The next weekend Erica and Eleanor were spending the weekend together. They spent the next hour trying to get Erica to do what she was learning in math better. After an hour of working, they decided to rest and just hang out.
"So...Do you have a boyfriend?" Erica asked.
"I'm afraid not. I haven't had a boyfriend since this past summer."
"What happened?"
"He cheated on me with my ex-best friend."
"Ouch."
"Yeah. I'm over it though."
"Well who was it?"
Eleanor took a deep breath and said, "Do you know a 7th grader named Luke?"
"Luke Presley?"
"Yeah. It was his brother."
"How old is his brother?"
"He's in 9th grade now."
"Wow...No wonder."
"Yeah I was an idiot, but I'm ready to move on from him. I haven't found anyone that wants to be with a geek, though."
"You're not a geek just because you're smart. I'm surprised you don't have a bunch of guys fighting over you."
She shrugged. "You seem pretty happy with Liam."
"Yeah...I am. He's more than my boyfriend. He's been my best friend since 4th grade," Erica said, smiling.
"Wow. I noticed that he doesn't sound...American."
"Yeah...He's originally from England."
"Oh... Wow. I never met someone from England before."
"Me either...Until 4th grade" Erica said, laughing a little.
"What is Liam doing now since I'm here instead of him?"
"I think he's with the football team."
"He's on the football team?"
"Yeah... Well, technically basketball. I forgot that football ended before Christmas. Anyways, after he accepted the fact that we call football the way we do, he decided to try it out, and he was great at it."
"That's cool. Do you go to any of the games?"
"Yeah. Every one, but I don't go to the practices with him, though."
"I wouldn't either. They're not that interesting."
"Agreed. Did you ever have a boyfriend in football or basketball?"
"No, but I go to the games because of one of my...friends," Eleanor said. Erica looked at her, and she could tell that Eleanor was hiding something.
"Friends? Guy friends or girl friends?"
"Well...um..Some of my friends that are girls go for their boyfriends, but there might be someone on the football and basketball team I like."
"No way! That's awesome...8th grade right?"
"Yes...Yes, 8th grade," she said, sighing.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing it's just... This guy that's on the football and basketball team...He could never like me."
"Why not?"
"He's not into the type of girls that are smarter than everyone else. I heard that he thinks girls like me are boring."
"But you said there's more to you than your intelligence."
"There is!...But..."
"Are you scared that he won't like you?"
"I don't know..."
"Is he one of the top basketball and football players?"
"Yeah...Sorta. All the girls like him."
"You go to those games because of him? Does he notice you're there?"
"Yeah...He'll always smile and say, "Look, the smart girl is here."" "I don't know whether to accept that as a compliment or something else that's the opposite."
"Interesting..."
"Yeah...Interesting."
"Well...Maybe Liam can talk to him."
"What do you mean?"
"Liam's pretty cool with all the football and basketball players, so maybe he would talk to this guy for you."
"He doesn't know him."
"Well I don't know. What's his name?"
"Ryan Zam".
"Hm...I'll have to see, but he should like you. You're pretty, cool, funny, smart..."
"Thanks, but I don't know if that's his type."
"What is his type then?"
"Popular and pretty."
"You have lots of friends."
"Yeah, but that's not enough. I'm not pretty like his girlfriend."
"He has a girlfriend? You didn't mention that!"
"There's nothing to say about it."
"What's his girlfriend like?"
"She has long black hair, same height as me, is on the cheerleader squad, -according to the guys-has a perfect figure, has no acne at all, always wears too much makeup and likes to wear shorts and skirts that are a little too short," Eleanor explained.
"Wow. That's...wow. She doesn't sound too fun."
"I don't know, but all I know is how will he like me with someone like that?"
"You don't have to be on the cheerleader squad to get him."
"I know, but....It's useless."
"No it's not. How bout' this? I'll go with you to their next game. I'm going to be going for Liam anyways."
Eleanor laughed. "Thanks, but it's not that important."
"Nonsense. I'm going."
"OK. If you want to."
"I wasn't asking for your permission," Erica said, laughing.
Eleanor laughed too and stood up. "I have to head home, but if you need any more help with math...Let me know."
"Okay...See you at school."
"You too," Eleanor said, shutting the door behind her. As Erica watched her walked down the sidewalk, farther away, she called Liam. He picked up within the first ring.
"Hello?"
"Hey Liam. Eleanor left."
"How did the tutoring go."
"Come over, and I'll tell you about it."
"Don't have to tell me twice."
******
"So...After you guys were done tutoring, you guys had a conversation on Ryan Zam?" Liam asked confused.
"Yes. Eleanor likes him, but there's a few problems."
"What would those be?"
