☆Jake☆
Lia texted me again during class.
Her text went something like "you seemed distracted today, come over to my house to hang out"
Haha, no.
Hanging out with someone means something entirely different to Lia. It means, "Watch me do my make-up for three billion years, then make out with me"
I'd prefer to take a dive off a cliff, thank you very much. I'm not sure you've noticed, but I have zero say in this relationship.
Now, of course, Lia is right. I'm distracted. Very distracted. By what you may ask?
Hailey.
I'm perplexed to be completely honest. I went to school today wishing it was a Saturday morning. Now I'm weirdly excited to go to school tomorrow. I haven't felt like this since the sixth-grade talent show, and let's just say the aftermath of that whole situation was not pretty.
Point is, I'm almost one hundred per cent sure I'm losing my mind. Just having short and pointless interactions with her is giving me this incredibly strange feeling of overwhelming happiness.
The other strange thing about this is that I've never felt this with anyone else. Not my family, not my friends, not Lia. None of them even come close. Yet, this random person I met a week ago is making me feel undeniably ecstatic.
I should really consider some sort of therapy.
I saw her a few times today. The first was in homeroom. We had a brief interaction where she just talked about Pinterest and quoted a few things. The second was passing period. She was struggling to open her locker, and I thought about helping her, but Kaycee beat me to it.
I used to have a huge crush on Kaycee, and everyone knew. Henry, Liam, and Aaron especially liked to tease me about it. We had gone to the same middle school, and she'd always been kind to me, even after the talent show fiasco.
She is undeniably pretty. She has long white hair and baby-blue eyes. She's on the student council and is perfect in possibly every single way. She's only sixteen, and she's already starred in a few commercials and done some modelling gigs.
Well, I do that, but it's to make money. She does it for fun.
I watched as Kaycee walked over and introduced herself to Hailey. She readjusted her lock and managed to throw open the locker door open in just a few seconds.
I didn't really get to see what happened next, because Lia came up behind me and started baby-talking me.
Ew.
Please, if you're going to do that, try to do it in private. Not in the middle of a school hallway. I apologize to everyone within a fifty-foot range of us.
I saw Hailey again about thirty minutes later. She was eating an apple when a sophomore nailed her in the head with a soccer ball. Nobody seemed to notice besides her stepbrother, the sophomore, and a senior I've seen volunteering in the computer lab after school.
I thought about getting up, and walking over, but Zoey was in the middle of telling a "funny story" about how she accidentally bought four pairs of shoes instead of two.
Hilarious.
Zoey is Lia's incredibly irritating best friend. She's rich, blonde, and a complete bitch. She treats everyone like crap, even her friends. She's especially harsh to Lia. Lia is supposed to be her best friend, but she shares all of her secrets, purposely excludes her, tells her she's ugly and calls her a bitch.
Lia doesn't deserve her treatment, but she still sticks around. I've tried talking to Lia about it, but she just says, "that's the way she is" and switches topics.
The sad thing is, I know exactly how that feels. I have friends who treat me like crap, and I'm stuck in my situation. Maybe she's stuck in hers.
Although Lia may be selfish and stuck-up, I feel bad for just leaving her. I don't to be another person she loses. She also told me about how everyone else she's loved has abandoned her, and I just feel so guilty. Maybe I should try harder to be nice.
I'm stuck in this place where I hate Lia, but I also care about her. I don't want her sad. It makes me sad.
I didn't see Hailey for almost the entirety of the day. She was absent from science and didn't show up for P.E. or chemistry. However, I didn't find out about her whereabouts until near the end of the day, when I stumbled into the office.
Originally, I had been heading there because Mrs Rapala had told me I was being "disrespectful" and "not getting my work done" even though I had already finished everything, and was working on my notes for another class.
That woman drives me insane sometimes.
Anyway, I had told her I was working on something for another class, and then she got mad at me, and told me I was "talking back to her". Excuse me ma'am, but last time I checked, that's how a conversation works.
She told me to go to the office, so that's where I headed.
When I walked in, I went up to the counter to check myself in for my "bad behaviour". The secretary didn't even look up at me.
"What did you do this time Jake?"
I scoffed and crossed my arms.
"Nothing! I swear the woman hates me for no reason."
