My Nerd Project

Chapter 43: How To Be.. A Nerd

"Ready to lose after I'm done?" Chase asked me. I chuckled.

"I have a half hour to get Blaine, so if you want to get beaten quickly, that's fine with me." I said confidently. Some of the chess members laughed.

"Yeah, yeah." Chase said mindlessly, focusing on his game now. "Nice jacket."

"Thanks." I replied, suddenly glad I came.

I got a text back for Sidney while I walked up to meet Blaine, a half hour later.

'Yeah thanks, I'm about to go unpack my room some more. It takes forever :('

'That sucks.' I texted back, thinking back to when Jasper was packing for college, and how his mom had made a big scene while helping him pack. My mom might be worse, I thought with a shudder.

'Yeah, so I hope your day goes better than mine!'  She replied as I made my way outside and saw Blaine putting her poms-poms away.

'I'm about to get Blaine from cheerleading practice so I'm sure it will.'  I texted back. A smile went on my face at the sight of my girlfriend.

"Hey Alan." I heard a couple guys greet. I greeted them back. Three familiar jocks gave me a fist pump for a greeting. They looked sore but still energetic.

"Man, I got a 84% on my Math exam, all thanks to you!" Chris told me with a grin. "Honestly bro, I owe you."

"Aw, you got a 84? I got a 82." Nathan said moving grass off his sports attire and looking expectantly to Cole. "What'd you get Cole?"

"A 90." Cole said casually, stretching his arms after their tense football practice.

"You got an A!" Nathan said wide-eyed. "You beat us!" I noticed that everyone was too tired to care for his shouts as they were ready to leave for the day.

"Well it was an A-." Cole corrected while I looked to see Blaine saying goodbye to the other cheerleaders.

"Maybe we should try being nerds, to keep up these kinds of grades." Nathan said, pulling out his phone. "There's got to be an app for that. How To Be A Nerd.." I immediately looked back at him.

"Err.. how about just stay yourself and, well pay more attention in class?" I suggested quickly. No more How Tos for me, thank you very much.

"I suppose yeah," Nathan said after a while, thankfully putting his phone away. "So Cole got an A; how'd that happen?" He said, looking at Cole. A smirk approaching on his face.

"When Alan talks I listen, not think of Britney Fe-." Cole's words trailed off when Blaine turned to face me with a smile. I immediately smiled back at her. I excused myself from the bunch and made my way to her.

"Heads up!" I heard a familiar voice shout. On instinct, I looked up and saw the football beaming down. Knowing immediately who threw it by the speed of it, I rose my hands in the air and backed up a little.

"I got it," I muttered. The football came swiftly in my hands. It hit my chest, but that was forgotten when I heard someone say 'nice catch' on my left. "Thanks." I whispered. I actually caught Jesse's throw. Alright Alan!

I put the football up to show Jesse I wasn't a total failure, and looked to see Blaine clapping her hands for me. I chuckled. "Gray?" I quickly turned to Coach. "You're not on the team, are you?" I heard Coach ask.

"Me?! N-no sir," I said. He looked at my sports jacket. "Err.."

"Good catch Alan." Jesse said, beside me now. He brought my attention back to the actual athletes, which I definitely didn't want to be.

"Thanks," I muttered. Awkwardly, I said my goodbyes to Coach and Jesse; I scratched the back of my head as I walked to Blaine, ignoring stares.

"Hey." Blaine said smiling at me. "Don't look now, but Coach is watching you." She warned with a teasing tone. Oh great..

"Awesome." I said aloud. She picked up her sweater from the floor and led me back to school. Her ponytailed hair was rocking back and forth. "Fun practice?" I questioned, admiring my beautiful girl.

"Yeah, it was nice." She responded with a shrug. "You'd think the cold will be passing, though." She said with a shiver. I perked up.

"You know my arm has been feeling really warm.." I led off. She let out a laugh.

"I'm sure it has," She said teasingly. I brought her closer to kiss her forehead before she went into the school to get to the locker room. I started playing with the football in my hands before I realized I should have returned it. Jesse was having a chat with some remaining football players, so I went up to give him the football. I would've attempted to throw it to him, but I didn't want to risk more stares or chats with the coach.

"Hey Alan," Kevin told me when I reached them. He gave my back a pat.

"'Sup." I said with a nod, greeting them. "Here's the football." I said quickly, handing it to Jesse. Jesse was watching me. I blinked at him, "What?"

"Nothing." He shrugged.

"You sure you don't want to join the team?" Kevin asked instead. "There are a few on this team that couldn't have caught that." I started to laugh.

"It was a lucky catch." I said uneasily. Surely he wasn't serious?

"Plus you don't complain as much after gym workouts." Jesse put in. That's because that causes more push-ups..

"Trust me, I'm better off as a nerd." I said firmly. My shoe rubbed against the grass.

"You're not actually." Jesse said clearly.

"Ehh.." I said, my eyes still focused on my shoes.

"Nope, you're better off as Alan."