"He has a cheerleader girlfriend, she doesn't think she's his type, and she doesn't think he likes her since he calls her 'the smart girl,'" Erica explained.
Liam nodded and said, "Is there a reason you're telling me all this?"
"You're so smart! I'm telling you this because I wanted to know if you knew him since he was a basketball player."
"Yes, I do know him. He comes to every practice since his dad is the coach."
"Does he bring his girlfriend?"
"No he doesn't. I didn't think he had one."
"She obviously goes to his games."
"Yeah. She's a cheerleader. She has to."
"Right...So, I want you to talk to him."
"What for?"
"I need to know what he thinks of Eleanor. She really likes him, and I need to know first just in case he ends up thinking she's a loser. She's not, but I'm just saying," Erica said quickly at the end.
Liam nodded and sighed. "Okay. I have practice next week, so I'll talk to him."
"Thank you," Erica jumped up and hugged him.
"Hey...I'm just going to talk to someone, I didn't win the lottery."
Erica laughed and shoved him back. "Whatever. Anyways, now I don't know what I'm going to do the rest of the weekend."
"Oh...I see," he said, crossing his arms.
"Oh sorry, I didn't see you there."
Erica smiled and hugged Liam again. Liam eventually gave in and hugged her back. "Ha! I'm too irresistible!" Erica said, sticking her tongue out at him.
"Not very mature."
Erica rolled her eyes and stood up. "Let's go."
"Go where?"
"My kitchen. I'm hungry."
"Why do I have to go with you?"
"Do you want pizza or not?"
"Coming!" Liam said, running after her to the kitchen.
*******
Eleanor walked into school that morning without talking to Erica or Liam. They were on the bus, but she sat in the front of the bus this morning. She walked off the bus and into the school too fast for them to even say "hi" to her. She wasn't trying to ignore them, but she was trying to ignore Erica talking about Ryan. She walked to her locker and noticed that Ryan wasn't anywhere. Usually he was here before her since he walked, but this morning he wasn't here. She pretended not to care, and she grabbed her books after putting her stuff away. She looked around for one of her friends, then she saw a few of them sitting by the math room. She smiled and walked over to them and sat down. When they saw her, they smiled, and they all said her name.
"Eleanor...You bus was later than usual," one of the girls said.
"Really? I didn't notice," Eleanor said, shrugging. They rolled their eyes and began to go into a deep conversation. Eleanor tried to pay attention to them, but she couldn't help but notice that Ryan just arrived at school. He didn't see her looking at him, so he just kept walking to his buddies. Ryan was 5'10, has shaggy brown hair, brown eyes, was fit since he was on the football team, always wore high tops, jeans and different styled short sleeved shirts, he never wore a coat to school unless it was below zero out, and he had a deeper voice than the rest of the boys. Eleanor sighed and tried her hardest to look away.
Luckily, one of her friends asked her a question. "Did you go to the last football game?"
"Yes I did," Eleanor replied.
"Did you see one of the guys tackle Ryan?"
"Yeah... What about it?"
"It was just horrible! I thought he would've broken his beautiful face."
Eleanor rolled her eyes and shrugged. "He's fine."
"Fine? He could've gotten seriously hurt!" one of her friends exclaimed.
Eleanor smiled but still shrugged. "He's fine," she repeated, starting to get up.
"How can you say that?"
Eleanor just ignored her boy crazy friends and started walking back to her locker. She opened her locker and grabbed one of the books she was reading the past weekend. The book was called Jo, and it was from a series named "Calloway Corners." They were different romance situations. She liked reading mostly romances. Once in awhile, she would read a thriller or mystery, but she was mostly into romance books. She closed her locker and noticed that she dropped her phone. She groaned and went to pick it up, but someone already beat her to it. "I hope you know that you're not allowed to have phones out during school other than lunch." She looked up. It was Ryan.
She gulped and nodded. "I know that. It fell out of my locker."
"Well, you better put it away before the teachers take it."
"It's before school. They can't. I'm not in class," Eleanor said, grabbing her phone out of his hands.
"Well, you're going to be in class with me in 30 seconds."
"And?"
"You're not excited about that?" he asked, leaning in front of her locker.
"Why should I be?"
"Everyone loves me. You should feel lucky that I'm going to be in class."
"Maybe I should." Once she saw him smirk, she changed her answer. "I don't though," she said, walking away from him when the bell rang. She could hear him snicker, but she didn't feel like dealing with him right now. That's a lie, but she didn't know what to think at the moment. She's just glad he didn't unlock her phone. There was a picture of him on the background of her phone, and that would've been the worst moment ever! She would've hid in her room forever if he looked at her phone.
