Falling For You

Falling For You o2

Falling For You

“Class, settle down,” Ms. Yumes called across the room.

I sat in the back row, laughing with Kara. Amanda wasn’t in my class – or any of them. Kara was in my homeroom, so I had a lot of time spent with her. Anyway, homeroom was science class and we were just basically having a great time.

It took a few minutes for the chatter to die down. Ms Yumes was at the head of the classroom, tapping her foot impatiently. Finally we pressed the pause buttons on our mouths and looked up at her expectantly.

“Hi,” I said with no expression what-so-ever.

She glared at me. “Class, we have an unexpected new student joining us today!” She smiled brightly at the doorway.

In walked store employee boy.

“You!” I said startled, losing my composure.

“You!” He said staring at me.

“Oh goodie, you two seem to know each other rather well. Nia, you will be…Drew Chases’? science lab partner.” Ms Yumes smiled.

She didn’t notice how much I was trying not to leap over the desk and strangle her. Or she did, but didn’t care because if I did I’d be expelled. I wanted to kill both of them. Even if this Drew guy was kind of cute. I mean, I’m a sucker for guys with chocolate eyes and nice hair. That’s like the first thing I notice about a guy.

“Hot,” Kara said.

“What was that?” Ms Yumes raised a plucked eyebrow.

“Drew’s hot,” Kara said louder.

“Who was that?” Ms Yumes asked, her face frowning.

Kara pointed a manicured finger at me. My face was burning. Ms Yumes ignored us, though. She turned to Drew and told Kara to move one desk over so Drew could now sit next to me. Joy.

“Hi,” He said, “I’m Drew.”

“Nia Rilin,” I said, taking his held out hand.

“Kara Frampton,” Kara said graciously taking his other hand.

I rolled my eyes. Kara was such a flirt. I honestly didn’t know how we were still friends. But maybe it was a good thing, because other than Kara and Amanda, I didn’t have a lot of friends. Take what happened next as an example.

Bridget, Mara and Meredith turned around to face us. They were the cute, cliquey types of girls who had awesome personalities the first ten seconds you met them and then turned into stereotypical cheerleaders.

“Hi Drew,” Bridget said brightly.

“Hi,” He said.

“I’m Bridget. If you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to ask us,” She said giggling. Kara was fuming silently.

“I’m Mara,” Mara’s breathy voice said.

“I’m Meredith,” purred Meredith.

“We’re honestly sorry you got stuck with Ms Freak,” All of them said together, pointing a French-manicured nail at me.

I glared at them and stuck out my middle finger. Honestly, they had absolutely no right to do something so pigheaded. Drew looked at them and then looked at me. Amusement flickered across his face. Bridget, Mara and Meredith, the airheads, turned around.

“You have some nice friends,” Drew murmured.

“Not friends,” I grumbled.

“Yeah, total bitches,” Kara added.

“Okay, got it.” Drew said.

“Anyway, shut up, you’re making my mood worse.”

***

During the day I found out two things. Number one, Drew and I had the exact same schedules along with Bridget, Mara and Meredith. And number two, he was one of them. Honestly, Drew was designed to be popular. He didn’t exactly mix well with me and Kara.

Finally it was lunch time. I waved him away to go find a table with all the in kids. He just followed me to a table where Amanda was waiting. Her eyes widened when she saw me and Drew. What was with her? Romance in high school? Totally overrated.

“So like, hi,” Amanda said, shock still covering her zitless face.

Drew grimaced, “How about ‘hey’? I’ve heard that word a million times today.”

“Except from me,” I quipped.

“Yeah. The first words Nia said was ‘you’.”

“You guys on first name basis now?” Kara asked as she slid into a seat beside me.

“I guess so,” I shrugged.

“Aw-”

I slapped a hand over Amanda’s mouth. I really didn’t need to hear what she was about to say. If it was something about Drew and me being cute I could hold her mouth closed for eternity. Drew still had that stupid amused look on his face. I wanted to punch it off his cute face.

Wait.

Cute face?

No way. I couldn’t have said that. I must have been imagining it. I could not think Drew was cute. Ignore it, I told myself.

“How come you guys aren’t friends?” Drew asked, pointing at Bridget’s table. I spewed out milk and hastily wiped my face.

“Because she’s a nasty boyfriend stealing bitch,” Amanda said bluntly.

Okay, long story short, Amanda had a perfect boyfriend. Perfect hair, perfect eyes, perfect fashion sense… And well, Bridget wanted him and what Bridget wanted, Bridget got. So it turns out that Amanda’s ‘perfect’ boyfriend was actually not that perfect. Amanda dumped him once she found out he’d cheated on her. Once Amanda dumped him, Bridget dumped him too. He has remained single for two years now. Every we see each other in the hallway, Amanda glares and Kara kicks his shin.

“And she’s a platinum blonde faker,” Kara said, staring hard at where Bridget tossed her hair. I kicked her shin from under the table.

Drew looked at me, “What about your reason?”

“Because…she stole my dad,” I said, blushing. I looked helplessly at Amanda, begging she’d take over the story.

“Um, well Nia’s dad left her and her family to go live with this 29 year old slut. I mean, hello fifteen year difference. And this slut had this daughter named Bridget. So Nia and Bridget are half siblings, but they both hate each other because of the daddy. In other words, Daddy really messed up this time,” Amanda said, waving her arms around wildly as she talked. Once she finished, she smoothed down her chestnut brown hair as if telling the story was stressful for her.

Drew whistled softly, “Um, that kind of sucks.”

“Yeah,” I said wincing, “I know.”