Every Cliche in the Book

Attempts

Alice had to contain her laughter as she watched Daniel walk to his locker. He was in for a surprise.

Daniel opened his locker and fake snakes sprung out at him. He screamed loudly and fell backwards, landing hard on his butt. He flailed and continued to scream as he attempted to get the fake snakes off of him.

Alice burst out laughing at the sight. How could she not? Daniel freaking out was hilarious. He was terrified of snakes and he thought those ones were real! It was priceless!

Another student laughed as well and yelled to Daniel, "Hey kid! You know those aren't real right? You're freaking out because of something made of rubber!"

Daniel stopped freaking out and looked at the fake snakes. His eyes filled with tears as he realized he was scared for no reason, "W-why would anyone do something like this to me.....or anyone at all...."

The other students in the hallway started laughing.

The same student from before laughed louder, "You're a pussy! You seriously can't handle a prank like that? This is high school, you just earned yourself a ticket to many more pranks that are worse than that one! I wish I knew who did that to you, it was awesome."

Alice smiled, "I set it up. I felt like he deserved to be pranked. Plus, it's fun."

The other students cheered for her and it looked like Daniel was gonna cry.

Alice felt proud of herself. She got a bunch of them to like her again. Just like Connor told her she could. All she had to do was be herself and do what she wanted. Now she's getting cheered for. This was way better than before.

She was even dressed like she used to be. Of course, she kept her piercings though. She really liked them.

~~~~~~~~

Alice smiled while walking through the lunch line. A bunch of people were already treating her like a friend again. Connor was really good at giving advice. Things were going great because of it. Unlike when Daniel gave her advice.

She looked around the cafeteria after she got her food.

Where was Connor anyways?

He was no where in sight.

Alice thought hard. She didn't see him in class either. Or at breakfast. Where was he? Did he stay home or something? What would cause him to not show up at all? Connor didn't seem sick the day before and he didn't seem like someone who would suddenly become completely sick. 

She sat down at the table before pulling her phone out of her pocket. She's going to see where the guy was. She was going to text him to find out exactly why.

She quickly texted him, "Uh hey Conman. Where the hell are you?"

After what seemed like forever he finally responded, "Funny nickname."

"Where are you?"

"Home."

"Why are you at home? I thought you liked coming to school. I know you're not sick. I know you're not injured. So why are you there?"

"Sorry. I probably should've given you a heads up about my absence, sarcasm. But seriously, sorry for not being there and not warning you. Dany is sick and I have to make sure they don't wake up unless it's really important. Last time they got sick they constantly woke up and became really sleep deprived, which only make them sick for even longer. Once it's night time I gotta watch them still."

"Oh dear. That sounds really bad."

"I'll probably be gone for the rest of the week. They usually take a couple of days to get better when I watch them. But I'll need a couple of days to relax and rest after losing a lot of sleep. I hope you have a good time while I'm gone!"

"Good luck."

Alice smiled and started eating. Her fake boyfriend really was something different. The guy cared about everyone a lot. Probably more than most people she knew. He'd most likely do something really dumb but cool for anyone he truly knew.

Alice smiled at Alissa, "Hi! How are you today, friend? I hope your answer is amazing because you're an amazing person who deserves to be happy as much as possible. But you can't always be happy because when you're sad it really makes you appreciate joy even more."

Alissa stared, "That was actually creepy. What has gotten into you today?"

Alice laughed a bit, "Nothing's gotten into me. I'm just in a really good mood. Not to mention, I really want to be nice to everyone again.  I miss being a good friend for once. So, I'm trying to be a kind person for once. I mean it this time."

Daniel rolled his eyes, "If you're going to do that, maybe you should've started way earlier. Everyone's been making fun of me for getting scared by rubber snakes. Someone dumped a bucket of them on me in my last class. I'm never going to live this down and I'm going to always be made fun of for fake snakes scaring me nearly to death."

Alice looked down in shame, "I'm sorry for doing that. I thought it would be funny and everyone would have a good laugh. I didn't intend for you to be humiliated by it. It was just a harmless mistake and I deeply regret embarrassing you by doing it. Could you ever forgive me?"

He glared at her, "I still don't believe that you're a good person anymore. After all that happened, I can't trust you. You hurt me badly but you expect me to believe that you're suddenly reformed and a completely good person? You think everything you've done before this moment is forgiven, don't you? Well this isn't some dumb story where the main character can get away with anything and everything they do.  Wake up and get your head out of the clouds for once in your life."

Alice sneered while looking at the table. How could this boy see through her so easily? She didn't care about him at all. She just wanted people to like her for once. If Daniel got hurt in the process, she wouldn't care at all.

Though she has grown slightly attached to him, if she could get farther without him, she would easily just leave him behind. It wouldn't bother her for more than just a few weeks at most. But if it hurt Derek, she couldn't ever do it.

Alice sighed, "I can still try to mean it, can't I? Even if I'll only care because someone else does. It's still caring isn't it?"

She could at least try to make some attempts couldn't she? Even if they didn't always work. She could still try. Even without caring about it completely.

Erica smiled, "This is great! Maybe the main character will get a happily ever after! That always happens in the end! I can't wait to see what our ending is!"

Kelly smirked, "But don't you think our main character needs some development first? Slowly becoming a good person and eventually being great in the end. Everyone will love and admire her finally."

Erica nodded, "That's right Kelly. We need some character development before a big event like the ending, not to mention how we haven't even done a bunch of cliches on a list. Plus, it would be so sudden to make the ending happen."

Daniel raised an eyebrow, "What are you two even talking about? This isn't some story! Stop acting like it is. This is our lives. It's incredibly insulting to be spoken of as if I was a fictional character and this was some random teen fiction story."

Alice sighed. She was going to try her best to be liked. She wanted friends. She wanted joy. She wanted fun memories. She wanted her happy ending.

She was going to attempt to get those things.

No matter what.