelped in unison as we both rubbed the stinging spot on the back of our heads.

The synchronization thing with Tony was starting to weird me out.

"What's the buzz about?" Harmony asked, glancing around the hallway and noticing groups of students whispering among themselves."

"Who's the new girl?" A whisper shot out from one group.

"I heard she was popular in her former school."

"I also heard she's hot." A male voice boasted.

"Feisty and troublesome too," another guy added with a chuckle.

"A new girl, huh?" Tony repeated with a smirk.

"Apparently, she's hot," Harmony said, grinning.

"I like them feisty," Tony beamed, wiggling his eyebrows at me. "That's why I like you."

"Dude, hands off. She's mine," Harmony said, not noticing the tension between Tony and me.

Boys will be boys, I thought, rolling my eyes.

If possible, the whispers grew softer and more intense.

"Is that her?"

"I think so. I haven't seen her before."

"Damn, she's hot."

Harmony, Tony, and I turned and watched a girl stroll down the hallway with confidence. No fear. No anxiety. She simply walked with grace and a beautiful smile.

She appeared to be maybe an inch or two taller than me and had light fair skin like my brother, Elvis. She had round brown eyes with a cute nose and light brown lips that stretched into a smile, showing off shiny teeth and a slight gap between the two upper middle teeth.

"God, she's beautiful," the whispers continued around us.

"Love her confidence."

"Her smile is enchanting."

"She doesn't even care about her gap teeth."

"I think it makes her more beautiful."

"She is so joining our group." I heard one of the robots announce.

A group of stuck-up girls were called robots because of their high-pitched squeaky voices and the way they did everything in synchronization. Smiling. Laughing. Hair flipping. Winking. Even walking in a straight line.

They all had nice hairstyles, wore expensive makeup, and strutted around the school in very short skirts. Of course, the teachers noticed the painted on makeup and the skirts but never made comments to any of them unlike what they said to me on my first day. I had little to no makeup on and my skirt length was an appropriate length. The difference between me and the robots? Their families were rich and could get away with almost everything.

The robots strode – all at the same time – toward the new girl.

"This drama is so gonna be epic." Harmony laughed, producing his phone to record the moment after scanning the area for teachers.

"I personally don't think the new girl would fit into their group though," I offered with a shrug.

"Me neither," he agreed.

"Not possible," Tony scoffed, shaking his head.

"Hey girl," Stephanie, the leader of the robot crew, squeaked out.

The new girl raised an eyebrow and shot them a questioning look. "Are you referring to me?"

"Yeah, cutie," Sandra, the assistant robot leader as I liked to call her, replied with a wink as the rest of the group hit her with saccharine smiles at the same time.

"What can I do for you?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"Um, we were wondering, since you're new and all ... would you like to hang with us?" Stephanie asked, giving her a weird smile.

"Nah," the newcomer said with a shrug. "I'm so sorry, guys. Don't take it personally. It just sorta happens that I don't hang with robots because I'm human."

The hallway grew quiet as the mix of groups looked at the robots and the new girl, wondering what would happen next. Even I was rendered speechless.

"Did she just?" Harmony queried, shocked.

"Oh yeah, she fucking did." Tony grinned.

We looked at each other and immediately burst out laughing.

"Shit, that was epic," Harmony chuckled. "I'm so glad I got it on video."

"Yasss," Tony and I muttered at the same time.

Ugh, I thought tiredly. Saying the same things at the same time was seriously weirding me out.

"Excuse me, robots, but I've got classes to attend," the new girl said with a snicker before walking away.

Damn! I am so loving this bitch.

"She got fire, bro," Harmony said with a smirk.

"Yes, and I like them feisty," Tony replied, giving me a steamy look that made my body tingle with excitement and anticipation.

"Damn, am loving that smile." Harmony winked at the new girl as she walked past us.

"I could swear that smile was for me," Tony scoffed.

"Nah, it wasn't."

"It was."

From the mischievous smile on Tony's face, I knew he was antagonizing Harmony and I needed to stop the lame one-sided argument before fists started flying. I have hung around these two idiots long enough to know a stupid fight would break out.

"Guys," I called out, but neither guy answered.

"Hey, guys," I yelled louder. Again, they continued to bicker over the new girl who probably didn't know they even existed.

"Shut up, children!" I practically screamed as smacked both of them upside the head to get their attention.

The argument stopped immediately as Harmony and Tony glared at me.

"Children?" They queried at the same time.

Shit, I'm in trouble, I thought as I saw smoke rising from their ears. I did not think this through.

"How can you call this children?" Tony screeched, gesturing to himself, again.

Why the hell does he always do that? I rolled my eyes.

"Babe, does this look like a child's body to you?" Harmony grunted. "Did you take a good look at this face? Look at this face before saying such."

I moaned, already tired of their blabbering. "Alright, alright. I'm sorry, men. Can we please go to class now?"

I shook my head and walked to class, which I was already late for because of those two morons.

I was glad I could rest my brain a bit since Harmony or crazy Tony weren't in the class with me. Their arguments were beginning to get on my nerves.

As I walked into the class, I noticed it was almost full except for one empty seat beside the new girl. Meeting new people made me nervous since I didn't know how they would react to my presence. Tony didn't appreciate me sneezing in his face on the first day.

