Mia looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a white shirt with yellow stripes tucked in high waist jeans that were highlighting her curves. Bella told her through a text that it was high time she tried an outfit like it. She said it was a subtle way to show off her body. She said it was going to make every single guy's head turn, because this was what guys wanted — a gorgeous physique hidden with a bunch of clothes (it sounded pretty off and confusing — yeah, Mia didn't really understand it either). She said that it would make Mia feel gorgeous. But why did it make her feel utterly ridiculous?
Mia put her hair in a high ponytail, because other than the fact that her hair was getting a little bit more frizzy again, she was hoping to be able to dismiss the thought. She had no plans to welcome negative thoughts about herself today. She brushed her bangs before taking another look in the mirror for the last time.
Inhale. Exhale. Everything is going to be OK. She began convincing herself. Today was another day at school which only meant one thing: it was another day on the battlefield -- another day to fight her way out of the friend zone and Mia was determined to finally make some progress -- even at least by a little bit.
It had been precisely two weeks since Mia planned to confess to Drew that she liked him and had her heart ultimately crushed when he introduced Peggy Smith, a member of their high school's cheerleading team who Mia didn't really care for until that very moment, as his girlfriend.
She could still remember it vividly. It was the first day of senior year — a time when they should hangout and catch up with everything that had happened over the course of their summer vacations, stay around at someone's house and watch a ton of teen flicks together, and hold each other's hands as they skip right off to the sunset. Yeah, OK so maybe that last part was a little sketchy — OK, so maybe too sketchy. But the point was... Mia was angry. And it wasn't just because of what happened that day. It was because of what happened over the course of last week.
She had to spend the whole week seeing Drew and Peggy being lovey dovey with each other. She had to see Drew treating Peggy like how he would treat her. He would buy Peggy a chocolate milk box from the cafeteria like how he used to do for her. He would talk about his favorite movies and TV shows with Peggy like how he used to do for her. He would pat Peggy's frigging perfect mop of frigging blonde hair like how he used to do for her. And worse, he was spending time with Peggy for the whole day and completely not spending any of his time with her. It only took those few days for Mia to realize one thing: she had to get Drew.
Yes, everything that Bella had said was finally getting into her system, making Mia think that getting Drew would just be getting him back as her friend with a tinge of hope that it could be something more. She figured she wasn't necessarily stealing him from another girl, simply because he knew her first to begin with and just to spread some more light on the subject, she believed it was more of rescuing him from the clutches of heartbreaker Peggy Smith who, according to the rumors, had never really stayed committed in any relationship.
And yes, the jealousy was unfortunately getting the best of poor ol' lovesick Mia Cabrera as her views over pursuing Drew quickly changed.
After another day at the breakfast table, Mia answered the door and saw Bella waiting. They walked to the bus stop to head to school like usual. And as they did, Bella noticed Mia's new fiery aura.
"Woah dude, why are you so bright today?" Bella asked, acting as if she was being blinded by the supposed light Mia was emitting around her.
"What do you mean?" Mia turned to her, not changing her serious appearance. Bella stood up straight again then clutched to her backpack straps.
"OK, what exactly is happening right now?" She asked with a puzzled look. She then pointed to Mia's hands that were balled into fists. The intensity was real with this one, Bella thought.
"It's nothing," Mia dismissed.
"OK..." Bella raised her eyebrows, utterly confused. She figured she would ask Mia more about it later in the day when... her fiery aura would be extinguished.
When they got to school, Bella went ahead to her class since she had to prepare for a presentation, leaving Mia to rummage through her books and things in her locker in an irate way. She couldn't get her mind away from the thoughts of Drew and Peggy enjoying their time together, especially with a picture of her and Drew as elementary students taped at the side of her locker. They looked so happy. This made her more determined to get him back. She would even start a war against Peggy Smith if she'd have to just to get the good times back, to get even more good times with him, and to make Drew see her as a woman. She wasn't going to be the idiot clumsy girl he had always known any longer.
Clutching her books tightly to her chest, Mia turned around and walked like some soldier heading to battle. She stared blankly into nothingness. Her brain was just too occupied with Drew and walking.
"Hey Mi—"
And because of it, she did not expect that she would come across the boy of her dreams, himself.
Drew Carlisle who had rested his hands on Mia's shoulders, hoping to surprise his best friend, caused Mia to practically jump from utter shock. This made her drop the books she was holding.
Mia dropped to the ground right away to pick her books up. Drew did the same to help his best friend who was frantically and quickly picking her things up before anyone would carelessly step on them.
"Hey, Mia?" Drew said whilst picking a few of the books up.
No response. It made Drew wonder what was going on. Mia would usually zone out when something was bothering her. Drew then got worried. What if someone was bullying Mia?
Little did the little (or big, rather, since he was pretty tall) dense boy know, Mia was too busy zoning out because of him.
"Mia," Drew said again as he reached out to her hand that had rested on the last book to pick up. Mia looked up at her best friend's green eyes. She was absolutely mesmerized. Her eyes then crept over to her hand which was being touched by Drew. She gulped.
