The New Girl, Chapter 2

Been writing and re-writing this countless times in my mind...a million things could go wrong here, narrowing it down to doom and gloom in the latter stages of the story. Btw, I'm seriously entertaining thoughts of not having a single "he" for this one. =p

May smiled at a curly-haired girl she recognised from her class on her way to the canteen during reccess. The girl smiled back for a split second, then looked the other way.
Sheesh. The same thing had pretty much been happening since she came. The other girls chatted and laughed with one another, but once she tried to mingle with them they hushed up and walked away. It was a newcomer's worst nightmare.
Thankfully Jean stayed faithfully by her side the whole time, pointing out everything about the school worth noting to her. Almost each time a classmate or teacher walked past she would start rambling off about how the person acted in class, what she felt about them and lots of other stuff May decided to take with a pinch of salt. Apparently, the others didn't talk much around Jean either.
"Oh, wow," Jean checked her watch. "Five minutes till reccess ends. Better grab a bite quickly."
"Sure," May replied. "Uhh...Jean? Mind if I ask you something?"
"Shoot."
"Is it just me, or is everyone ignoring us?"
The ever-present smile on her face disappeared for a while, then popped back up again. "Oh, don't be silly. They're just shy, that's all."
Weird, thought May. Shouldn't she be the one who was shy?
"Hey," Jean whispered to her. "Better hurry up. They're here."
"Who?"
"Them," she pointed with her chin. "Saras and her gang."
May looked up and saw the group of Indian girls she noticed in class earlier. The way they walked reminded her very much of those stereotypical cheerleader cliques in American teen movies - one leaderlike girl at the front flanked by less outstanding ones, marching proudly in a triangular formation.
They stopped at the food counter where she was. For reasons incomprehensible to May, Jean started tugging frantically at her sleeve. "Why, hey," the leader sneered at May. "You're the new girl in our class. What was your name again?"
"May. Yours?"
"This is such a coincidence! I'm called May too!"
"Wow! No kidding?"
"Of course I'm kidding," the girl laughed, prompting the rest of the gang to echo in cackles. "I've a much cooler name, duh."
May felt her face go red. They were plainly making a joke at her expense, but she didn't feel like retorting or anything. She was, after all, the new girl.
Then the bell rang. Perfect timing.