Left out: Part 2

I sighed and flipped open my phone. "Hello?" I said quietly. "Is this Nina?" the voice asked, obviously Antonio. "Yes". "Look Nina, I know my friends have been really mean to you and I used to be that person. The boring one. But I'm not saying your boring. I actually.. umm... sort of.... wait do promise not to tell Faith?" Antonio asked hopefully. I was shocked, but I said, "Yes". "Ok then, I wanna be your friend. Tomorrow after school meet me in the back". And then he hung up.

I was in the back of the school, and school ended 5 minutes ago. My tears were there, hoping he didn't trick me. But then I saw him come from the other side, smiling. I wiped away one of the tears that slipped and smiled. He came and sat down on the swing next to me. "Hey" he said. "Hi". "I'm really sorry about what they have done, especially earlier" he said looking down at his feet. I groaned in my head, because earlier in the day since it was the beginning of the year we had a water balloon fight and there was a band playing, but Krissa grabbed the microphone and screamed, "EVERYBODY THROW THE BALLOONS AT NINA WIRE!!!!". So everyone obeyed her except Antonio, he looked at me deeply sorry. But everyone else was laughing and didn't notice is apologetic face.
"Oh" I just said. "Yeah and um, my dad's playing football and he said me and my friends can do something while he's gone or go somewhere, but if I bring the others they usually just talk about how to hurt you; feelings and skin. So..... every Saturday wanna meet me at the Ice Cream Palace and we can start from there?" Antonio asked. It was a joke, I could tell. This guy REALLY wanted to be my friend. I couldn't fully trust him yet. But I said, "Sure, yeah I have nothing to do on Saturday's except read........". "Cool". In the distance somebody honked at us. Antonio looked up and then looked at me and said, "Uh, I really got to go, catch ya lata". He paused thinking and said, "Happy". I guess I had a nickname. He left smiling. I was smiling also. Wow, maybe being an 8th grader isn't gonna be so bad any longer I thought. Then I left for my house. Happily this time, not sad. Or angry. Or irritated. Or anything else, just happy. Maybe his nickname should be Smile. Of course, I smiled at that thought.