The Kissing Game

Chapter 6

"Why are you trying to make everyone hate you?" Hannah asked quietly. "I know you don't know when to shut your mouth, but you're actually a nice person. Why make others think you're a jerk?"

    Class was about to start and I sighed, looking over at Hannah. She didn't understand. No one understood that for people to take you seriously, you couldn't be nice.

   "I don't care about what they think as long as they know I'm dead serious," I said. "And anyways, as long as the right people know I'm nice I'm happy."

   "I'm worried Zoey. Everyone keeps giving you dirty looks."

   It was true. Now instead of just staring at me, my peers would give me dirty looks. Some would mutter unpleasant words as I walked by too. I would ignore everyone, knowing they were irrelevant.

   "It's fine Hannah." I tried to give her a reassuring smile, noticing how worried she looked. "As long as I don't react, they'll get bored of me. This will all blow over soon."

   Hannah frowned and I knew I hadn't convinced her. Wanting to, I opened my mouth to say more, but suddenly our English teacher spoke. The class went silent as he began to teach.

   Soon the lights went off and the projector went on. Today he was teaching us how to write compare and contrast essays, and as usual, he was teaching us with a PowerPoint. Like any other day, I grew bored.

   I glanced over at Hannah and saw that she was focusing intently and sighed. It made me feel horrible because I knew I should be paying attention, but I just couldn't. Not when it was so boring.

   So before I knew it my eyes slowly went to Axel. He was staring at the screen today, looking bored as well. I watched him and noticed that his hair was getting longer. The ends were curling slightly and I thought of how soft his chocolate hair must be.

   Then shaking my head, I thought of how he had warned me the other day. It had been for a selfish motive, but still his words clung to me. They rolled around in my mind and sometimes I wondered if I should take him seriously. But then I would remember who he was and that I hated him, and soon I would forget his words.

   But as I stared at Axel for what felt like an hour, I found my heart turning heavy when he didn't look at me once. His eyes stayed glued to the screen and watching him, I couldn't help but hope he'd glance at me. I hated myself for having such thoughts.

*****

    I was walking through the hallways, heading to my locker. When I saw Hannah at my locker, I smiled and she smiled back. I picked up my pace to reach her, but I was suddenly blocked off by some guy. More guys then began to surround me and I stared at them, confused.

   "Hey," said the first guy to block me. "Do you know me?"

   "No," I answered, unable to recognize the tall, black haired boy. "Should I?"

   "Of course." He smirked. "I should be in your dreams because, you know. I'll be the one to get the kiss from you."

   I rolled my eyes, knowing I should have known this was their intention. Narrowing my eyes at him, I tried to come up with a witty remark.

   "Jason," another guy said. "You're wrong. I'll be the one to get the kiss."

   "No, I will!" Another boy exclaimed.

   "No, I will!"

   This went on for a minute as the ten boys that stood around me began to argue about who'd get the kiss from me. Anger boiled in my veins as I stood there, unable to believe that any of them thought I would kiss them. I had made it clear that I wouldn't be kissing anyone and clearly, they were too ignorant to care.