Weren't Monday's just portaled from hell for the suffering of all human kind. Alanna was pretty sure nobody liked Mondays and she was at the top of that list. But it wasn't like she could avoid it so here she was in class waiting for the first class to start. She still felt tired from the activities of the weekend having not slept off all that exhaustion. She needed sleep but that would have to wait until the end of the day.
Ryan hadn't arrived yet which was a plus for her because she didn't think she could handle his enthusiasm that early in the morning. She opened her desk to get her book out for the first class of the day and realized it wasn't in there.She got up and walked to the back of the class to look for it in her locker. Luckily enough it was sitting at the top of the pile so she grabbed it and closed her locker revealing a face that had been waiting behind it.
It was none other than Helen, her sworn enemy since forever. Remember the girl who added laxative to Alanna's food, yes it was Helen. Alanna had gotten her back though with the glue and itchy powder. They definitely stayed out of each others way since then but they always exchanged evil glares whenever they passed each other.
Alanna decided to be the bigger person and apologize so she could get out of this awkward situation.
"Sorry I didn't see you there." Alanna apologized.
"It's okay. I actually wanted to talk to you." Helen replied leaning against the lockers looking like she wanted to start a casual conversation. Alanna knew otherwise though. Helen was bad news.
Alanna became confused as to why she wanted to talk to her. Helen was one of those people you always steered clear off. She was a rich snobby girl who thought the world revolved around her.She had the tall and thin model body everyone seemed to want with long black hair and a beautiful round face.
She was the stereotypical mean girl found in every high school and she definitely played her role well. She bullied everyone she deemed beneath her and even had her own group of friends who followed her around like lost puppies.
"I have nothing to say to you." Alanna replied not in the mood to get into a fight this early with her.
"It'll only take a second and besides it's nothing bad. We're already over our little feud." Helen replied.
Alanna mentally rolled her eyes, theirs was definitely not a small feud. They had almost gotten expelled were it not for their agreement to bury the hatchet. The deal was that both of them would never do any physical or psychological harm to each other as long as they both studied in the same school. They had both agreed seeing as they both loved studying there but theirs had not been a small feud. Alanna agreed though just to get this over and done with.
She knew there was no way to escape talking to Helen. As much as she didn't want to talk to her, the faster she agreed to listen the faster the awkward situation would end.
"Okay fine what do you want?" Alanna asked with a tired and bored sigh, she really wasn't looking forward to this.
"Well I recently noticed that you and Ryan have become super close."Helen started.
Alanna wouldn't deny it because it was pretty obvious. Everyone with eyes had definitely noticed the two getting closer over the past few weeks with him becoming her new desk mate and her joining his circle of friends.
"Yeah so what?" Alanna asked still confused.
"Okay this is going to sound very weird." Helen said twirling a piece of her hair in her finger.
"This whole conversation is weird so just get over with it." Alanna demanded knowing the more time she spent talking to her the more she'd get mad and risk hurting Helen.
She didn't want to stop studying here because she lost her temper with Helen's sorry excuse of a human being.
"You don't have to be so mean." Helen replied with an eye roll and that was the end of Alanna's patience.
She made a move as if to walk away but Helen seemed to have anticipated that and moved in front of her to block her path. Alanna took a deep breath to calm herself knowing she was seconds away from going through the twig bodied girl. She knew everyone who was already in class was giving them sideways glances waiting for a fight to start so she took a step back. She didn't need witnesses to her crime.
"Look I'm sorry, I know we've had our differences but I just wanted you to link me up with Ryan. I like him." Helen said quickly.
That statement was enough to keep Alanna rooted on the spot. She was not expecting that to come out of Helens mouth. Helen wanted Alanna to link her up with Ryan? How absurd? That was a totally ridiculous request.
"Do I look like a dating app to you?" Alanna asked in shock.
"Of course not."Helen sputtered. "It's just that Ryan always seems to avoid me when I talk to him and his other friends don't really like me." She explained.
"I wonder why?" Alanna asked thinking out loud.
"So you thought you'd come to me, why?" She asked.
"I don't know okay. You're my last resort. I really like him." Helen replied softly and for the first time Alanna saw her for more than the mean girl she was.
She was so desperate to get close to the guy she liked that when everything else failed she turned to her worst enemy. That definitely spoke volumes about her feelings towards Ryan.
Alanna wasn't exactly sure what to do. She'd just recently admitted to her sister that she'd started developing feelings towards Ryan and here was Helen asking her to introduce the two as she had feelings for him. She felt a pang of jealousy hit her chest out of nowhere. She wasn't jealous of Helen because she knew a lot of girls were into Ryan because of his looks and charming personality. She was jealous because she knew in a way she never stood a chance against any of those girls. They were all skinny and beautiful while she was round and average. Liz didn't like her talking about herself like that but sometimes you just couldn't deny the truth.
"I'm sorry but I don't think there is a way for me to help you." Alanna replied honestly.
"I know that. Look, just make sure to give him this slip of paper with my number on it. He most likely won't text me but I'll keep my fingers crossed." Helen said stretching her hand out give Alanna the slip of paper.
Alanna considered it for a few seconds and deciding that there was nothing to lose in giving Ryan the piece of paper she took it from Helen.
