Geek to On Fleek

Chapter Two: Alex

Now, if I were a confident and bold person, I would have gone after him and introduced myself and maybe even ask if he was ok. And I wouldn't have acted like I was playing a game of "Heads Up Seven Up."

The reality was, I wished I could get to know him, but I was too shy and awkward. I wondered how the cliche where the pretty, popular girl helped the awkward geek become popular could even exist. If that was really true, then I was a sad excuse for a pretty, popular girl. And I don't say that because I'm self centered, I know I'm pretty, and you'll see why later that I also considered myself popular, although I didn't exactly mean to join that group.

I had to accept the fact that I probably wouldn't ever talk to him, especially not with this crowd around me.

"Jake Muller keeps asking if you're going to go to the basketball game tomorrow night," Emily gushed, nearly knocking me over while in line at the coffee cart. I didn't acknowledge her at first, as I glanced one more time over towards where Alex went, but he was gone. I let out a little sigh, then turned to Emily. I didn't even notice her walk up.

"Who?"

"What do you mean who? Jake Mueller! The captain of the basketball team? Ok, maybe you'll understand it this way, he's a bio major, sophomore just like us, sits in front of us in the film class–"

"Oh, right, that Jake," I remembered as soon as she mentioned our film class. I recalled him crunching popcorn when we saw It Happened One Night.

"Yes, that Jake!"

"Oh, Emily, you know I don't care about those things." I waved my hand at the thought of me actually going to a sports event. She knew I never went, once class was over and I didn't have any student organization meetings, I was already on my way to go home. Like I said, I was not the school spirit girl.

"Yeah, but you should go, because everyone's been talking about you," she said matter-of-factly. Then she proceeded to cut me in line and ordered two coffees.

I stepped aside from her, then snapped my head up as I registered what she said.

"What?" She shrugged.

"Come on, you're like the smartest girl in our class, you're hot, you're an editor in the school's fashion magazine, and you literally don't talk to anyone else but me. And Mary. You don't go to parties, despite getting tons of invites, and you don't go to any other school events. Of course people are going to talk about you."

Well, when she put it like that, I actually sounded like freak, but it was true. I didn't like those things and the mere mention of the name "Jake Mueller" didn't actually make me swoon like Emily or some of the other girls.

"I still don't get it."

"Come on Lola! Just, come have some fun, you're only 19 once," she remarked while handing me my coffee. I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing; she acted like she had the wisdom of Yoda, just because I wasn't as social as her, and she sounded ridiculous.

In hindsight, I'm not sure why I ended up agreeing to go to the game. Large crowds and sports stuff weren't exactly my ideal way of spending a Friday night, but Emily had this way of convincing me, mostly by some form of peer pressure. She was my only friend at the time, well, her and Mary, and they desperately tried to get me involved in what they thought was cool. I didn't know if they genuinely liked me or just liked the fact that I was exceptionally good at Calculus. Or maybe it was because they thought my intrigue would help them gain popularity, or something. Either way, I stuck around them, but we weren't particularly close. We were never close friends, and I was ok with that. I am ok with that.

At the time I thought I would never talk to Alex, looking back I couldn't believe how scared I was, because he ended up being the most important person in my life. He thinks I changed him for the better, and I didn't. hence the horrible, terrible monster. I think the most genuine transformation was the one he did on me.