The secretary does lift her eyes from her screen and removes her glasses. She polishes them on her shirt and closes her eyes. She lets out a sigh. After all these years, I still have no clue what her name is. I just call her "The Secretary".
"Jake" Her eyes flash open. "Please try to be respectful. She's your teacher. She doesn't hate you."
I have to stop myself from rolling my eyes and walking straight out of there. She's clearly never been in Mrs Rapala's classroom.
"And I'm her student. She should respect me, and for your information, she DOES hate me."
The secretary crosses her legs and turns back to her computer. She begins typing something and eventually breaks the silence.
"Go sit in the other room. I'm calling your parents to come to pick you up."
"Oh no. Better go sit down."
I quickly turn from her, hiding my smile. There's only about an hour left of school, but I am so excited to go home. I've really never stood how going home could be a punishment.
Whenever the school calls my mom, she picks me up and lectures me for about two minutes, then gives up. I've been called to be picked up more times than I can count. The first few times, she grounded me, but I think she's just given up at this point.
However, when I round the corner, I almost jump out of my skin.
Hailey's sitting in one of the crappy blue chairs and has her legs crossed in the seat. She's chewing one of her nails, and from what I can tell, typing something.
She doesn't notice me for a moment until I take a seat in one of the seats beside her.
She snaps out of her thoughts and turns to look at me. I see recognition cloud her face after a few awkward seconds. She turns off the screen, and unzips her bag, shoving the phone in one of the pockets.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
I cross my arms.
"Wow. Aren't you talented at warm welcomes?"
She rolls her eyes, and mirrors my actions, crossing her arms across her chest and frowning.
"In case you hadn't noticed, I'm in pain. Someone nailed me in the head with a soccer ball earlier."
I chuckle and she glares at me.
"I know. I saw it happen."
"It's not funny," she says lightly flicking my arm.
"Goodness me, you're right. It wasn't funny, it was hilarious." I reply back, grinning at her irritated expression.
"Excuse you."
I notice a small purple bruise on her face, and it takes everything in me to not reach over and touch her cheek.
I think she notices me staring, and she quickly turns away from me, covering the bruise with her hand.
"I'm going to have to drown my face in concealer tomorrow. It looks like someone threw a chair at my face."
"It really does. You probably shouldn't even come to school tomorrow, or ever for that matter" I respond back. I'm kidding. I would probably cry if she never came back. I hope she can tell it's a joke.
Luckily, she seems to reciprocate my humor.
"That would make the two of us then. I didn't even go to most of the classes, but the ones I attended majorly sucked."
She's rubbing her hand against the sole of her converse. They're white. I can see the bottom is still covered in a small bit of mud. She seems to be picking the clods of dirt out.
"Those shoes are white. I doubt you'll be getting any stains or mud out of them."
Hailey turns back to me, and I can see that she's smiling now. It's the first time I've seen it, and damn it's pretty.
"I don't expect to, I just want to try. It's better to try failing than never try at all."
I snort.
"Okay, princess. How many Pinterest quotes have you been reading?
She sighs jokingly. "Far too many. I have an entire collection saved. That's what I was reading on my phone when you came in."
"You were typing"
"Yeah, I was also texting my moody-ass brother. he's been complaining non-stop about everything for the past six hours." She unzips her backpack again and grabs her phone from inside.
For the next thirty minutes, We scroll through her texts, and I can honestly never say I've laughed harder in my life. She told me about her best friend and showed me some of her Instagram DM's.
We went through old memes and looked up people we knew on social media. I filled Hailey in on all the tea and drama at our school, and she filled me in on the tea and drama at her old school.
It was probably one of the funniest and most enjoyable moments of my life. I'm not even exaggerating.
By the time my mom came to pick me up, we were both on the floor suffocating. I was really disappointed, and I made sure to say goodbye to Hailey before I left. She seemed a bit disappointed as well and waved goodbye to me.
The car ride home wasn't bad. My mom just told me to try to be more respectful, but gave up not even thirty seconds later. She then asked me what I wanted for lunch.
By the time I got home, my mom had begun making lunch, and I went upstairs to my room. I locked the door and plopped down at my desk.
I was going to do something I hadn't dared to do for the past four years.
I was going to write a song.
.