Chapter Six
Jamie Vandeviere
After changing out of my gym clothes, I quickly and cowardly left the locker room, afraid that the brave façade would crack under the SAC trio’s scrutinizing stare. Yes, I sounded gutsy back there, but to be honest, I was quite shaken up on the inside. I didn’t know what happened to girls who didn’t back down from Summer’s threat. No one had been courageous or stupid enough to try it. No one until me.
Luke had better make sure his plan worked.
The next two classes went by quickly and it was still weird for me to see all the people that had never bothered to give me the time of day approaching me and acting… friendly. A simple “Hi” from one of the popular kids would have surprised me to no end if it had happened a couple of days ago. Now, I wouldn’t say I’m used to the attention, but the sudden recognition didn’t feel too horrible.
I grabbed a tray from the counter and started putting food on to my plate. When I spotted Lucy and Clara at our usual table waving at me, I smiled and almost bounced my way to them. It was nice to see that even though my appearance had changed and people were acting different toward me, my best friends still treated me the same.
“Hey guys,” I said, just about to slide into the seat across from them. “You’ll never guess what-”
“What on earth are you doing?”
I jumped when Luke’s voice suddenly sounded from behind, throwing me completely off guard. I craned my neck to look at him, clearing my throat.
“I’m just about to eat,” I said, like I was answering a rhetorical question.
“I know that. I meant what are you doing sitting all the way over here? You should eat with us.” With a tilt of his head, he gestured to the Popular Table, and I gulped when I found the majority of the members gawking at Luke and me in confusion.
Breaking away from their gaze, I looked over to Lucy and Clara with a frown. The three of us had been having lunch together since…
“It’s okay, Jamie,” said Lucy, pulling me from my train of thoughts. “Go.”
“You guys want to come?” I asked hesitantly, even though I already knew the answer to that absurd question. Yeah, right. Summer and Lucy at the same table? As if.
“Nah,” she said with a wave. “I like our table better. So much cooler.” Clara giggled at her comment and casted a look of longing at the Popular Table.
“Are you coming or not, Vandeviere?” The impatience in Luke’s tone didn’t escape my notice. Shooting one last look of apology at my friends, I promised them that I would meet up with them after school and followed Luke’s lead to the Table of Doom.
With every step we took toward the Popular Table, my heart accelerated. It was as if my feet suddenly weighed a thousand pounds; I felt as if I had to drag them across the floor to get them moving. On the right side of the long table sat the girls, who were all gaping at me with open curiosity, like they were wondering what made me good enough to receive a face-to-face invitation from Luke Archer. Summer seemed pissed, though she tried her best not to show it. The smile on her face was so stiff and unnatural that it looked as if it were painted there.
The left side of the table, the guys’ side of the table, looked so much less hostile and so much more inviting in comparison. Assuming I would sit next to Luke, I suppose, Roger pulled an extra chair from another table and placed it on Luke’s right.
The second I sat down, all twelve pairs of eyes were glued to me and I turned away when I caught Amanda whispering something to Summer, her glare falling disdainfully to my tray. It was then that it occurred to me that was the only girl at the table eating hamburger, pizza, and fries; the rest of the girls had either gotten a salad, an apple, or a tiny pack of crackers placed in front of them.
Oh yeah. I definitely preferred the guys’ side of the table.
“Hey, Jamie,” Seth enthused, giving me a high-five. “What’s up, girl?”
“About this morning,” said Bryce, like he was finishing off a conversation that he started with me earlier. “Luke was the one who told me to write the note. So it’s really his fault.”
“Hey!” Luke cut him off with a laugh. “You’re the one who actually wrote the note. I only made a suggestion. By the way, shouldn’t you be at detention?”
Bryce, like he had suddenly been hit by a brick wall, groaned. “Aww, man. He’s going to give me an extra day for skipping!”
“Idiots!” Roger bellowed with guffaw.
“You’re the one to speak,” retorted Bryce. “I’m not the one failing Home-Ec.”
The rest of the guys doubled over with laughter and I giggled when Roger whacked the back of Bryce’s head, like a mother would to a child. Paul, looking more out of place than I did, smiled awkwardly and quietly resumed eating.
“You guys are going to scare her off.” I involuntarily raised my head when I heard Adam Bryant approaching the table, filling the empty seat across from mine with a warm and genuine smile. “Hi, Jamie.”
“Hi, Adam,” I said, feeling my face heating up, which was completely ridiculous considering he was Lucy’s crush. Not mine.