*******
"Psss. Do you have the answer for number three?" Ryan asked her since they sat by each other.
"No. Do your own work." After she said that, she could feel him staring at her, so she looked at him. Worst mistake ever! He was sticking his bottom lip out and staring at her. It was like he was a dog begging for her last piece of bacon. She groaned and threw the paper at him. He chuckled and copied down her answer. Lord. Why did you have to make him talk to me now? All he wants to do is copy off me for school. He probably only talks to me for that reason...
Ryan threw the paper and notebook back on her desk which interrupted her from continuing her thoughts. The bell rang and Eleanor was one of the first ones to get out of the classroom. Her next class wasn't with Ryan, so she could calm down and relax. She looked in the classroom, and she noticed she was the first one in the classroom. She went straight to her seat which was by two of Ryan's buddies. She sighed and waited for the rest of the kids to walk in the room.
*****
"You're practicing today right?" Erica asked Liam.
"Yes I am. You asked me that twice now."
"Sorry...I'm just excited for you to talk to Ryan."
"Calm down. Let's just hope he's at basketball practice today."
"What are you talking about?"
"Sometimes he doesn't show up because he's hanging out with his girlfriend."
"Really? You had to tell me that now?"
"Sorry."
Erica groaned. "Well...We can only hope."
Liam smiled and nodded. "Do you want to come to practice with me?"
"I don't know."
"You could see Ryan and talk to him yourself."
"That sounds convincing..."
"Please?"
"I'll think about it."
"It's at 4."
"I know. They say it over the speaker everyday."
Liam laughed as he grabbed his lunch tray and threw his food away. He sat back down at the table and started talking to Bradley about basketball. Erica continued to eat her food. All of a sudden, AJ tapped her on the shoulder, and she looked curious. Erica looked at her. "What AJ?"
"Look over there," she said, pointing over at Briana.
Erica looked closer and Briana was looking at them. They were laughing and staring at them. Erica turned towards AJ. "So what?"
"They're up to something, and I don't like it."
"You don't like anything they do."
"True, but something smells fishy..."
"You do know what that's from, right?" Bradley cut in.
"Shut up, Bradley!" All the girls said in unison.
They turned back to the mean girls, and they still were staring. Then, Briana stood up and walked over to them. "Liam, I'm surprised you didn't tell your girlfriend how messed up her hair looks," Briana said, laughing.
"What are you talking about?" Liam asked, getting tense.
"You didn't see this in her hair?" When she said this, she "accidentally" spilled her milk all over Erica. Erica jumped up and yelped as she shook her hair to get the milk off. She had no luck. She glared at Briana who was just smiling proudly. AJ and Taylor joined Erica.
"I'm so glad you think you're so cute," Taylor said through her teeth.
"At least I'm not a troll," Briana said back, walking away.
Liam was looking at Erica with concern in his eyes. He looked in Briana's direction, glaring at her while she kept smiling. Briana thinks she can embarrass Erica like that? She's going to get what's coming to her. I'm going to embarrass her... Way worse than she did to Erica today. Liam sat next to Erica. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Just a little messy hair doesn't hurt anybody," she replied, sniffling.
Liam sighed while Taylor stood up. "We'll get her back, Erica!"
"No," Erica said as she continued to get the milk out of her hair. "You won't. If we do anything back, she'll just keep doing worse. I don't want this to be a whole problem."
"You can't just let her get away with that," Taylor argued.
"Maybe not, but what are we going to do? She wants to rule the 7th grade. Let her. I'm not going to stop her."
"She can't rule the school if no one likes her," Liam said.
"Guys just use her anyways," Bradley said, getting into the conversation.
Erica just shrugged. "I'm going to clean up. If I'm late to class, tell them what happened," Erica told AJ as she headed to the bathroom. After she left, AJ and Taylor turned to Liam.
"We have to do something about this."
"I know."
"What are we going to do?"
"We need to find a way to embarrass her way worse than she did to Erica."
"Which is how?"
"She's on the cheerleading squad, right?" Bradley asked.
Everyone nodded. "Well. We could go to one of the games and tell everyone how she's obsessed with Luke."
"Luke?" Taylor asked. "Quiet Luke?"
"Yeah. I heard her and her friends talking about him. She was talking about going to his house. She knows his brother and she was planning to see them both."
"Wow. How interesting."
"Yeah."
"We need to get Luke in on this."
"How are we going to do that?"
"Good question. The guy hardly talks....But, we have to do it."
Everyone smiled and nodded. Everyone was dismissed from lunch, and Liam saw that Erica was still in the bathroom. Liam wanted to go check on her, but he was a guy. He couldn't go in the girl's bathroom, so he gave up and went to class with Taylor and AJ.