Do I love her

Chapter 5

      Even with the waffle morning, I had a pretty good day. For a school day anyway. I walk into school next to Chase talking about super heroes, when we get blind sided by the popular girls. Wow, I'm realizing how stereotypical that sounds, but literally it's in my friends ask.fm. They literally call themselves that so... Don't point fingers at me. They consist of four girls and a migraine every time I even think, about them. That may sound harsh but, so is how they treat some of the people in my school. Chase and I being huge nerds, call them the Rogues, after the super villains in DC comics of course. Yeah, we're that lame. The lead girl wears so much make up we call her the Joker. She even has the same amount of grandmother-styled lipstick smeared all over her lips. She has perfect hair I must admit, and flawless skin. But she could be pretty if she layed off the powder. And got foundation that was actually her skin tone, and blended properly. I almost bought her a beauty blender for Christmas last year, but I figured that wouldn't go anywhere good. Last thing you want to do is insult her.

     Anyway, she slides right in front of us as I say,
"He can manipulate his molecules to pass through walls-are you kidding me?!" A sly smirk on her face she says,

      "Hey Stephanie, are your glasses real?" I have those really big glasses that look like 3-D glasses with fake lenses. But I swear, they're real.
"Yeah, unlike your nails, my glasses are genuine." She pretends to look offended.
"Damn Steph. Such fire. What'd I do to get roasted like that?" She asks all innocently. Girl, please.
     "Yeah," says her friend with fiery red hair. Chase and I call her Poison Ivy. One cause of her hair color, two cause she spreads rumor like poison ivy spreads lumps on your skin.
     "All she did is ask a question..." Her voice dripped with sympathy for her friend. I rolled my eyes.
"Well... You did steal my skate board.., copy off my homework every day.., push me into a trash can.., steal my bag of gym clothes and attempt to throw it away-which my ability to be athletic intercepted your gameplan-"
     "Whoa enough of the sport talk." She says. I wanted to say that she plays on a softball team so she should be game with sports talk but I choose not to. We pass the math class room for juniors,
     "I'm sorry Steph, but I gotta go to class." Chase says in my ear. I shrug.
     "I can handle the rogues." He smiles and does a u-turn, then shuffles into the math class. I continue walking with the posse of princess peaches.
     "Wow, your boyfriend's actually pretty hot. Shame he's such a nerd." This is the third girl talking, one with blonde hair in low pigtails. She reminds me, in a more innocent makeup vlogger kind of way, of Brittany Spears. 
     "Don't you have a class to get to?" I say as I near my first period class.
     "Nope, we ditch every first period!" I should have known. I start rambling now,
     "Well, I should go to class. And you guys should go to the bathroom and fix your hair or something."
      "what's wrong with my hair?!" Joker aka Violet McCalvin squeaks with genuine fear. I shrug.
     "No idea about your hair. Looks like it always does." And with that I walk into homeroom in B115.
***

     My lunch was cold, as usual. I get school lunch as well as bring a sandwich everyday. I have a job at the cafeteria every Tuesday and Wednesday during free period as the, well, dumpster girl so I can pay for my lunch everyday. It sucks to have to do extra dishes, extra mopping, sweeping, and extra garbage duty, but at least I can count on food everyday without having to worry about having cash or checks like everyone else. I've somehow  become friends with the lunch ladies, so they've allowed me to do that as long as I keep it under my metaphorical hat.

     "Hey!" Chase says sitting down across from me. I look up from my ironically cold chili.
      "Hey!" I say.
     "So guess what I did in science!" He says.
      "What?" I ask, crunching on a chip after dipping it in chili.
     "I brought up the Flash and Mrs. Benson was all for my hypothesis on how Barry Allen's velocity is altered as he runs up walls and upside down and all." I laugh.
     "That's great!"
      "I know right!" He takes a bite from his ham and cheese.
     "So how is track practice going?" He asks.
     "Oh, just fantastic." I say sarcastically. "My charming team captain had ordered me, just me, to run a lap around the track JUST to show another player how your supposed to run it." I take an angry bite of my sandwich. Ew, it's blueberry jelly. I try not to spit it out in front of Chase cause he'd never let it go. "She didn't even let me have a water break after running two one mile laps in a row."

     "Wow. That's a bull." he says. "But technically, if she was using you as an example, isn't that a compliment?"
     "Well yeah, but I mean, I wasn't allowed to get a drink after all that. And she just sorta said 'Stephanie, go run another lap.' Then when I asked why she said 'because THIS girl was walking and I need someone who doesn't need a water break to run another lap. So since you like to show off all the time (which I don't, I just actually try at practice), and cause I don't feel like it, go run the lap.' So I ran the lap." Chase shakes his head.

     "One day, you'll show Mitchell that you are more important than she gives you credit for." I smile.
     "Thanks Chase! It's good to have a friend like you around." I wonder if that's a little too cheesy to say face to face but Chase just leans back in his chair really casually and says,
     "I am, pretty, amazing aren't I?" I laugh a little too hard as he tries to steal my hat and nearly falls off the chair.
     "I'm gonna clear my try, be back ina flash." I say once we both recover. Chase nods and pulls out his phone.
When I come back he shoves it in his back pocket and smiles at me. I can tell by the way he bounces in his chair slightly, he's got good news.
     "Guess what!" He says, he's like a puppy that found a sock and is like 'look at me, I found a sock!' I sit down.
     "What?" I ask.
     "I made it on the Franklin High's Varsity team!" I smile. Our school is called Franklin Public High School or FPHS after Benjamin Franklin.
      "That's great!" I say. As nerdy and geeky as Chase is, he's a great basketball player. He can shoot a three pointer backwards. You heard me. Backwards.
      "Well your a great athlete! Do you know anyone else on the team?" I ask. He pulls out his phone, a blue iPhone with a batman case, and scrolls.
"Well obviously Zac...um..." he continues to scroll down the list. "Nike..., Christiano..., Dominic, Tim..., and a few other people." I nod. Okay, so Zac aka Zac-da-Flash because he so fast, is Chase's best friend. They are brothers from other mothers. Nike's real name is Nick but everyone calls him Nike for his love of sports and cause that's all he wears. Plus, his slogan is "Just do it". Sadly, sometimes, he referring to a person. But as long as I'm not his end field, he's a nice enough guy. Chritiano is a popular kid, but popular because he's nice and always upbeat. He has also been awarded class clown consecutively since fifth grade when he suggested that the band director duct type his saxophone to his hands so he'd stop dropping it. Dominic. hmm... well. I don't know very much about him. He's a quiet Straight A student (unlike me) and always gets his work done. Tim is that popular kid that everyone loves. He is what all the popular girls talk about. I don't care though, because he's a world-class jerk to anyone who isn't "popular" like him. And he's more than just a basketball and football player.
He's had to have had four girlfriends, and it's only October. I am right about to say something to Chase when the bell rings.

     "See ya in world history." he says to me.
"Um, yeah, see ya." I say distracted as he walks away to go catch up with Zac. Zac's actually kind of cute, well, as cute as he could be cause of the whole "he's my best friend's best friends and we only are really around each other when he's around" thing. He's got these really pretty blue eyes so, you can't really blame me for seeing something in him. But he has a girlfriend, so I never really mention it, though I think Chase has caught on. He doesn't really seem to like us talking together alone for some reason. But I stack my stuff and head out, already lost in thought about something.
***
I'm sitting scribbling down algebraic expressions in math when another flash back hits me out of no where.