Okay. I’ll let you in on a little secret. In junior high, I kind of had a crush on Adam. But the second I found out Lucy liked him, too, I told myself I had to get over him. It wasn’t that hard, considering he was way out of my league and didn’t even know I existed. But Adam was just so.. Adam. Even though he hung out with the jocks, he was different. A good kind of different.
Oh. And he was really, really cute, with his chestnut hair and blue eyes…
But anyway, junior high was junior high. This was high school, and I was so over my crush on him.
“So, Luke, how did you and Jamie meet?”
Everyone at the table quieted down when Summer abruptly spoke from the end of the table. I didn’t look at her. Instead, I took a bite from my pizza and started chewing. I couldn’t answer her with food in my mouth, right?
Luke, looking indifferent, turned to her without any expression. “We met at a Duke party.”
“A party that I wasn’t invited to?” she chuckled. “Now that’s a first!”
“Believe it or not, not everything is about you, Summer,” Luke retorted with patronizing smile. “Well, maybe Paul would disagree.”
The jocks and the girls shifted uncomfortably in their seats, and they all abruptly seemed fascinated with the food on their plate. Paul turned as white as a sheet; he opened his mouth to speak, but when Luke shot him a deadly look, he coughed back whatever he had planned to say. The momentary silence was so awkward that I could practically see the tension in the air.
“Agh,” said Bryce, making a face at his corndog. “This tastes like shit.”
Summer completely ignored his attempt to change the topic. With a flip of her hair, her gaze shifted from Luke to me. The contempt was clear in her eyes. “So, why the sudden change, Jamie?”
I straightened myself and shrugged, feeling brave after catching the encouraging look that Luke threw me. Everyone at the table was staring at me; even though I didn’t detect any animosity in their eyes, it made me a little bit uncomfortable. “It’s senior year. I wanted to try something different so I don’t leave any regrets behind.”
Summer raised her eyebrow without saying anything, looking unsatisfied by my short reply. The girls at the table started murmuring among themselves while the guys just shrugged and continued eating. Obviously, my sudden popularity didn’t bother or matter to them as much as it did to the girls.
The bell rang and saved me from the awkwardness that ensued. Luke and the guys quickly got to their feet and headed for the door, which left me no choice but to chug down what was left of my drink and follow. I mean, leaving me alone with Summer and the rest of the girls? No, thank you. When Roger cracked a joke about Michael Rickman as he walked by with his head down- a guy who would have graduated last year if he hadn’t been caught shoplifting a month before graduation- the jocks guffawed. All except Luke, whose thoughts seemed to be a million miles away.
“Luke, are you okay?” I asked him quietly, nudging him in the arm with my elbow.
He shook his head abruptly, like I had just pulled him from a trance. “Me? I’m fine. Why do you ask?”
“Nothing. I just thought you looked a bit… upset.”
He cracked a smile for the first time since our confrontation with Summer at the lunch table. A smile that reached his eyes, which I was glad to see. “I’m great. Excellent performance back there, by the way. I bet Summer’s annoyed by how little you were willing to tell her about you. She hates it when she doesn’t know every detail about someone.”
Me. Annoying Summer. For some reason, I found this highly amusing.
A roar of laughter erupted when Bryce let out a thunderous burp just before exiting the cafeteria. I scrunched up my eyebrows in disgust while the guys howled with laughter and patted him on the back, like congratulating him on a job well-done.
“I’ll see you later,” Luke said with a roll of his eyes. Then to Bryce, he hollered, “Hey, Moron, Chemistry is that way!”
I watched them disappear down the hall, merging into the sea of people wandering in the hallway, as I walked over to my locker. I was still replaying the entire lunch scene in my head when a deep chuckle popped up from behind me, causing me to drop the Geography book that I was holding on my feet.
“You should totally skip that class today. I had him second period and half the class fell asleep.”
I spun around and found Adam waving my wallet in the air with a smile that made me forget how to breathe. Get a grip, Jamie. Adam Bryant is so out of your league. Think about Lucy. Still, I couldn’t control the excitement that was bottled inside of me. The guy that I had a crash on for I don’t know how many years, was standing right in front of my locker, speaking to me. “You dropped it on your way out,” he explained, when I stupidly gawked at him without saying a word.
“Thanks, Adam,” I said, as composed as I could as I took the wallet from his hand. “I didn’t even realize I’d lost it.” I felt like hitting myself on the forehead when I let out a strangled, awkward laugh. Great. He must either think I’m an imbecile or a lunatic.
“No problem,” he winked. “Nice photo.”
I found him peering at the picture taped to my locker- one of Lucy, Clara and me taken two summers ago. We were sitting on Lucy’s porch swing that day, listening to her going on and on about how cute Adam Bryant was and how they were destined for each other. When the photo was taken, I doubt Adam even knew I existed. So the fact that he was standing next before me, attempting to start a conversation with me, seemed more and more surreal with every passing second.
