Two weeks into school and it wasn’t getting any easier. Our football team was having problems. We’d lost the first game of the season, and things weren’t looking good for our next one. We really missed Nick and his speed on the outside.
Mr. Kennedy’s English Lit class was kicking my butt. He expected us to actually read the assignments. Not only that, but he expected us to come up with opinions and stuff. Opinions backed up with quotes and reasoning. Didn’t he realize how much I didn’t care?
I was rushing to my Chemistry class, late like always. There just wasn’t enough time in the day to do all the things I needed to do. Between classes, homework, football practice, chores at home. It felt like everyone had a separate piece of me pulling in different directions.
Cindy Cooper wasn’t making it any easier. Every time I turned a corner I was running into her. It was like she’d pop out of a bare wall and be there in front of me. Letting me know in not so subtle ways, a wink, a smile, that she would be mine in all ways imaginable if I would but select her for my girlfriend.
It was as if her main reason for living was to be seen as my girlfriend. All of the world’s problems would be solved if I did the smart thing and acknowledged her pre-eminence in my heart. The fact that she made my back teeth ache was beside the point.
Being the head of the Cheerleading squad seemed to give her this idea that we were meant for each other. I’d tried telling her that I wasn’t going to have a girlfriend. She’d frowned then shook it off and totally ignored me.
Sheryl Anderson and Julie Short weren’t much better. And, behind them. A dozen other girls.
When I caught Nick outside of his History class I pulled him aside and told him about my problems, he just laughed.
“Pick one, and the rest will leave you alone. As long as you give them hope, they will never stop.”
“No,” I answered. “Remember, no girlfriends this year. I’m going to keep it loose and easy.”
Nick laughed again. “How’s that working for you?” he asked, as he walked away for his class. “You do realize, half the guys in this school would kill for your problem. Three beautiful girls trying to trap you into a commitment. We are talking serious first world problem here boy.”
The look of pure pleasure on his face at my issues was like a knife twisting in my gut. I knew I never should have told him.
As I headed to my class, I caught a flash of auburn hair. Amber Johnson. My heart jumped. Why couldn’t it be her that was hanging on my every word? Why couldn’t it be her that looked at me with big puppy eyes of adoration?
Okay, I know I sounded ridiculous. But, a guy’s thoughts can get away from him. Especially, when it came to a girl like Amber.
.o0o.
It took me a few weeks to see the obvious. I thought people were just standoffish. New girl. Established cliques. You know, the typical problems. What did I know?
No, that wasn’t it. They hated me. There wasn’t any other explanation. The cold looks. The whispers behind hands. The fact that absolutely no one would talk to me. Well, no one but Marla and the Lakeland boys.
You would think with their seal of approval, I’d be accepted.
But no. It was as if someone had painted a “Do not touch” sign on my back.
The most surprising thing was the hurt feeling deep in my stomach. I had wanted this. I had asked to go to a normal school. To be a normal girl. What now? Is this what they were all like? How was I going to break out of this land of oblivion?
For the first time in my life, I really resented what my parents had done to me. Raising me in my hermetically sealed world of homeschooling. High in an ivory tower. No social life with kids my own age.
I had absolutely no idea what I had done wrong.
The answer came from a most unexpected source.
Ruby Miller looked like one of those girls you avoided. I know I shouldn’t be judging someone like that. But, it sort of came instinctively.
Short blue hair, light blue, the color of a fish tank. Three hoops in her left ear. A diamond stud in her right. A golden nose ring that sort of drew your eyes away from the blue hair. A skirt so short it made a cheerleader’s outfit look like a prom dress. She finished the outfit off with a white tank top that exposed a pierced belly button and black combat boots that came up to just below her knees.
All of this accompanied an attitude that said to the world, ‘screw you.’
What I found amazing is that she made it work. She looked like a sexy rebel, not a messed up misfit.
I was alone in the girls’ bathroom when she stepped up to the sink next to me.
