I'm pretty sure that parents who name their green/brown-eyed children Hazel are the laziest people around.

I mean, come on. You can name them Orange for all I care, and it would be more original than Hazel (actually, it would be more original than most names, Orange being an uncommon name among most, but that's beside the point).

Hazel's eyes were green. I could see it from across the room at my desk, even when her eyes were lowered. They rested on her phone as she scrolled through whatever site she was looking at, lighting up at one point and then moving away at the next.

Her hair was brown. It was kind of like my mom's hair color, but it lacked the gray streaks that hinted at stress or age. I liked that. It was nice to know that there wasn't an old, crabby bat in my class.

Not that I was calling my mom an old crabby bat. But yet again, I'm getting off topic.

"You think I should say something to her?" I asked Jane, my eyes still on the mysterious girl across the room.

Jane rolled her eyes. "If it took you nine years to decide to talk to the girl, I pray you make it across the room." She grinned at me, then hopped off of the desk, patting me on the back before beginning to walk away. "I'd say good luck, but it would probably take you a month to realize the phrase existed."

My mouth made an o shape as I tried to come up with a response, but my attention was now pinned on Hazel, who was walking out the door towards the hall.

"Crap," I muttered, grabbing my books and hurrying out of the room, not only to catch up with Hazel but to avoid hearing yet another one of Mrs. Berkely's famous 'language's.

I rushed out as fast as I possibly could, but once I got outside she had disappeared into the stampeding crowd.

~*~

"She was just gone?"

"Yep. As gone as anyone could go." I kicked a nearby rock and watched it skid across the road, only disturbed when a truck ran it over. I couldn't see it anymore after that.

Jane peered over at me, shaking her head as she turned to look ahead of her.

We were walking down the street towards our houses. Jane only lived a few blocks away from me, so instead of walking home alone and looking like total loners we'd do it together. Her family and mine were also pretty close, so she'd usually come over with her parents right after she got home to make sure that everything went okay. Her parents were like that; they always wanted to make sure nothing terrible happened to us on our two minute journey to and from school.

"I don't know..." she said slowly, raising her eyes to the sky dramatically. She usually did that, when she knew something that I didn't.

"Don't know what?" I asked suspiciously.

"I think you might be making this all up," Jane said matter-of-factly, crossing her arms. "You just don't want to sound like a chum for backing out, so you're making up this story that you couldn't find her."

I almost choked on a laugh, which quickly faded as I realized Jane wasn't kidding. "You're serious?" I asked incredulously. "Why would I ever do that?"

"How about you don't want to look like a jerk? Or too chicken? Would you like me to go on?" Jane asked, then sighed and stopped at the corner, where my house was. "Look," she said quietly. "I'm not trying to get you upset, it's just that I really think you should talk to this girl. You missed out on nine years of knowing her, and who knows? Maybe you two will become friends." She paused, then looked down. "Maybe she'll even replace me."

"Hey," I said, my heart racing at the abnormality of her sentence. Jane had never doubted herself or our friendship in all the years I'd known her; this was about the scariest thing that happened since I'd spotted a mouse right by my desk at school. "No one can replace you. You're Jane effing Lattice. Best friend to the stars."

Jane was silent for a moment, then brushed a loose strand of her hair away from her face and looked up at me. "Alright, enough with this sentimental crap. Let's get inside; I need some water to wash down my bile."

I smiled and together we walked down the path that led to my house, only to be greeted by shouts and screaming coming from the inside. Of course.

"Your mom and Luke again?" Jane asked, now standing still on the pavement.

"Yeah, but it'll be fine," I said in the hopes that she'd stay. I didn't want to go in alone; I hated my mom's boyfriend. "We'll be upstairs so they'll hardly bother us."

Jane shrugged and adjusted her bag so that it lay on a single shoulder, going as she always did for that cool-girl-don't-care look. "I'd better get going anyway, my mom is making hot dogs for dinner."

With that she turned and left me with one thought.

Jane hated hot dogs.