The Diary of a Nerd

Chapter 14

Tuesday, October 6. Locker 523, 4:22 PM.

I'm told that this locker supposedly belongs to Devin O'Connal by a very reliable source. If you would call Sharpay that, anyway. She would have stayed here with me to verify her knowledge, but her brother, Ryan, has some sort of dance rehearsal thing at the local theatre, so she had to leave me here. Alone. I've been standing like an idiot for almost an hour waiting for him to show his sorry hide but I haven't seen any sign of him.

He probably doesn't even use his locker. Maybe he's even at home at this very second. Why would someone who could care less about school have a need for his text books after school? Certainly not to do homework . . . Actually, I don't even know if he's a good student, or not. Beyond today I've never spoken a single syllable with him.

I wish he'd hurry up. Troy's probably going to be looking for me soon because his basketball practice ends in a few minutes. If he isn't still mad at me for unknown reasons. Why should he care if I was going to the dance with someone? I know Sharpay and Taylor said he was jealous, but personally I don't see someone like Troy Bolton being jealous over someone like me. And, okay, so he started choking when he heard I was 'going to the dance with someone'. I'm sure if it were Shannon he would have tipped over the table. That would be jealousy.

"Ahem."

Oops. Just looked up. O'Connal's finally here. Only, he looks much different then he usually does. His leather jacket is missing and so are his ripped jeans. Instead he's wearing a football uniform, pads and all, helmet tucked under one arm. And, okay. I seriously have NO attraction whatsoever to O'Connal in any way . . . But I wouldn't be a girl if I didn't find his flushed face and sweaty hair somewhat attractive.

"Uh, hi," I said slowly. He continued to look at me oddly, and it took a moment for me to realize the reason was because I was leaning against his locker. "Oh, sorry."

I pushed off his locker with my elbows and turned to stand with my arms crossed as he raised an eyebrow at me and twirled the lock on his locker.

"I guess you're wondering why I'm waiting here for you," I said, already forgetting the entire speech I'd planned out while waiting for him to arrive.

Devin chuckled, balancing his helmet as he dug out a battered backpack. "Not wondering. Just surprised, I guess. Usually when girls hang around waiting for me they have an ulterior motive which I know you don't have." And before I could stop him, he said, "Unless you do have that motive."

"Definitely not."

He shrugged, then tossed me his helmet which I nearly dropped to the floor. "Mind holding this for me?"

I stared peculiarly at him as he turned back to his locker and pulled a trigonometry AP text book from his locker and slid it into his backpack. I couldn't help myself from asking, "You take AP classes?"

"Three of them," Devin replied offhandedly. "But I doubt you waited roughly an hour for me to come back from football practice to discuss my academic schedule, Sweetheart. You're lucky I didn't feel like changing in the locker room today, or you'd have been waiting a good twenty minutes longer."

I decided to push aside the fact he's called me sweetheart and get straight to the point. "I need a . . . A favor."

Devin shut his locker with a slam and turned to me, grin stretched across his face. "I thought you didn't want anything to do with me. You don't even like me, remember?"

"And you basically said you hated jocks when you are one," I said, gesturing to his outfit and gripping his helmet to my chest. "At least I'm not a hypocrite."