"Dude, I think you dating Zyler caused a lot of people to notice our little group. I can't even tell you half the names of the people that said hi to me and Max today," Savannah says as we walk to history.
"Yeah, I've gotten that a lot since I started talking to him."
"At least it's not negative attention."
"For you," I retort thinking of the daily glares I get from girls.
"Eh, you learn to ignore them. But, this new publicity is sure to get me more votes."
"True that. On your way to becoming a queen."
"Lies. She was born a queen," says Ethan, appearing on her other side.
She kisses his cheek. "And I'll have a fine king by my side."
"Couldn't offer anything else," he shrugs happily.
"Speaking of, do you have your attire for the evening?"
"Yeah, don't worry babe. Me and the guys were gonna pick our suits up today."
This peaks my interest. "Zay too?"
"Yeah, and Max. We're going after school," he replies. That means I'll get to see him in his suit today, as long as I can convince him to let me peek.
"All right, got to go catch you guys later," Ethan says as we get to our class.
They give each other a quick hug and me and Savannah find a spot to sit.
"So, anything exciting happen with the you know who situation?" Savannah asks.
"No, actually. Something did happen though."
I fill her in on the latest, telling her about Dasia being my new bodyguard.
"Wow. At least she's not a crazy killer."
"Yeah don't need anymore of that in my life."
She stops talking and just looks at me, an out of the ordinary thing for her.
"What?"
"Nothing," she says, her tone more downcast. "I just feel really bad for you. You deserve to be happy without having a body guard around you all the time."
"Yeah. I think I can get used to it if it means being able to be with Zay."
She puts get hands on my shoulders and squeezes them gently. "But girl, you're really strong for handling all of this. I know I couldn't.
I smile. "Thanks Sav."
She sighs dramatically. "What are the chances that he'll just forget about all of this and leave?"
"Sadly, I don't think the world ending would make him forget," I say with a defeated smile.
"Welp, there goes that idea."
The teacher calls out to the class and we go through a whole lecture on the medieval time period. I keep myself awake by watching Savannah entertain herself by throwing paper balls at Brady's head. He ignores her, but it's evident how much it bothered him by the way he speeds out of the class as soon as it's over.
"Jeez he acts like I was physically hurting him," Savannah says as we follow him out the door.
"One soul can only put up with so much."
We round the corner and to our dismay see Lola and her group lingering in the middle of the hall.
"Ugh. There's no way we're escaping that is there," Savannah asks as more of a statement.
"Let's hope." We both avoid eye contact and go about our own business, but it's to no avail.
"Savannah, Amber! What a coincidence, we were just talking about you," Lola announces just steps before passing her.
Savannah rolls her eyes and doesn't try to suppress her groan. "And why might that be?"
Lola side smiles at Jenny. "We were just discussing how the Prom voting is turning out. I was suprised you and Zay didnt attempt to win King and Queen," she says to me before addressing Savannah. "And it looks like you're my number one opposing candidate."
"How interesting," Savannah says, though she doesn't even sound half interested.
"Just wanted to applaud you for getting this far. Even though we all know you're going to lose."
She lifts her head a little higher. "Who says I'm going to lose?"
"Well, besides everyone that's voting for me, I'd say the universe itself. You've always been second place to me. Every homecoming, the science fair, even in drama class you were my understudy," she says with unneeded cockiness.
Savannah's smile fades but she continues on strongly. "Considering I didnt put any effort into winning then, what better time to step up my game than now?"
"Please. There's no way you can win now. Especially with that style," Lola says, looking distastefully at Savannah's jeans and yellow blouse.
"At least I don't have to wear heels to be the average human height," Savannah comes back with, targeting Lola's bright red high heels that give her half of her height.
"You're just jealous because you can't afford such high quality footwear."
Savannah raises her eyebrows. "Why would I want to waste my money on clothes and jewelry to get people to like me? I got that down with just my personality," Savannah says.
"And we don't want to waste our time talking to lowlifes like you either, so we'll be on our way," I cut in before she can think of another way to degrade my best friend.
Lola laughs and examines her manicured nails. "Toodles wannabes. Can't hide from the truth."
***
Savannah still looks beat up about the encounter by the time lunch comes around.
"Savvy, you gotta ignore what she said. Its obviously not true," Max says, having heard about what happened.
"But it is true though. I've never won anything, it's always her first place. Every freakin year."
"So? That doesn't mean anything for the here and now. You got this no matter what anyone says to or about you," I say with conviction. "Block out the haters, remember?" I use the line she told me back in elementary when Angelina Garrell said I look like a squirrel and then freshman year when she told me my nose was too big for my face.
She gives a grateful smile and gives me a hug, resting her head on my shoulders. "Thanks, don't know what I'd do without you hyping me up."
"I wouldn't be your best friend if I didn't," I reply hugging her back tightly.
She backs away from our hug and looks around confused. "Hey, where's your boo?" Savannah asks.
"He's talking to a teacher about making up a test in history," I tell her.
She bites her apple. "Why? Doesn't he technically not even have to do anything? He can just fail all his classes if he wanted."
"Why wouldn't he have to? He does if he wants to graduate with us," Max says.
I clear my throat giving Savannah a look. "He doesn't really want to go to college so he's not too worried about graduating," I tell Max covering her slip up.
"C'mon who wouldn't want to throw their blue caps up with this rowdy bunch. And college is a great world. It's what we did all this for."
"Just not for everyone. We can't all be as smart as you my dude," Ethan says.
I look at Roman who is just sitting eating his food quietly. "What about you Roman? You wanna go to college?"
He looks up when all eyes go on him. "Um, yeah I guess."
"You guess? What's that mean? It's yes or no," Savannah says.
"My grades haven't been the best. Don't know if I'd even get accepted anywhere. But the idea of going is nice so yeah."
"Max you could help him out right? You know your stuff," Savannah throws out there.
"Yeah, any day. Except today, we got prom stuff to do."
"Do you have a suit yet?" I ask Roman.
"No. I'll probably end up renting one."
"You should go with them today, see if they have anything you like," I offer.
"That'd be nice, but I actually have a project to work on. I'm way behind, the class has been working on it for a month."
"What's it about?"
"We have to pick a business that affects the world in a positive way and do a presentation on it. We have to visit the place and get a bunch of information and pictures and signatures to show we were there. Basically a bunch of work and I have no idea where to start," he explains.
And idea pops up in my head. "Hey I know! You could do yours about my mom's animal rescue center. It has a positive effect on the world cause we obviously save animals and get them to better homes."
"That's a good idea. What's it called?"
"Pawz Here. But I just call it the Center," I say.
"Cool, thanks. I'll check it out."
I think about my evening and how empty it is. "I'm not doing anything after school. I can take you there and show you around if you're not busy."
He smiles. "Nah I'm not busy. That'll help the process go quicker."
"Great, I get to see my pups. Sav you wanna come?"
She smirks. "Can't, I gotta watch Connor."
The lunch bell rings ending our conversation and the group disperses to go to class. Savannah goes with me halfway. "Who's flirting while they have a boyfriend now?"
"That was not flirting. I'm helping him with his project."
"Mhm. You, hot guy. Alone together. You totally didn't set that up. Wait, you totally did."
"When are you gonna stop trying to ship me with every guy I talk to?" I ask jokingly.
"When you get married and have two children and a cat named Morese."
"Interesting combination. I'm gonna name my cat Morese just for you."
She yells, "Counting on it!" and we split ways.