The Georgia Rule

Chapter Eleven

"Georgia!"

"What?" I slammed my locker shut, "Oh it's you."

The girl from yesterday manoeuvred her way throughout the hallways crowds, curls slipping from the grasp of her overstretched hair tie, bouncing across her cheeks and over her eyes. Each person she bumped into she muttered a quick apology until finally huffing and puffing at my side.

"So glad I caught you," she breathed while adjusting her notebooks.

Acutely aware of the occasional inquisitive glances, I crushed my notebook to my chest and folded my arms. "Look nerd, don't think that we're friends or anything just because we exchanged words yesterday." Her eyes narrowed in poorly contained annoyance.

"Zip it will you? Mini Radford told me that-"

"Mini Radford?" I marvelled at her ridiculous nickname for Finn, partially annoyed that I hadn't thought of it myself.

"I'm really trying to tolerate you so please help me out here," she urged with an air of exasperation. "As I was saying-"

"Who do you even think you are?" I cut her off, annoyed by her disrespect. The pre-breakup Georgia had never once had to demand the respect of anyone; it was like an unwritten rule that floated in the air, surrounding me with an aura that reeked of superiority.

"Girl if you don't stop interrupting me!" she hissed. Huffing i tossed a lock of hair over my shoulder and rubbed my lips together, ready for this conversation to be over and done with. I gave her an obvious look as if to say 'go on.'

"Right so, Mini Radford said that you don't have an extra-curricular on your records." Rolling my bottom lip between my teeth, I pushed the fleeting feeling of inadequacy to the back of my brain, not allowing my confidence to falter once more. As much as I'd liked to deny it to the high heavens, Finn was right.

Lauren had cheerleading and yoga, Breanna had gym and her dancing- but I on the other hand hadn't found a hobby worthy of my time. In retrospect I did try, but testing the extracurricular waters ended almost as soon as it began, as I chalked up my inability to remember my own schedule and complete lack of interest in unnecessary sweating as proof to my extracurricular doom.

Some claimed that my lack of commitment to one activity that I could harvest as my own was a trait to be admired, that it added to the wispy tendrils of my exclusiveness. Maybe at that moment I hadn't truly pinpointed the reason that prevented me from settling into an appropriate expertise to match my title, but maybe deep down I had.

Knowing fully well where our conversation was headed, I decided to quit while we were ahead. "So clearly he spoke to you after we met yesterday, but how about we both pretend that I come to your little meetings and you can go back to your panic room? I get my extracurricular credits and all is good here."

"That's a tempting proposition, really it is," she drawled sarcastically, "but I'll have to decline. I don't lie to teachers and I won't lie now." I rolled my eyes in annoyance. Of all the people I could have been having this conversation with, it had to be a teacher's pet.

"Anyways, we postponed our website meeting to tomorrow at 3pm, please don't be late for your own induction into the group." She finished with defiance dancing amidst her brown irises. She quickly leaned off the locker and disappeared into the shrinking crowd.

Rolling my eyes I dropped the arms to my sides, loosely hanging on to my notebook. Keeping my head straight and high I strutted through the halls, heels clicking behind me as I sharply shoulder-bumped my way through.

****

The day had taken its toll on me. I found myself constantly wound up, with puzzling pent up emotions circulating throughout my body. I was unsure where this constant state of aggravation had found a place to latch onto me, but it managed to make me increasingly annoyed at every little thing, for no particular reason.