School hallway. Books on the floor. A girl picking up books (her). A boy helping the girl (Drew). Was she dreaming right now or was the scene that usually happened in coming-of-age or teen fiction novels and films actually happening to her in real life?
"Mia," Drew called out again. Mia blinked a few times. She reached out to her arm with her other hand whilst struggling to keep the books away from the floor. She wanted to know if this was a dream or not, because if it was, she wouldn't want to wake up.
"M-Mia?!" Drew gasped as Mia pinched herself. "What the heck was that for? Why'd you just hurt yourself like that?"
Yep, Mia thought as she cringed a little from the pain. This was definitely real.
"N-nothing. It's nothing." Mia picked up the book which Drew's hand and her hand had rested on then speedily took the two other books Drew held.
"You sure?" Drew asked as he stood up once Mia did.
"Y-yeah," Mia stuttered, embarrassed and flushed. She felt like a complete idiot. So much for trying to be a flawless woman in front of him.
"I was just," Mia's brain quickly tried to think of some sort of excuse to get out of the embarrassing situation. She felt like her brain cells were clamoring and panicking as they went through the list of excuses that were recorded in her brain, hoping to get a random one that would suit the situation. Then, suddenly, a light bulb had basically hovered its way over Mia's head.
"I was just trying to wake myself up," Mia said, feeling tense in the midst of what she had felt like was an awkward conversation.
"Oh OK," Drew nodded, accepting the excuse quite quickly. "Well, class doesn't start in fifteen minutes. Want me to get you some hot coco or coffee from the cafeteria? Or at least something to wake you up?"
Although it was something Mia terribly wanted, because she was swallowed up by complete feelings of idiocy and awkwardness, she didn't even think before giving Drew a, "No," and running off to class.
Drew scratched the back of his head as he shouted, "Well, see you in the next class!"
Peggy, the girl Mia had found herself resenting so terribly, walked up to Drew with two juice boxes in hand. "Here's what you asked me for," she told him as she drank hers up and reached out the box to him.
Drew sighed then looked over at the drink.
"What's going on?" Peggy asked him. She could sense that something was troubling him.
"It's Mia," Drew answered as he took the juice box from her hands. "I feel like something's up with her."
And something was definitely up with her.
As she scribbled the solutions of math problems their mathematics teacher had given the class to practice on the new lesson, Mia could still feel the embarrassment from earlier. The day had barely started and she had already felt like she failed.
She groaned silently upon finishing her activity.
No, she thought. She can't give in just yet. She had to look at the bright side. It was just morning. She had plenty of time still to change Drew's views about her within the day. She wasn't going to let her overthinking brain and socially awkward personality win over her again, especially since they weren't doing her any good to upgrade her relationship with Drew for the past couple of years that she had started liking him. If there was one thing that would make her win this war, she knew that it consisted of her stepping out of her comfort zone and showing Drew that she could be just like Peggy Smith.
And unbelievably, she tried to do exactly that.
During recess time, Mia summoned all her courage to walk up to Drew (with a surprised and impressed Bella who was slowly starting to gain insight on the reason behind Mia's aura earlier) and ask if they could eat with him even with Peggy by his side. Before she could actually get to him though, a boy had accidentally tripped over, causing his food to get on her shirt and pants.
Here goes another point to an embarrassing situation.
"You're lucky we have gym class today that you can change in our usual gym clothes," Bella uttered as she waited for Mia to change inside one of the bathroom stalls.
When Mia finished and came out, Bella saw her friend's subtle droopy face.
"I know that gym clothes aren't exactly that type of clothes you want to be in when trying to get out of the friend zone, but you got no choice."
Mia looked up at her friend. "Is it that obvious?" She innocently asked.
"It kinda is for me," Bella said, giving her an honest answer, "but if you're asking me if Drew found it obvious, then my answer is, 'No, I don't think so'."
Mia took a sigh of relief. Bella laughed as she put an arm over Mia's shoulders. "It's kinda difficult to not notice with the sudden change of behavior and although I doubt Drew will, Peggy might. We need to make things more subtle so she doesn't suspect a thing and so," Bella paused, recalling the words Mark had told her, "You should just let Drew realize on his own if he likes Mia or not and not change her totally and get her to flirt with him." Even if her brother was a total ass, she would have to give him credit for her being able to think of something to change her matchmaker ways by just a little bit. That advice could be the greatest game changer -- or so she thought as she completely missed the point of her brother's short lecture.
"You should show Drew that you can be the best in everything. By then, he could fall right for you and realize that you're his one and only," Bella smirked.
"Well, how do I start doing that?"
"You're already wearing the answer," Bella told her. "In gym class, show him what you got."
"What? But I'm not good in sports."
"Peggy is though and we're in the same class as her and Drew by then. You gotta show her and him what you got. It won't be that difficult. Aren't we just going to jog and play dodgeball? You're pretty fast at running and dodging anyway, right?"
