Behind Enemy Lines

The Confrontation

"What are you doing in here?" a snarky voice screams in my ears.

"What does it look like?" I say as I walk over to my iPod speakers and turn off my music. I wipe my arm over my eyes and forehead in an attempt to remove the cold sweat from my face.

"It looks like you were having a seizure! Did you really think that you could dance?" the girl asks me. I know who it is without even having to turn around. Jessika Mattews, the very reason why I hate Massly High, my high school, so much. She is the very reason why I plug my headphones in everyday whenever I can so that I don't have to hear that whiny little voice of hers that never shuts up! I want to punch her in the face every time that she even breaths! Maybe it's because of her group of fake friends that follow her everywhere and would literally cross a desert for her just so she wouldn't ruin her designer shoes. Or maybe I hate her so much because she's always beating other people down just so she can feel better about herself. I'm not really sure I can give you only one reason as to why I hate her so much. Well, I mean, who could ever give only one reason to ever hate anyone?

"Can I help you, Jessika?" I snap back at her.

"Well, you could get your ugly little butt out of my dance studio," she says while smirking.

"First of all, this isn't your dance studio, it's the school's. It's public property and anyone can use it. Second, was that really the best you could come up with? 'Ugly little butt'? I could come up with worse in my sleep," I tell her.

"Just get out. My girls and I want to use it," Jessika says and she turns around so that her back is to me and she begins whispering to her "followers" about God knows what.

"No," I say.

"No?"

"No," I raise an eyebrow at her in challenge.

Jessika is so shocked at my defiance that she just stands there with her jaw lowered. She blinks a few times before snapping back into reality, "And why not?"

"Because I'm sick of everyone listening to you all the time! You're a spoiled little brat that gets everything she wants, whenever she wants it! Honestly, it's about time that someone stands up to you and tells you how it is. Everyone hates you! Your friends here, they talk about what an awful person you are behind your back! And it's not just them! Everyone does! Let me spell it out for you. No. One. Likes. You," I say. I know that I went too far. I could tell as the words were coming out of my mouth. But she needed to hear them. At least I think that she did.

"Then why did everyone nominate me to be a representative for homecoming this year? Why not a loser like you?" she says with a cold, hard stare.

"Because," I begin. "People will do whatever anyone says, as long as there is a leader, and in this case, that's you. People see you as a leader for some stupid reason. People blindly follow any authority figure they can find because they don't know any better! They would follow a freaking animal if you told them it was in charge! And the sad thing is, most of them would follow without question! That's how people are here. They do whatever you want because they don't know any better! Half of the country hates the president, but they still listen to him because he has a powerful position! I'm not going to rip the crown off of that pretty little head of yours, but I am going to tell you how it is. People don't respect you, they respect your position. Get any idea of the public loving you out of your head, because they don't. It's time you, all of you, face reality. Popularity isn't going to last. And it's not going to matter once you are done with school. You can't put 'I was popular' on a application and expect to get a job based on that! You aren't nearly as important as you think you are! You think that you matter more than the quiet kid who sits in the back of the class? You don't! Welcome to the real world."

All of the girls just stare at me, mouths open and eyes wide. I smirk and gather up my things and place them in my bag.

"You know what?" I say. "You can have the dance studio. The room is so full of snob that I can barely breath."

I stare Jessika straight in the eyes and then storm out.

I get in my car and drive home. I turn my radio volume up in attempts to block out my own thoughts. I have a feeling in my gut that is screaming "What the hell! You can't just yell at someone like that! It doesn't matter who they are!" I feel like that the rest of the drive home. When I finally see my house an automatic feeling of serenity and calm washes over me. My house is my safe place. My protection. I feel at peace at home where there are no populars or bullies or jocks. There's just my parents, my little brother, and I. I go inside and run straight to my room. I throw my bag on my bed and quickly run into the bathroom an take a shower. I wash away everything bad about this day and every day before. I only focus on attempting to stay in tune as I sing some of my favorite songs.

After a few more minutes I finally get out and change into some grey sweat pants and a light blue t-shirt. I grab my backpack and take out my textbooks and begin to work on my homework.

I was reading about the new theories of psychology when my mom knocks on my door and comes in my room. "Hey Sweetie," she says.

"Hi Mom," I respond.

"How was school?" She asks me.

"Ugh. Please don't ask," I groan.

"Um. Okay. What about your workout? Was that fun?" She tries to change the subject to something that she thinks will be better but fails miserably.

"Even worse topic, Mom," I tell her.

"Uh..." I can tell I'm making this hard for her. I can be extremely difficult sometimes. "How come you are working on your homework right now? I mean, don't get me wrong Sweetie. Your grades are excellent, and I'm very glad you are really good about turning everything in on time, and even ahead of time sometimes, but... it's a Friday. Why don't you spend some time with your friends or something?"

"Mom," I say. "Rob is at the lake house this weekend and Sarah is probably off at a party somewhere." Rob and Sarah are my two best friends. All three of us are Juniors this year and we met freshman year and clicked almost instantly.

"Oh, well how about we go out to a movie tonight? That'd be fun, right?" my mom tries.

My automatic teenage response is telling me to retreat and back away yelling "get away!" but when I look in my mom's eyes I can see that she just wants to hang out with me and make me happy. I smile at her and say, "Okay, sure."

"Oh great!" My mom says. She runs downstairs to look up movie titles and ask my brother and dad what they want to see. In the end we all decided to see an action movie about someone, somewhere, that saves the world and, of course, gets the girl. The movie was okay and I could tell that my dad and brother really liked it and my mom was just happy that I spent time with my family. Afterwards we went and got ice cream and laughed at my dad's corny jokes. The drive home was probably my favorite part because we sang to practically every song that came up on the radio.

As soon as we got home I went upstairs and turned on my laptop and watched Netflix and started reading a new book that I had recently gotten.

I fall asleep with the book on my face like some cartoon and wake up at three in the morning when the book finally slides off of my faces and hits the floor with a giant THUD. I gasp from the sudden noise and sit upright in my bed and turn on my light to try and see what made the noise. I figure out that it is my book and groan, turn off my light, and fall back asleep.