Glancing over at her, I did a double take. Ruby had that kind of impact on a person.
She looked at me and scoffed, then shook her head.
“What?” I asked.
She smiled and said, “You’re the new girl? Right? Amy?”
“Amber.”
“Yeah, right. Amber.”
“So, what was that all about?” I said. I really was getting tired of all this mean girl stuff.
Ruby, stepped back away from the sink and shook her head again. “You have no idea what’s going on? Do you? The problems you’ve started.”
“Me?” I exclaimed. “All I did was move to this town. People around here act like I’m some kind of leper or something.
Ruby laughed and smiled. “Oh, honey. You’re worse than a leper. You’re a threat.”
“A threat? Who am I threatening?” The idea was preposterous.
“You, new girl. Have disturbed the force.”
Oh, great, a star war reference. I would never understand these people.
“Cindy Cooper, Sheryl Anderson, Julie Short,” Ruby said, as if the answer was obvious. “They have been the princess bees around here since sixth grade. It has always been those three competing to become queen bee.
I raised an eyebrow. I needed more information.
“Sheryl’s rich, the mayor’s daughter,” Ruby continued, “Julie will be the valedictorian and probably end up at Harvard, Cindy is obviously the head cheerleader.”
What did this have to do with me? And, as for getting into Harvard, what was the big deal? I’d got an acceptance letter last year. But Mom, being Mom, thought I wasn’t ready. Well, believe me. After this place. College couldn’t be worse.
Ruby rolled her eyes like she couldn’t believe I was this dumb.
“By some unspoken agreement. They came to the same realization. Only the girlfriend of Jason Turner would be considered the winner.”
People couldn’t be that dumb.
I laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I know,” Ruby said. “I mean, he’s hot. Hell, I’d do him. But, wrapping your identity around some boy has never been very smart. Not in my experience.”
My heart jumped for a second when she mentioned ‘doing’ Jason. Who was this girl?
“Anyway, Amy ...”
“Amber,” I corrected her.
“Yeah, Amber. Anyway. You’ve come in here. A junior. They’re seniors. You’re semi-beautiful. In that girl next door way. You move in next to Jason Turner. Weasel your way into becoming his sister’s friend.
“I didn’t weasel my way ...”
Ruby waved her hand as if my opinion on the matter wasn’t important. “But, worst of all,” she continued, “Jason refuses to make a choice. If he’d pick one. Then they would know who won and could move on with their lives of stabbing each other in the back.”
I glanced at the bathroom mirror. Had I stepped through some strange portal into another world? This couldn’t be real.
A sudden thought occurred to me. “Why hasn’t Jason picked one?” I asked, as I held my breath. “I mean, if these girls are supposedly the top of the food chain. Why hasn’t he snatched one?”
Ruby laughed and shrugged her shoulders. “No one knows. It’s not like those girls wouldn’t put out. I mean. After all, this is Jason Turner we are talking about here. All he has to do is commit to being committed, and he will be happier than a race horse put out to stud.”
My stomach tightened up into a tight ball for some reason.
Drying her hands on a paper towel, Ruby smiled and shook her head as she walked to the bathroom door.
My world spun. Had I heard what I just thought I heard? The girls of this school looked at me as some kind of threat. Like I had any chance with a boy like Jason Turner.
Why was this girl telling me these things?
“What about you?” I asked as something occurred to me. “Are you hoping Jason will pick you?”
Ruby stopped smiling for a moment and stared into my eyes. Like she was trying to figure out if I was teasing or not.
Eventually, a slow smile returned to her lips as she shook her head. “Oh, honey. Jason Turner could have me anytime he wants, and he wouldn’t have to promise me more than one night. No, I’m not waiting around for Jason Turner to complete my world.”
Giving me one last look, she stepped out of the bathroom. Leaving behind nothing but a whiff of wild perfume and a sense of dread deep inside of me.