Ugly Girl

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen: Zoey

                When I was a little girl, I remember watching all the princess movies and wishing that one day my prince would come and sweep me off my feet. Throughout the years, I learned that would never happen. The cutest boy to ever talk to me was probably Johnny, but we were like siblings. And then, there was Riley. Riley was gorgeous but I wasn’t totally sure if I could truly fall for a guy like him. He was arrogant and a complete jerk sometimes but he could also be sweet ad nice. I groaned aloud, why do I even care? Riley would never like me!

                I quietly follow Johnny as he leads me through our high school’s main hallway. Few people lined the blue walls. “Why are we here so early, again?”

                “Because I’m going to introduce you to some of my old friends while Ally ruins some other girl’s reputation.” He turned to me and smiled, “For some reason, they always get here early.”

                We veered off to the right into a smaller hallway; I recognized it as the only way to get to the library.  A group of three sat in the back, grinning as they played on their phones. They weren’t exactly known around the school for being “cool”. They were actually the nerds, what was Johnny doing with the losers?

                As if he could read my mind, he said, “Okay, they aren’t actually my friends but if you want the whole school to like you, we have to stop at the bottom.”

                Johnny had a point, in order to get everyone to like me we had to get the less important people to like me first. That way, if rumors were to spread around, no one would believe them. And so, with a sudden burst of energy, I slid into the remaining seat and introduced myself to the three nerds.

                “Hi! I’m Zoey!”

                They eyed me suspiciously for a few moments. Finally, one of them spoke up. “I’m Sheldon,” a tall, skinny kid with severe acne said warmly.

                I gave him a friendly smile back, “What ya’ll up to?”

                “We’re playing Space Ninja,” another nerd said snobbishly.

                “Oh, Zoey is a beast at that game!” Johnny suddenly bursts out, causing me to blush.

                “I doubt it,” the same snobby loser says, “No girl can beat me!”

                Sheldon eagerly hands me his game boy, “I didn’t even know a girl knew what the game was!”

                Honestly, I’ve never heard of Space whatever, much less played it. I nervously stare at the screen as a man clad in ninja gear appears on it. An idea pops into my head, every game has a main plot. I just have to figure out what the plot is and I’m halfway there. We’ll just have to find out if I’m any good. Turns out it’s a relatively easy game. It has the same plot as Mario, save a damsel in distress and avoid mushrooms; in this case, aliens.

                As nimbly as I can, I leap over short aliens, fly under tall ones, and sneak around the scary ones. When I get to the first level boss, I’m ready.

                The boss turns out to be, surprise, an alien! Well, an alien that happens to be twice my size. It’s actually pretty simple. When the green glob opens his foul mouth, I have to throw as many ninja stars as I can before he closes his mouth. He’s dead in about a minute.

                “Well?” the snob asks. “What did you get?”

                “Three million four hundred and fifty thousand points,”

                “What?” they all scream, “That’s amazing!”

                They all scramble for my attention but Johnny shoos them away, “Sorry boys but she has plans.” He pulls me out of the chair and to the door of the library, “okay, how the hell did you do that? I know you Zoey and you definitely don’t like video game.”

                “I really don’t know,” I say with a slight laugh.

                The rest of the day, Johnny drags me around, introducing me to random groups of people. So far, the Goths, nerds, hipsters, and foreign exchange students like me. It was a pretty prosperous day if you ask me.