going under || robby keene

It had been almost two months into the school year and Dylan's anger toward Yasmine had subsided. Her comments and insults have stopped or at least became more controlled since the first day of school. Maybe Moon talked to her or something—Dylan didn't know what happened, but she was grateful.

Halloween was this weekend and Dylan was glad the dance didn't fall on the holiday but the day before. For as long as Dylan could remember, her and Devon would go trick or treating and once they were all done, they would come back to their house and watch scary movies in the basement. Dylan didn't want to stop that tradition so finding out the dance was gonna be on the 30th made her ecstatic.

But the day before the dance, Counselor Blatt insisted on gaining the whole cafeterias attention during lunch, claiming she had an important announcement to make.

"Cyberbullying is no laughing matter. Sending a cruel message to someone online can be just as hurtful as saying it to their face." The woman said and as Dylan looked around the room, it seemed like she was one of the only people that actually cared to try and listen to her.

Dylan looked around at her table; Moon was more focused on her food, Sam scrolling through instagram, and Yasmine was laughing at the woman's words.

"I'm not gonna name names, but the other day a mother called me up because her son was crying after some kids online made fun of his facial deformity." Counselor Blatt said and in seconds, all eyes moved to Eli Moskowitz. It was as if there was a spotlight on the boy, drawing all the attention to him.

"The kid right there!"

"The kid with the weird lip."

Dylan's jaw clenched at how obvious the counselor made it. She dropped her head as the woman continued her speech.

"But today, our goal here is to make this school a safe space for all students." She said and Dylan scoffed, stabbing her fork into her pasta in annoyance. "Some safe space." Dylan grumbled under her breath.

"And one last thing." Counselor Blatt yelled and no one in the room seemed to care about hiding their groans, but she just ignored them. "While we're all looking forward to the Halloween dance, let's make sure our costumes are culturally sensitive. For example, instead of sexy nurse, maybe try gender-neutral hospital employee."

As Dylan started to drown out the woman's speech, the loud screeching of a chair against the linoleum floors rang out around her table. Dylan's head snapped up and she saw Aisha coming to sit beside Sam, a big smile on her face.

"Hey, I got a great idea for our costumes this year. I was thinking... I go as sodium, and you go as chloride. And when people ask what we are, we do this." Aisha reached for the tables salt and started to shake its contents onto the open space.

Sam and Dylan giggled at the costume idea and Aisha's smile brightened knowing her joke made it past just Sam.

But across the table, Yasmine's eyebrows furrowed. "What is that, some dumb inside joke you guys have?" She asked as she eyed between the three with a confused look. Yasmine could understand if Sam and Aisha had some inside joke since they were friends before Moon introduced Sam to the group, but Yasmine has never seen Dylan and Aisha talk.