Worth the Effort

Chapter 8 - ORIGINAL

** This chapter is really late, I know that, and I'm so sorry. I really try to keep up with my update schedule, but you all know how crazy the holidays can get. Besides the late update, I hope you all enjoy the chapter!

Stella

Despite my hopes that I would be left alone, the crumpled piece of paper landed on my desk again. It seemed my friend was making it her duty to distract me in this terribly boring class.

I opened the paper and didn't even bother reading the message scrawled there. Since when have you started writing me notes? I wrote, crumpling up the paper and throwing it at Pru. It hit the side of her head and landed on her desk, bouncing a few times before rolling to a stop.

She glared at me from the corner of her eye and quickly wrote a response.

I opened the paper when she passed it back.

Since class on Friday when I realized that Mr. Moore is too oblivious to notice us having fun.

I frowned at the page. Well maybe I want to learn something, and I can't do that when you're distracting me! I wrote and passed it back.

The crumpled piece of paper made another appearance on my desk. So what, you're telling me that you like listening to this old fart? You know you don't always have to play teacher's pet, Stells.

I shot a glare at her and she just shrugged. I scrawled quickly on the note. Leave me alone or I'll ask for a seat change.

You wouldn't!

Try me!

We continued our glaring match for a few seconds until the bell rang. As soon as the shrill sound ended class, we burst into laughter.

"Old fart? Really Pru? You couldn't come up with anything better than that?" I laughed, gathering my things.

She smacked me lightly on the shoulder and stood up. "You know it's true! And you also know you're a total teachers pet."

I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly. "I know, sorry. I just want to do well, you know?"

She started walking to lunch and I followed closely behind. "I know, but you've gotta lighten up a little bit. You already got into all the colleges you were considering, so calm down about school already!"

She draped her arm around my shoulder and pulled me faster towards the lunchroom. "Now hurry up, I'm starving. They're serving chicken-fried steak and mashed potatoes today!"

On the way we continued to joke about Mr. Moore. I was grateful for Pru; we didn't hang out every day, but we definitely didn't have to for us to remain friends. She was just an inch shorter than me, so one of the first things we bonded over was our height and how we were taller than most of the pre-growth spurt boys at our school.

Though people would never guess, she was very self-conscious about her body. She was stick-thin with dull, light brown hair, and she couldn't gain weight if her life depended on it, but she was beautiful all the same.

When we got to the lunchroom we went to claim our usual table in the back corner. I gave Pru some money so she could get my lunch while I saved the table for the rest of our friends.

I scrolled through my phone for a few minutes when I heard someone walk up behind me. I jumped in fright when Jamie slammed her hands down on the table.

"Tell me you haven't heard about it, Stella."

I looked at her like she was crazy. "Heard about what?"