Welcome To Enumclaw

Chapter Four

I was so nervous today. Cheerleading tryouts were after school and I was rigid. I needed to make it or else I'd be made fun of for the rest of my high school career. Besides my nervousness, I traipsed into school the next day and was immediately cornered by Tanner.

"Hey, Emily!" There was no negativity on his face whatsoever. Even his eyebrows were smiling, I swear.

"Hi Tanner," my eyes were wide with surprise.

"So, what's the buzz?" he nosed.

"Excuse me, buzz?" I coughed.

"Yeah, there's obviously some really hot chemistry between you and our Tristan."

I coughed, almost choking. "Oh, there is?"

"Yeah, of course, Nevaeh told me that you guys were dating!" 

"Hold on," I stopped in my tracks. "We're not dating." I felt a low rumble deep in my stomach. My fists clenched. That little bitch was spreading rumors.

"Ohhhhh," Tanner rolled his eyes. "She has it out for you. She's liked Tristan for forever."

"WE'RE NOT DATING!" I screamed a little too loud. Everyone in that section of the hallway turned to look at me. My cheeks turned red with embarrassment. Luckily Tristan wasn't in the hallway at the time, but his buddies were.

As soon as I knew it, it was lunchtime. I awkwardly positioned myself in a seat next to Tristan at his table.

"Uhh hey?" Tristan said, almost interrogatively.

"Hi," I said in a small, quiet voice.

"I heard about your outburst in the hallway..." Tristan trailed off.

"Oh shoot, Tristan, it wasn't an outburst. Tanner said that Nevaeh was spreading ru-"

"I DID NO SUCH THING!" Nevaeh screeched, interrupting our conversation. "HOW DARE YOU WRONGFULLY ACCUSE ME!" Nevaeh blurted out. She was now standing. I could see her full outfit now. She had on a black T-Shirt with an army green jacket over it. She had black, fake ripped jeans because that was apparently the new "trend". I looked her up and down, she had the same disgusting look on her face. The one she had when I first met her.

"I didn't wrongfully accuse you, Nevaeh. Tanner was the one who said you were spreading rumors about me." I realized I was now standing. I was just a little bit taller than Nevaeh, but just enough that I could "loom" over her. I saw Tanner shrink down in his seat in the corner of my eye.

"Don't you try to drag Tanner into this you shrew!" Nevaeh snapped.

"Don't call me that. You have been nasty and mean to me ever since I got here! You're a mean person, Nevaeh. Quite frankly, you have a beautiful face, but an ugly heart. Your attitude is downright disgusting. You disgust me," I glared at her. She shuffled her feet a bit.

"Well uh, you're wrong," Nevaeh swallowed hard.

"You and I both know that I'm most definitely not wrong," everyone in the entire cafeteria was now turning their attention to us. I could see Nevaeh's fists balled up tightly. She swallowed hard again. She nodded slightly. She turned away from me and started striding out of the cafeteria. The farther she walked, the more she picked up her pace. So much for laying low.

The whole cafeteria was still silent as I realized I was standing in a crowd full of sitting people. She stopped just outside of the cafeteria and the gym teacher handed talked to her for a couple of minutes. They shook hands and the gym teacher walked out of sight. Nevaeh gave me a malignant look and disappeared out of my eyesight.