Mia gulped, hesitatingly saying, "Y-yeah."
Stretching and warming up in gym class, Mia was so focused on showing Drew what she could do or whatever ability in sports she's got deep inside. You gotta show her and him what you got. Bella's words were etched on her mind as she prepared.
"OK," their gym coach, a strict man with a slightly buff figure in his middle age who looked like he had dropped out of the military to became a high school gym teacher, started as he looked at his watch.
"Stop the warm-ups everyone," he continued. "It's now time to jog around the court. Everyone jog in two straight lines. One for boys and one for girls."
Mia did a few breathing excercises to calm herself down. Bella told her that this was her time to show Drew what she was capable of and how she could be better than Peggy Smith. And boy was Mia determined to accomplish that.
Preparing herself for the jog, Mia tied her shoelaces and combed up a few of her small hair strands away from her face with her fingers. She took one last breath before speeding off like crazy.
Off she went surprising everybody, including Bella who one could say was incredibly proud of her best friend. Whilst she went on jogging slowly, she occasionally looked at Drew who had his mouth ajar while staring at Mia. He has to be incredibly impressed, Bella thought. If this works and makes Drew realize that he actually loves Mia, she would have to give her stifling brother an applause just for this once.
Badump.
Or perhaps not after all.
Failing to dodge the volleyball net that was hung across the court, Mia fell to the ground after her face hit the net, causing her to have a little scar on her right eyelid. Everyone's feelings towards Mia's speedy run had gone from seriously impressed to finding her current situation funny in a minute.
She couldn't feel more humiliated in her entire life.
"Mia!" Drew shouted as he rushed to her side. "You OK?" He asked her as she tried to get up, covering her fresh wound in the process.
"Y-yeah," Mia stuttered. OK, she took it back. She could feel more humiliated than earlier in her entire life, because Drew had most probably seen what had happened. Another embarrassing point for her.
Feeling even more embarrassed from the stares and laughs she earned from those around her, Mia felt her insecurities swallow and beat her up. Well, at least Drew was here for her.
"Hey Drew," Peggy rested her hand on Drew's shoulder. Drew looked at her in the eyes with a melancholy look he used to show to only her. The only thing was was that they seemed to have a stronger connection than how she and Drew had ever had. It hurt her more than how her own wound or fall did and it was horrible to know that the pain that had surpassed all others was something that couldn't be healed by any band-aid or doctor.
"I'm gonna go to the nurse's office and get some ice."
Drew put his hand over Peggy's as he mouthed a, "Thank you."
The moment had reminded Mia of how her hand and Drew's had touched each other while they were picking up books. Of course, he would do it to Peggy too. In fact, they've probably held each other's hands a lot of times. Mia felt like disappearing.
Who was she kidding? There was no way Drew could see her as someone special — as someone other than his idiotic best friend.
"No, it's OK," Mia exclaimed as she stood up, stopping Peggy's footsteps from going any further to the clinic.
"I'll go get it myself," Mia told her as she walked away.
"Mi—" Drew was cut off as Bella who had witnessed everything walked towards him.
"I'll be the one to go follow her," Bella said. Drew nodded, letting the two girls walk their way to the office together.
"It's not that bad," Bella smiled, hoping to boost her best friend's spirits.
Mia looked at her with a stern and disappointed look peppered with a tad bit of embarrassment still as the words, "It's not that bad," hitting her in the chest like a knife horribly, because she knew so well that what had happened was just so terrible. There was no way she could shake away something like that easily.
Mia kept her mouth shut since then and throughout the day until school was finally out. She rushed out of history class together with Bella.
Drew was nowhere in sight again. Mia didn't bother to ask why, because she already figured he would be with Peggy. They're probably going to go on some date and talk about what had happened earlier. Mia shook her head then fixed her bangs, trying to shake the thought away. She sighed. No, Drew would never do something like that, right?
Mia closed her eyes as her mind wandered to the fact that Drew was slowly changing in front of her. It was like she almost didn't know a part of him anymore and it really bugged her. Guess that's just how it is to grow up.
"Hey Mia?"
Mia turned around to Bella who had a trouble look painted across her face.
"I know this might not be a good time, but Zack has just texted me and he really needs me right now. You think you could be all right going home on your own?"
Mia nodded then smiled forcefully. "Sure."
"Thank you! I'll make it up to you. I promise!" Bella shouted out as she ran towards a different direction.
Mia looked at her shoes, sniffling a little. She was trying not to cry. This was probably the worst day ever. She ran her had past her nose and tried to compose herself. Having other people see her cry would just make things worse. Inhaling and exhaling to keep herself calm, Mia walked over to the bus stop that she used to walk over to with her best friends. Used to. She never thought that she would have to use those two words in a sentence that involved her best friends. She hoped that using those words in a sentence that involved her sister would be the last time she would ever have to use them again, but alas, here she was anyway — all alone.
Sitting down at the bench of the bus stop, Mia looked at the sky wondering if this was what it meant to grow up: losing the people she's always loved.