“Thanks,” I chuckled. “It was taken ages ago.”
Then the most amazing thing happened. Adam Bryant, the cutest guy at school, walked me to my next class like it was the most natural thing to do. Even though I knew I shouldn’t read too much into it- he was probably just being friendly, I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day.
-&-
“Okay, class. Don’t forget your essay is due next Thursday. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
I let out a sigh of relief when the last bell rang. School seemed to have dragged on longer than usual today, and because I hadn’t really gotten much rest the night before, I was exhausted. It took every ounce of strength that I had left to move my feet toward the parking lot to meet with Lucy and Clara.
As soon as I stepped out of the building, I spotted the two of them getting into Lucy’s Toyota. Just as I was about to sprint toward them, someone tapped my shoulder. Strangely enough, no one was there when I turned my head.
“Boo!”
I screamed and whipped my head back around so quickly that I almost sprained my neck. When I realized that it was Luke who had tapped my shoulder, I scowled and smacked his arm while he laughed as if my reaction was the funniest thing he had ever seen. I noticed that he had changed out of his clothes from this morning, casually dressed in gym shorts and a Duke T-shirt.
“Very mature,” I reprimanded, glaring at him as I crossed my arms over my chest.
He snickered, looking at me with an amused expression that made me feel like an idiot. “You should have seen your face. By the way, did you say ‘gah’ while you screamed?”
My face heated up at his words. “Did not! Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Or someone else to annoy?
“I’m on my way to football practice,” he said, like that gave him a legit reason to scare me the way he did. Then his eyes widened. “Shit. I forgot that you probably need a ride home.”
“I’m going over to Lucy’s place after school so I’ll catch a ride with her,” I told him. “Good luck at practice. I hope you get your butt kicked.”
He shot me an arrogant smirk that made my heart skip a beat. “That would never happen.” Then lowering his voice, he leaned in and whispered, “I’m the best there is.”
I scoffed and rolled my eyes at his cocky statement. He laughed and told me he was kidding, even though what he said was true. Luke was pretty much Roseville’s football legend. A lot of people showed up at the games just to see him play. “Whatever. I’m leaving, so I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Maybe.” Without explaining what he meant by “maybe”, he took off, his movement as swift and graceful as a cheetah. A group of girls were sitting on the bleachers watching the guys practice and the second Luke came into view, they all shifted in their seats a little as they cheered him on. Apparently, since Luke and Summer were over, the majority of the girls at this school seemed to be hoping that they would have a shot with the football star.
“Goodbye to you, too,” I murmured sarcastically.
I apologized to Lucy and Clara for taking so long when I reached where they were, and the second I climbed into the backseat, I was freaked out by the overly eager smiles on their faces.
“What were you and Luke talking about?” asked Lucy teasingly. “He seemed… friendly.”
“He just asked me if I needed a ride home since he gave me a ride to school this morning,” I said simply, hoping that would be the end of this conversation.
Of course it wouldn't.
“That’s right. I forgot that he gave you a ride to school,” she smiled a secretive smile, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively like a villain in an action movie.
“Okay, you got to stop doing that, Luce. You look and sound like a creep.”
She and Clara exchanged a look then burst out laughing. Clara gave a dreamy sigh and giggled as she asked, “What did Luke’s arm feel like, Jamie? I wish I had the chance to smack it, the way you did.”
I gaped at her. It was so like Clara to blurt out something as weird as this. “Like… flesh?” Turning to Lucy, I said, “Why aren’t you starting the car? Shouldn’t we be going?”
“Oh. Right.”
I got home at about nine and found my mom curled up on the sofa with a book on her lap, already asleep. Sighing, I gently shook my mother awake and told her she was going to hurt her back sleeping like that for the entire night. Mom owned a diner downtown and was usually out of the house by six in the morning. Seeing the exhaustion in her eyes worried me, but the diner was her life. It was my grandmother’s legacy to her and she loved it.
The light was on in the study room and from the hall I could hear the sound of my father flipping through the pages of his books. Dad was an English professor over at Roseville Community College and he was the kind of person that thought reading was as important as breathing and eating.
“Hey, Kiddo. How was your night?” he asked, removing his glasses when he noticed me standing at the doorway.
I shrugged. “It was alright. I had fun with the girls.”
“You hungry? Your mother left some pasta for you if you are.”
I assured him that I had plenty to eat at Lucy’s and told him goodnight before going off to take a shower. The chances were that by the time I finished showering, Dad would have already fallen asleep in the study room, snoring with his nose buried in a book as thick as an encyclopedia. In case you haven’t figured it out, I was pretty much the only one in my family who would still be awake past ten o’clock.
