The Life of a "Normal" American Teenager

A Bit About Me...

Have you ever been so embarrassed that you felt like curling up into a ball and ceasing to exist for a good sec? Well then you and I are going to get along swimmingly. My goodness how old am I? Swimmingly? You know what? Never mind, on with the story.

 I never wanted to go to school anyway, heck who needs math and to know how to define words. As the thought crosses my mind, my subconscious, my little twerp of a mental voice of reason, tells me, "Well maybe to get a job and be successful dummy." Sometimes I hate reason. I mean seriously, my consciousness can be perfectly content one minute and then be crying and angry at something my subconscious said the next. In my books that just makes subconscious reasoning a jerk sometimes. I mean come on? Tell me I'm wrong.

I guess you could say I'm a bit different from your average normal girl, but what even is an average normal girl? I mean sure girls can act alike and have similar interests but I've never met two girls that were alike in every way, well besides some mean girls from my past, but I think that they should only count as the "excruciatingly painful to be around" exception to the rule. 

I've always been the girl that was more on the tom boy side than the girly girl side. When I was little I always hung around with my brother, who was a little older than me, and we always were outside doing things that might be considered "troublemaker ways". It was a great childhood but then once I got into middle school I felt pressured to I don't even know, act like a regular girl? Does that make any sense? I don't know I guess I didn't notice it that much until junior high and all the girls were dressing up more and wearing makeup. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. But I've always been slow to change and stubborn and I chose not to care about it that much, but it was always one of those things in the back of my mind. Even though now I would consider my choice in clothes decent and feminine enough, I think I've held on to some of that insecurity. Lord knows I'm not perfect.

I've also never really showed how I was truly feeling unless I was with family or really close friends. Otherwise I felt like I always had something to prove, that I was strong and could take care of myself. Let's just say I'm still working on that one.

I'm 17 and well high school is rough. Today I was in gym class with one of my best friends, Lizzy, and we were having some fun because for class all we had to do was jog some laps. All was right as rain until a "small" enemy of mine came to bug the hell out of us. The brat's name was Stefany. I know stereotypical right?! That's what I think too. 

She was such a little twerp sometimes. The crazy thing was that we had actually been friends when we were in elementary school and a bit in middle school too. It wasn't until junior high that she decided that she was too good for me and began to try and be the queen bee of the school and that's exactly what she did. She became the most popular girl in school and when high school rolled around, she became only more popular and insane. She was still nice to me and said hello in the halls through first year and then what I like to call the "incident", happened.

You see, there was this stupid jock that she liked. She was a cheerleader and he was on the football team, see the connection. Yeah she saw it too and she became obsessed with him. Well, one day when I was just minding my own business walking down the hall to my next class he stopped me and put his hand on my waist. I immediately slapped his arm away and was ready to sock him one. He proceeded to try and get closer to me and I proceeded to glare at him and step backwards away from him. He was like "Come on baby, go on a date with me." The look in his eyes made me sick. I scoffed at him. "In your dreams, now if you'd please.." I tried to get around him, but he grabbed my arm tightly and pulled me close to him. 

Now your probably thinking that I screamed or relented right? Well I'm here to tell you that I did none of thee above. I dropped the books I had in my arms and punched him square in the jaw. Little drastic? Well yeah maybe but you didn't see the look he was giving me. One that said I was a piece of meat that he could do what he pleased with.

He grabbed his face in pain and finally let me go and I proceeded to smirk in triumph and walk away to get to my class.

Little did I know that Stefany was watching the ordeal from behind a locker. Instead of it bringing us closer together, because it was obvious that I didn't appreciate his advances, she became bitter towards me. I never fully understood why, but I let it go. I met Lizzy awhile later and we had been best friends ever since. 

Back to the issue at hand. 

Stefany caught up to us and then proceeded to trip me as she passed us by. Now normally I would have crashed and burned since I have horrible coordination, but I saw this coming. I knew her tricks, painfully, too well by this point. This wasn't the first time she had tripped me, by any means, unfortunately. Fortunately, I was able to catch myself and I landed in sort of a plank position with my arms outstretched. I thanked God for the Chloe Ting Ab shred workout challenge I did all of last month. 

I was able to jump back to my feet in one swift movement. Stefany looked back at me and gave me a glare. I'd like to say I didn't glare back at her and that I was the bigger person, but that would be a complete lie so I won't mention it.  

Then he walked up to us. And no, not the pervy jock that I punched in the hall and started this huge Stefany problem. Him. The one guy that made my mind go blank and had me drooling like a dog in blistering summer heat. Ok, so don't get me wrong, I was not a fan of football players and most of the time I would prefer not to associate with any of those pervy jerks, but he was different. He was quarterback on the team, the most talented and valuable player, but he was nothing like the rest of the team. He was kind to everyone and he got high marks in all his classes. He had short curly chestnut brown hair, soft blue eyes, and was a little taller than me. He was simply Nick Avery.

We shared a few classes together and had often talked to each other but never outside of school. He was the main reason why I let Lizzy drag me to all the football games. Don't get me wrong, I liked football and I was actually pretty good at it myself, but ever since the "incident" I never wanted to be around Stefany more than I had to and with her being head cheerleader it made it difficult.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when he spoke up.

"Hey Jo, you ok? I saw what Stefany did." He offered me a concerned frown as his tone stayed soft.

"Yeah, no, of course, all good over here." I smiled and I inwardly smacked my forehead. Stupid.

He grinned back. I could feel my smile widen against myself.

"Ok, well good. I'm gonna get back to running. I'll see you in class tomorrow?" He asked as though he thought I might not be there. I mean like of course I'm going to be there! Why would I miss almost the only class I had with this gorgeous, blue-eyed, muscular boy. I'm not crazy despite what he may have heard.

"Um yep, I should be there." I chuckled lightly. I wanted to slap myself again.

His smile widened and I let out a little huff of relief under my breath. He gave a polite nod to Lizzy and then headed off down the track.

"You're staring." Lizzy piped up.

"Hmm am I, I hadn't noticed." I said dreamily as I stared at his retreating figure. Watching his calves and back flex with each stride. "I've got it bad don't I?" My subconscious mumbled, effectively ruining the moment.

Lizzy let out a laugh and then pulled my arm so that I would start running with her again.

I relented and started jogging again, but not without a mental war starting in my mind about how stupid it was to like a football player, a quarterback no less. "Heaven help me" I thought.