Just An Ordinary Girl

Chapter 4: With Alex

And yet again, the popular kids had managed to sit right next to me, even though the outcasts were sitting by my side-originally. They just squeezed the outcasts out of the way, not caring that we were deep in conversation. In a matter of seconds, the 2 people to my right had changed from nice people to snotty brats. I turned to my right and saw a girl with long blonde hair that looks like it was just combed. I looked to my left in a panic and let out a sigh of relief as the guy in Math class was sitting next to my side. I wish I knew his true feelings-maybe he really likes me.

I turned to my left and cleared my throat for him to get my attention. "Umm, hi. My name's Emma." I greeted him with a nervous smile.

He took a bite of his sandwich and glanced at me, just like in Math class. Oh come on dude, mixed signals! Swallowing, he finally managed to get out the words, "Oh, hi Emma. Nice to meet you." Followed with a friendly smile. If he doesn't like me as a gf at least he likes me as a friend!

"Why are you talking to that chick? She's such a dumb brunette. Possibly one of the dumbest." A guy shouted for the whole cafeteria to hear. There are only about 50 brunettes in my school which is a big difference compared to the snotty blondes which make up a quarter of our school, like this guy. I'm not calling blondes snotty, it's just that all the blondes (except the cute math guy) in my school are. It's a sad fact.

That little comment made me feel even worse about myself after that. There are only a few brunettes in my school, so it's a good possibility that I might be the only 'dumb' one. "What if I am the only dumb brunette in this school?" I began to ponder.

I quickly snapped out of it when I noticed he said something, but his mouth was full of bread. When he finally swallowed, he said, "Sorry, my name's Alex. Hey, it's better to be basic than be overly complicated, right?" He shrugged his shoulders. I smiled. Alex was right. Maybe it is better to be basic than overly complicated. But I felt like it was either one or the other. Be one of the popular kids or be myself and get bullied? I wish I knew good advice like Alex!

My head slammed against the top of the table as I knew one of the bullies had something to say to me after he reassured me that it was okay to be different. He didn't whisper it, so practically the whole table noticed our 'thing'.

"Sorry Alex, I don't think she likes you. The way she slammed her head on the table? Nuh-uh. Well, atleast she doesn't want you to be in her basic club. Get it? Get it?" The guy said yet again. That wasn't even funny, but he had some other group to back him up. I just covered my ears while he kept spatting out unfunny jokes.

"Dude, stop. Emma might not be one of us, but that doesn't mean you pick on her!" Alex let out with a yell. Everybody in the cafeteria heard that, including the teacher. Luckily she realized something was going on unlike other teachers in my school, and shortly after grabbing ahold of the guy, she said she would have to 'escort' him to the principal's office. As he was getting carried away, he mouthed the words, "You'll get it one day." I stared at him in fear.

Alex, being the careless [?] guy he was, just figured that justice was served for him. I guess he didn't know that the other popular kids have their ways to get out of detention, even if it is for a month or more. I saw him pull out his phone in a snap. I definitely didn't want to be all up in his business but lunch was boring after I finished, the other popular kids wouldn't even dare say a word to me after that whole thing, and oh boy it was so tempting...I took a sneak peek. ._.

He was on Wattpad? What a coincidence, I write books on Wattpad too! Well, anyway, back to the story.

He wasn't just browsing through books, he was writing one. If I scooted a little closer I could see all the words he was typing. My eyesight was generally good anyway, and I didn't want to make it seem like I was purposely doing it incase I got caught. I just made out some words on the page. "Girl, met, cute." were a variety of the words dancing on the page. Does he like me? I did a little happy dance in my head because IRL it would look awkward. His finger hovered over the "publish" button and it returned back to the home screen. Wait, so this isn't private? Who else could've read it? I needed to find out!

However, lunch period still wasn't over, and we still had 2 more hours of school. So it would just have to wait. Alex left to use the bathroom, and I knew if he found out I liked him, he wouldn't like me. Which is why I did not go. I couldn't really follow him if I was his GF anyway, because what girl goes to the boy's bathroom? I had to start waiting patiently but very awkwardly right when he left. And that's when the taunting began.

It was even worse than the last 'food fight'. When I saw food flying around, I knew it was all coming back to me. Ducking my head, burgers, pizza, and candy hit on the legs, arms, and even on my new outfit! My hair was so greasy and oily, my brand new white clothes were stained, and whenever I tried to run I would slip up from the wasted Soda on the floor. The younger and older grades surrounded me and shouted, "basic!" whilst dumping Pepsi and Coke all over me. I couldn't take this torment anymore, and quickly ran to the door of the girl's bathroom.

The bathroom was full, like every single bathroom in my high school nowadays. I should've known. The people in there probably were a part of this 'funny' prank. I just sat by the door covered in traces of food and beverages wasted all over me while waiting for the girls to come out. They finally walked out after about 5 minutes and started whispering to each other, "Ew, why does she look like that? Did she eat out of a trash can or something?" I could obviously hear their loud whispers and tried to explain I was ambushed, but they just kept whispering even louder. At some point you could've sworn they weren't even trying to whisper, they were just plain talking.

I finally managed to raise my voice over them and yell, "I did not eat out from the dumpster!"

"Oh, so you started a food fight? That's so childish, Emma." A girl replied with a snotty voice. I didn't know how she knew my name, but I wasn't surprised she had a bratty  comeback to that.

"So she's not respectful and a homeless person? What a surprise." She snickered and all of them left.

I walked into the bathroom (at last!) and noticed a trail of blood beside the sink. "I am definitely not using that sink again." I thought to myself while scrunching up all the muscles in my face.

I did my best to clean myself up but my clothes were still stained. My new clothes. White clothes can never get stains out of them, probably. I hurried out of the bathroom and snuck by the door, making sure that nobody tried to sneak up on me and insult me. "One more minute until the bell rings." I thought to myself with a sigh of relief. It felt like a few hours in that cafeteria. Alex came out of the boy's bathroom (I wonder what he was doing in there!) and noticed me with my clothes stained and still donning greasy hair. Great. A horrible second-impression (if that is even a thing). "Oh my god, who did this to you?" He asked in shock. "Oh, nobody. Just my normal high-school bullies..." He demanded me to be more discriptive. "Fine. All the people in the cafeteria."

He stared at me, concerned. He probably didn't know this had been going on for so long. "It's okay Emma, I'll be sure they don't hurt you ever again". Alex comforted me. I thought to myself, "like that'll ever happen." But then I felt more safe..

With Alex.