Firefly

04: the hate club.

Chapter 04: the hate club.

Elena

Bonding with Spencer was easy. She was lively, badass, and super friendly. We had most of the classes together today, which helped us get to know each other better. Things I learned about Spencer today: she loves art, she paints with passion, she loves watching movies through DVDs and not OTT sites, and her parents own the most popular cafe in town—The Velveteen. 

The Velveteen was popular because it was an art cafe, a book cafe, and a coffee cafe altogether. My eyes articulated my mental inquisitiveness. We shared English, Math, History, and gym together. That was enough time to understand how her mind works. 

She flipped seeing my bike and when I offered to give her a lift, I'm sure I crawled my way into the list of people she likes. 

She insisted that I saw her paintings and I didn't have time to deny it because Spencer dragged me into her house. While The Velveteen occupied the huge ground floor area, Spencer's house sat right on top of the cafe. 

Her house was aesthetically pleasing. Dandelion yellow walls with walnut wooden furniture. The walls had canvas paintings, nylon brown carpets lined the floor, and flowers sat in vases atop shelves and in between books. Her father was a professional artist and hence, one of their rooms was converted into a mini-art studio where Spencer apparently spent a lot of time painting. 

She showed me her landscape paintings, portrait paintings, abstract paintings, and her favorite of them all, pop art paintings. Spencer was clandestinely talented. I would have never mapped her as someone fiery for art. 

She guides me to her room, which is a darker shade in contrast to the rest of the house. Tawny brown walls, cream quilt, wooden floor, and rusty scent. Spencer was a minimalist—one painting that was signed by her dad hung on the wall (sentimental). Her family portrait sat on her nightstand (soft spot), she didn't have too many pillows (practical), no scented candles (easy-care), and her curtains were open (bold). Spencer was an easy read. 

"You do know this town is in the shape of a butterfly, right? It's precisely why it's the town's emblem. Just like the cafeteria, I'll illustrate a map," She pulled out a book and a pen from her desk. We sat on the bed as she drew what looked like a butterfly. 

She'd done a similar sketch of the cafeteria hall at lunch today to explain how the unofficial seating arrangement went on. Her sketches were too accurate and decisive. It wasn't hard to picture the real deal. 

"Four parts," She circled the head of the butterfly, "North." She circled the tail, "South." She pointed to the wings, "East and West Wing." And finally, her pen pointed to the center of the butterfly, "The heart. This is where we are." 

"We're in the heart of Cadford," I repeat after her. So was the school and so were the villas of every Founding Family which allegedly, the Summer family was also a part of. 

She smiled, appreciative that I was catching on. She pulled an arrow mark from the head, "North boundary is the city of Orange Township. This is where we connect to the rest of the world. Orange has malls, supermarkets, movie theaters, street food, Baxter nightclubs, and skyscrapers like the Butterfly Tower." 

"Butterfly Tower?" I frown. 

She looks up from the paper to my puzzled face. "Butterfly is like Google or Safari for Cadford. Google and Safari are useless in Cadford, they contain no information about this place. This is the Butterfly app, give me your phone." 

She abducts it from my hands and installs an app with a green butterfly logo. I notice how the app looks so similar to my mother's ring on my finger. The town emblem, that's what it is.