I had just gotten out of the bathroom when I heard my cellphone blasting the same ringtone that I had been using for the past five years. With my hair still dripping, I sprinted back to my room and flung myself on my bed, almost knocking the lamp on my nightstand off in the process.
“Hello?” I answered breathlessly. Who on Earth would be calling me at this hour? Did I leave behind something at Lucy’s?
Imagine my surprise when I heard Luke’s voice from the other end of the line. “It’s me. Look out your window.”
-&-
This is crazy. Why did you agree to do this, Jamie? Think of the heaps of trouble you’ll be in if you get caught.
Those were the only thoughts I had as I climbed out of my bedroom window- thank God my parents didn’t own a two-story house- and tiptoed across the lawn, praying that my dad wouldn’t wake up all of a sudden and choose then to grab a bite to eat from the kitchen. Because if he did, he would definitely see Luke’s shiny convertible parked across the street. When Luke called a while ago and told me to meet him outside, I thought he was joking. I mean, it was eleven p.m. In a small town like this, eleven was way past bed time. But because it was he who called, and I figured he probably had something important to tell me concerning Operation-Take-Down-Summer, I grabbed a jacket from my closet and ran out to meet him.
Luke was sitting with one of his hands behind his back when I climbed into the passenger seat. He smiled when he saw me.
“Luke, what are you doing here?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
“What? Am I not allowed to be here?” he smirked, showing a row of perfect white teeth. Then scrutinizing me from head to toe, he snickered. “Nice look.”
My cheeks flushed with embarrassment as I pictured how I must have looked to him. Since I was so surprised by his call and was in such a hurry to get out of my room, I had forgotten to change out of my pajamas and my indoor slippers before leaving the house. My hair was still dripping and I didn’t even get a chance to brush it.
“So what brings you to our humble neighborhood, Luke? Certainly you didn’t come all the way out here to make fun of me,” I asked in annoyance.
He laughed at my tone. “I’m here to tell you about our next step. You,” he paused theatrically, leaning in, “are going to throw the biggest party of the year this weekend.”
My eyes widened at what he had said. Me? Party? Was he kidding?
“But… I don’t know the first thing about parties.” There was no need to tell him that I had never been invited to anyone’s party before.
“I know that.” He didn’t sound surprised. “Which is why I’m going to plan the party. All you need to do is invite people, show up, and be a good host. Easy enough, right?”
Easy? How did any of this sound easy?
“Okay. If you say so,” I said reluctantly, when I found him raising his eyebrows at me with expectance
Even though it was almost midnight, Luke didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave, and for some reason, I didn’t mind sitting in the car with him doing nothing but talk. It wasn’t awkward at all; it was actually kind of… nice. Today had been a very tense and stressful day for me and for the first time, I felt relaxed.
“So your parents don't mind that you're out at this hour?” I asked, after learning that he hadn't been home at all since this morning. After football practice, he and the guys hit up a pool hall in Charlotte and upon arriving back at Roseville, he came to see me.
He shrugged. “They're probably not even home.” Judging by the look on Luke's face, I could tell he wished to say no more about his parents. So I changed the subject to school and he seemed to have lighten up after that. Luke's family owned the ACA Corporation, making them one of the richest families in North Carolina. I also remembered reading from an article a couple of years ago that Luke's mom was the daughter of a late oil tycoon in Texas, and since she was an only child, she inherited all of her father's money. Needless to say, the Archer family was loaded.
We both lost track of time and was surprised to learn that it was already one a.m. I told him to drive carefully on his way home, and his reply, “Unlike you, I'm an excellent driver,” nearly made me roll my eyes. He was never going to let the fact that I almost ran him over go, was he?
Luke didn't leave until he saw me climbing safely through the window. This gesture surprised me and even though I told myself not to read too much into it, I couldn't help but feel all warm and tingly inside. I waved at him once I was back in my room from the window and heard the engine give a quiet purr before taking off.
I was happy to have Luke as my friend. Very, very happy, indeed. That was when I started thinking maybe this popularity thing wasn’t so bad at all.
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Hey, guys. I don't know if anyone is still reading this but I just want to apologize for leaving you guys without an update for so long. Honestly, these past couple of months have been... kind of tough. I won't bore you with the details, but I just want you to know that even though it takes me forever to update (believe me, I want to change that) I haven't abandoned this story : ) So if you're still reading Project Popularity, THANK YOU!!! It means a lot to me and I really appreciate it.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter! And I hope I didn't make too many mistakes:P