"Me helping you doesn't change anything. I still don't like you." Alanna said to Helen.
"Ditto." She replied and walked away.
"A thank you would have been nice." Alanna yelled at her.
"Whatever." Helen yelled back and Alanna couldn't help but chuckle.
Who knew that Helen of all people would ever come to need her help. What was the world coming to? With a shake of her head in disbelief Alanna walked back to her desk and sat down. She opened the piece of paper she was holding and it had a phone number written on it in stylish italics with Helens name on it. It also said call me 😉😘 and then she drew a winky and kissy face after it.
Helen was definitely crushing hard on Ryan. Alanna didn't blame her though because Ryan had all the good qualities you could wish for in a guy. He was good looking, athletic, kind, funny and with a big heart. Alanna just didn't know if giving Ryan Helens number would be the right thing to do. Alanna knew she liked him so what if he actually called Helen and they started dating. It would be too much for her watching the two date. But she had already told Helen she'd give him the paper and one thing Alanna was not, was a liar so she would have to give him the piece of paper. She would leave all the hard decisions to Ryan because after all it was his choice on who he dated.
Alanna was feeling even more tired now after her encounter with Helen. She had been physically tired but now she was mentally tired from all the thinking she was doing. She tossed the paper into her desk between one of her books and decided she'd give it to him later. For now she definitely wanted to forget about its existence and just get through the day without dozing off in all the classes.
Ryan came in class a few minutes later and sat next to her on his chair.
"Good morning sunshine." He greeted in his usual chipper tone.
Alanna had normalized replying to his greeting but she was too tired at the moment so she just grumbled out a inaudible reply.
"Someone's glum this morning and looking very tired. Did you sleep outside or what?" Ryan asked.
"Shhh." Alanna replied and closed her eyes hoping to catch a few minutes of sleep before class started.
"Don't shush me...." Ryan replied and whatever he was going to say next was cut off by the first bell.
Alanna sat up straight grumpily, so much for catching a few minutes of sleep.
"But seriously why are you so tired. You had the whole of yesterday to rest from Saturdays activities."Ryan asked concerned.
"I spent the whole day hanging out with Liz and half the night texting her after she left thus me tired and grumpy this morning." Alanna explained owing him an explanation but feeling even more tired after saying all those words. It's as if the talking itself was tiring her.
"I'm sorry about that but you can rest during break time. For now you really have to try and stay awake for classes." Ryan informed her and all she could do was nod in agreement.
Alanna felt like she had to hold up her eyelids open with matches like Mr. Bean to stay awake. It got worse when the first lesson of the day was history, talk about a sleeping pill plus. Alanna was in for a big fight with herself.
After much struggle and forever later it was finally lunch time. The class cleared out but Alanna didn't make a move to leave the class neither did Ryan. She opened her desk and took out her lunch bag which contained hers and Ryans lunch and put it on his desk. It had become a routine now for her to make lunch for the both of them because otherwise Ryan ended up eating all her food and she didn't like that.
She then grabbed his hoodie that was hanging at the black of his chair and spread it out on top of her desk and lay her head on it. It smelled like him and she liked his smell so it was easy to drift off.
It wasn't long after that she felt someone poking her face.
"Ryan quit it." She demanded in a whisper and he stopped.
"How do you know it's me?" He asked.
"Because only you have the audacity to wake a sleeping lion." She replied.
"More like lioness but you have to wake up and eat something. I already texted the others telling them we wouldn't be joining them for lunch today. " He answered.
"I don't want to and you can join them just let me sleep. We get an hour for lunch and I intend to sleep through it all. " Alanna replied with her eyes still closed.
"As cute as you look sleeping you really need to eat. Just take five minutes out of that one hour and have a quick bite." Ryan requested.
"You'll keep asking until I say yes right." Alanna asked.
"You know me too well." Ryan replied and Alanna could tell he was smiling from the tone of his voice.
Having no other choice and knowing Ryan wouldn't give up Alanna sat up and grabbed her portion of the food and dug in. She'd been too tired to make anything extravagant that morning so she'd just made some chips (fries) with wet fried chicken for their lunch. It was an easy meal because the hardest she had to do was peel the potatoes and the rest only took about twenty minutes.
"This is really amazing, thank you." Ryan said in between bites.
"You're welcome." Alanna replied.
After a few minutes Alanna was done with her food. She wiped her fingers and face with some wet wipes before returning to her previous position and drifted off to sleep. She was too tired to care what Ryan did after she dozed.
He woke her up when the bell rang and she was feeling better after her nap so the afternoon classes were easier than the morning ones. No matter how tired Alanna was the note in her desk kept nagging her but she decided to put it off until she figured a way to give it to Ryan. She could just just slip it in his desk but Helen would probably have already tried that. She had to give it to him personally but only when she found the perfect time. For now she pushed it to the back if her mind and concentrated on her lessons.
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I know the mean girl persona is kind of cliche but what is a high school story without that one. She had to come in at some point 🙈🙈. And isn't Ryan just the cutest caring for Alanna like that 🥺🥺.
Anyway that was an intense one and I hope you enjoyed it.
Stay safe. As always. I Love You 3000.