Jerks Academy

jerk encounter

As I stepped into the cafeteria, all eyes turned to look at me. It was gut wrenching. I had always prided myself to be secure enough to not care what people think but I was caught off guard. It was my first day in this school and I couldn’t just catch a break. I stood frozen, watching the whole students stare at me like I was an interesting specimen. If this was what they do to all the new students, then I wouldn’t be surprised if the weak ones were bullied. I didn’t want to be one of the weak ones. I had to stand my ground and show these people that they couldn’t make me uncomfortable. There is a saying that when you are being watched; then give people somebody to talk about. So, I shook out of my frozen state and used the darn cafeteria floor as my very own personal runway. I sashayed to the food counter like a supermodel, messing my hair up a bit for effect. The guys that caught a whiff of my fruity shampooed hair gawked and their girlfriends glared at me. They watched me make my way to the food counter but this time, the girls stared at me like they wanted to be me and the guys looked like they wanted me. It was far a cry from how they stared at me earlier, which was like they wanted to make my life hell.

I was still reeling from my new found sexiness and confidence that I didn’t notice the cashier smiling broadly at me.

“Way to make an entrance girl. Seems you will survive this place” she said, smiling as she weighed my food to know the price.

I really looked at her for the first time and noticed that she was a middle aged Mexican woman. She talked with a slight accent which was endearing. I knew right away that I was going to like her.

“Is it always this bad?” I asked, leaning towards her like I had a secret that only she could know about.

She looked me over for a millisecond and just nodded her head.

“You seem different which is good. I am tired of serving the same spoilt rich assholes all the fricking time” she said, handing me my food and giving me the brightest smile that made me smile back right away.

“Thanks” I said.

Looking for a seat seemed to be an ordeal. The students were not staring at me like an alien anymore but some boys were looking at me like they wanted to eat me. Idiots..

I saw a seat that was a few feet away from the dustbin. It was secluded and it was something that I would have gone for but I couldn’t do that now, could I? I mean, I had already displayed this spunky attitude to everybody so, it seemed wrong to hide away from a spotlight that I created. I looked away from the secluded spot and spotted a large seat right in the middle of the hall. I didn’t understand why nobody was sitting there. The seat was practically in the center of the cafeteria and it was empty.

Anyways, there loss was my gain so; I made my way to the seat, sat down and started eating. Everybody turned around to look at me again but this time, they looked at me like I was stupid for sitting there. I perfectly arch an eyebrow at them and they quickly looked away like the cowards they were.

This feeling was exciting; I loved it. I had never loved been noticed before but this felt good; it felt like I had the upper hand with these people.

Studying in Africa was kind of easy because I was the new girl with an interesting family who left America for Africa. I mean, people die trying to study/live in America thus, they were surprised that I left it all for little ole Africa. I guess people didn’t know what they have until they lost it. Africa wasn’t as bad as the foreign media portrayed it. Was there poverty? Yes! But every country had its own share of their problems. From my short stay in Nigeria, I noticed that the country had the resources to be one of the richest in the world if the leaders weren’t so selfish and corrupt.Anyways, what I was trying to say was that studying in Nigeria wasn’t that bad because I met amazing people from all over the world who were tolerating and made my stay there exciting. Leaving that experience behind to study here seemed like a huge step away from the high school life I knew.