The end of the day comes sooner rather than later surprisingly and the bus ride home is a short one. “Do you wanna come to mine?”Asks Jeremy. I tell him yes and after I call my mum to tell her, we head towards his front door. I've always loved Jeremy's house, ever since I was a little kid. It's big and modern and yet it still feels homey. I guess that's mainly due to Jeremy's mum Miranda. She's a big woman and I swear that's because her heart is so big. She is an excellent cook and when we ask her what she does to make it taste so good, she tells that her secret ingredient is love. Miranda is like a second mum to me. Jeremy's dad is a nerd like us. Or how we used to be. He's a computer programmer but the plot twist here is that he's kind of like us in a way. Sure he looks a little nerdy but he's cool. The difference is that now we don't even look a little nerdy. We're cool now and the football team today proves it.
“Hello Stanley!”Miranda pours out and comes to give me a hug.
“Hey Miranda, how's it going?”I don't know why but I'm still trying to be cool. It can't have just become a force of habit after only one day could it?
“Why, I'm doing fine my sweetie! Look at you! You look so handsome!”I don't know whether this comment is creepy or not so I just smile.
“Mum, hey don't know if you know who I am but I'm your son?”I smile at Jeremy, he always feels a bit left out when he has friends over his house. I think it's because his mum's so welcoming. But I don't have to worry about him for long because for the first time he's actually smiling while pointing this out.
“Well it's hard to recognise you still! Can you blame me Phil?”She asks her husband and for the first time I notice Phil sitting on the couch playing with a computer. As he turns around I notice he has no glasses.
“Of course not sweetie! How you doin' boys?”Phil greets us with a smile on his face.
“You got contacts Phil!”I acknowledge. He shakes his head but I don't ever remember in my whole life him not wearing glasses.
“I've had these babies for years, I don't like 'em though you know what I mean? I'm just wearing them because my glasses broke.”He shakes his head again. I definitely know what it feels like for your glasses to break. I used to be an outcast overall.
“That sucks doesn't it?”I reply as I don't really know what else to say.
“Yeah, I noticed you got contacts too!”He notices, the truth is I expect people to say something when I walk through the school but I'm not known as Stanley anymore, I'm the new kid Stan now who doesn't wear glasses. So it's a relief when Phil notices, it's like a weight lifted off my shoulders or something.
“Yeah, Jeremy and I are trying this new thing where we're trying to fit in.”I say it and I instantly regret it. Before Phil and Miranda can say a word about how important being yourself is, Jeremy tells them we have homework to do and we head to his room. Technically not a lie as we did have homework to do. We just weren't going to be doing it. After we get out our textbooks and exercise books out so that if we're walked in on we won't be caught not doing our homework.
“How does this work?”Asks Jeremy. I don't really know to be honest. Is there such thing as a smart, popular kid? I don't want to act stupid though, I mean that's the kind of thing that girls do to grab attention.
“I don't think we should act dumb. It's attention seeking and – I mean it's girly dude. I don't think you have to be stupid in order to be popular.”I listen to myself and I can't stop talking like Kirk and the other guys. What's wrong with me? How can I be a completely different person in the space of an eight hour school period? Jeremy doesn't seem to notice though and just says “Ok.”Ok. So we do our very best with our homework even though we we planning on not doing it. We may be nerds but we're only big nerds because we help each other out. I don't know how to everything and neither does Jem, that's pretty much impossible unless your like Albert Einstein or someone really scarily smart like that. People thought we were scarily smart like that and I suppose that's one of the reasons why we were loners. So we decided to try with tests, studying and homework but we weren't going to help each other out unless absolutely need be. Once we've finished, we check each others work to see what mistakes we made and whether they're stupid enough mistakes to pass by as being just a smart guy. We both pass. By the time we finish though it's six o'clock and I told mum I'd be home by five thirty.
“I gotta go Jeremy,”I say while I start to pack away my school stuff into my bag. He looks upset and I know it's because of the way I'm acting. “Jeremy, am I acting different, or is it just me?”I say this with caution because I'm both scared of how he's going to react and whether his answer is yes or no.
“Only while your at school Stanley”he tells me, but I have one of those weird feelings that he's lying to me. The way he said it, he seemed quite sad.
“Ok Jem, thanks.”I say. Even I hear the heartbreak in my voice. I'll call him later, after dinner. As I'm walking towards the door Miranda and Phil are in the kitchen and it looks like they're deep in conversation. “See ya guys”I say to them. They look at me with worry. They've been talking about us.
After about ten seconds pause – long enough for it to get a bit awkward, Phil comes to give me a hug and says “See ya sport,”and then Miranda gave me a hug and a kiss and said “See you on Australia Day.”Australia Day was this weekend and I'll bet if Jeremy and I keep up the good work with Scotty, Kirk and everyone else, we'll be spending it with them. But if I tell Miranda that she'll never keep her eye off me and then she'll tell mum and that can't happen. Mum's heard enough about that crowd. Enough to make her know that they're trouble and most definitely the 'wrong crowd'.
“Sure thing,”I say. And then I leave.
