One Big Sweet Mistake

Chapter 3

 Holy crap. This morning I was cornered by a girl named Brittany, who had a reputation as a lesbian since our first year. She approached me when I just parked my motorcycle at the backyard.

“Hey, Chicka boo,” she greeted me nicely as she winked her eye. I hugged my helmet tightly because my legs were shaking in horror. Britt stared at me from head to toe. She was totally checking me out.

“I heard about that,” she grimaced. I frowned and gave her a dumb look.

“About what?”

“The entire school knows, Hun. It’s okay. I support you. I think we can understand each other well. I didn’t see that coming, though. Hey, you’re welcomed to sit with us at the cafeteria,” she grinned widely. Dammit. What she meant by us here was definitely a lesbos group contained of six girls who were all an outcasts, and now she expected me to join in? Aweh, amazing. I was so honored to get such a privilege!

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, okay? I have to go to class now so good bye,” I said rather harshly to her and dashed off. I could feel her throwing me a pathetic look from behind. You might think I was being rude, but that was just me. I admitted that I had a problem in my social life. I did not get along well with people and had no best friend. I was a weirdo already, so why would I care about people calling me a lesbian? Just ignore them.

In the hallway, I passed through Greg who was laughing with a guy who was known as the ‘gorgeous Nick’. His full name was Nicholas Weatherby. If you take a look at him, you will understand. Some people told me, “Beware of a sudden drooling.” Gosh, he had a sexy six pack abs and an athlete figure. He was totally hot, even for a girl like me. Glancing at him was just enough to give me butterflies. Not that I liked him or anything, it was just because he was attractive. I supposed that was very normal to react like that when you saw such a wonderful creature. It was embarrassing, but he had appeared in my dream twice.

I wondered why a yummy like Nicholas befriended with an oxymoron like Gregory Van Kilmer. Oh no, he looked at me! I quickly ducked my head as our eyes met. Greg pointed at me and said something to Nick. Great. Now he would see me as a joke. I really wanted to slap Greg for spreading the gossip about me. I would not blame him, anyway. He was just mad because of my rejection.

“Students, during this semester you’re going to work with your partner for lab session. To make it fast, I’ve already set all of you up into pairs.”

Our chemistry teacher, Mr. Parker, took out a paper from his map. Almost everyone in the room whined and let out some protests because they preferred to pick their own work mate. I understood why. It would be a disaster if you were paired up with a sleaze who didn’t help at all in your project. I was always being the one who did the most things in group works in any subject so far because I concerned a lot about my grades, and for me it did not matter whether I had to choose my own group or not.

“Kelsey Jensen, you sit there next to Nicholas Weatherby,” said Mr. Parker, then continued reading the lists he had made. I almost couldn’t believe of what I heard. Some girls were whispering at each other and glaring at me. I felt envy air from their breath. Nicholas waved at me and tapped the chair next to him. I immediately seized my bag and moved to the front.

“Hi. Just call me Nick. I hope we can be great lab partners,” he said, shoving off his hand. I reached it rather nervously and replied,

“Yeah, I hope so. Call me Kelsey.”

I just realized that it was the first time I ever talked to Nicholas Weatherby. It was stupid because as long as I could remember, we had been classmates for forever, since elementary school. Well, I was not striking or anything, maybe that was why he didn’t see me until today.

“Greg said that you turned him down,” Nick said, as he was scribbling our names on the working paper.

“He also told me the reason.” he continued. I was working with the pipette and stopped abruptly.

“So what? I don’t care about what you think of me. And FYI, it’s none of your business,” I said irritably. Nick chuckled.

“Hey, relax. I didn’t mean to be offensive or anything. I respect your sexual orientation. That’s very personal, I know. I’m sorry, okay?” he smiled and apologized.

“Fine then,” I said helplessly. There was no use to tell him the truth.

“Uhm, Kels?”

“I think we could be good friends,” he said sheepishly. I had no idea why he was blushing. We were in the middle of examining the chemical reaction of mixing two kinds of liquid when I felt my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I looked around to make sure Mr. Parker didn’t see me and peeked at the screen. There were five missed calls from an unknown number.

“If it is important, you’d better ask permission to get out for a while,” Nick suggested.

“I guess so...I’ll come back in a minute.”

I approached Mr. Parker and told him I needed to go to the toilet. When I was outside already, I dialed the number who had called me. It must be important since she or he had tried to contact me several times.

“Hello? Is this Kelsey Jensen?” a female voice came. I didn’t recognize whose voice was that.

“Yes, I’m Kelsey Jensen. Who’s speaking?”

“Thank God! I thought you have changed your number. It’s me, Gemma. You worked for me last summer. Remember?”

“Ah, yes, of course. How’s Lola?” I asked. Gemma Garner was a single mother with a three year-old little daughter named Lola. She had hired me for babysitting Lola a few months ago. She had gotten my number from my apartment neighbor, Mrs. Flinn, a fifty year-old granny who often asked me a favor to take care of her nine cats whenever she was out for holiday. She thought I could handle a baby since I was good with cats. That was kind of ridiculous, but I had taken the job anyway. Lola was a sweet girl and Gemma was a generous lady. She had been satisfied with my work, thus paid me a lot of money.

“Lola is fine. Thanks for asking, dear. Oh, she actually misses you. Anyway, I need some help. That’s why I’m calling.”