I'm Not That Girl

Chapter Five

       “You won’t stop until you get him to go out with you!” I said, the volume level of my voice probably too high for the location that we were in.

       “Elle, would you rather have a worthless piece of slutty trash, or a nice, good girl chasing after him?”

       “Which one were you?” I asked. She was seriously asking for that one.

       “Haha. No, seriously, we need to keep him away from Jillian!”

       “Oh that’s so cute! You think we means you and I! No,” I said flatly.

       “Elle, think about it,” she begged.

       “Okay, fine; Jillian should be going out with jerks, players, and bad boys, not Phillip.” I began reading titles of books that were across from me, considering the fact that the conversation I was stuck in was stupid.

       “Exactly! So, are you in?”

       “In what?” Gina was getting on my nerves.

       “Oh never mind! Just are you in agreement, that she shouldn’t date him?” 

       “I’m in agreement that neither of you should date him,” I said, smiling as my eyes glazed over the spine of one of my favorite books of all time: To Kill A Mockingbird. The detail in that book was incredible. The words practically came to life. Also, I loved the fact that it was based around a strong, female protagonist. I it read for fun when I was in sixth grade, and was then told two years later, in eighth grade, that the class would be reading it, and enjoyably read it again.

       “Whatever. Oh, by the way, do you remember Ryan; he threw the party the other night?” she questioned, doing something Gina rarely did by talking of someone other than herself.

       “Yeah,” I said, seriously considering the possibility of pushing a few books off the shelf, and hitting Gina in the head with them.

       “Well, he likes you.”

       “First of all, how do you know? Second of all, why do you care? And third of all, please stay as far away as possible from my life,” I said.

       “He wants to get to know you. Oh, and don’t worry, I don’t care about you, I care about Ryan.”

       “Whatever,” I groaned, getting up and resisting the urge to knock Gina out with one of the many enormous dictionaries near us.

       “I’ll tell him to call you!”

       “Please don’t.”

       “So, I’ll tell him you’re interested too!” she said. I rolled my eyes, walking away.

       I quickly joined John and Nick and slammed my binder down too loudly. Nick looked up and smirked at me “Have a nice chat with our dear friend, Gina?”

       “No, actually, I didn’t.” I sat down next to John, and kicked him in the knee a second time just to make sure he got the message that math class wasn’t fun for me. In response, he smiled.

       “What’d she want?” Nick asked.

       “She wanted to tell me that Jillian wants to go out with Phillip, and that we should stop her, and that that Ryan kid likes me.”

       “Sounds like a very productive heart-to-heart conversation,” Nick laughed.

       “Well, I feel bad for Phillip and all; I mean, Jillian should totally be going out with a jerk- like Nick,” John said, casually putting his arm on the back of my chair.

       “Or a tool- like John,” Nick said, not sounding the least bit offended.

       “Okay! Please stop!” I said, not using my “library voice”.

After school, once I had gotten home, I got a call from a blocked number. Being the smart person that I am, I answered it.

       “Hello?” I said.

       “Hey Elle, it’s Ryan, from the other night,” Ryan greeted.

       “Oh, hi,” I said, surprised that Gina had actually followed up.

       “So, I was wondering… do you maybe want to go out sometime?”

       “Uh… sure?” I said, unsure of what was about to unfold.

       “Okay, cool. What are you doing this weekend?”

       “Not really sure.”

       “Oh. We should go to Andy Parker’s party together, after the football game,” he suggested.

       “Okay,” I agreed. I had been invited to the party this weekend, but I wasn’t a hundred percent sure who Andy Parker was, though I was pretty sure that he was on the football team.

       I hate football. Really, with all my heart, I hate it. I go to most of the football games, because both Phillip and John are on the team; so it's like a support thing. I was planning on going with Kara and Nick to the game, and then going with them to the party, but I suppose going with Ryan wouldn’t be all bad.

       “So, we’ll go after the game?” he asked, his voice filled with anticipation.

       “Yeah,” I said.

       “Chill!” he said, taking a sigh of relief.

       “Uh huh. I have to go, but bye!” I said, hanging up, and adding him to my contacts.

       Ryan. What is this kid’s deal? Why is he interested in me? He didn’t even know me.

       Seconds later, I got a call from “Regina George” as I put in my contacts, or Gina. When I saw the movie, Mean Girls, I instantly thought of Gina, so as a joke I changed her name in my contacts. Kara thinks it’s funny, but people like John, who haven't seen the movie, don’t get it. 

       “Did he call you?” she snapped.

       “Why are you calling me?” I asked.

       “Because I wanted to follow up on the fact that Ryan said that he’d call you! So did he?”

       “Uh, yeah. I have to go,” I said, hanging up abruptly and going back to my homework.

       “Who was that?” Jordan said, wandering into my room.

       “Gina,” I said, rolling my eyes.

       “No, who were you talking to before that?”

       “That Ryan kid who threw the party the other night.”

       “Cool. Is he your new boyfriend?”

       “Nope,” I said, wondering what I could say to Jordan that may just tick him off more than the whole boyfriend thing.

       “What did he want?”

       “Nothing,” I muttered.

       “Elle, tell me.”

       “Look, I understand this is your way of being the over protective big brother and all, but just let it go right now!”

       “Fine,” he said, putting his hands up and surrendering without a fight. He left my room, and I was in peace for the rest of the evening.