Bad Girl Boot Camp

Prologue

Setting: Woodgate High- 2010

Picture this: You're sitting in second period, Freshman English class, playing with your phone. You're bored out of your skull because none of your friends have arrived. You hear the worn, faded-blue classroom door slam and look up from temple run long enough to see a girl with oversized clothes and a mousey brown bob maneuver through the seven large 'I'm pretending to be wood but I'm plastic' tables. Your eyes lazily follow her as you try to put a name to her broken out, slightly chubby face; El or Elise or something.

She sits down on the hard bright orange chair that's wedged in the back corner and is farthest from the front. You watch as she silently takes out her binder and scans the bell-work Mrs. Stevens has graciously left for you in neon pink marker. "Should you ever change for someone? No matter the circumstances," the words shout.

You halfheartedly think that you should find some paper and answer it but your best friend Jake appears. Students file in, the classroom suddenly filled with gossip and endless chattering. You forget about the girl in the corner until the teacher asks for opinions directed toward the statement on the board.

Opinions are thrown back and froth but I can tell from most people's faces that they're only answering to keep the teacher from starting the actual lesson.

"I think that, if you, like, loved somebody enough and would, like, do anything for them that you should change for them, like, if they wanted you to," Laura, a blond from your first period, suggests.

"No!" a voice shouts from the back of the class.

You're surprised to find the girl from earlier half standing from her seat. Her hands are flat on the table by her sides and you are slightly frightened by the a serious look in her electric blue eyes. She seems to realize that she's brought the spotlight to her and sits back down, blushing, trying to make herself smaller.

Mrs. Stevens skirts through the tables and stops right in front of her. "Why should you never change for someone, Elle?"

Ooohh, so that's what her name is, you think.

"You should never change for someone," She pushes out, as if the words physically hurt her when they escape her mouth. "Because if they love you, they love you for who you are; whether it's for your looks- though that's shallow- or for your personality. If they don't like you, for you, then good riddens. They don't deserve you."

"That is a very interesting point you've made there, Elle. Now class..."

You block out the teacher as she drones on about whatever English related objective she'd picked for the day. You wonder about Elle and why she thinks what she does but it's only for a second and then you forget about her for the rest of the year.

For the two years after that you forget she even exists. You pass her in the halls, but her name is irrelevant. You catch a glance of a few slutty girls backing her up into a corner, shouting at her about her clothes and looks, but you keep walking.

She was in your fifth hour sophomore Science class, as well as history. You were too busy with your newest fling to notice. Though she'd noticed you.

In your junior year, you had three classes with her; first, second, and sixth. The only time you even acknowledged her was when Jake commented on how it was hard to believe she was the same person. She had grown at least five inches, now at about 5'8'' you'd guess. Her legs went for miles, and her skin was now toned, smooth and creamy instead of chubby and covered in acne.

"Date-worthy," he'd said, "Only the fact that she is still a complete loser is standing in her way."

You had agreed with him. She was beautiful- if you looked past the still oversized clothes she wore and the choppy brown hair, as well as her social status.

But since she wasn't important to you at the time you just let those thoughts float away.

You had better things to worry about than a slightly attractive geek. Senior year was coming and you could feel change riding on the wind.

Hit me with your best shot, you thought.

And fate was more than happy to oblige.

written by: cherry1313