The Downfall of the 'It Girl'

Where Do I Go From Here?

So this was it. This was my life now. I had went from the most popular girl in school to nothing, no one in less than a day. The worst part? I still had the rest of the school day to get through. There was no way on God’s green Earth that I was going to be able to endure the stares and whispers from the student body after the scene in the cafeteria moments ago.

So I decided to go home. I had never been one to skip school, at least not by myself, but it seemed the only option. As I began my walk, I thought back on all of the times that Landon and I had skipped together. We blew off school for major make-out sessions, to go shopping, to go to the beach, whatever struck us at the moment. 

Landon.

With a ragged breath, his face appeared in my mind’s eye. He was so perfect, so simply perfect. We were perfect for each other. He had done this to me because I wouldn’t have sex with him? 

My mind thought back to a time before Landon Craig. A time before I was Miss Popularity; Webster High’s “It Girl.” It wasn’t exactly a remarkably wonderful time for me, to say the least. I had been a nobody, much the same as I was again, right now. By some stoke of fate that happens once in a lifetime, I had tripped in the school hallway, sending the pile of books I’d had in my arms flying across the laminated floor. Mortified, I began scooping up papers and books as fast as I could, when the toes of his sneakers came into sight. 

I watched the replay in my head from the scene from not so long ago. Landon had bent down, smiled his heart-stopping smile, and asked if I would like some help. For me, it had been love at first sight. I mean, I had known who he was before then, of course, but I was a nobody. Just a mere hint of nothing roaming the halls, paying out my time as a high school student that no one would really remember when they flipped through their yearbooks ten years or more after graduation. The popular kids? Everyone always remembers their names. Everyone remembers the Prom Queen and Prom King. Everyone remembers the star quarterback, the basketball star with extraordinary talent. 

No one remembers someone like me. The quiet kid in the back of all the classes? Did you even have a class with him/her? Where did they live? What was their name? Sarah… something, wasn’t it? Or maybe Joann? Charlie? Constance? No, it’s Jenna. Jenna Matthews. The girl that watches from a distance as you gossip with your friends about cute boys and the latest styles. The girl that wishes more than anything that you would say hi to her as you and your group pass by. Just acknowledge her existence. Just once. 

But on that fateful day, my luck had changed, and the stars were finally smiling down on me. Landon Craig had noticed me. The scene flashed again in my mind, playing itself like an old home movie. 

“Need some help, there?” he had asked, a smile that melted my heart instantly.

“I, uh, no. I’m good, thanks,” I remembered the way I had stammered my reply, my cheeks burning like fire with embarrassment. 

“It’s quite a bit. Here, let me help you…” he’d answered, and automatically started collecting papers and random books scattered around us. 

Within a few more minutes, everything was piled up back into my arms.

“Uh, thanks again,” I said, as shy as ever. I turned to walk away before my luck inadvertently ran out. 

“Well, uh, hey…Jessica, isn’t it?” he asked, trotting a couple of steps to catch up with me.

“Jenna, actually,” I said, not even really caring that he didn’t know my name. I couldn’t seriously expect someone  like Landon Craig to know who I was, did I? No, not in a normal world. A perfect world, maybe.