In Her Shoes

Chapter 33: A New Best Friend

The rest of the day was a blur. People were talking to me left and right, trying to gain my attention, trying to be my best friend, and trying to do everything for me. I felt like my old self again.

Which wasn't really a good thing.

I could tell by the few glares he gave me that Aid wasn't happy about all the attention I was getting. He thought it would go to my head and I would really be myself again. But it was going to be different this time. I thought I was loved as Jesse, but I was really hated. As long as I was having this chance to "practice kindness" and "go back to my past" or whatever, I was gonna do it right.

Can you imagine how pathetic it would be if a person was given two lives to live and was hated by all in both? Yeah, real pathetic. As long as I was Jessica I was gonna try and make up for the stupid shit Jesse did, and do all that he was too cowardly to do.

I realized now that that quote from that one super hero movie, "With great power, comes great responsibility," wasn't just a cool line that became famous. It was true. I had almost the entire student body eating out of the palm of my hand, and that type of immense power could make you or break you. And one thing was for sure; there was no way in hell it was gonna break me...again.

For example, during my math period there's this really big kid named Donte. He gets made fun of all the time. One of those guys who eats his feelings, if you get the picture. I used to tease him all the time. But this time, I wasn't about to abuse that power. Some kids were sliding a card in the back of his head as if it were an atm. Poor dude looked like he was about to cry.

That pissed me off. I knew now how it felt to be the one loser who no one lends a hand to because you're not cool, or attractive enough. I told the dudes if they value their debit card they won't touch him again. By the way, the dudes were Ronny and Aaron. They laughed.

"Why is this your boy friend?" Aaron asked, whacking the kid in the back of the head. "Oops. I touched him by the way."

"Oh, Little Miss Red is a Chub Chaser!" Ronny chortled. He started to slide his card in the back of Donte's head again. "Credit or debit?" he asked Aaron, who only died laughing.

That was it. I stormed over without them noticing, snatched the card out of Ronny's hand and examined it. "Oh. You go to Chase bank, huh?"

His face was instantly serious. "Hey...whatchya doin' babe, give the card back I got money on there."

I raised a brow in fake interest. "Oh do you? Well then you won't mind if I do this..." I grabbed a scissors off of Donte's desk and cut the card in half. I gasped, putting on a fake look of surprise as I stared at the two halves in my hand. "Oops. Access denied....No cash back," I added with a smile as I tossed the halves back at him.

The class started "Oohing" and laughing and I saw Ronny's chest heaving up and down heavily, his eyes glowering at me dangerously. Suddenly, letting out an animalistic scream he charged at me. I gulped. I wasn't planning on a reaction like this. He can't attack me, I'm a girl! ...Sort of... I closed my eyes and shielded my face but suddenly nothing happened. I opened my eyes and saw Donte's huge figure towering over me, facing Aaron and Ronny.

The class was erupting again with instigating slurrs and I peeked over Donte's side, the dude was taller than I thought, probably about 6"2, and saw Ronny sprawled on Aaron's lap on the floor. Apparently Donte must've stood at the right moment to block me, and Ronny ran smack into his stomach, literally bouncing back, knocking over Aaron, too!

Wow. Talk about cartoony.

I laughed as I took out my phone to take a picture. The teacher walked back in then after using the restroom at that point. He glared at Aaron and Ronny on the floor. "Aaron and Ronny! You could sit one each other's lap all you want in private, but not in my classroom. Off the floor, and to your seats."