"Well, here goes nothing," I muttered, summoning courage, and headed toward the empty seat.

"Excuse me," I said to the new girl, with a small smile. "Anyone here?"

"Nah, no one, you can have a seat." She gleamed.

I felt warmed to her already. "Thanks." I smiled and sat down.

The teacher immediately gave us work to do, which I loved, by the way, note the sarcasm. Also, who even brought the idea of maths anyway? I wished I could meet him or her and give that fool a piece of my mind.

I was done with mine in less than five minutes and glanced around to see the new girl already done too.

Wow, she is smart too, I thought amazed.

She twirled and caught me staring.

Great, now she'll think I am crazy, I wondered, internally face-palming.

"She cleared her throat and gave me a look. "What's your name, cutie?"

Surprised she wanted to know my name, I choked on my own saliva which had me coughing and scrambling for my bag to get the water bottle I carried for this sort of emergency.

"Are, are you okay?" she asked, bestowing on everyone a look to continue with what they were doing. Even the teacher seemed caught in the act before proceeding with her lesson and didn't spare us another glance.

Still busy drinking the bottle of water, I nodded. After I had felt I had enough, I screwed back the cap of the water bottle and smiled at her as I answered.

"Joanna. Joanna Alex. Nice name," she smirked. "Pretty unusual though. I don't think I've met someone with that name before. By the way, I'm Tenda. Tenda Black."

"Same with yours." I giggled. "I didn't even know such a name exists."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." She chuckled. "My mom wanted a unique name. She said I was very little when I was born, and I mean more little than normal. Basically, I looked so fragile."

"She wanted to name me Fragile though, but Dad didn't agree so he suggested another relative word like Tender. Mom agreed to it so instead of it being Tender, I was named Tenda, which actually sounds the same but just different last letters," she ended.

"Wow, that's an amazing story." I smiled.

When the bell rang for lunch, I handed in my work and glanced at Tenda.

"See you around." I waved and headed out of class.

"Nope, you ain't ditching me like that," she said, blocking me from walking away. "I'm stuck with you for as long as we both are in this school."

"Okay," I blurted out. "Let's go to the cafeteria and meet my crazy friends."

As soon as we stepped into the noisy cafeteria, silence swept over the room as all eyes focused on us.

"Is it always like this?" Tenda whispered in my ear sounding amused.

"Not really," I replied with a shrug and strode toward the food line. "It's always like this on your first day though. Plus, they are just shocked to see you with me."

We wandered to my usual table, where Harmony was already eating. He perked up when we approached and broke into a smile, which was kind of disgusting because he was in mid-chew.

"Hey, ladies," he spoke, food crumbs falling from his mouth.

"Hey, hun," I gagged, taking my seat, to smirk at him as he glared at me.

"Hey." Tenda waved and set her food on the table.

"What's your name, baby?" Harmony winked, causing me to gag again.

"The name's Tenda. And, no, I don't wanna hook up with you," she responded, with a sweet smile.

"Burn," I coughed into my closed fist as Harmony glared at me.

We continued to chat and laugh as we ate when Tony, Ifeanyi, and Blake sauntered over to our table.

"Hey, cuties, Harmony," Tony greeted and sent us all smile as he took a seat. Ifeanyi and Blake followed suit which gathered attention to our table.

"Why?" I groaned, gazing upwards, as Tony wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"So what are you folks doing?" Ifeanyi quizzed, stealing a biscuit crumb from my plate that earned him a glare from me.

"You know, what they call eating?" I answered sarcastically.

"Feisty partner." Ifeanyi scoffed and sniggered at me.

"She is, indeed, feisty." Tony nodded in confirmation.

"Stop it, children," Blake mocked giving them both a warning stare. I was cool with him, and I liked how he was the quiet and thoughtful one among the three of them.

Tenda chuckled, enjoying the playful drama around her.

"Guys, this is Tenda," I introduced while I munched on my food.

I glared at Ifeanyi as he made another attempt to take something from my plate.

"Hya, people," she said, blushing when Tony winked at her.

Is that – Does she? Well, that's cute, I thought, peeking at Tenda and Tony and feeling a tiny twinge of jealousy.

"Well, well, if it isn't Joanna," a voice squeaked behind me that made me sigh.

I could recognize that voice even from a nine-mile radius because it had the ability to destroy eardrums. And that voice belonged to none other than the chief robot, Stephanie Greene. Her last name suited her since she turned a dark shade of green anytime she was angry.

"Hello there, Green," I greeted, using the nickname she absolutely hated.

"Do not call me that!" she screeched.

I snickered, which made her angrier.

"Tony boo, what are you, Blake, and Ifeanyi doing here sitting with these lowlifes?" she challenged, attempting to sound sweet but ended up sounding like a raccoon giving birth.

"Well, let's see," Tony sighed. "One you ain't my girlfriend so don't call me that."

"Two, you ain't my mum which means I don't care what you say," Ifeanyi continued with a smirk.

"And three you are turning green, Green," I added with a smirk.

"Burn!" Harmony shouted and high-fived me as the whole cafeteria burst out laughing.

"Lastly, no one loves you, baby." Tenda laughed with Tony.

"Bye, Green." I waved at her and beamed when she screamed and stormed off with her fellow robots on her heels.

I love these people, I thought.