When I came home, I was greeted by the anarchy that is my house when I have my darling cousins over. They seemed to be even louder than usual, and a lot of them hugged me when I walked in the door, then dispersed afterwards. Apparently, Adam got no hug. I went up to my room immediately and started to compose my speech.
--------------
That day in class, I started my speech off. I was still rather popular, and my speech was okay, so I figured that I'd get put in the school contest.
"I did my speech on Superheroes, and why it would stink to have them in real life." I remembered all of the tips for good speech-giving. Stand comfortably, but still, hold eye contact, but look down at notes occasionally, speak clearly, enunciate, and speak at a comfortable pace.
"What always shows up once a superhero gets their powers? Supervillains! The Green Goblin got his powers on the same flipping day as Spiderman! A world without Batman is also a world without the Penguin, the Joker, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, the Riddler and Croc! Though awful, a world without Spiderman would be a world without Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, The Lizard, Venom, and Sandman! I won't even count how many Supervillains would be gone if the Avenger's weren't real. Sure, we have bank-robbers and serial killers, but we don't really need anything worse."
As the speeck progressed, I gott some laughs from the kids that knew what I was talking about, and the "cool kids" sat there, praying that they'd stop looking like idiots when their obviously fake laughs would become real. Even Ms. Cook was laughing.
There were a couple more good ones, and some that I thought were better than mine, yet I still won the competition.
When school got out, I was glad to finally be going home. I pulled my car up next to the sidewalk and opened it for Adam.
"Get in loser, we're going home." I told him.
"A Mean Girls reference?" He said after seating himself in the car. "I wasn't aware that a girl like you would consider watching that." He said teasingly.
"Your sister made me watch it. She threatened to throw all of my books out the window." I didn't take her seriously, because there was a screen on my window and there is no way that she'd know how to take it off. I still humored her.
"Well, yeah. But I thought you didn't watch anything but The Avengers and X-men."
"If you so desire, I can gain the inclination to kick you out of this car. Do you understand?" I then gained the understanding that sometimes, my sentences make no sense. I needed to do that more often (make confusing sentences, not gain the understanding of it).
When I got home, my entire body ached with fatigue, and all I wanted to do was do my homework and then go to sleep. Alas, at the moment that I opened my textbook, I got a text from Philip.
Though distracting, and awakening, I couldn't help but to smile at the phone.
No. I told myself. Homework. After an hour of anguish, I finally compiled enough of an attention span to complete my homework. Yaaay, Evelyn.
I sat myself in my desk chair and began to write, this time, it only took me about a half hour. Though, I reworte it so many times that it ended up taking closer to three hours. I started to regret going undercover. I started to regret everything that had happened since I became Evie.
Where did that name even come from, anyway? It doesn't even sound all that cool. Enough. I thought.
Instead of setting my aggravation, anguish, and annoyance aside, I instead harness it to rewrite my speech for the umpteenth time. I was most definitely going to lose some sleep tonight.
-----------------------------------------------------
That night, I could NOT fall asleep. There was way too much on my mind. The main thing running around in my cranium was Phil.
I was stilled confused as to whether or not I loved him. I knew I liked him. I knew I liked him a lot. I liked him more than I had ever liked anyone else. But was it love? I had never been in love with anyone before. I had no clue what it felt like. Granted, I was feeling something I hadn't felt before, but for some reason, I was under the impression that when I fell in love, I'd know. But I don't know.
When I think about Phil, my heart swells up, I feel light-headed, and I just start smiling. But is that love, or infatuation?
These questions relayed in my head until I finally dipped my head under the waters of conciousness.
-------------------------
The speech contest was first period. Phil and I were the only ones on Newspaper that were giving a speech. I listened to the speeches, all of them perfectly crafted. There wasn't a word out of place, not a syllable to not succumb to the rhythm. The other speeches were a brilliant combination of heart-wrenching narratives and informative expository pieces. Every sentence was drenched with emotion, and my mind was in the splash zone.
I couldn't possibly fathom the reason I was there. My superhero speech was absolute crap next to this pure poetry. My irritability shot straight up once I realized that not a single one of these descendants of Shakespeare were on Newspaper. I just hoped that I could recruit at least one of them. The speech contest was only for Sophomores.
When it was my turn, I drew out a long exhale. When I stepped to the stage, I got a reassuring nod from Ms. Cook before saying my first word.
"So, I'd like to start this off by introducing myself. Hi, my name is Evelyn Parks. Most of you know me as Evie, which I regret to inform you is not knowing me at all. I'm not Evie. I know you were expecting a crappy speech about superheroes, but I hope you'll forgive me if I veer off-course a little bit.
" I'm not charming, friendly, or even particularly nice. I'm just not. I know a lot of you are thinking 'you were, it was your face, I saw you.' Those people are the sane ones. If you weren't thinking that, well, now you know where you stand. I guess you all deserve an explanation, for why I'm telling you not to call me the thing I've been called for the past however-many months. Why I'm telling you why I'm not her."
I took a deep breath and stared at the back wall.
"A few months ago, I was assigned to do an article on High School Popularity. I was supposed to show how it works, how you get it, how you keep it. Well, in order to get it, all I did was put on some makeup and skinny jeans. People noticed me then, and I noticed how nice all of you were. I assumed that since you had never given me a second glance before I changed, you were snobby. But then I put back on my cruddy old jeans, and took off the makeup I couldn't stand wearing."
I looked back at the audience, and tried to sustain my light smile.
" I was still popular. It didn't add up. I figured, there are three possibilities. One, you were all so terrified of my ugliness when I took off the eyeshadow, you acted the same to avoid my alien probing. Two, I'm pretty freaking awesome and I just showed you all my awesomeness when I was trying, and I didn't have to stop trying in order for you to all worship the ground I walked on. Three, popularity is simply being known, and liked. It doesn't mean having a million friends around you. I have my own group of people who love me. They love me even though I'm not charming, friendly, or nice. They love because I'm not all those things. I wouldn't have it any other way.
"Thank you for allowing me to ramble for all this time, and I'm sorry I lied to you. I truly am, from the bottom of my heart."
I got up, walked off stage, and back stage. I heard an applause. Why were they applauding me? The writing was atrocious, and I essentially just told them I was a liar, and walked off. Yup, I'd applaud that.
Phillip walked up to me, and I threw my arms around his neck and borrowed his strength. My heart pumped a little bit harder when he put one hand around me, and the other on the small of my back. I placed my head on his shoulder, and placed my forehead to his neck.
I didn't stay that way for very long though, because we then had to return to class. I of course, had the last speech.
---------------------
When that otherwise uneventful day was over, we, the Newspaper crew, had decided to meet at McDonald's and have a little celebration. I didn't know what we were celebrating exactly, Phil, nor I had won the speech contest. We celebrated each other, I guess. We celebrated our successes, and our failures. We celebrated ourselves, and we celebrated being together. We were a running piece of machinery. Each one of us played a part in the big ship. If one of us were to go down, the whole ship would go down. That's just how we worked. Every ship needs a Jonathan, and a Philip; it needs an Emma, a Sierra, a Katie, a Ryan, a Sasha. Heck, it even needs an Evelyn. In the grand scheme of things, we're just one ship. There's a whole plethora of ships out there that could easily destroy the Earth and bring their inhabitants to a different planet, but instead, they harmonize with the other ships and combine to upgrade. In order to keep a union with the rest of the world, we have to interact with those other ships. I guess, all in all, that's what I learned when I went Undercover.