I quickly swerve into the empty parking space I saw. “Asshole!” The guy I am competing with for space curses.
“Sorry!” Not sorry. “My bad,” I say waving at him through the window who gives me the middle finger.
Rude much!. It’s not my fault he is driving like a snail.
It’s really hard to get a parking space in my school. Almost everyone in my school has a car and those of us who don’t, have to ride the loud, smelly bus full of freshmen.
Glad I’m out of that league.
I grab my bag and get out of the car; I lock it and look around to see if Steph was in school. I instantly smile when I see her car.
I texted her last night to tell her not to pick me up since she hasn’t been picking my phone calls since the beginning of summer. I figured she would be busy with all the camping stuff.
I swing my backpack over my shoulder and walk into the school building. I go straight to my locker, putting all my books in there before looking around for a certain blonde.
I recognize her almost immediately because of her pink designer bag (her dad is rich) and her pink jacket.
You guessed it, pink is her favorite color.
But she straightened her hair, which is wrong because she never straightens her hair, she always likes to put it in a ponytail or a messy bun.
I see her speaking to Kimi, the Asian girl in my art class, who is a total snub because her dad owns the best Chinese restaurant in town.
Anyway, I call Stephanie twice, but it’s like my Best friend has gone deaf or she is just ignoring me.
“Stephanie!” I try louder this time, which earned me glares from the students walking the hall.
I sigh and walk up to her.
“So he was like, I like your hair,” she says to Kimi as I approached her. “And I was like, no, I like your hair.”
Hair! She’s ignoring me because of hair?!
“Stephanie!” I say, tapping her shoulder.
“What?!” She turns to face me, looking annoyed, while Kimi glares at me.
“Whoa. Chill, it’s just me.” I say once I catch a whiff of her perfume.
Did she bath in perfume today?
And also she looked different, like good different. I’m not gonna lie.
“You look good. Is this what camp does to people?.” I ask, completely forgetting her outburst earlier. “Cause if it is, I’m so going next year.”
“Like you can afford it.” Kimi snickers and Stephanie joins her.
I pretend like I didn’t hear her and continue with Stephanie. “So Hi! how was camp? I heard Will Tucker was the star they brought in this year. Did you show him my lyrics? I bet you did and are you wearing makeup?” I ask, completely shocked as she put her perfectly manicured fingers on my mouth to stop me from babbling again.
“Look, Maria, I’ll see you later okay?” She says taking her hand off my mouth and cleaning it on my cloth “and drool much?” She says before walking away with Kimi.
Okay.....what just happened?
Is it just me or did some alien has abducted Stephanie’s body and shapeshifted into her as the first step of taking over the earth or has my best friend turned it into a psyco biatch over the summer?. Either way, I have to find out.
And Why is she walking with Kimi and talking to the CPK(Cool and Popular Kids)?
Don’t look at me. Stephanie made it up.
She had better ‘see me later’ to clear all this confusion.
----------
“The 3rd world countries are...” I zone out of Mr. Robinson’s class thinking about what happened this morning.
Why would Stephanie hang out with Kimi? had she forgotten what Kimi did to her in 8th grade?
She put itching cream in her gym clothes when she wanted to try out for cheerleading. She has always hated us, and suddenly they are now best friends?
“Miss Colton?” Mr. Robinson jerks me back to class.
“Yes, Sir?” I answer, shifting uncomfortably in my chair.
“What topic am I teaching?” He wants to know.
“Um...” My eyes flicker to the board. “3rd world countries?”
“What about the 3rd world countries?”
“Uh...I wasn’t listening.” I say shyly. I hear laughter at the back, which I ignore.
Mr. Robinson sighs and says, “I know you had a splendid summer and you wish it didn’t end, but please can you pay attention in class?”
Me? Had a great summer?
This man does not know what is he talking about. My summer was boring.
I did nothing fun. My summer routine was to sleep, eat, watch TV, do homework, read and sleep again. And it went like that throughout the summer.
“Yes sir,” I reply taking out my pencil from my bag glancing at the back to see who laughed at me, and shocking enough it was Stephanie. I end up breaking my pencil because of the anger boiling in me.
I turn to the girl next to me and ask her if she has a spare pencil, but she scowls at me.
Well, this is going to be a long day.
----------
At lunch, I am currently spying on Stephanie waiting for her to go to the ladies’ room like she always does every time she finishes her lunch.
I am sitting at our normal table, which is near the trash can. When she came to throw her dirt away, I followed her out of the cafeteria into the ladies’ room.
Stalker much?
Well yes, anything to get my best friend back.
I see her reapplying make-up as I walk in. Since when did she use make-up? Her mum always had this no make-up policy. She thinks a woman’s natural beauty is enough.
“Open doors much?” She asks as the door slams behind me.
“Hi Steph,” I say, ignoring her sass. “What is going on? You haven’t talked to me all day, and you said you’ll see me later.” I explain.
She lets out an enormous sigh, and I get scared; I think she is going to tell me that she is an alien, so I reach into my bag and secure my pepper spray in my hand before she abducts me too.
“Look when people say ‘see you later’ they mean ‘see you never.” She says closing the cap of her lip gloss.
“What happened to you? When did you become...this?” I ask, eyeing her from head to toe.
“Since when Kimi showed me the way to popularity!” She spits. “Look, I know we had our moments, but if hanging out with you means that I have to be at the bottom of the popular chain, then I’m sorry we can’t hang out anymore.”
Okay, this is so wrong. This is not the Stephanie I have been friends with all these years, Stephanie never cared about popularity she has always been kind and selfless except if...
“Are they blackmailing you?”
“What?.” She looks at me like I am crazy.
“Are they threatening you? Cause if they are I can stop them, you don’t have to do what they say.”
“Ugh!” She lets out a frustrated groan. “Don’t you get it, you and I can’t be friends anymore. Kimi has opened my eyes to the world, something you never did. Look, I promise to Cherish all those times spent together, but you gotta let go.”
You know all those cheesy teen fiction movies and books, where two best friends part ways because one decides she wants to be popular and the other one stays a nerdy nobody?. Then the nerdy nobody cries about how she doesn’t want to lose her best friend and you wish you could throw your shoes at her face.
Well, I’ll stop throwing my shoes at the nerdy nobody from now on, because I now know how it feels and I am telling you this first hand it hurts. It hurts real bad.
How can she say that?
After all those years, we’ve been through difficulties. I was there with her when her parents separated, Kimi was just laughing in her face and now she’s thrown all that away because Kimi has now ‘opened her eyes to the world’.
I blink back the tears that are threatening to fall out. I’ll never cry in front of her. I can do that later when I get home, but not here.
“Anyway...” She breathes out as she packs up her make-up kit just as the bell rings signaling the end of lunch. “I’ll see you around.” She says brushing past me.
“And oh!” She stops at the door and I turn to face her. She brings out a book from her bag. My lyrics book. I told her to take it along with her to camp and show Will Tucker.
“Here.” She says shoving it into my hand. “Will said they suck.” And with that, she leaves. Then the waterfalls come out.
Stupid waterfalls.
Hey there! Poor Maria right?.
I can't relate cause I don't have many friends.
Except for you guys of course.
Make me smile and tap on that little star below this page.
Lots of love. Hannah
P.S I want you guys to please check out my other books.
ROAD TO ROCK BOTTOM (I'm currently writing this one)
FAR FROM HOME
SKY IS THE LIMIT
Also, I think I have a thing for writing different books and not completing them. Sorry, I'm just a super lazy person.
I've completed all these books on my jotter but to transfer them in here is what put's me off.
But I promise I'll be hardworking next time.
😘😘