Love and Fame Games (Book 1)

06 (Part Two)

I had been in the girls' bathroom for all of two minutes when the door flew open and my three friends burst in.

Actually, only Alex burst in, and the other two followed behind her. They had long-suffering expressions on their faces, like they really didn't want to and yet, had no choice.

"You're not seriously mad, are you?" Alex wailed the moment she laid her eyes on me. She stood beside me at the sink, glowering. I had just finished rinsing the soap from my hands but I refused to acknowledge their arrival, so I turned the faucet on and lathered up again.

"Oh my God, Adrian. It was just a joke, the likes of which we've made about the two of you a thousand times before. Why should it bother you now?" Alex made her voice louder and whinier than I even thought possible. This girl was not accustomed to being ignored.

She had a point, though. Having friends that were mostly of the opposite sex when I was growing up resulted in this kind of teasing. Having a boy-crazy bestie who planned my wedding every time I locked eyes with a boy for half a second resulted in this kind of teasing. I was two for two and no longer in middle school. I should not only be used to this but also be able to handle it better by now.

I looked up and, instead of turning to face Alex, spoke to her reflection in the mirror in front of me. "I just don't understand how the three of you can take even eating and chocolate, and turn it into some kind of sexy thing," I said, matching her volume and anguished tone exactly. I could be just as dramatic as her if I wanted. More so, even. "It's unnatural and you guys have a real problem."

"Food can be sexy," Alex's reflection insisted. "And chocolate's one of the sexiest food there is. Look it up."

She was so full of it. "You're making that up, Alex. If that were true, kids wouldn't be allowed to have any."

"Why do we give it away on Valentine's?" Alex argued.

"Why do we give it away on Halloween?" I countered. Alex sputtered and her eyes almost bugged out of her head when she heard my retort. I would have laughed because it really was ridiculous to be fighting about chocolate, but I wasn't ready to let this go, so I just stared right back.

"Halloween's sexy," Erin answered for her. Alex and I whipped around to look at her and she shrugged. "It is, hands-down, the sexiest holiday."

"You know you're a freak, don't you?" Alex said, looking at her with disapproval.

"Duh," was Erin's reply. I actually laughed, then, and all was well again. I shook the excess water from my hands and grabbed several paper towels to dry my hands on and tossed them in the bin before heading out.

Before anyone could grab the door handle, however, the door flew open once again and three girls barged in, giving me a weird sense of deja vu.

I didn't know these girls personally, but I knew of them. The one in the middle with the golden glow and ombre hair was the ringleader. Her name was Cassidy Albert and was a freshman when I was a sophomore. I didn't know the other two by name but they were the same two girls who followed her around wherever she went last year.

The older kids basically ignored her, and my friends and I were no different, but from what I had heard, Cassidy Albert was an absolute nightmare to the people in her grade last year. She was a sophomore this year and apart from her grade, had a fresh batch of kids to terrorize, so I supposed that explained the extra swagger in her step.

But what did I care? I was an eleventh grader and had nothing to worry about. Cassidy Albert was of no concern to me, and vice-versa.

Or so I thought. Imagine my surprise when Cassidy's face contorted into an expression of extreme dislike as soon as her gaze landed upon me.